Printable View
3 weeks in and the fry are still doing well. Had questions:
Colouring - at what age do fry start showing colour? (I'm intriged by those with a black bar through the eye as neither parent have that)
Culling: What advice on culling? I have tank space to grow all of the fry on so should I be thinking about culling?
Attachment 131952
Attachment 131953
At three weeks all you can do is cull the real small ones and the ones that you can see a problem with. They may all develop a bar through the eye. When you breed domestics you have no clue what will pop up. It will be another month or 6 weeks longer until they would have grown and colored up enough for me to choose the ones I like best. Cliff has a more experienced eye and I'm sure he'd be able to choose the best earlier. Choosing the best of a group is an ongoing process.
These are standard (non-Pigeon Blood) strains so color development will be a little slower. You'll start to see highlights in the finnage around 4 months with color filling in around 6 months. The turquoise pattern may not be full until 9 - 12 months.
As for culling, there are two processes involved. The first step is to remove and euthanize fish with genetic deformities. Some fish will not swim right and some will struggle. Then there are things like short gill plates, where you can see the red tissue underneath. Occasionally the eyes will be offset. In my experience, that's typically < 10% of a spawn. The second step is to pick out the winners - the ones with rounder shape and the ones with better coloration. The losers are perfectly fine discus, just not the best quality. Don't just pick the big ones, because you'll end up with all males.
Most everyone takes the first step, but only a very few take the second step. Just remember that every one you take out will make the remaining discus grow a little better...
This video worth watching, Discus Talk: Breeding and raising fry with Cary Strong.
http://youtu.be/ECFNzUTWJsA
Thanks for all the feedback, much appreciate it.
I'm back in the office. Liz and Willie much cover the on
going culling. A few exceptions are
saddle nose, razor backs, short or bent rays, not full circle yellow or red eyes, you got a snakeskin they tend to have smaller eye then turquoise discus, short finnage, bent tail, dent or lump on the middle of the body, and chip eyes.
Colouring for the turquoise there should be a light blue sheen on some of the gill plates and on the shoulders . The snakeskin will the 14 stress bars the body should be browm, for the 8 stress bar Discus they could be any color. The colors are determine by there genetic history, as you mention the black bar across the eye, there are some in this batch genes from probably the grandparents.
Try to separate by color. How do you separate by color if they having not color up yet?
Right off the bat the lighter no stress bars or light color dime size would be on batch possible solid or stricter turquoise this is group 1.
Group 2 darker browns with 8 stress bars, they can be any from brown to fully striated
Group 3 snakeskin, 14 stress bars brownish color, slowest to color if
you are looking for blue striation, the finer the situation the longer it takes sometimes up to 2 years.
Group 4 stress bars thru the eyes.
Cliff
Thanks Cliff. Here is the shoal at 4 weeks, about to split the fry into 2 40g tanks for grow out. Certainly have a couple with poor dorsal fins and there's Nemo who's nose up all the time. Tricky to figure colour beyond those with the black bar through the eye and some with visible stress bars. Everyone is eating well.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5-GLS3lCsSo&ab_channel=Ash
The nose up swimmers are the ones with bladder problems.
Cliff