When do we give up on a pair?

[Mac]

I have a mating pair who laid eggs in the big tank that actually produced a few wigglers; so I know this pair can produce. I moved them into a breeding tank, where they continue to lay eggs every 8 days or so, but the eggs disappear after a day or so. Snacks!

I haven't raised spawn for about 20 years, but I'm retired now and thought I'd try again -- moved to 50% RO water, and I guess it worked.

As I recall, other breeding pairs I've had took a few tries before learning not to eat the eggs, but maybe some pairs just never get with the program. How many failures should I tolerate before demoting them in disgrace back to the 90-gallon community tank?

BTW, when they lay eggs, they seem to take turns hovering and blowing, as they should. But then it's snack time!

[Willie]

You need to put a cage around the cone so they don't get into the habit of snacking on eggs. This is quite common with new pairings. Discus will usually eat a small spawn, but then they get into bad habits.

If this is a confirmed pair, I would separate them physically for 30 days. When you put them back together, they should be able to produce a large spawn. In the meantime, make a cage with some chicken wire or any other sort of mesh. Put the mesh over the cone after the spawn. By the time the wrigglers go free swimming, the parents have usually bonded.

Good luck. Watching discus spawn and carry fry is the most exciting part of this hobby, one that never gets old for me.

Willie

[Leland F.]

Everything Willie said, plus sometimes if they can see neighboring discus, it will create a protective instinct, and they won't eat the eggs. The friend I help raise discus with had 20H's side by side with white corrugated plastic dividers between them. Sometimes if a pair would eat the eggs or fry, he would remove the divider so the pair could see neighboring discus and it would fix the problem. Bernd Degen recommends this as well in one of his books. Worse case you could pull the eggs and aerate them in a separate container or small aquarium with methylene blue in the water, and hatch them there. You can then feed the fry artificially, or put them with another pair's fry to be raised by the experienced pair, or try putting the fry back with the adults to see if they'll eat them then.

Good luck,
-Leland