What a long 12 months it has been - my closing observations and thoughts

I entered into the breeding side of this hobby to keep it interesting and give me something to strive towards in the company of my local fish club friends. In this respect, I am happy my "misfist" discus decided to spawn for me last year. The parenting behavior for the first 3 weeks is one of the coolest things I have experienced with this hobby to date.

It was only after I had fry, that I stumbled upon the SimplyDiscus contest. Since I had never raised discus up to that point, I decided to join the contest and chronicle my experiences. Most likely, I would of had a journal thread anyways, so why not enter my fish into the contest too?

Overall, I felt that once the parents were taking care of the fry, the first two months were the easiest to care for the fry. Up to the two month point, they ate anything I put in the tank , were active swimmers, and didn't seem to mind me being around or near their home. Once they were 2 months old, and I segregated 8 fish from the remainder of the group, it was like I had different fish. They cowered from me in their 25gallon space, did a lot more floating as opposed to active swimming, and became more picky eaters.

Despite the effect of the segregation, I stuck with contest rules and continued to document my progress.

• You can view my journal thread at http://forum.simplydiscus.com/showth...-Pair-with-fry
• My photo timeline thread is at http://forum.simplydiscus.com/showth...Photo-timeline

Prior to raising these fish, most of my breeding experience had been with killie's, shrimp, and livebearers. For those of you who don't yet realize, discus are much more of a time and patience endeavour. They take longer to grow, and require more blood(worms), sweat(wc) and beers(for sanity).

Overall, my experience was a positive one. I learned a lot from the actual experience, and from other SimplyDiscus members. Being a first-timer, I didn't realize how much work was involved in raising discus to adult hood. WOW! Thank you to all who replied to my threads over the past 12 months and offered up advise and critique.

With that being said, I will list some of what I will do differently next time I get a pair spawning.

• Start with better stock - this was not a planned match, and my pair was not an optimal match and the quality of the parents was not high end
• Keep the largest group possible - some others had great luck growing out 8 fish from 2 months on, I think the fish would benefit from a larger population pool up to the three month mark
• More WC's for the win - I was performing daily WC on my tank, but neglecting the sponge filters on the premise that my resulting fish would be less delicate that fish raised in a super sterile tank. I'm not sure my journal supports this theory, and would most likely increase my cleaning regiment next time around.
• Keep the food consistent - Early on in the contest, I kept changing the food I was feeding. In conjunction with a dirtier tank, I think this slowed my growth considerably. On days I didn't feed live food, the fish seemed to hold out for the good stuff.
• To medicate or Not - I medicated my young fish, due to the observations of less vigorous feeding and dark complexion. Maybe this was related to the points above, maybe not. In the end, I think I would of held off medicating. I think medicating really hurt their growth. Seeing how this was my first attempt, it was harder to recognize normal behavior as opposed to "sick" behavior. At this point, I am still not sure if the medication helped or hindered.

Thank you to the contest organizers, moderators, and members.
Good luck to all the contestants. And keep up with those water changes!

Thank you for sharing this experience with all of us.

Great accomplishment, regardless of the results. Thanks so much for sharing along the way.

....Ned

Josh, awesome observations. It is quite the learning experience. Also you did well for your first time. Most would not. It has taken me five spawns to figure out how the fry should be and that is hungry all the time.
Pat