My Breeding Journey

[AJMaskrey]

So late November I purchased my first breeding pair, of red Turks. I've been wanting to breed for ages, just didn't have much luck with the discus in my community tank. Had loads of pairs, loads of eggs just none ever mad it to wrigglers. So i decided to take the plunge and buy a confirmed breeding pair off a local guy. I went to pick the pair I wanted and got them home.

They had a bit of fin damage from transport but that soon healed. There colours popped straight away in the tank.

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I soon had to move the tank as the unit was bowing. So I ordered a racking unit, and converted the fitted wardrobe to hold 2 tanks, (the mrs wasn't too happy)

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Once everything had been moved and set up properly, the pair laid eggs twice, made it to 48 hours then ate the eggs on both occasions. I narrowed it down to water issues. I made a change on the advice of the breeder I bought off and within 5 days the pair had laid eggs again.

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This time they made it to wrigglers, my first ever time getting to this stage. At this point the parents moved the wrigglers from the side piece of glass to the back wall into 2 seperate groups the male took the small group the female took the larger group.

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After a few days we got to the free swimming stage, this was amazing to watch. But as expected this happened when I was at work so it was down to my girlfriend to take charge and take the sponge filter out drop the water level etc and to say she's never done anything like this before she did a great job.

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Now the fun really began with the constant water changes. 2 a day around 80% a time.

9 Days later, the fry were eating Baby brine shrimp, and beefheart, as well as going crazy for FDBW.

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By this point I was able to take a picture and count the fry to which I counted roughly 95.
They had been feeding quite aggressively off the parents slime coat, so it was time to move the parents out at just under 3 weeks old.

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It's been 4 days now since I removed the parents, and the growth rate of the fry has been amazing. We are now at 3 weeks and 2 day's old and most of the fry are at 1inch now.

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2 water changes a day of around 80% one in the morning and one at night, with 6 feeds inbetween a mixture of BBS, FDBW and beefheart has worked wonders. I wll carry on with updates as and when.

Thanks

[AJMaskrey]

So this is my 2nd pair I purchased 5 days ago. They are now in the tank above the fry and hoping to get some eggs off them soon

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As I had to move the parents from the first batch of fry. I needed another tank to hold the parents in until the fry were of a size to move them to a grow out tank. To my surprise my girlfriend came up with the idea of putting another tank in the bedroom. And this is how my set up looks now.

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The parents in the tank recovering and getting fed up ready for more fry.

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If anyone would like to see anything in particular please do ask as I have hundreds of pictures and videos.
Also I have a timeline of dates and times of all the major events if anyone is interested in that please just ask

Thanks :D

[LizStreithorst]

That's a wonderful spawn. I'm envious of you. Best of luck with grow out? Hope you have a larger tank in hiding somewhere. They will need more elbow room before you know it.

[AJMaskrey]

Thank you! I'm over the moon with the size of the spawn.
And yeah I have a 400L tank ready and waiting for them to move into when they are the right size. And then a 650L tank where the best will end up :D

[LizStreithorst]

:thumbsup::thumbsup:

[Maddie]

Congrats...well done! I've been trying but no luck having the parents raise the wigglers.

[AJMaskrey]

Thanks Maddie, I was the same with my other discus had no luck whatsoever, young inexperienced parents. That's why I decided to try a proven pair to see if it was me or the discus :D

[danotaylor]

Bloody awesome mate, great journal and pics to walk us through. Thanks for making the effort and taking the time to document your journey so we'll. Very happy for you! What strain is the 2nd pair? The Turk's are nice but the other pair is stunning! Cheers bloke

[LizStreithorst]

There's something about the male of that Brown based red pair that makes my heart thump.

[AJMaskrey]

Thanks I really appreciate it, first time I've ever done a journal like this. The 2nd pair are curipera's, fell in love as soon as I saw them and I also got to see them with there fry too. Never seen curipera's this colour before they are much better in person pictures dont do them justice. Cant wait to see if I get eggs

[fljones3]

Congratulations! BEAUTIFUL fish.

