hi everyone,
A couple of years ago I ordered some red covers from Kenny. They are absolutely lovely. They ended up both being male but for some reason they appeared to bond as a pair. Shimmying, bowing and cleaning the cone together. At one point the bigger of the 2 males also bonded with a blue diamond female. They never laid eggs together and she got an infection and didn't recover. This left these 2 males alone again. A couple of months ago the bigger male fertilized eggs for a melon female, i separated her from the tank.
We have also a melon couple who lay eggs regularly but for some reason refuse to get then past the wiggler stage.
A couple of weeks ago we decided to allow the red cover "pair" to foster the eggs from the melons. And so this is where we are now.
Last night we moved the cone from the melons to the red covers. At around 3pm today both red cover males were on the cone.
Around 7:45pm I watched the bigger of the 2 males making runs over the eggs.
There are a lot of white eggs in this batch so I'm not sure how big a batch this could be or even if the male melon went over the eggs. But I will update this thread as I have something to report.
Tammy
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Last edited by Tkuilderd; 05-30-2020 at 09:45 PM.
Could be all the hormones that are used by the overseas breeders that the fish are confused, no fault of Kenny as he is just an importer
Jeanne
I think a foster bachelor pair would be pretty cool
Pat
Your discus are talking to you....are you listening
Watching with interest!
Jeanne,
Nobody is faulting Kenny. The fish decide what they decide, i have had female pairs before. These things simply happen.
This is just a chance for us to see if the parenting instinct works as well for those who have never experienced wigglers or swimmers.
Tammy
Here is a video of this evenings activity. The bigger male is definately protective, unfortunately i do not think my male melon went over the eggs. Almost all are white at this point. But this definitely gives me hope that this will work.
I will continue to update future batches from this foster couple on this thread.
Tammy
We appear to have about 7 wigglers on the cone and the covers are being protective. We kept the video short since it seemed to bother them.
Tammy
Last edited by Tkuilderd; 05-31-2020 at 11:38 PM.
All the eggs and wigglers from this batch are gone. We are going to move the males to a different tank and try again.
That's a shame. It was an interesting idea though. Hopefully you will be success soon!
Hi Tammy, Nice experiment! Always fun trying something new. Any chance the smaller of the two is a female? I have a Female with full streamers here fool me for years until she laid eggs!
al
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At the time that my bigger male was pairing with my BD female, the smaller male was also trying to pair with her. We did see the tubes on all 3 and both red covers are male.
I am not giving up on this project. I do believe that these 2 will make great foster parents but we had an issue with too many white eggs on the cone and I truly believe that came about due to the breeding couple fighting during mating lol
We are going to remove the red covers from the tank with the parents to another tank and hope that curbs some of the fighting between the melon pair.
Tammy
I'm looking forward to it. Discus are capable of some amazing behavior.. I've throw this around alot in the past but you may find it interesting with your unorthodox pair..
http://forum.simplydiscus.com/showth...thread-renamed
al
AquaticSuppliers.comFoods your Discus will Love!!!
>>>>>I am a science guy.. show me the science minus the BS
Al Sabetta
Simplydiscus LLC Owner
Aquaticsuppliers.com
I take Pics.. click here for my Flickr images
That thread is where the idea came from. These boys have show protective instincts with 2 in discus and we watched as they allowed the small ones to eat from their slime coat. I dont have females for them and they are constantly running my other discus away from their area of the tank. So I think this is a solution for the moment. My main tank has peace and these boys may get to raise the babies they want.
Tammy