DISAPPOINTMENT

[aziyaeian]

I try to raise fry naturally for first time. It was almost successful. They raised about 30 babies. I move mom to another tank yesterday. Because I thought that she can’t tolerate her babies. Today was their 6th days of free swimming. Their dad cared of them very carefully. I feed them BBS and they eat it very well. Everything was ok before noon. But suddenly all the fries have been eaten during 2 hour when I left the hatchery. I am very disappointed now and don’t know what to do.

[Greg Richardson]

I move mom to another tank yesterday. Because I thought that she can’t tolerate her babies.

Curious, what was she doing?

Is male experienced at caring for babies?

Put them back together. Wait a few days.

Do cold wc.

Hopefully they spawn again.

Try to keep them together this time if possible.

I bet next time u be fine.

[Green Country Discus]

Sounds like you are doing things right. Now give the pair time to figure out how to raise fry and get along. Way to go and look at this as a victory. Put them back together and you may get grown fry this time. Breeding Discus takes a lot of patience and results are realized in baby steps. Every step should be enjoyed and realize that each one is quite an accomplishment. Keep up the good work and let us know how it is going.

[IMCL85]

Why move mom. I just leave my pair in to care for my frys and so far now I got about 4-5 spawn and all of them are raised by their parents. Maybe next time when u got them to spawn again leave both parent inside. They would probably start spawn in about a week or so after their last spawn is gone. Mine start to spawn again after I remove the fry from the parent after 12-13 days.

[aziyaeian]

Curious, what was she doing?

Is male experienced at caring for babies?

Put them back together. Wait a few days.

Do cold wc.

Hopefully they spawn again.

Try to keep them together this time if possible.

I bet next time u be fine.

Thanks all
She moved very fast to get rid of fries. She attacked on her husband. And as Carol advices I move the mom to another tank.
I get it back to their tank today and wait for another spawn. I keep posting about them.

[Greg Richardson]

Aziyaeian. Mine will move fast to get frys to go to other parent for a break.
Hard to know when u say attack how much is going on.
I know hard for u to be able to describe it.

I bet next spawn is your best.

I think after being removed they become better.

That has been my experience so far.

[Alight]

One of my pairs acts like that. The male seems to attack the female. But they raise the fry just fine.

Dick Au suggests that placing another male Discus in view of the pair (in another tank adjacent) sometimes helps prevent agression between a pair. They take their agression out on the fish next door that they can't quite get at. I wonder if a mirror would work?

[Willie]

Thanks all
She moved very fast to get rid of fries. She attacked on her husband. And as Carol advices I move the mom to another tank.
I get it back to their tank today and wait for another spawn. I keep posting about them.

Next time, prepare a divider with large pores. If the parents fight, separate them with the divider. The babies will still be able to go through the pores to feed on both parents. In the US, we use "eggcrate" type dividers.

Willie

[hexed]

To be honest I will say this:
My first pair took care of all the fry peacefully until the batch of fry seperated. I had half on one side and half on the other of the tank. Each parent had half but they would chase away any fry that was not in his or her group. Then the parents would defend his/her group from each other. I did not seperate the parents and they did raise the fry with no losses. They are still together in the 30 gallon tank and continue to do this pattern with each spawn. I only will remove the female if she continues to lay eggs while tending fry because she ends up eating the fry.
I say leave them be and let them learn. If she continues to lay eggs then I would recommend removing her but only for that reason.
HTH,
Frank

[aziyaeian]

They spawned again 3 days ago. Both of them are interesting to raise them and each of them does its work perfectly. But I think they are shuffle. The other problem is they don’t eat much. And it will make them weak. I have posted about it at http://forum.simplydiscus.com//showthread.php?t=47081

[Barb Newell]

How's their poop? Dark or white stringey?

Barb

[aziyaeian]

it is dark and solid

[Willie]

Everybody make sure you make up a divider for your breeder tanks. It's an essential tool for breeding.

1. If you keep the pair divided, then they won't spawn immediately. You can enforce a 2 - 3 week rest period to get a big spawn next time. Otherwise, you end up with small spawns that often get eaten.

2. If you keep the pair divided when they have fry, they won't be able to spawn again. No more problems with dealing with multiple spawns, waiting for the inevitable feeding frenzy!

Willie

[aziyaeian]

They have done it again and I have followed your advices this time and the fries are 10 days old now. I think they are about 40.
Thanks for all of you