[AJMaskrey]

Thank you Frank!

[Schatz]

I second the motion! The pic with the babies eating off the glass is awesome!

[JEB]

Out of curiosity, what was the change you made in the water parameters that triggered them to spawn?

[jamesx]

Man you are lucky! I don't mean the fish but your girlfriend!

[Shan_Evolved]

Wow! Such an incredible pair and babies. They look stunning. I dream of one day getting to do something like this

[AJMaskrey]

Out of curiosity, what was the change you made in the water parameters that triggered them to spawn?

Sorry for the really slow reply been busy recently, but the advice i was given goes against everything i've read but 7 day aged water, big water change then leave the tank for a week with regular siphoning up of waste and the discus did the rest. I was having problems with the eggs calcifying and not being fertilised resulting in them being eaten

[AJMaskrey]

Man you are lucky! I don't mean the fish but your girlfriend!

Haha I was surprised she let me have the set up in the bedroom to be fair luckily I have a supportive girlfriend

[AJMaskrey]

I've not been on here much recently so had no time for updates but I will try post some more pictures very soon.

Both my pairs have got fry again both laid on the same day and have around 100ish fry each from both pairs
The first batch of fry from the Red Turqs are doing amazing, around 2-2.5" now and starting to colour up again ill get some pictures up soon

[AJMaskrey]

As promised here is a video of both pairs with there free swimming fry, not the best quality


http://youtu.be/Lelp1Knehf8

And an update video on the first batch of fry from the Red Turqs
I haven't culled any of the runts as im not a big fan on culling so there are some smaller ones in the group


http://youtu.be/EziV6uJbCc0

[Shan_Evolved]

Amazing!!!

[LizStreithorst]

I found it to be easier on my tender heart to cull when they are younger rather than wait until they are big.

[AJMaskrey]

I found it to be easier on my tender heart to cull when they are younger rather than wait until they are big.

Which method do you use to cull? They all seem pretty brutal ways to me. I've only got a few belly sliders some are just growing alot slower than the others so I dont really want to cull the slow growers it will be the belly sliders who will be the unfortunate ones

[AquaticNerd]

I think the most humane way is Clove Oil.

[LizStreithorst]

That's what I've heard, too. I know it's hard. It's still hard for me, but not as bad as it once was. The way I approach it now is to see it as a job that must be done, steel my heart, get it over with early in the day and move on to something different so I won't dwell on it.

[AJMaskrey]

Quick update on the curipera fry, eating baby brine shrimp now but had to remove the female as the Male was bullying her and attacking her for control over parenting rights lol.


http://youtu.be/qcnul0jXYOk

[danotaylor]

Looking good mate!

[AJMaskrey]

Looking good mate!

Thanks pal, made up with the size of the spawn got to be easily over 100 again.

Had 120 off the red turqs after culling, since selling some off, the growth rate has jumped up massively again

[AJMaskrey]

Not been on here much recently but due to the lockdown in the UK had a lot more time to spend on the tanks. Had a bit of a baby boom with more fry off both pairs.

Appears to be around 75 free swimming fry from the turqs and well over 100 wrigglers from the curipeua pair. Will be overrun with fry soon if this keeps up.

The first batch of fry from the turqs are closing in on 3 inches now couldn't be happier with how my breeding attempts are going


http://youtu.be/N6f0UCjVBwU

[danotaylor]

Good looking fry mate! Pairs and fry everywhere!!
What's going on with the little guy down by the sponge on the left at the beginning of your vid?

[coralbandit]

Fantastic !

[AJMaskrey]

Good looking fry mate! Pairs and fry everywhere!!
What's going on with the little guy down by the sponge on the left at the beginning of your vid?

Thank you, haha I know running out of tanks never expected it to go this well, and I think he/she was having a little moment couple of minutes after the video was back swimming normally, but i think its getting a bit crowded in the tank now though so I'm debating splitting the group just unsure if it's the right time to do it