One strain looks nice. Nice tank too.
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One strain looks nice. Nice tank too.
Things moving along well here!
Upon advice from Kenny I have been feeding mostly frozen Hikari bloodworms, looks like I’m averaging about 2oz a day through 4-5 feedings a day. They finish off 100% of the worms I feed over the course of about 12 mins.
I usually also feed 3-4 freeze dried black worms cubes from Al, 1 cube at a time and although they rip into it, it seems that roughly 15% of this ends up floating and they don’t seem to like these, taking up to 30 mins to clear last of floaters.
Question for any old-hats lurking about: I am wanting to start weening them onto the DuskusGold beef heart pellets and finally Hikari discus biogold pellets as well.
Should I give them two full weeks on FBW and FDBW before the pellet only repetitive low feed to get them eating it or should I start now and lessen their dependence on the worms?
Today’s update: The first pair attempted breeding. The eggs were eaten shortly after but hoping for better news down the line. Plans are to divide tank and grow to free swimming/free eating young then take them across town to a fish warehouse that is willing to raise them up on consignment.
I just added Hikari frozen brine shrimp to the daily menu and this seemed to invigorate the fish unlike other foods. Not sure if this primed the spawning, but the timing is right.
I’ve cut down the amount of food per feeding, in order to keep 5x feeding per day and keep my nitrates below 5ppm at weeks end.
I’ve also found that, although it looks hideous, the inclusion of homemade 2l bottle fine polishing filter is a requirement to keep my water gin clear. I use about 8” ball of polyfill and it completely fouls in 3 days time. The filter is super easy to clear and replace the floss.
Updating as things come here as a bit of a journal.
https://flic.kr/p/2isT8PX
Testing out Gopro 4k video of the fish today.... always begging.
http://youtu.be/MSvpW6fgTAU
Very nice mate!! The smaller ones are noticeably bigger already. Did anything come of the spawn you reported recently? Cheers
There have been two attempts so far, good number of eggs, and either unfertilized or just eaten due to some other factor.
Two of the largest were cleaning wood and making trial passes yesterday, which I spent some time trying to film, but I think they will lay today.
I think they are getting their practice in.
I do not have clearance to add breeding tanks from my CO. Just enjoying natural behavior for now.
I have a love/hate relationship with this topic. I have spent no little time/thought on it as well.
I successfully feed FDBW, Hikari Frozen bloodworms and Brine shrimp.
I have attempted numerous times to feed a frozen turkey/pellet blend, hikari discus biogold, DiskusGold beefheart crumbles, 3 different flake types, and tetra colorbits.
Each of these is completely rejected.
So the question is only being in tank 1 month, is it better to feed them 2x FDBW and 1x FBW and 1x FBS where they are visibly growing, fattening, healthy colored.....
Or starve them for over a week to force them to eat some new food they don’t recognize as food now.
It’s really not apparent which is healthier to them at this point. I have 2 vacations this year, one of which is a full week long that I will not have them fed during and plan to only feed the frozen ground turkey with both ground pellet types in it when I return.
I knew it. Just as expected.
http://youtu.be/-1R3k8PpnAk
Maybe I should have explained a little further about being successful, obviously you are because you have a spawn, but sometimes you can improve hatch percentage with a tweak of their diet maybe some live blackworms, red wigglers and omega one veggie flakes and congrats on the spawn
Jeanne
Annnd.... another one bites the dust. All eaten at 3 day mark.
I am convinced that these were actually fertilized and that our liquid rock (Tap water with 10+ dGH) calcifies the eggs.
I have had communal free swimmers with previous tanks and previous discus, but they were always 95% RO DI systems.
Looks like if I do a month worth of RODI water changes I can get the eggs to hatch... not sure if it’s worth the hassle, especially since I could only block them off in tank, as I’ve gotten the hard negative from my CO for more aquariums.
I suppose it’s good to know that they are in full health and comfort to support breeding.
Nearing 2 months update. Definite size adding on all, most noticeable in outline of younger and width of older
http://youtu.be/iPb199q9Uz4
Wow, they are definitely thriving from the looks of it. What a nice color choice btw.