Raising Discus Fry Without Egg Yolk!! By Jack Agliata

[Charlyc11]

Jack how long did you keep them in the coffee filter and move them to a bigger tank?
Was cleaning the coffee filter any issue and I guess that a few drops of brine shrimp was sufficient for each feeding.

My method uses NO EGG YOLK EVER!!

[KIAWAHKID]

I kept them in the filter for probably 3-4 weeks-then actually moved them to a breeder box within the 5 gallon tank until they got round. Then they went into the 5. With a pipette I never cleaned the filter but often just blew the BBS on the floor around and it also usually got eaten too. Dead fry were removed with the pipette too. I never did BBS by the drop. I just took the hatching strainer from the Artemia Hatchery and dipped it in the coffee filter. Way more BBS than fry but I was only feeding 4 times a day.. If I had to guess why I was losing a few fry still, especially days 5 thru10, my guess would be they were eating unhatched BBS eggs. GOOD LUCK.

[SuspiciousAnswer314]

That's interesting that artemia can work that early. Satoh et al 2018 (https://doi.org/10.1007/s10228-018-0636-5) does show slightly reduced growth rates on artemia only (vs parental mucus & artemia), but better that than no fry if they don't attach to parents.
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[KIAWAHKID]

Your conclusion is exactly my thinking. 20 fry over 50 years or 50 fry over one spawn, with 10% of "Wattleys" work and effort using the egg yolk method!

[brewmaster15]

The article in this thread has been revised and updated.

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[Kris63]

Hi Jack, I managed to get a lot out of that with my artificial raising experiment. To be honest, I'm trying to avoid BBS as I reckon that's a lot of work and I think I may have lost some via unhatched BBS. So far I've had issues doing the bowls like the Urban Fishkeeper, but I have had some success raising some in an iso box using the air stone method. It seems to be very important on how you get the yolk consistency (slightly runny), but once you nail it, all you do is make up heaps of stones refrigerate them and just replace the air stone/s every 6 hours or so. After reading this thread last week I also tried dried some crushed up dry food as you suggested and it seems to be working, thanks for that. And as you say water flow is essential as is clean ups every day with the turkey baster (very carefully I might add, hahaha).