Discus eggs one day old how should I prepare?

[Luke S.]

First, my discus spawned yesterday and I need advice from an experienced hobbyist. I have the tank divided to keep other discus away and the fry won't get hurt. My question is what to feed them and when to move them into a 20 gallon tank to grow to size aproxamately 1 inche.

:what should I feed them?
:when should I start feeding them?
:where to get food?
:how to prep it?

[Luke S.]

The other question is the pair is a male leopard snake skin and the female is a red turquoise so will the babies be some of each and some be a mix?

[limige]

Well if this is the first time than i wouldn't be looking so far ahead. Many times discus are not successful the first go around it does occasionally happen but the nice thing about discus is they are much easier than other fish. The parents will do the work the first week

If you want to raise them you need another tank. 20h or 29 ideally.
on day two you should be able to tell if the eggs are fertile. If they are I would pull the eggs and the pair.let them hatch in the new tank.

Its not very feasable to raise fry in a community tank. You would have to leave the divider in place for a long time and the babies will still likely swim to the other side and may get eaten.

[limige]

also, we do have a breeding section with many helpful links. checkout carol's post about the fry timeline
http://forum.simplydiscus.com/showthread.php?26679-Hatching-timeline

you'll need brine shrimp eggs for sure. you can get some on ebay for about $10 but you'll have to setup a brine shrimp hatchery.

you never know on genetics, wait and see, likely mix and some mutts but you have a decent cross

[Luke S.]

Ok thx the divider is out of polyester 1 inche thick and the fry can't get bye it but I can't remove the fry since they laid the eggs on the glass which seems very odd. This is their third spawn in the community tank but it was too late to save the eggs in the first spawns since they were eaten by other small discus but for right now this pair seems experience because they are fanning the eggs and were protecting them before I put the divider in. The other thing is that they haven't eaten there eggs even though I have done so much destruction in the tank.

[Luke S.]

How should I set up a twenty gallon tank for the next spawn?

[limige]

Just a sponge filter and something for them to lay eggs on. Pvc works or a clay pot inverted. Even an old piece of tile or slate. Then of course a heater.

Have you checked your water parameters for hardness yet? Are you on city or well water?

[limige]

20 high is important. They should have 18" tall tank 20h or 29 both are good

[Luke S.]

No I have well water with a huge Ro system and we also pull off a spring that's is luckily very soft water but my well Is too hard for discus. The tanks ph is 5.8 they gh is 7 and kh is 5 and my tds reader is broken but I know that the water source im using has very low a tds reading and my orps are past 400 which if your interested in let me know

[limige]

ok, so if your using RO and have achieved the right tds you very well may be into fry soon! if your using a breathable separator in your main tank it would be possible to save this spawn, see what happens, after they are a few weeks old you could probably move them. if this spawn is no good then move the pair when you can and see what happens.

mine were constantly eating the eggs on day two, I screened them and found out they were fertile but died in the last day which is why the pair ate them. once I fixed the water everything went perfect.

[Luke S.]

Ok thx for the help I appreciate it!!!��

[limige]

keep in mind theres not wrong way and a right way, some ppl have had spawns survive in a community tank its just rare. if the eggs hatch them them raise them until they are big enough to net and move. i'm not positive moving them will be ok, you may want to check with others and decide for yourself

[John_Nicholson]

First I would suggest you slow down just a little. You do not really even know if you have a pair yet. 2 females will often spawn together and fan the eggs for days. At 82 degrees the eggs should hatch in roughly 60 hours. Once that happens you will know more. Second are you really sure you want to raise discus? Getting a 20 gallon high is just the first step. Next you need to get at least 4 more 75 gallon tanks to start growing out your babies in. You up for 50% water changes ever single day? You ready to cull the deformed and or slow growing fry? You ready yo have strangers coming through your house to look at your fish? I could go on but you see where I am going with this.

-john

[DISCUS STU]

You should wait to see if you have a viable spawn first before doing much more. By this I mean wigglers. Many Discus seem to pair off and lay eggs but they may not be fertile or even a viable pair. It's exciting to see this but it may be a while before anything may come of it.

After you see wigglers or the pair seems like a real pair then move them to a separate breeding tank. I'm not a big breeder, but when I do I use a 29h with an Eheim 2215 and diffuse the outflow. Good luck!

[Luke S.]

First I have been In the hobby of Japanese koi for 23 years though and I am going to grow out the discus in a green house throughout the sumer, aproxamately 30,000 gallons according to the water meter .But my discus are a male and female for shure and the eggs are fertile. The female and male are trying to pick out the non fertile eggs and constantly takes turns fanning them. (Change of plans) i'm going to grow the fry out to a size large enough that they can survive on thier own in the 20 gallon tank which is a sump and will be fed brine shrimp, and other species of food from my club. The tank that they are going in, I would rather describe it as a refugium. But the tank above it has arrowana but the tank is a 120 and the other vortex sediment tank is 97 gallons so should this system be fine? This system is fine for water changes since it has automatic water changes with aged Ro water. 15% a day. Would this be fine if I raise the temp a degree or two too around 84 or should I leave it at 82? The other question I have is when would they be fine to fend for them selves / (size)?

[John_Nicholson]

82 degrees is fine. To raise any decent sized/well fed spawn you will need to change about 50%+ of the water a day and there is no need for it to be RO. In fact RO is the last thing you want when raising fry. I personally use thr RO waste water for mine. You should start feeding them BBS at about day 10 and while you can pull them younger I would leave them with the parents for 21 days or so. Mine are normally eating my BH mix by then. I would keep them on the BBS until they are 6 weeks or so. Feeding it longer will not hurt a thing.

-john