Discus keep eating the eggs/and or babies

[mblackett]

Hi
so I have a mated pair of blue rio manucarpu discus. They have layed eggs 4 times. Everytime as soon as they hatch parents eat them up within minutes. It's driving me crazy!! I am not an experienced breeder this is my first pair ever. Any help, tips is appreciated! I have covered the eggs with a screen they will smash the screen away and eat them.
I thought it was my pleco who was eating them (its the parents and one pleco-they weren't breeding before) so after this last batch of eggs pleco was removed nope still ate them up.:angry:

[MKD]

not sure you keep light on or not. light on or dim will help them feel more secure and not eating frys. or try not to stick your face too close to front tank (i do it sometimes too :) ). just be patience and keep trying.


Maybe someone else has other ideas.

[DonMD]

I'm not sure what you mean by "hatch." Discus eggs, after fertilization, become wigglers, still stuck to the breeding cone by developing tiny tails and wiggling. Then the will go "free swimming." Do you mean that the parents eat the free swimmers? I'm asking because if they're just eating eggs, maybe they never got fertilized?

[discuspaul]

If they smash the screen, they`re either a very tough, determined pair, or your screen is pretty flimsy. Some of the screens I`ve seen are very sturdy, and I`m sure discus could not `smash`them.

Having said that, MKD has a point. Not only will new parents eat their eggs several times, before `a light comes on`, and they decide it might be a good idea to start doing the parental thing, but also that discus, as well as a number of other fish, will eat their eggs if they feel the eggs are being threatened in any way. It`s their misguided way of protecting` them from other dangers they perceive.`

I`d also like to know the answer to Don`s question above.

Be patient, they almost always come around eventually, and do the right thing.

[Second Hand Pat]

These are wild fish right? Pretty cool you got your wild fish to spawn. What is your GH? Wild discus need soft water and will be more picky about water parameters then domestics.