Thinking about raising discus.. ok what do I need

[planter]

Hi Everyone,

As some of you may know I have 7 blue turk / blue knight cross discus in my community tank. out of these 7 fish 3 pairs have formed and all the pairs have spawned in that tank. In fact, after eating the eggs a day later the pair to spawned first spawned again about a week later and ate the eggs again. This has motivated me or a least has me giving breeding a serious thought. I had no intention of breeding any fish as it's never really been a priority for me in this hobby however, I've also never been lucky enough to have fish this willing to breed.

So my question what do I need in terms of a breeding setup for one pair of discus what will I need?

I have a 75 and 30 gallon with heaters and filters standing by and that's it. I know I will need another barrel to age water.

What else is needed? I've searched this forum and didn't find a checklist for this but if you know of one please feel free to leave me a link.

[Second Hand Pat]

Hi Filipe, your 30 should work fine as a breeding tank. You will simply need to add a cycled sponge filter, a heater and a breeding surface. You might consider painting the bottom and side of the tank a light color of some sort.
Pat

[danotaylor]

+1 agree with Pat. I'd focus on 1 pair in the 30gal and keep the 75 to raise fry. I would pick the pair with the nicest shape and features to work with 1st, though all your doing scus have great genetics for shape and color, so maybe pick the pair that gets to wiggler's stage first.
I would also fishless cycle 2-3 extra sponges in anticipation for the fry. You could do that in a 5gal bucket using some water change water from your existing tank to get it going and use ammonia to keep lvl at 2ppm until the sponges are converting that to nitrite/nitrate.
Yehar Filipe, get at er son!

[LizStreithorst]

A 30 isn't tall enough, IMO. A 29 would be better.

But before you waste a lot of money and time for nothing, it would be good to know first if your water parameters are conducive to hatching fry. If so, no problem. If not, you will likely have to use an R0 unit. There is a lot of waste with RO. It's not that big a deal if you have a use for the waste water or if your water is dirt cheap.

[planter]

Hi Filipe, your 30 should work fine as a breeding tank. You will simply need to add a cycled sponge filter, a heater and a breeding surface. You might consider painting the bottom and side of the tank a light color of some sort.
Pat

HI Pat my 30 gallon has a background and it sits on a solid surface so I'm good there.

+1 agree with Pat. I'd focus on 1 pair in the 30gal and keep the 75 to raise fry. I would pick the pair with the nicest shape and features to work with 1st, though all your doing scus have great genetics for shape and color, so maybe pick the pair that gets to wiggler's stage first.
I would also fishless cycle 2-3 extra sponges in anticipation for the fry. You could do that in a 5gal bucket using some water change water from your existing tank to get it going and use ammonia to keep lvl at 2ppm until the sponges are converting that to nitrite/nitrate.
Yehar Filipe, get at er son!

Hi Daniel, I never thought about about cycling sponges thanks for the tip. I was lucky with one of the pairs they happen to be 2 of the nicest fish in tank so I plan on trying with that pair.

A 30 isn't tall enough, IMO. A 29 would be better.

But before you waste a lot of money and time for nothing, it would be good to know first if your water parameters are conducive to hatching fry. If so, no problem. If not, you will likely have to use an R0 unit. There is a lot of waste with RO. It's not that big a deal if you have a use for the waste water or if your water is dirt cheap.

I doubt my water is good for hatching it's pretty hard. The ph is roughly 7.6

I've never used a ro unit before so I'm looking forward to that learning curve lol. What unit should I be considering? How does one know the mixing ratio? Some many questions

[Second Hand Pat]

Hi Filipe, your ph does not really matter for breeding but you do want soft water. What's your GH?
Pat

[LizStreithorst]

And what is your kH? My eggs don't hatch in my water with 0 gH without adjusting the water to suit them.

[Willie]

Very simple to know if you have hard water. Do you have a water softener? If you do, then you have hard water coming into the house. If you don't, your water is good enough to spawn.

[danotaylor]

I have had wiggler's at 7.8, some here at even higher pH's

[LizStreithorst]

It's more about kH than pH.

[planter]

Using API test kits here are my readings

KH 5
GH 11

[planter]

Very simple to know if you have hard water. Do you have a water softener? If you do, then you have hard water coming into the house. If you don't, your water is good enough to spawn.

No we don't need or use a water softener years back I lived in a area where one was needed.

[LizStreithorst]

IMO your kH us too high. KH measures carbonites and I believe that carbonites are the enemy of egg hatching.
Pat may say that your gH is too high or that your water is fine as it is.

Water is so much more complex than it seems. I'm lucky spoken to a couple of water experts. It't got too complex for me but I learned that even they who know more than anyone has more to learn. Water chemistry fascinates me. The best I can do is advise you to do is try it in you own water and if the parents eat their eggs after 3 or 4 days several times, think of making a change of some kind. Or invest in an RO unit and get your aged water to under 90 TDS.

[planter]

Ok so is the issue GH, KH or TDS? or is it a combination of these? I don't have a TDS meter. If I need to buy one I will. Are there any meters I should avoid or will any do.

[LizStreithorst]

This is the one I use. It's accurate, you can recalibrate it if necessary, and if you drop it into the water it won't die. It's "innards" are in a waterproof housing. https://www.hannainst.com/hi98301-di...xoCi8EQAvD_BwE