Thinking about raising discus.. ok what do I need

[planter]

Hi Everyone,

As some of you may know I have 7 blue turk / blue knight cross discus in my community tank. out of these 7 fish 3 pairs have formed and all the pairs have spawned in that tank. In fact, after eating the eggs a day later the pair to spawned first spawned again about a week later and ate the eggs again. This has motivated me or a least has me giving breeding a serious thought. I had no intention of breeding any fish as it's never really been a priority for me in this hobby however, I've also never been lucky enough to have fish this willing to breed.

So my question what do I need in terms of a breeding setup for one pair of discus what will I need?

I have a 75 and 30 gallon with heaters and filters standing by and that's it. I know I will need another barrel to age water.

What else is needed? I've searched this forum and didn't find a checklist for this but if you know of one please feel free to leave me a link.

[Second Hand Pat]

Hi Filipe, your 30 should work fine as a breeding tank. You will simply need to add a cycled sponge filter, a heater and a breeding surface. You might consider painting the bottom and side of the tank a light color of some sort.
Pat

[danotaylor]

+1 agree with Pat. I'd focus on 1 pair in the 30gal and keep the 75 to raise fry. I would pick the pair with the nicest shape and features to work with 1st, though all your doing scus have great genetics for shape and color, so maybe pick the pair that gets to wiggler's stage first.
I would also fishless cycle 2-3 extra sponges in anticipation for the fry. You could do that in a 5gal bucket using some water change water from your existing tank to get it going and use ammonia to keep lvl at 2ppm until the sponges are converting that to nitrite/nitrate.
Yehar Filipe, get at er son!

[LizStreithorst]

A 30 isn't tall enough, IMO. A 29 would be better.

But before you waste a lot of money and time for nothing, it would be good to know first if your water parameters are conducive to hatching fry. If so, no problem. If not, you will likely have to use an R0 unit. There is a lot of waste with RO. It's not that big a deal if you have a use for the waste water or if your water is dirt cheap.

[planter]

Hi Filipe, your 30 should work fine as a breeding tank. You will simply need to add a cycled sponge filter, a heater and a breeding surface. You might consider painting the bottom and side of the tank a light color of some sort.
Pat HI Pat my 30 gallon has a background and it sits on a solid surface so I'm good there.


+1 agree with Pat. I'd focus on 1 pair in the 30gal and keep the 75 to raise fry. I would pick the pair with the nicest shape and features to work with 1st, though all your doing scus have great genetics for shape and color, so maybe pick the pair that gets to wiggler's stage first.
I would also fishless cycle 2-3 extra sponges in anticipation for the fry. You could do that in a 5gal bucket using some water change water from your existing tank to get it going and use ammonia to keep lvl at 2ppm until the sponges are converting that to nitrite/nitrate.
Yehar Filipe, get at er son! Hi Daniel, I never thought about about cycling sponges thanks for the tip. I was lucky with one of the pairs they happen to be 2 of the nicest fish in tank so I plan on trying with that pair.


A 30 isn't tall enough, IMO. A 29 would be better.

But before you waste a lot of money and time for nothing, it would be good to know first if your water parameters are conducive to hatching fry. If so, no problem. If not, you will likely have to use an R0 unit. There is a lot of waste with RO. It's not that big a deal if you have a use for the waste water or if your water is dirt cheap.

I doubt my water is good for hatching it's pretty hard. The ph is roughly 7.6

I've never used a ro unit before so I'm looking forward to that learning curve lol. What unit should I be considering? How does one know the mixing ratio? Some many questions

[Second Hand Pat]

Hi Filipe, your ph does not really matter for breeding but you do want soft water. What's your GH?
Pat

[LizStreithorst]

And what is your kH? My eggs don't hatch in my water with 0 gH without adjusting the water to suit them.

[Willie]

Very simple to know if you have hard water. Do you have a water softener? If you do, then you have hard water coming into the house. If you don't, your water is good enough to spawn.

[danotaylor]

I have had wiggler's at 7.8, some here at even higher pH's

[LizStreithorst]

It's more about kH than pH.

[planter]

Using API test kits here are my readings

KH 5
GH 11

[planter]

Very simple to know if you have hard water. Do you have a water softener? If you do, then you have hard water coming into the house. If you don't, your water is good enough to spawn.

No we don't need or use a water softener years back I lived in a area where one was needed.

