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I have a unlikely couple spawn repeatedly so I set up a 20g H breeding tank. After a few unsuccessful tries I now have about 50 fry, 4 wks +. They are eating BBS and dry micro pellets. I'm not sure what's next, other than soon I'll need to get another aquarium as I've only had one fatality so far.
When do they move to more adult food?
Any idea of what these will look like and how long before they show their colors?
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They are going to look like the pigeonbloods.
Cliff
6 months later, I have 10 growing in the planted community tank and 10 growing in the bare bottom breeding tank. They are showing different color patterns which seems odd as they under the same lighting and getting fed the same food, mostly a beef heart mix. The ones in the planted tank have very dark peppering while the ones in the breeding tank are only lightly peppered.
Earlier I gave 20 young to the LFS and I visited them a month later. While mine at home were showing their red coloring after 7 weeks the ones at the LFS still had no color at 4 months. The difference was the beef heart mix I feed at home, while the LFS was only feeding with frozen and flakes.
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Nahuel, Sorry for not checking back and seeing your post. The blue was a high fin diamond. Unfortunately after the breeding it developed a large lump on its spine that protruded on both side of its body. Cancer? Not sure, It didn't respond to any medication and passed away. Over 50 fry have survived, I've already dropped off 30 to the LFS, need to drop off some more. Not sure what to do with all of them!
Well I’m going to say you’ve done a great study on the benifits of bare bottom against planted. Discus do look the same but the ones in the planted tank are showing more peppering and a few do look stunted. While the ones in bare bottom do look much better. The water has less debris in it in the bb tank. Even though your doing both tanks the same waste and food will build up around the base of decorations and plant roots causing the water quality to be less than the bb tank.
Yes, an unintended study, but obvious as the BB tankmates appearance is much better than those in the planted. I'll continue the study by swapping a few between tanks.
While I've had no mortality since the first month the fish that I have been bringing to the LFS have not been surviving. He had been putting them with imported discus and they appear to succumb to a virus. The last group I brought went in a different tank, if they don't survive I'll need to find another outlet.
Great idea! It would be a great thread. Do you have pics from the beginning?
As to lfs this is the norm. Even the locals I like I would only buy discus from when they first come in (and I’ve got a whole thread on the last 2). Anything in their tanks goes bad in a few weeks. Main reason I won’t breed discus. I’ve got 3 active pairs but no clue what to do with fry.
After moving a few from the planted tank to the BB one, the heavily peppered ones lost most of their peppering in a few days and had the same coloring as the others in that tank. So the coloring seems to be a factor of the planting and background. Not a large enough sample, only 10 were moved to the planted tank, to determine if the water quality made any difference in their growth. The planted tank fish were mostly smaller, but that could be that they were easier to catch in the first place.
So not much of a study, but interesting as to how much they can change appearance based on their surroundings.