What if I don't want them to procreate?

[Aesacus]

Greetings.

I started a 75gal tank in March, with nine discus. Various varieties. All from one LFS, except for one purchased from Chicago Discus. I keep them in a mix of municipal and RO water, conductivity typically runs 250uS/cm. I have had very good luck, they are extremely active and friendly. They have grown pretty well, though I am sure I have not achieved their full potential.

This is my first attempt with discus. I sensed a few days ago a disturbance in the force, and today came home to indeed find two of them paired off and laying eggs.

I have no interest in breeding them at this point, I am not set up at all to deal with fry. I'll watch to see if the eggs are actually fertile.

My goal is to have a tank with adult discus, purely for aesthetic pleasure. The breeding and potential aggression(?) worries me. Am I best off reaching in and destroying the eggs? Or should I just let nature run its course each time?

I would like to find a good home for a couple of them, and reduce the number to seven. But I worry that it may disrupt the really nice harmony that has been established. Is nine too many for a 75? I have no other fish in the tank.

Thank you.

[discuspaul]

Welcome to the forum,

Based on your views & aims, it would seem most appropriate to offer the breeding pair up for sale, in order to reduce the number of discus in your tank to 7 from 9, which is likely where it should be in any event.
(If it is indeed a pair - and you should know that after a spawning, and if any wrigglers are actually produced).

Meantime, just let nature (& some aggression) takes its course - eggs &/or fry will very likely all get eaten or otherwise perish in your tank till the pair is re-homed, but that won't deter the pair from continuing to spawn, in your tank or elsewhere if/when sold, so don't be concerned with that.
Best of luck to you.

[Rudustin]

It is doubtful that the fry or the eggs are going to last considering there are other discus in the tank. So no worries. Nature will take care of this problem. I have discus that lay eggs all the time in a community setting. For a brief time they will be territorial but once the eggs are eaten by either the parents or other discus in the tank they will settle down. Rufus

[John_Nicholson]

Healthy animals reproduce. It is how it is. I would just leave them alone.

-john

[Aesacus]

Thank you all for the feedback. I will let them be. All of the eggs are still brownish-red, and everything seems pretty calm. The tank is large enough that the other discus can stay at the opposite end, and they seem to be getting the hint. The parents are a face-spotted super eruption from Chicago Discus, and a reflection. Blue reflection? It is a darker shade of blue than my blue diamond, and occasionally has some black bars. The two are taking turns with the eggs, only one comes up at a time with the others to see me or to eat. They seem perfectly peaceful with each other. The eruption does most of the egg watching, and the reflection is doing most of the crowd control. Not violent at all though.

Sadly, I am leaving on a business trip in the morning and will not be back until Friday afternoon. Hopefully I do not come back to chaos. Sounds more than likely I'll come back to no eggs/fry. I'll have to study the breeding forum. And the fry forum if there is one. I read a lot of the other forums for a long time before taking the plunge. This place has great people, and is a great resource. It is much appreciated.

[rickmiles]

What if I don't want them to procreate?

What I do is walk around with my shirt off.

[Skip]

let them be.. , fry probably won't last in the community tank.. IF they even get to wiggler stage.. you can't stop it.. unless you put them all in their own tanks..

[pastry]

What I do is walk around with my shirt off.

LOL... I was going to say have young kids around to slap the tank once every few hours but that's better.

Aesacus, I think I remember one person in the past who would strive for all males. Not sure how it worked out but may be worth exploring

[Aesacus]

Update - the pair has spawned continuously once a week or so. I left them alone just like y'all said, and everything has been tolerably peaceful. Eggs always disappeared after a couple days. Finally today I noticed an uptick in aggression. There are tiny little fry swimming around empty egg shells. Last night the female was attacking my siphon tube during tank cleaning, which was a first as well.

Given the parents are an eruption (female) and blue reflection (male), is it worth setting up a breeding tank after the holidays? Or would the offspring be junk? I have space near the tank I could set up a 40-gal breeder or something like that. Put a proper cone in it. Raise one batch of fry. With my luck, I would move them and they would stop breeding.

[rickztahone]

Update - the pair has spawned continuously once a week or so. I left them alone just like y'all said, and everything has been tolerably peaceful. Eggs always disappeared after a couple days. Finally today I noticed an uptick in aggression. There are tiny little fry swimming around empty egg shells. Last night the female was attacking my siphon tube during tank cleaning, which was a first as well.

Given the parents are an eruption (female) and blue reflection (male), is it worth setting up a breeding tank after the holidays? Or would the offspring be junk? I have space near the tank I could set up a 40-gal breeder or something like that. Put a proper cone in it. Raise one batch of fry. With my luck, I would move them and they would stop breeding.

That is a possibility, but more than likely they will keep spawning and get it right.

However, the question becomes, are you really sure you want to get in to breeding? It is expensive, time consuming and you need a lot of tank space. Do you have all of these in place? If not, can you get them in place?