Experienced Breeders please Stand up

[Neil1_2]

Heres my feedback!!


What's the typical breeding tank set up(size, filtration, lighting etc.)? I personally use 18" cube tanks

How do you choose your pairs? grow out discus of the same strain in a 4-5 ft tank and then let them pair up.

Do you wait for them to pair up in a group or force two known breeders together? I wait for them to pair up..

What are the water parameters? Ph 6.3

How do you induce spawning? Naturally

How many of you are using RO/Tap mix, Peat water, or straight tap? Straight Tap water

How do you condition your pairs for breeding (feeding regiment, temps etc)
Normal feeding twice a day .. nothing live only the same old beefheard mix they were grown on.

Do you clean(medicate) your pairs prior to spawning?
No.

Do you use cones or PVC?
PVC

Do you use mash to cover the eggs? Only at times when the pair have proved notorious enough to eat the eggs even after 4 spawns

What do you do after they spawn? How do you treat the eggs to prevent fungus? at times with very slight dosage of formalin..

What temperature, water parameters do you maintain after the spawn?
WC schedule after the spawn? Temperature around 26-28 C

Feeding the pair after the spawn ? what type of food and how often?
once a day same beefheart mix.. a little less in qty. than regular feeding.

[Gary Bolton]

I used to breed and sell Discus Fish, just joined you site after finding it doing a seach on discus fish. I no longer breed now due to the time needed to put into it. Now I just enjoy keeping them.

Hello everybody

1: How to bring your discus into spawning condition.
Feed them live whiteworks daily. But not on a permanent daily bases (two much of this rich food can be bad for them).

2: Water PH
Keep the ph around 6.5 to 6.2. But the most important thing is hardness. get an RO unit aned use 3/4 RO 1/4 tap water.

2: How to induce spawning:
Do a cold water change and drop the temp by about 4-5 degree's. This is what happens in the amazon when the rainy seasons comes. Works everytime!

3: When should you remove the fry. Leave the fry with the parents until they are eating newly hatched brine shrimp and you can see there bellies are red from eating them. Once eating them and moving away from the parents to find them (3 days) after first taking them. Move on there own to an 18inch tank. Feed brine shrimp still until they are eating finely grated beefheart.

But in this day and age you can buy and expander kit that you use for fishing to make your mini carp pellets sink to feed them also. There a top food for your discus and very healthy.

Few tips there!

[aziyaeian]

What do you do after they spawn? How do you treat the eggs to prevent fungus?
30 minutes after I add Formalin to the water, 2 drops per gallon

There are some questions in my mind about it:
1. Doesn’t formalin hurt the fries?
2. How do you remove it? And when do you do it?
3. Do you add formalin after each WC?
4. Doesn’t it kill the bio filter? And ammonia will kill the fries after a few days?
5. What is your idea about adding MB?
Your answer will help me.
When I use mash for protecting eggs, they are attacked with fungus. And they will be eaten without mash.
What should I do?

[kaceyo]

Personaly I use only one drop of formalin p/gal on eggs. Try both ways to see what works best for you. I only add it one time, shortly after done spawning. I prefure formalin to M. Blue because I like to be able to see whats going on. Both meds are hard on the biofilter but with a single treatment damage is not severe. If you do get ammonia readings do more frequent wc's till filter catches back up. A little short term ammo wont hurt the eggs/fry/fish.
Good Luck,

Kacey

[Alan]

5. What is your idea about adding MB?
When I use mash for protecting eggs, they are attacked with fungus. And they will be eaten without mash.
What should I do?

If you have to use a mesh, you must use anti-fungus unless you're sure your water doesn't have fungus.

I have used MB. The prescribed dose is 30 mL for every 100 liters of water. I used 1/2 of the dose and it still works. You have to spray it directly on the eggs 45 mins. after the male made its final pass. Use a syringe to spray the MB. Then put the mesh.

I've read somewhere about another way to apply the MB. I believe you keep adding MB until you can't see the ruler anymore 4 inches down. I haven't tried this method. I prefer the direct spray.

Don't forget to remove the filter.

Siphon off the waste at the bottom. If you have to replace the water, make the water flow slow. WC about 6 hours before estimated hatching of the larva or 2 days after free swimming.

There are other ways to do it but that's based on my experience.

[aziyaeian]

Hi Alan
Unfortunately I didn’t understand your method. Would you please explain more about it?
Do you move the eggs out of water and spray MB on them?
What is your reason for directly spray? Don’t you can add MB to water without any spraying? What is difference between them?
An other question is when do you get back the filter to the tank? And how do you remove med. from water?
Excuse me for lots of question

[thumbu]

RESPECTED SIR,

IN THIS MESSAGE U TOLD ABOUT U DONE BOTH MATHOD FOR PAIR DISCUS, PLZ TELL ME HOW I WANT TO KNOW HOW TO DO IT PLEASE.

