Discus wrigglers not sticking

[SuperTaco]

I have a pair of discus that i am trying to breed and i am running into a problem where wrigglers stop sticking into surfaceces after 1day of hatching. Any ideas what is causing this? Pair have been breeding like 7 times now, im keeping light 24 hours once they lay eggs, doing 30% water change daily, feeding once a day to keep water clean, and 82f water temp.
The eggs are sticking just fine, the problem starts when wrigglers hatch. Parents pick them up and spit them back at the cone but they just fall down. They try to gather wrigglers in the bottom of the tank but its too hard for them to keep track of all of them. Eventually all of the wrigglers are all over the bottom and die off.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[LizStreithorst]

Water too hard. Do you have an RO unit or can you collect rain water for water change. Roobios tea my work if you can't do either of those things.

[SuperTaco]

Hi Liz, I’m using tap water. Just tested my water again and both my carbnate hardness and general hardness are sitting at 100ppm. What would be the ideal hardness? If an RO unit is necessary I will definitely buy one. Thanks for the quick response.

[brewmaster15]

What kind of current does the tank have?

Also you may want to screen the eggs.. The parents maybe over zealous here with the mouthing and spitting...The screen may help prevent that until they go free swimming.

hth,Al

[SuperTaco]

I got 1 mid sized sponge filter, I could try adding another one. I also have a screen but haven't used it yet, I am worried that the white eggs will get fungus if I use the screen. If I use the screen should I add some methylene blue? if so at what concentration? Thanks for the help!

[LizStreithorst]

I can't translate ppm to English. Al knows more than I do but when I had the same problem Cary told me that my water was too hard and he was right.

[SuperTaco]

100 ppm hardness equals to 6°.

[LizStreithorst]

OK, now I remember that mine is 90. That's generally considered fine but I still need to lower the hardness of my water. Cary (a guru here from way back) said that which minerals and what form they were in was more important than the total number of minerals. Cary's water's pH was high but he was able to get decent hatches in tap, while mine, which is fairly soft still had to be adjusted for successful breeding.

Try adding some rain water or a sock of Roobios tea (1 tablespoon per 10 gallons) and see what happens. You have nothing to loose and either or those might solve the problem.

[bluelagoon]

Water too hard. Do you have an RO unit or can you collect rain water for water change. Roobios tea my work if you can't do either of those things.

Hi Liz,from what I've read on Roobois tea it does not lower PH or KH hardness.In fact it may increase it a bit by .1.It is alkaline at 7.1 and has minerals like calcium,magnesium,zinc and manganese.

[LizStreithorst]

All I can say is that it worked for me.