My albino goldens with fry. No secrets here. I must have gotten lucky. Lowered water level. Kept tank dim and about 25-30 out of 80+ wigglers attached.
Hi Martha,
The water level part.....fill to the top when they are in a breeding tank b4 they start laying the eggs......when the eggs are attached to the cone then lower the water level till height reaches the parent top fin.
Breeding tank size.....start with big and use a tank divider later to force the frys move towards the parents....harder to manouve a tank divider in a small tank.
Feeding:anyway we cannot find live tubifex here whereas other part of the world uses them.
Aeration.....depending yr pump....small pump kept to its minimum not so much current in the tank.....when fry are free swimming can increased the airflow in order to push the fry towards the parents.
Egg guard:the choice is yours
Covering the tank.....all depends where your tank is located.....my breeding tanks are painted with a light tone....as only need to cover the front part.
water change....IMO .48 hours after frys are free swimming by doing on the first day may frighten the parents and frys.
Of couse there more to it in breeding albino discus.....cannot put everything in one post......perhaps more people could give some advice too.
info that I got here are talking with friends ........my albino are still small so I decide to breed them later.
Cheers
Francis
My albino goldens with fry. No secrets here. I must have gotten lucky. Lowered water level. Kept tank dim and about 25-30 out of 80+ wigglers attached.
Beautiful albino pair.. Do they have grape eyes or rabbit albino eyes ???
Martha, I think Francis and your friend are onto something... I used to brooder raise albino woodducks.. I used a pink light bulb otherwise they would die in a few days from being blinded.. Their eyes were highly sensitive to light.. Try using a low wattage pink bulb and illumiate a portion of the tank.. Can buy in grocery store.
Albino Breeding Experience:
Pair: Albino Royal Blue. From CoDiscus (Mike Beals)-purchased 12/20/08.
Tank: 30 gal long. Clear glass. Normal flourescent light-sponge filter.
Water: Tap. pH: 7 TDS: 160 Temp: 84 No aging. Change 30% every other day
Spawn #1-14: No fertilized eggs
Spawn #15: 60% hatch- eaten on day 4
Spawn #18: cone and eggs transferred to tank with proven SS/Turq pair. Cone screened. Clear glass. Lignt on 24 hours. 70% hatch. 100 free swimmers. 30 gal long, water lowered to eight inches, replaced sponge filter with air stone. Partitioned tank in half with white styrofoam cut from shipping box. 70 fry attached with 24 hours. Water raised, partition removed, sponge filter added. Water change: Tap, unaged, treated with Prime, 50% per day(25%X2)
Day 13 free swimming: First food: frozen BBS. Day 14: frozen daphnia. Day 16: shaved frozen blood worms. Day 18: removed from foster parents.
Spawn #20: Cone screened on day 2.- kept with albino parents. Clear
glass, light on 24 hrs. 60% hatch, 80 free swimmers. Same approach as Spawn #18 above. About 45 fry attached by 48 hours. Same feeding regimen. About 35 surviving at about two months of age.
Good stuff Noog,,, thx
Ed
"There was no spoon"
Bob:
Yes, airstone and heater are on fish side. With the lowered water level and partition, the fish were actually in about seven gallons of water for attachment and a few days after. I gradually upped the water level over several days. For water changes, I actually did the changes on the empty half of the tank to minimize disruption of parents and fry. There was enough water flow around the edges of the partition to slowly equalize the water level. But this created another problem: With each water change, one or two fry would follow the flow of water thru small gaps along the edge of the partition and end up on the wrong side of the tank. I used a turkey baster to put them back. Problem #2: The styrofoam partition created a temperature difference between sides (4-5 degrees). Since some of the fry were escaping during water changes, I put another heater on the empty side. (Interesting side note: Over the course of 24-48 hours, I fished at least 10-12 fry out of the cool side- I couldn't detect any negative effects from being exposed to the temp change.
Some great details, Noo. Thanks for that. So, we have two reported successes with attachments. The interesting questions, IMO, are: are your pairs exceptional - ie., are the fry genetically predisposed to attach? Or, are your water conditions perfect for albinos? Thirdly, did luck play the biggest role? The way to find out is if you and others can duplicate your conditions and so the more specific the information you give us, the better we will be able to do that. Noo: what happened to spawn 16, 17 and 19? Please tell us about the wattage of your lighting and where the light was placed. How did you cover/paint the sides and/or top? Are the fry two months old now? Have you had batches of eggs since and if so, what were the results?
Mike: can you be more specific? What were your other experiences with this pair? It would be interesting to see if there are some common denominators between you and noo.
Styrefoam is a good idea for a divider. I have tried other dividers but the fry got around them really easily.
M:
I think luck and patience play big roles (see below). Also reducing the "wandering" space for the fry may help with some pairs.
Spawn 16: Tried to foster with a LSS female (prior successful spawn of her own)- no signif. attachment, eaten within two days.
Spawn 17: Tried to foster with the SS/red turq pair used above for Spawn 18- did not partition- initially fairly good attachment, but fry kept wandering around 30 long tank-collecting in upper corners- foster parents not very good at keeping fry together- male ate about 80% on day 4-the rest gone the next day.
Spawn19: Tried to foster with a red melon pair. Good attachment. Eaten on free-swimming day four.
M:
Cheap flourescent strip light: 15 watt bulb, 24 hours
Clear glass- no paint or covering. Quite a bit of algae grows over time-I don't wipe glass after they spawn.
Albino parents started fighting just before I removed Spawn 20 to another tank. A few days later the male stopped eating and developed white poop- treated with metronidazole and temp of 92 for five days. After about 10 days total, male began eating again- gave them a few feeding of blood worms soaked in metronidazole-seem to be doing ok. Spawned again last Tuesday-#21- Male ate half of the eggs as they were laid- no fertilization- remaing eggs eaten the next day
Spawns 18 and 20- about 7 and 9 weeks old. Luck and Patience!
Martha:
Once I got beyond two or three pairs, I realized my memory was not good enough to keep track of what everyone was doing-so I started writing things down. My only regret is not having a digital camera to record the spawns, wrigglers and free swimmers. As the albino fry are developing, some interesting patterns are emerging.
One other comment: compared to other fry, it is my impression that the albino fry are slower growers than others I have had ( red turq, LSS ).
noogie
Two or three pairs of albinos? Can you share any other interesting patterns?
Mike, how are your fry getting on? Are they still with the parents? I'd love to see some more pics.
Just one albino pair.