[LizStreithorst]

IMO your kH us too high. KH measures carbonites and I believe that carbonites are the enemy of egg hatching.
Pat may say that your gH is too high or that your water is fine as it is.

Water is so much more complex than it seems. I'm lucky spoken to a couple of water experts. It't got too complex for me but I learned that even they who know more than anyone has more to learn. Water chemistry fascinates me. The best I can do is advise you to do is try it in you own water and if the parents eat their eggs after 3 or 4 days several times, think of making a change of some kind. Or invest in an RO unit and get your aged water to under 90 TDS.

[planter]

Ok so is the issue GH, KH or TDS? or is it a combination of these? I don't have a TDS meter. If I need to buy one I will. Are there any meters I should avoid or will any do.

[LizStreithorst]

This is the one I use. It's accurate, you can recalibrate it if necessary, and if you drop it into the water it won't die. It's "innards" are in a waterproof housing. https://www.hannainst.com/hi98301-dist-1-tds-ppm-tester.html?gclid=CjwKCAiAhc7yBRAdEiwAplGxX7jYaeBB ulbunfrNR6f5DviztI-sr1AqHK2qLTf9Qyk2XAzibP334xoCi8EQAvD_BwE

[planter]

Thanks LizStreithorst for the link

So here is what I have so far and I think I will need

I have

30 gallon tank looking to get a 29 for height
75 gallon tank to move the young ones into eventually
All of the heaters and filters for the above tanks
Extra sponge filters, hob air pumps in case I need more filtration.



I need
Food for fry
Ro unit
Containers for mixing RO water with city water
TDS meter

Anything missing?

I checked out some ro units at a water store today and man are they expensive. A 4 stage unit was around the $500cnd mark plus taxes. Is that the going rate for a RO unit ?

[johnnyjellybean]

You might want to look into a PH meter instead of having to fuss with vials and liquids etc

And I see you are quoting prices in CDN$ so you must be in Canada.

Check these guys out for a RO unit.

https://www.maxwaterflow.com/Standard-Reverse-Osmosis-Water-Systems.html

[LizStreithorst]

This should work just fine. https://www.amazon.com/Aquatic-Life-Reverse-Osmosis-50-Gallon/dp/B00DOG63OY?th=1

[planter]

Thanks for links guy's I'm ordering one today.

I'm guessing I need to ad minerals back to water after it goes through the RO. is mixing city water an option or do I have to buy something to add into the water

[planter]

Ok I think I have everything I need. I'm going to setup the tank tomorrow and move the nicest pair into that tank.

How to you guys mix the r/o water. Do you use a bit of the waste water to get the tds up or do you use an addidtive?

[LizStreithorst]

Adding tap is the easiest way as well as the way most of us stick with.

[planter]

HI everyone, what TDS range are you guys shooting for when trying to breed?

[RogueDiscus]

Less than 80, usually around 60 for me.

[LizStreithorst]

Some folks can get away with 90 or slightly higher. I think it depends on how high a kH the tap water has, but Pat thinks it's dependent on how high the gH is. Everyone's water is different so start with a low TDS and if you have success, go higher and see how you do.

[planter]

Thanks again LizStreithorst

So as of right now here are my readings

GH 5
KH 2
PH 7.4

TDS is at 60ppm.

[LizStreithorst]

Better than perfect! If you have success at that kH and TDS, try adding more tap to the mix.

[planter]

I will, I used the RO waste water instead of tap. I'm going to monitor the PH over the next several day's I'm using a PH probe to measure the PH so I feel it's pretty accurate

The pair spawned again yesterday evening as I was getting ready to move them over lol. I was able to confirm that the pair are a male and female. I moved them over to their new tank today. They are hiding and I suspect It will take a day or two for them to come around.

Because this is my first attempt at breeding discus I'm thinking of starting a tank journal.

[planter]

Well that was fast


http://youtu.be/ZZaid68Psm8

[LizStreithorst]

TDS is more important that pH. What you need most is a TDS meter.

[planter]

I have one

[LizStreithorst]

:thumbsup:

[planter]

So here is a update. The first attempt resulted with one of the fish eating the eggs I'm not sure which I got up one morning and they were gone

The second attempt as of now they have managed to restrain themselves and I have wigglers. So far it's day 2 at this stage. I have everything I need to hatch brine shrimp so I'm crossing my fingers.


http://youtu.be/9a4Z8ryBJOM