Peat to combat fungus?

[remikz]

I was talking to a friend of mine who has been breeding fish for most of his life, his big passion being for african cichlids and dwarf cichlids. He is now having a go with discus, he has an established pair of pigeon bloods who have laid eggs once but most fungused over and the wrigglers that made it got eaten.

We were talking about Breeding Checzh Rams and he told me that when he had bred rams in teh past he used to put a block of peat in the tank with them rather than chemicals to combat fungus on the eggs. I read up a little about peat and many websites say that peat filtration will combat fungus.

My big question is would setting up peat filtration on a discus breeding tank stop eggs from fungusing over? So you can use it rather than meds and chemicals? I know there is a ph problem with peat and other water things.. Has anyone ever done it though?

--Ian

[Willie]

It depends on his water conditions: pH and hardness.

In general, when only a few eggs developed, its usually a fertility problem. When there is a water problem, none of the eggs develop.

Willie

[richgrenfell]

I agree. Also, when I first bred discus, I was having some fertility troubles as well. I soon figured out that the cone was under a power filter and thought that perhaps the flow was washing the sperm away from the eggs as the male released it. I moved the cone to the other side of the tank, I also reduced the flow of the filter, and i had no further problems....

Rich