injured parents from fry overfeeding

[Aquatic Engineer]

I apologize if this has been asked before as I did a search and didn't find anything. I just removed my 30 day old babies from the parents to their own grow out tank as they are mostly eating bbs now anyway. However, after moving them, I noticed the male had some skin damage that appears to be from overfeeding of the babies that I didn't notice before. What is the recommended treatment to help him recover? Would Paraguard to help put down any bacterial infection help? I've moved the babies, so hopefully that will help him on its own but I want to make sure I'm doing everything I should in the meantime to make sure he doesn't get worse. Thanks!

[Second Hand Pat]

I apologize if this has been asked before as I did a search and didn't find anything. I just removed my 30 day old babies from the parents to their own grow out tank as they are mostly eating bbs now anyway. However, after moving them, I noticed the male had some skin damage that appears to be from overfeeding of the babies that I didn't notice before. What is the recommended treatment to help him recover? Would Paraguard to help put down any bacterial infection help? I've moved the babies, so hopefully that will help him on its own but I want to make sure I'm doing everything I should in the meantime to make sure he doesn't get worse. Thanks!

Hi, I would suggest large daily water changes for dad and you can add some regular table salt to aid with the slime coat. Nothing heals better then clean water.
Pat

[LizStreithorst]

This happens sometimes. You did the right thing when you separated the kids from the parents. Pat is totally correct about good clean water with added salt. Two tablespoons per 10 gallons would be a good dose to start with. When he starts looking better you can decrease the amount to one tablespoon per 10 and eventually nothing but good clean water.

How many fry did you have? How long did you leave them in with the parents (or were they with dad only)?

[Aquatic Engineer]

Thanks for your replies. I will continue to do major water changes to help him heal. I had about 30 fry in with both parents for 30 days. I hadn't seen any "flicking baby off behavior" or many even eating off the parents for the last week or so (maybe just 3 or 4 hanging around the parents) as they preferred hunting around for bbs so I wasn't as watchful as I should have been. I've been adding Stress Coat also, but will switch to salt as suggested. Thanks!

[LizStreithorst]

30 isn't a whole lot of fry so the damage to dad it somewhat surprising to me. I like to leave my fry in with the parents for longer than most people but I always separate them at 3 weeks tops.

You may want to post a pic of dad just so we can be more nearly positive that this is damage from the kids rather than something else. And if you feel like it, we always love pics of baby Discus.

[Willie]

With large spawns, it's not unusual for parents to end up with damage - I've seen open wounds. However, this is a behavior that has evolved over thousands of generations and the wound heals quickly. Per Pat, first do no harm. Salt and clean water address most problems.

[Aquatic Engineer]

Thanks - here is the last photo I have of the pair with babies at about 21 days old (rest are mostly video), plus a current photo of the pair after I swapped out their 29 gal tank I've been using since the mid-1980s with a new one as I've been reading about tanks leaking lately . I'll try to get a good close up photo of the male's injury and post that tonight. Hope these photos attach. parents31days.jpgbabies21days.jpg

[Aquatic Engineer]

Here's a photo of the injury, looks like I mis-remembered and it is on the female. Please let me know if it looks like something else other than baby bites. Hoping to get her healed up before she lays eggs again. Thanks.
injury.jpg

[LizStreithorst]

Clean water and salt. BTW congrats on raising such a fine batch of fry. The parents have very good shape and are beautifully balanced. Stendkers?

[Aquatic Engineer]

Thanks! I'll continue to do that. Actually, these are Wattley striated reds. I do have 10 Stendker's that I bought a few months ago that I am growing out in my main display tank hoping some will pair up in 9 months or so.

[CliffsDiscus]

Try dropping the ph, this will make the pair to
produce more slime also with the lower ph it
will cut down bacteria.

Cliff