Will Discus eat their fry if they lay another batch of eggs shortly after the first?

[SoCalDiscus.com]

I have a beautiful pair of Discus that are extremely prolific and breed probably every 4 days. I normally do 70-90% water changes twice a day so knowing that the temerature changes along with the high quality feed I give them put them in that prime state of breeding, I've literetly tried slowing down their breeding by providing more dry foods over the beefheart formula, blackworms, etc that I have been giving and doing fewer water changes. They do slow down a bit but I can plan on having a new batch atleast once every 8 days at the worse.

So my question is, these are full sized adults around 8" and appear to be great parents protecting eggs and fry even during heavy water changes where the comossion I make in the water doesn't even entice them to eat their fry and the fry will be free swimming just fine but by the time the fry go free swimming and they have another batch of eggs, the babies mysteriously disappear by the next day every time (no bodies to be found)! I also have live cultures of Baby Brine Shrimp, Daphnia, and Rotifers I start feeding as soon as they go free swimming.

I've tried leaving the a dim light on 24/7 so the fry can always find the parents (especially at night), this is a bare bottom tank with nothing in it (50g) but the parents, two sponge filters, and a heater typical breeding tank. 6.8pH, 82F, Ammonia, Nitrate and Nitrite all 0ppm.

I'm just getting back into the Discus hobby (been a marine breeder for many years so very experienced with breeding hard to breed fish) but never did try my hand at breeding Discus so this is my first. A vetran at the hobby, a noob at breeding Discus (so I'll probably have several more stupid questions to come) however I definitly do my homework and read all about what I get into (Discus in this case) from books, articals and forums like this which is the only forum for Discus I signed up for (looks like the best one around for Discus).

Any suggestions? Is this Normal? Do Discus eat their fry if they lay another batch of eggs while raising a previous batch and if so, how do you keep them from continuing their spawning to prevent it? I've tried raising the fry artificially but still hit and miss at this point. I get them to last maybe 2 weeks before they die on me at this point.

Any help is appreciated.

Thanks everyone,
Michael

[Eddie]

Do Discus eat their fry if they lay another batch of eggs while raising a previous batch and if so, how do you keep them from continuing their spawning to prevent it? I've tried raising the fry artificially but still hit and miss at this point. I get them to last maybe 2 weeks before they die on me at this point.

Any help is appreciated.

Thanks everyone,
Michael

Yes they will. You can try to take out one or the other and let one fish raise the fry.

[SoCalDiscus.com]

Thank you for the reply Eddie. I was hoping that wasn't the case but what do breeders do to prevent that. Take out one of the adult fish like you said and let just one parent feed them? I just lost another huge batch of babies last night to find them replaced again by a brand new big batch of eggs. It really sucks! (but I'll get the hang of it with hobbyists willing to help like you)

Hmmm, so you are suggesting sepperating the pair after a spawning. Is there a preference by you or other experienced breeders whether it should be the male or female removed? I "heard" the female will still lay eggs even without the male in the tank so it would seem like it should be the female to be removed (I think)? I know both have the coating for food but just curious if one is better to remove than the other. Also, If I'm breeding (which I am) in 55 gallon tanks, couldn't I simply just add a divider down to isolate one from the other so they can't see each other over moving one to a new tank?

Thanks to all for the help.

Mike

[Eddie]

Honestly, for the majority of my pairs, the males always did well but that doesn't mean the female can't raise them. You just have to try one or the other.

[SoCalDiscus.com]

Thanks Ed,
I just spoke with a local breeder and he said it's the female he usually pulls out too but gave the same advice (pull one or the other). I'm going to pull the female tomorrow (They bred again today).

[CliffsDiscus]

Even the best pair of Discus will sometimes eat their own fry. You mention that the fry will be eaten at two weeks, then what you can do is start feeding BBS
at one week and pull out the fry.

Cliff

[SoCalDiscus.com]

It actually varies. The pair is spawning typically every 4 - 7 days. If all eggs die from fungas they will spawn almost immediatly every 4 days. If I get some wigglers they may pause up to 7 days but will lay another batch by then however at that point is when they eat the babies. It typically occurs at night and I don't know which one is doing it or if it's both. I'm even taking the advise of another hobbyist who said to leave a night light on 24/7 during the time the fry are growing so they can always find the parents and it may stop the feeding on the fry which may be mistaken for local live foods.

Today I'm trying to slow their breeding down some and added a dozen various sized Discus with them and pulled the breeding cone out. I hope to fatten them up prime for breeding because I'm sure like with other fish I've breed, when they spawn too frequently the babies often are weaker or the eggs and sperm aren't as prime. This seems to be working so far but we will see. Their all in a tank large enough for all but within the next two weeks when my new breeder tanks are finished and setup, I plan on sepperating off pairs again and hope to see some changes in the outcome.

They breed so often I'll even give it a few more attempts at artificially raising the babies once they go freeswimming (I've been watching a lot of good stuff on youtube for tips on that).

I definitly feed them Live BBS as well as live Daphnia and Live Rotifers (not in that order). I also feed cheese cloth squeezed egg yolk and finely shaved beef heart (basically liquified) so diet shouldn't be a problem. I just have to do water changes twice a day though and I know that can cause problems with disturbing the parents while they are with fry so my new breeder systems which are being setup to automatically do water dumps and fills but very slowly through the day and not with rushing water should help resolve this.

Thanks Cliff.

[johnny911]

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