Eeeek. I was not prepared for this....

[Orange Crush]

Make sure you leave the lights on and give them the best possible change of seeing their dark parents and clinging to them. From my PM it sounds like you got the cheese clothe going to help cover the dark sponge, which is great. Best of luck my friend.... Like Kieth said though.... This is freaking ridiculous haha, Im SO happy and proud of you, however, I have worked my a$$ off to get pairs to spawn, especially starting out, and get this far along and behaving SO perfectly. Seriously Holly, what you have going on right now is not common by any means and is a huge blessing that they are so instinctively taking this every step of the way so far. I would give my left leg... and possibly some other body parts for all my pairs to be such great parents. Id also be rich.. lol

Yup, I have the cheesecloth on the filter since I will not be around tomorrow to help them.
I counted at least 40 wrigglers, when they attatch what % does not?
I can tell you why it has been going so well so far. I did not want any of my discus to breed. I have no idea what I am going to do with all the fish. I've never shipped discus so that freaks me out. I would not trust my LFS with them (although they are great with everything else - I sell them my apistos and plants). I do not know anyone around here who would buy them. I would want to keep some but we are house hunting right now and I do not have the space for more tanks at our condo and even if I did the thought of getting more stuff that is gonna have to be moved is annoying. This is why it is going so well.
Don't get me wrong, this is very amazing to watch and be a part of and I am going to do all that I can for them, but shhheeesh. Don't hate me. lol

[Orange Crush]

You never learned that they inherit traits from their owners? Yeah... I said it...

[Keith Perkins]

You never learned that they inherit traits from their owners? Yeah... I said it...

I'm glad I'm not the only one who thought something like that.

Yup, I have the cheesecloth on the filter since I will not be around tomorrow to help them.
I counted at least 40 wrigglers, when they attach what % does not?
I can tell you why it has been going so well so far. I did not want any of my discus to breed. I have no idea what I am going to do with all the fish. I've never shipped discus so that freaks me out. I would not trust my LFS with them (although they are great with everything else - I sell them my apistos and plants). I do not know anyone around here who would buy them. I would want to keep some but we are house hunting right now and I do not have the space for more tanks at our condo and even if I did the thought of getting more stuff that is gonna have to be moved is annoying. This is why it is going so well.
Don't get me wrong, this is very amazing to watch and be a part of and I am going to do all that I can for them, but shhheeesh. Don't hate me. lol

Breeding isn't for everyone all the time, no doubt about that. It certainly adds a whole new level of work and anxiety. I'm not the best at selling mine either, so I understand your concern. Guess I don't work nearly as hard on the selling as I do the raising. You might be surprised if you list them on Craiglist, Aquabid, etc. how many you can sell locally, but we're getting a tad ahead of ourselves at this point. Still need to get attachment and then at least a few days/week old to be sure the pair is going to go the distance.

You can always pull eggs you don't want to deal with, but I bet you can't resist to try to go the distance with this batch.

Oh, you had a question about % attachment. It varies a LOT. It could be as high as the high 90%s to much much less. I just had an unusual batch where I only got 25% or so to attachment, but then again the batch started at nearly 300.

[Orange Crush]

I'm glad I'm not the only one who thought something like that.

Actually, I would say that I am more of a perfectionist and not really OCD.

[Orange Crush]

Okay so, some funny observations....
1) I can no longer put my hand in the tank while cleaning or they will bite me. I have been placed on notice.
2) When mom is hungry she swims away from the wrigglers and over to the front of the tank and stares at me, so I give her food. She is a pig and eats it all while dad guards the wrigglers. So when she is done dad swims up to front of tank and then jumps up hitting the top of the plastic lid to get my attention for more food. Message received!
3) Dad picks up a wriggler that tried to swim away and then saw a piece of food and put that in his mouth as well. I though well that is one less wriggler but then he swam back to the pot and spit the wriggler out but not the piece of food. Amazing.
4) Some of the wrigglers are trying to attatch to the parents but if the parents see it they grab them and spit them back onto the pot. However, some slip by and hang onto the parent while the parent frantically swims around trying to find it. unfortunatly the other discus will see it and put it back onto the pot. Reminds me of the looney tunes.
5) This morning the wrigglers were on the leaves and mom decided to move them back to the rim of the pot. She grabs several spits them out and goes back to the leaves for another batch. In the meantime dad sees them on the pot and thinks they should be on the leaves so he grabs several from the pot and spits them back onto the leaves. This continued for a little while but, in the end mom got her way and they were all on the pot. Reminds me of Laurel and Hardy.

[Keith Perkins]

Actually, I would say that I am more of a perfectionist and not really OCD.

Of course you would, that's what they all say.

Yes, there's nothing quite like watching the first batch of discus fry. Hopefully the enjoyment will carry you through the work and in the end you're really happy with the results. It is a lot of fun if you can handle the demands, and it sounds like you've got a couple very demanding parents. That hitting the lid to get your attention is a hoot. I'm sure I've never heard that one before.

[DiscusDrew]

Yeah absolutely not, that had me laughing pretty hard (hitting the lid).... Hopefully they start figuring out the attachment thing pretty soon, if enough wigglers are there they will get swarmed hopefully and they wont have a choice but to let them attach... theres a time limit to this part of the story... slime coat = food source. You should still be fine at this point but they best be getting on it, with how well they have parented thus far (kind of crazy and unheard of in my fish room anyway) hopefully they will figure out the next step of parenting pretty quick.

[Orange Crush]

Of course you would, that's what they all say.

Yes, there's nothing quite like watching the first batch of discus fry. Hopefully the enjoyment will carry you through the work and in the end you're really happy with the results. It is a lot of fun if you can handle the demands, and it sounds like you've got a couple very demanding parents. That hitting the lid to get your attention is a hoot. I'm sure I've never heard that one before.

Ya know Keith, be glad that you have been so helpful with this whole process because I am the moderator of this section. lol
It was hilarious when he hit the lid. I was watching the whole thing. He saw me looking at him but apparently I was not fast enough with more food so he let me know on no uncertain terms what he wanted. "Thump", then stared at me some more. He looked like this ---->

[Second Hand Pat]

Oh man grumpy pants

[Keith Perkins]

Guess I better behave, given your location is Earth I don't think I want to be moderated off of it.

I didn't realize until I went back and looked that it's been eight days since the eggs were laid. Eight days is a long time for the parents to still be successfully attaching them back to anything, odd.

[BobDaniel]

If anyone needs a quick hatchery, try using a empty Saline bag for IV. You'll need to cut a slit along one side of the bag at the top...rinse it out good and you should be good to go. A clear 2 liter soda bottle will work, too. You'll have to use a 1/4 inch tube to areate the BS eggs.

Sometime a hatch will fail. Have a spare working during these early days. I also fed the artemia with spirlina. This enhances the nutritional value.

I am enjoying this thread.

[DiscusDrew]

Did you only read the first page or something?....

[Keith Perkins]

Did you only read the first page or something?....

Yes I did, lol. Well actually I only looked at the date of the first post with the picture of the eggs. 5 days sounds a lot more normal. It must be time for lights out.

[Orange Crush]

Guess I better behave, given your location is Earth I don't think I want to be moderated off of it.

I didn't realize until I went back and looked that it's been eight days since the eggs were laid. Eight days is a long time for the parents to still be successfully attaching them back to anything, odd.

I here Mars is nice.

[DiscusDrew]

I was referring to bobDaniel Keith sorry I guess I should have quoted.