Discus can be strange!

[kev1310]

I bought a gorgeous pair of Pigeons from a well know breeder here in the UK just before Christmas and he told me I'd need to foster the young as they wouldn't raise them. I put them in an 18" cube with white base, back and sides and a week after I got them they laid around 400 eggs which resulted in around 300 young. I removed the filter and dropped the water level and the young attached ok. Unfortunately I already had about 100 turks a week older and trying to raise so many I stunted them all and ended up culling both broods :cry:

Since then they've spawned regularly but the young always appeared weak and no matter what I tried the young wouldn't attach. After the last batch had been wandering around the tank aimlessly for a day I removed about 75 and tried artificially raising them and I now have about 30 growing on BBS.

Last week I moved the parents to a 24x18x18 tank with light blue base, back and sides. The parents spawned again and hatched another estimated 250 young - which I was looking forward to trying to artificially raise again. This brood seemed much stronger from the off and formed large tight balls of wrigglers. I wasn't expecting them to go free swimming until Saturday night / Sunday morning but went into the fish room Saturday morning and they were all free swimming and hovering around the cone and flicking between that and the parents constantly. I hadn't even removed the filter or dropped the water level! A few were heading to the filter but soon went back to the parents again.

I have since been removing the filter during the day, but all fry are feeding well from their parents and already look to be growing.

The only difference has been switching to a slightly larger tank with pale blue sides instead of white. I don't get it, everything else such as food, temp and water is identical.

[Second Hand Pat]

I am wondering of the larger water volume led to better water quality for the fry?
Pat

[kev1310]

That's definitely a possibility Pat. Other than the tank itself everything else is the same including the cone, filter, food, water used for water changes and % changed and frequency. Interestingly a few years ago when I kept discus previously I had a pigeon pair that spawned in the same tank and I never experienced issues with them attaching so whether the light blue back , sides and base make a difference I'm not sure.

[Willie]

Not saying it's necessarily true, but I have had a similar experience. About 8 years ago, when I redid the fish room, all my tanks were painted light blue (three sides and the bottom). Since then, the fish seem calmer and the spawns have attached better. Except for Blue Diamonds, which never had a problem with fry attachment in a white or black tank, but had problems in the light blue tanks.

At an earlier NADA meeting, I was chatting with Cary Strong about this and he reported the same problem. Blue Diamonds have problem with attachment in light blue tanks. Not blue turquoise, just blue diamonds. Until I have more data, I consider this to be coincidental, but who knows... :p

Willie

[kev1310]

Cheers Willie, maybe we're onto something here :) I have to say, they do seem calmer in the blue tank than in the white one.

I suppose it's understandable that blue diamonds might have trouble in that scenario, there wouldn't be much contrast for the fry to aim for.

[CliffsDiscus]

I count the wriggles that form into clusters
any wriggles not in the clusters will die off.
This is an easy way to determine how large
or how strong your batches are. I already know how many successful fry out of each batch
before they are even free swimming.


Cliff

[kev1310]

Cheers Cliff, that's worth remembering :)

[kev1310]

Not saying it's necessarily true, but I have had a similar experience. About 8 years ago, when I redid the fish room, all my tanks were painted light blue (three sides and the bottom). Since then, the fish seem calmer and the spawns have attached better. Except for Blue Diamonds, which never had a problem with fry attachment in a white or black tank, but had problems in the light blue tanks.

At an earlier NADA meeting, I was chatting with Cary Strong about this and he reported the same problem. Blue Diamonds have problem with attachment in light blue tanks. Not blue turquoise, just blue diamonds. Until I have more data, I consider this to be coincidental, but who knows... :p

Willie

And we have attachment again! This time I've not dropped the water level or removed the filter. Sure, the fry have gone straight to the filter but the parents are just hovering nearby and the fry are flitting between the filter and the parents constantly.

After 6 months of not being able to get fry to attach to this pair this is two out of two since I moved them to a tank with light blue sides, back and base! :D

[danotaylor]

Great news Kev!! Watching with anticipation :thumbsup:

[peewee1]

And we have attachment again! This time I've not dropped the water level or removed the filter. Sure, the fry have gone straight to the filter but the parents are just hovering nearby and the fry are flitting between the filter and the parents constantly.

After 6 months of not being able to get fry to attach to this pair this is two out of two since I moved them to a tank with light blue sides, back and base! :D

Are you using the black sponge filter?

[kev1310]

Hi Peewee, yep, they're black, it's one of the twin sponge filters that attaches to the side of the tank. When I got up Saturday they were already free swimming and feeding from the parents so I just left things as they were.