Tricks to getting fry to attach to predominantly white (and orange) pigeon parents

[Tefloncat]

Hello,
I’m fortunate enough to have bought 6 individual adolescent discus, 2 white/orange pigeons (I think), a red turquoise snakeskin, 3 leopard something or other. I bought them to put in a 100 gallon DT. And what happens.... they all pair up. Breeding right and left in the tank and raising holy hell, they actually killed a dwarf cichlids, my male triple red apistogramma cacatuoides (I thought, as did he, that he was the bad *** of the aquarium). So much for serene discus. Any way 2 of the pairs are in a divided 40 gallon breeder, both laid eggs the same night. The turquoise and snakeskin are the typical discus parent there are fry all over them (they look like they’re in a snow globe). The pigeon not a single fry attached ( I believe because they’re white and the fry are looking for dark parents to feed). I covered 3 sides and the bottom in white paper, covered any dark objet in white needle point screen. I lowered water level to just where the largest fish was completely covered I finally sucked up the last 10 or so remaining fry and squirted them on the turquoise pair, they didn’t even bat an eye (seeing as they can’t, and we’re already covered in at least a 100 fry). So this was my solution, in the future
what else can I do? I don’t think I’ll get so lucky with 2 pair breeding at exact same time.
Thanks in Advance

[danotaylor]

Hopefully Cliff will give you some tips, but your Turk/SS pair may happily foster your PB fry even when they don't have fry. I know Brian had a pair that would do that.
You other option is to artificially raise the fry. There is some good info on this site so just use the search engine to find them.

[Second Hand Pat]

I have an interesting idea which I read somewhere. Since the side of the tank is covered with paper place a small but dim light towards the side of the tank. The idea is the parents will be silhouetted when the light is behind and appear dark to the fry. Might be worth a try
Pat

[Sturiosoma]

Here is another thought with your divider make the tank as small as possible until they attach and then you can open them back up again

Jeanne

[gimaal]

As I'm reading this it occurred to me---that's why those black halos are there on wild fish...they're like runway lights at an airport guiding the planes in but in this case they're saying "this way to your dinner, kids!"

[sanjay21]

Blue lights never failed for me. Almost in 20mins I see them attached, dim blue lights makes the pigeons look darker. Here is a thread I started on a pigeon based pair - http://forum.simplydiscus.com/showth...sia&highlight=

[Sturiosoma]

Blue lights never failed for me. Almost in 20mins I see them attached, dim blue lights makes the pigeons look darker. Here is a thread I started on a pigeon based pair - http://forum.simplydiscus.com/showth...sia&highlight=

And you play Frank Sinatra song Blue Moon in the fish room

Jeanne

[sanjay21]

And you play Frank Sinatra song Blue Moon in the fish room

Jeanne

Can't share all the details...

[Tefloncat]

Wow, it really does “take a village to raise a discus” (okay, a child, but they are our children at times). I ended up using the baster method and transferring them to the turquoise x snakeskin pair (after adoption papers were approved...no eating them). NEXT time, for the pigeons, I will have different tools to test out, thanks for all the ideas. I never intended on breeding discus, but, they intended differently. What a wonderful journey. (As a note I feel sorry for the pigeons they found maybe 10 fry and have them in the corner doing their best.)
Thanks to all
Eric
1st pic little specks of “pepper” are remaining fry the parents wrangled from around their side of aquarium
2nd pic current EMERGENCY maternity ward. I’m currently working on a reverse sump, ie sump on top of aquarium with pump in aquarium as ONLY piece of equipment and return being a gentle “rainfall” via pvc over top of tank.
3rd adopting parents

[CliffsDiscus]

I have seen 3 pairs in a 55 gallon divided by
two egg crates the fry were swimming from
one side to the opposite side of the tank. No
need for baster sucking. Just let the pigeon fry eat off the turquoise, but if you really want the fry to attach to the pigeon you
have to make the pigeonblood pair twitch by
shutting off the air for a few minutes and then tapping on the tank. I don't know if this
is a trick but it works.

Cliff

[4eye gold fish]

I have seen 3 pairs in a 55 gallon divided by
two egg crates the fry were swimming from
one side to the opposite side of the tank. No
need for baster sucking. Just let the pigeon fry eat off the turquoise, but if you really want the fry to attach to the pigeon you
have to make the pigeonblood pair twitch by
shutting off the air for a few minutes and then tapping on the tank. I don't know if this
is a trick but it works.

Cliff

Will the pair without spawn/fry have mucus to foster feed? I am tempted to try this, will also test the glass tapping.

[danotaylor]

I am speculating here as I have no experience with this personally, but I do know that they always have a slime coat and I reckon once fry attach & start feeding on it with a surrogate pair they will kick into overdrive slime production to compensate

[danotaylor]

I knew you'd have something up your sleeve Cliff

[CliffsDiscus]

Will the pair without spawn/fry have mucus to foster feed? I am tempted to try this, will also test the glass tapping.

The pair without the spawn will still have mucus but not as much as the spawning
pair. What you can do is to lower the ph
by doing this the pair will thicken their
mucus.

Cliff

[CliffsDiscus]

I knew you'd have something up your sleeve Cliff

Hi Daniel,
Thanks, I picked up many tips visiting and talking to hobbyists.

Cliff