Discus eggs not developing/fertile

[lpsouth1978]

I have 2 pairs that have formed in my tank and both are spawning regularly. The problem is that the eggs are not developing and/or are not fertile. The first pair are both Turq's and have now laid 5 sets of eggs, but NONE have become wigglers. At first I thought maybe I had 2 females, but then I had another pair form. This one is 1 red PB and 1 yellow PB. These have also had no success with eggs hatching, which leads me to believe the issue is not in having a pair of females. I feel like it is quite unlikely that both pairs are females.

I do not believe the issue is with the water quality either. My water params are:

pH - 5.5
kH - 1
gH - 2
Temp - 83.0
Ammonia - 0
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - 5

So now I am thinking that the issue may be too much flow. My system has a sump, and I have the return pump turned all the way down, but is it still too much? Should I remove the pairs and place them in breeding tanks? Neither is proven yet, and that is what I was waiting for before moving them.

What would you all recommend? What might I be missing?

[danotaylor]

I had a newly formed pair in a tank with 6 other adult discus last yr that took about 10 spawns to get wiggler's for the first time. Your tank is very busy with other fish so the male may not be hitting the mark with his passes or perhaps he is not yet fully sexually mature and is firing duds atm. Give them some time.

[Sturiosoma]

Do you have some pics of your tank set-up.

Jeanne

[jeep]

How old are they?

[Second Hand Pat]

How old are they?

My question too! Like Danny says, the males may not be mature enough!
Pat

[lpsouth1978]

Thank you all for the responses. I am not positive on the age of the discus, but I have had them for 3 months and got them when they were about 3-3.5". They are now about 5".

[jeep]

They seem pretty young to be a viable pair. Females can mature early and males can show an interest, but usually aren't fertile until about a year or older.

[lpsouth1978]

Thank you all. Based on everything I have read then, I assume that they are at least 9 months old, so the male may have a few more months before he is fertile. I will continue to watch them and see if anything changes.

[STLKen]

I am having the same problem, with four pairs of discus. One pair is proven, had four big successful spawns. Now, all spawns fail.

I thought one of the parents of my proven pair had become infertile. But in the past two weeks they spawned twice, but only about a dozen of the eggs became wrigglers. The pair have separated the wrigglers from the infertile eggs. But then the pair ignore the wrigglers and eventually eat them.

I have another pair that are offspring of my original pair, and they have spawned once. None of the eggs matured.

I have two pairs of golden discus that are young. One pair is producing very large spawns, but all have failed to hatch. The other pair has had three spawns, but the eggs are very small, white to the point of being translucent, and do not hatch.

All of my pairs are on a drip system that is 75% RO water and 25% filtered tap water; the drip system performs a 50% water change every 24 hours. My TDS are 60. My ph is 6.2 - 6.5. Water temp is 84. Bare bottom tanks are siphoned clean daily. When I see the pairs spawning, I turn off the sponge filter to reduce water turbulence. I test the water daily for ammonia, ph, TDS, nitrates, nitrites, chlorine, phosphorus - all are good. I can't think of anything that I am doing wrong -- except spending a lot of money on a fish room and getting no new fish.

The odd thing is, my first spawns were in very hard (250-300ppm) tap water and ph over 7! No RO, high TDS. I got wrigglers under the worst conditions; now I get none under the ideal conditions. Anybody have a clue what the problem could be? If it were just one pair failing, I wouldn't be concerned. But all four pairs, all laying eggs weekly, there has to be "something in the water," so they say.

[Second Hand Pat]

Hi Ken, saw your post on FB so make the same suggestion here....I would simply increase the ratio of tap to RO...say 1/3 tap to 2/3 RO.
Pat