What did I do wrong!!!! :(

Firstly I wanted to thank the Simply Discus community for all the great info I have gained already from the forum.

I'm from Australia and this is my first attempt at breeding Discus. It was actually an 'accident' as the parents paired off and laid in the quarantine tank with another thee discus, before I got a chance to move them into my main tank (Leopard and Snakeskin)!

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I was guided by info from the forum, as well as following this: https://www.discusnada.org/breeding-discus/
As soon as the eggs hatched, I removed the other fish that weren't the parents.
They were in a 36 Gallon tank, set to 86F, using a large sponge filter, using rain water (with added Prime and Discus Trace) doing at least 50% daily water changes and cleaning out the sponge every second day.
The wrigglers attached without problems and were growing and then on Day 4 I started feeding 4 times a day with BBS. Everything was going great up until this point. Then I noted the wrigglers feeding on the BBS, getting their orange bellies but that's when problems started and then started dying off/going missing.



I treated the water with Dymax Endoguard and the babies kept dying. The adult male discus was being aggressive to the female, so I wondered if he was eating the babies so I removed them, but they kept dying. By now the fry were ~2 weeks old and I called my local discus shop who advised changing to Tap water as rainwater may be too unstable regarding pH. By now I had 5 fry left. My last fry died 2 days ago; it was nearly 4 weeks old.

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As others have mentioned on the breeding discus thread, it's all pretty demoralising going through this!
I really wonder what I did wrong and if I have the mental energy to do it again what I could do differently?
Thank you for your help,
Regards
George

George, you have a proven pair. Critical and hard to accomplish step one complete. From here on be prepared to try and try again. Your discus parents have to learn this just as you do so let them learn. I have a friend who has bred both discus and angelfish for more than 30 years. He does not, other than water change, put much effort into the breeding of the fish. If they spawn and the fish eat eggs or fry his belief is that his fish had a nutritious meal and they all move on. I have had spawns where the male has defended the spawn from the female. I removed the female and allowed the male to raise the fry. You can put the pair back together at a later time. They seem to remember each other after a separation so don't concern about it.

Looking at the picture, the fry seems small and underdeveloped. They have not rounded up as they should at the 30-day mark.

Everyone focuses on baby brine, but the key is to wean your fry onto solid food early on. I'm partial to minced beefheart, but other foods will also work as long as they are minced. I've weaned fry as early as 11 days free swimming, although most people will go 15 - 20 days. Without high protein foods, the fry does not develop.

The parents will spawn again in 10 - 15 days so there's plenty of time to try again.

Good luck, Willie

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Originally Posted by Willie

Looking at the picture, the fry seems small and underdeveloped. They have not rounded up as they should at the 30-day mark.

Everyone focuses on baby brine, but the key is to wean your fry onto solid food early on. I'm partial to minced beefheart, but other foods will also work as long as they are minced. I've weaned fry as early as 11 days free swimming, although most people will go 15 - 20 days. Without high protein foods, the fry does not develop.

The parents will spawn again in 10 - 15 days so there's plenty of time to try again.

Good luck, Willie

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Willie, do you make your beef heart or buy it somewhere?

I buy from California Blackworms, who used to be a Simply sponsor. Use to make it myself, but it's too dangerous for my marriage.

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Originally Posted by Willie

I buy from California Blackworms, who used to be a Simply sponsor. Use to make it myself, but it's too dangerous for my marriage.

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Willie, what is their most successful product that you've used? Do you buy the FDBH or the pellets/sticks. I might be willing to try it out as well since, as you've mentioned, making my own BH mix would be dangerous for my marriage. :P

I buy frozen beefheart from California Blackworms. They come in 1 LB packages. I dice them up and toss them in a container in the freezer. Every morning, I toss 2 - 3 cubes into the discus tanks. No fuss, no muss. Dan, the proprietor, makes up a batch whenever he gets an order. You can contact him via blkworm@aol.com (note abbreviated spelling).

I use chicken breasts and prawns instead of beef hearts to save my marriage ��

Quote:

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Originally Posted by AquaticNerd

Willie, what is their most successful product that you've used? Do you buy the FDBH or the pellets/sticks. I might be willing to try it out as well since, as you've mentioned, making my own BH mix would be dangerous for my marriage. :P

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I've tried chicken and turkey as well. Turkey is almost fat free and has the consistency of cement. Raw chicken has too much bacterial contamination to process safely in the kitchen. I consider it if I had a workspace in the fish room, but it's too dangerous near human food prep.

I do handle the raw chicken with cautious in the kitchen.

Thank you everyone for your advice
If I have the courage I’ll try again in the new year
Regards
George

I'm looking back on this post and it seems the first problem might started from the BBS feeding. Maybe with a couple fry dieing from a large batch doesn't too critical but after two weeks there almost nothing left. First thing when a couple fry die
I add formaldehyde 37 % this stop it immediately then open a new can of brine shrimp egg.

The second problem I agree with Willie 100%, the BBS loses its nutritional value after hatching, Selcon can be added but BBS contain mostly water.
You can feed beef liver, beefheart shaving and black or white worms.

Last fry development being under size the finnage is underdeveloped also, may want to go back to tap water.

Good Luck with next spawn,
Cliff