To Feed or Not to Feed

[OIF03VET]

Hello, I am pretty new to Discus and I have a question. My girlfriend bought me a 18t tank for Christmas complete with a large angel fish, three guromies, 5 neons, 2 flying foxes, a clown loach and a supposed breeding pair of Discus. After a week I removed all but the Discus, flying foxes and clown. Dec 27th I noticed that they had spawned, wow, :D how cool I thought, I saw the eggs hatch and the parents moving them on the 30th. After that the fry were gone. It was my first try so I wasnt too :o worried about loosing them. So last night (Jan 4) I decided to remove all but the Discus, (I should have done it from the get go) After about ten minutes of tearing up the tank trying to catch the damn clown I saw to my suprise that the discus had spawned again. I calmed myself down and removed the other fish. Now I am wondering how to feed the parents, ie when they are watching the eggs and when they have the fry. I dont want them to get hungry and eat the babys but I also dont want them to get so excited about food and forget the babys. What should I do?:confused:

[RyanH]

Congratulations on your spawn. :)

Pairs that are caring for eggs or fry aren't going to eat much anyway. I probably would only feed them very sparingly or not at all. If you have pellet food that doesn't disintegrate, give that a try in small amounts. If they don't touch it, just hold off on feeding.

hth
-Ryan

[White Worm]

Hey So Cal,,,,,pretty nice girlfriend you got there!!. Congrats on the quick spawn! It may take them a few times to get it right in their new surroundings but it sure sounds like they have the drive and you should be posting pics of new fry soon. I have been working on my pair for over a month and no eggs yet. It will happen when they are ready..

[goheel]

I wish I have a girlfriend who gives me discus.;)

[OIF03VET]

We have been together for almost 5 years, I deserve it. ;)
I was suprized that the fish spawned again so quickly. I will try to take some pics tonight, of the eggs. I have been feeding the parents on frozen bloodworms, and frozen beef heart. I will try to get some pellets. The man my girlfriend bought them from was feeding them only flake food, I think they are really responding to the new food. I also raised the temp on the up to 84 when I got them. PH is at 6.3~6.4. They are in an Eclipse 18t. Tonight I will turn of the filter and place a sponge filter in there so the fry dont get sucked up when they hatch. I had originally planned to move the pair into an empty 20g to spawn but they beat me to the punch. Thanks for the comments.

[OIF03VET]

pic

[OIF03VET]

.

[Ardan]

Tonight I will turn of the filter and place a sponge filter in there so the fry dont get sucked up

Don't turn the filter off, the bacteria will die and then you will have high ammonia and nitrites which could kill the fish, especially fry.

hth
Ardan

[chago09]

hey those discus look exactly like mine?? give some info for personal use please??
1.) how big is your tank?
2.) how big is that discus in that pic??
3.) what are you feeding them normally?
4.) whats your water temp??
5.) what did they lay there eggs on??

[OIF03VET]

hey those discus look exactly like mine?? give some info for personal use please??
1.) how big is your tank?
2.) how big is that discus in that pic??
3.) what are you feeding them normally?
4.) whats your water temp??
5.) what did they lay there eggs on??

1.)The tank is an 18 tall with an Eclipse top filter.
2.)The discus is about 5 inches, the female slightly smaller
3.)I feed them one cube of beef heart mix in the morning and one frozen blood worm a night.
4.)The temp is 85.5f
5.)They laid the eggs on a large piece of driftwood.

[OIF03VET]

All the eggs have been eaten by the parents. I went to my favorite fish shop, where I always go to for advice, this is also where I buy all of my fish, I got two 2in Super Red Tunks tonight, anyways he said that the eggs were most likely eaten because my water is hard. He gave me some sort of filter to put in there to soften it up. He also sugested that I put chicken wire over the eggs after they are hatched and until the fry become free swimming. He does this with his Angels and Discus. I completely trust him because fish I get from him never die. I had an outbreak of gill fluke disease followed by some serious fungus. He walked me through it and I didnt loose one fish, I had 6 then.
I will let you all know what happens next week when the lay again. The do have the drive, I just need to help them on the followthrough.

[chago09]

hold on did you say your tank was 18gallons?? Isn't that a little small for all the fish you had at the begining. Good thing you removed all of them. About the egg eating I'm not to sure if you should do that chicken wire thing I'm not positive if that metal wire should go in the water. I'm not to sure about discus but I have bred many different typed of cichlids before, and in my experience what a lot of fish will do is they will eat a batch of babies. They will eat maybe two or three batches. I was shocked because cichlids are supposed to be great parents. The reason why they are eating them is to give them selves some protein to make themselves healthy. After they think there healthy and ready they will have another batch which they will care for with their lives. I've seen this behavior with Convicts, Oscars, Texas, Jack Dempseys and Green terrors. There almost giving birth just so they can eat and strengthen themselves to create a strong healthy batch of eggs. just like humans if were not healthy while pregnancy it effects the baby. Only ours don't hatch in 2 days and we can't eat ours lol :D

[Jeckel]

To keep fry from being drawn into your filter, you can stick your filter intake into a small sponge (make sure it's not a sponge with antibacterial stuff on it). Using a "prefilter" like this is a good idea anyway, since you can clean it easily and you won't have to clean your regular filter very often.

I don't know about the filter that is supposed to soften your water. What kind is it? Most water softeners simply replace calcium with sodium, which isn't necessarily a good thing. Most people would say if you really need to soften your water, you'll need an RO unit (although peat filtration may soften the water somewhat). But you said you got fry from the first spawning, which suggests discus eggs can hatch in your water.

Of course, as an experiment you could take the eggs away from the parents and see if they hatch. I know some people use wire mesh to protect the eggs. Whether this is a good idea probably depends on what kind of metal it is. If your water is acidic, the metal will dissolve more quickly, and how much accumulation you get depends on how much water you change.

Anyway, you have succeeded in breeding a brand-new pair of discus. You must be doing something right!

[OIF03VET]

The water softener is a RENA Filstar Water Softener Pillow made by Aquarium Pharmaceuticals Inc. It reduces GH (hardness) and maintains soft water. I put it on top of the filter in my Eclipse.
The water where I live is very hard. I want to stay away from RO water because in my experience, if I cant shange it every couple days the ph drops dramatically low.
All my discus seem to do very well with weekly 50 water changes of treated tap water.
I will try putting a sponge inside the intake tupe so I can keep the eclipse filter going when the fry hatch next time.