Discus Fry Question

[Royalbluewilds420]

Once a batch of fry is free swimming, how long until you separate them from the parents?
Also, what do you guys use to move your fry? Net or is it okay to siphon them?

[John_Nicholson]

I have pulled them as young as 10 days but normally leave them for 21 or so. A net is fine. I have siphoned them on occasion but normally don't.

-john

[DonMD]

I think it varies. Sometimes the fry will start drilling into the parents for food, damaging their scales. I watch carefully, and move the fry when I see possible damage to the parents. I just net them, the parents don't bother much.

[Rudustin]

Such a good question. I finally have a pair that have spawned twice in two weeks and I think may try to spawn again. I was wondering how long to leave the fry in with their parents and both answers are just what I am looking for. Rufus

[warblad79]

I pulled mined 14 days after because the dad would dash to get away from the fry and really bothered by the fry eating the scales.

[SomeFin's Fishy]

It's really different depending on the size of the spawn. After about three days of feeding off the parents, we will begin "squirting" small amounts of newly hatched brine shrimp to the tank. Once the fry are accustomed to eating the bbs, we usually pull them from the parents after 10 days. With small batches of fry, we may leave them a bit longer, but large batches of fry can really do some damage to the parents if left in too long. You can usually see the parents getting increasingly agitated with the fry if they are left together too long. We just use a net. If you get the net behind the parents and just touch their tails, they will usually dart forward a couple of inches, leaving the cloud of bewildered fry out in the open, making netting easy.