problem preventing discus eating their eggs

[Anarchist]

my discus pair have been laying eggs every 7-8 days, but they kept eating their eggs. this is already the 6th time they eat their eggs

i have other discus and gold fish in the tank. is there any other way to prevent them from eating the eggs other then separating them to new tank?

advice please

[Chad Hughes]

You could try covering the eggs with a wire mesh or screen. Alot of folks do this with consistant egg eaters. Are you sure that your discus are eating the eggs or are other fish in the tank helping with that? In my experience I have had spawns in community tanks that met their demise by other fish. If it is in fact your pair that are eating their eggs, it might just be that they are an inexperienced pair and will need time to "get it right" as it goes. Until they do, you could just cover them as described above.

Best wishes!

[erikc]

Discus that eat their own spawn can be caused by several reasons.

The main reason is inexperience and it can take several spawnings before they stop doing it (more experieneced breeders can vouch this one)

You can either cover the eggs with chickenwire or raise them artificially. They are mor expereienced peolple in this domain so hopefully they will answer

Another reason is that they do not feel safe, removing them to another tank will help but then you will have to re-create the same conditions for them to spawn again.

From my (limited) experience, this happens mostly with hybrids, with WC's the problem is getting a couple to spawn

[judy]

The only way you can stop the egg-eating is to remove them to a bare-bottom spawning tank where there are no other fish. Even then, young discus will often eat their eggs a couple of dozen times until they get it right. For some reason, the females in my mated pairs eat the eggs when they turn into wigglers, so I have to watch the development of the eggs and remove the females at just the right time (if I do it too soon, the males eat the eggs).

[jelandusn]

I know this is off topic, but do you really have goldfish in a tank with discus fish? If so, you may want to move them to another tank. They produce a lot of waste and eat a lot of food and prefer much cooler water than discus fish. In my opinion, keeping goldfish and discus fish together is not a good match at all. It's just asking for problems. They could very well be the ones eating the eggs because they live to eat. I myself have goldfish and love them to death, but I do keep them in their own tank which is kept at room temperature. Discus need water that's way too warm for goldfish.

[judy]

goldfish? omigosh-- I never noticed that! jelandusn is totally right. goldfish and discus are completely incompatible water parameter-wise and goldfish filth up the water something fierce!