Death of breeding pair mate

[Aquatic Engineer]

Sad day the other day, when I was out of town, the female of my breeding pair got bloated and had swim bladder issues. Saw this erratic swimming on my remote cam and had my son add 2 tbs of epsom salt. Unfortunately, she was dead the next day anyway. The 40 babies and the male in the tank are still fine, and all water parameters are still good. My question is, what to do with the surviving male? My breeding pair are Wattley discus and my main tank primarily has Stendkers in it (besides being a bit overcrowded) already. I'm worried if I move him to the main tank he might be a bully (being the biggest) and/or bringing disease to an otherwise healthy tank. I'm leaving the babies with him for now, but was wanting to move those babies to my 40 gal breeder with their older siblings from a prior batch. Should I move the male to the growout tank with the babies or leave him by himself in the breeding tank? I know discus are social fish wanting to be in groups, but I'm not sure if babies are considered "acceptable company" for an adult fish. Thanks for any thoughts/comments.

[jeep]

Other than possible cross contamination (unless you've already dealt with QT) and over stocking, I would add it to the community tank. They may establish a new pecking order but in the end they'll probably be ok and it may even pair up with another female. I recently added two 3" juvies to a group of 6" adults and had no issues at all, other than the fact that the adults are loving it because they get to eat more now, lol...

[LizStreithorst]

Those are my thoughts, too.

[Aquatic Engineer]

thanks to both of you. Both tanks have been fine for the past 7 months and I treated both tanks when I got them also with de-worming meds and metro. I'm just nervous as I had an issue with one sick fish that took me a month to straighten out. On the plus side, hopefully the Stendker's will teach him to eat beefheart like the other Wattley's I could never get to eat in when they were in QT.

[CliffsDiscus]

The 40 babies needs to be move to an grow out tank. If you feel that your Discus are healthy then you can move a few females into the breeder tank, sometimes the male will flirt right away with a female take out the rest of the females.

Cliff

[LizStreithorst]

Cliff is always the smartest here when it comes to breeding Discus. If you want more fry do as he says. It takes a ton of tank space to grow out fry and when they get to sellable age you'd better have a good market for them.

[matt parsons]

Sorry to hear about your loss.
One positive way to look at it is in a year or so you will have the fry grown out and you should get some that look like momma did,
You should be able to breed a baby back to the male without much worry with defects.
In the mean time, I agree with the others.
When you put a new female or females in with the male just watch them close for aggression. A little bit is normal at first so don’t panic but if it is non stop then try something different.
Best of luck growing out the fry and forming a new pair.
Take care, Matt

[Aquatic Engineer]

Cliff is always the smartest here when it comes to breeding Discus. If you want more fry do as he says. It takes a ton of tank space to grow out fry and when they get to sellable age you'd better have a good market for them.

Thanks! I've got a local outlet for them and have sold their first 3 spawns already except for a few of the most colorful ones I've held back to see what they turned into when I grew them out. I'll be setting up tank rack soon in my garage to house / grow out the 100 I've got left. I'll sell them a lot more carefully now that I can't expect a continuous supply of 40 or so a month anymore. :(

[Aquatic Engineer]

Sorry to hear about your loss.
One positive way to look at it is in a year or so you will have the fry grown out and you should get some that look like momma did,
You should be able to breed a baby back to the male without much worry with defects.
In the mean time, I agree with the others.
When you put a new female or females in with the male just watch them close for aggression. A little bit is normal at first so don’t panic but if it is non stop then try something different.
Best of luck growing out the fry and forming a new pair.
Take care, Matt

Thanks - that is a good idea to try. I do have at least one known female in my main tank as I've seen her eggs (only survived about an hour and I never saw a male helping her guard them). That one is just at a year old though and I have larger possible females that would be interesting to try. I assume it would be a bad idea to put unsexed fish in with him? The only way I can sex them for sure is to see them lay eggs.

[LizStreithorst]

It's not a bad idea. Put a couple of them in with him and see if there isn't one he buddies up with.