USMAN SHAIKH
INDIA

What's the typical breeding tank set up(size, filtration, lighting etc.)?24 x 20 x 20, airoperated sponge filters, lighting unimportant veiwing only concern
How do you choose your pairs? shape, temperment, no genetic defects, color and intensity, pattern
Do you wait for them to pair up in a group or force two known breeders together?both methods
What are the water parameters? ph 6 to 6.5, conductivity 80 to 120 ms, temp 82 to 84
How do you induce spawning?no inducement
How many of you are using RO/Tap mix, Peat water, or straight tap?i use ro mix tap and peat
How do you condition your pairs for breeding (feeding regiment, temps etc)no extra conditioning required or tricks used
Do you clean(medicate) your pairs prior to spawning?no
Do you use cones or PVC?flower pots
Do you use mash to cover the eggs?almost never
What do you do after they spawn? How do you treat the eggs to prevent fungus?nothing
What temperature, water parameters do you maintain after the spawn?same as spawning conditions
WC schedule after the spawn?regular 25% w/c daily
Feeding the pair after the spawn ?same as normal what type of food and how often?heart mix, bloodworms, brineshrimp , tetra bits.

Rod

[Luca]

Ahhh...first things first it's goood to be baaack!

Just read over all the posts, one query came up, if they breed in a community tank (assuming you all mean a mix of other discus as opposed to other species of fish but probably doesn't matter), then you say you move them to be by themselves... do you wait until the eggs/fry are eaten or do you just move the discus straight away?

Cheers

[Carol_Roberts]

Move them either before or after eggs are eaten. It won't hurt eggs to be in the air for a couple of minutes.

[aziyaeian]

Hi
I have followed your method of raising
1. Hardness about 60 ppm
2. Temp about 28
3. Use wire mesh and add MB a few hour after spawning
4. Adjust an air line near the spawning site
5. Remove sponge filter
6. Stop feeding the parents
7. WC about 10 hours before hatching with decholorized tap water (increasing hardness)

I have done it tow times without any success. All the eggs were fugiform and no hatching were done. They are fertile pair.
There are tow eggs batch now. They are spawned 2 days ago and I am waiting for hatching now. I will WC them as the instruction. Hopefully it will work this time.
But the questions are
1. How much WC is needed for the first time? ( 10 hours before hatching)
2. It takes much time to WC to remove MB. Doesn’t it make any problem?
3. When should I get back the sponge filter?
4. When should I start to feeding parents again?

THX A LOT

[kaceyo]

Sometimes it takes them quite a few times to get everything right. Are you sure the eggs are furtilized? If your screening the eggs, adding Meth Blue and they are fertile then they shouldn't be fungusing. Personaly I do wc's the whole time. And you don't need to take the filter out till just before the eggs hatch. HTH

Kacey

[aziyaeian]

And you don't need to take the filter out till just before the eggs hatch. HTH

Kacey

Doesn’t MB kill my biofilter and pollute the water?

[kaceyo]

Yes, you are right. If your going to add MB you might as well take the filter out first. And you only need to add it one time. You should also consider using Formalin instead of MB. With Formalin you can still see whats going on in the tank. I like to watch the eggs go through the process and with MB I can't tell whats happening.
But you may have better eyes, I can't see much even with the formalin and reading glasses, lol.

Kacey

[mrsportys]

Follow up to a couple of points being brought up. Problem pairs, screens......not all egg laying will produce wigglers (eggs turn white) and if they do, what do you do with the discus that time after time after the wigglers become free do nothing about it because they have not produced any mucus.
Any thoughts?
I have surrogated, sometimes successfully BUT the surrogating mother has to have babies that are withing a couple of days, the same age. Recently I did just that and added over 100 babies from another tank that the parents just don't produce mucus....the other mother proceeded over time to pick hers out and eliminate the others.
And, watch for the parents who have an iffy attitude about their fry after 7 days...they are about to lay more eggs and WILL eat those 7 day olds.
Any thoughts on everytime, all the time mucus production?
Jim

[ArtOfFish]

Here's a fun fact discus will most of the time breed in the same water parameters that they were raised in. No need to change water parameters for breeding purposes such as ph levels and temp I have friends who bred them in 6.6 ph levels mine spawn at 7.0 ph. and my other friend his spawn at ph 7.6