Hi All,

I'm a long time reader, but not much of a poster just yet. I have an odd circumstance and am looking for ideas on how to manage it. I'll start with a little backstory but skip to the Problem if you don't want to read all of it.

Backstory

I have a few Discus pairs that spawn in my 90 gal community tank fairly often but the eggs never last longer than a few days, too many other fish, hard TX limestone water, high PH (8.2) and TDS (1060 to 1200). I did move one pair to a separate tank to minimize overcrowding and though they would spawn in the 90, they weren't in the mood in the new tank, and even if they did everything I have read said the eggs wont fertilize in hard tap water with high TDS. To my suprise, this pair did recently spawn a small batch of eggs, and around 75% of them hatched. I'm on day 16 with the fry and they are growing fast though they strangely don't seem interested in BBS. Now, with the surprising revelation that eggs will fertilize in my water, I stole some eggs from a nice pigeon blood pair in the 90 gal and they hatched today, wigglers.

Problem
I am scheduled to leave town in a day and a half. I accept the fact that the fry will likely die since I am raising them without parents, but I can still try a few things to see if I can keep a few alive, why not try? I have a Tuck like setup with a tray in the top of a 30 gal filtered tank, wigglers are in a reusable coffee filter screen with fresh water trickling on them in the tray, water temp is 85.1 F. Eggs laid on 8/6 @~8:00 pm hatched on 8/9 @~8:00 am. Guessing they could become free swimming ~36 hrs which would be 8/11. I will leave home around 1:00pm that day. I will return on 8/15 late afternoon.
Here are a few ideas that I'd like to run past you all that have great experience in breeding.

1. I can throw a little BBS, Golden Pearls, starter food in the coffee filter and see it that carries them over. The water is circulating and being replaced constantly from the tank, but the food would stay in the filter screen I think.
2. Try to take a few free swimmers and put them on the other pair that are raising their fry of 16 days old and see if they don't get eaten immediately.

So far, those aren't great options but something to try, any other ideas other than just giving up?30 gal.jpg16 days.jpg