MichiganDiscusEnthusiast
07-06-2023, 11:50 AM
As stated in the title I’m having some issues with my breeding pair and am now weighing some options out but would like some input.
Here is the backstory:
About a year ago I bought some assorted discus from a few trade shows over the course of a couple of months and added them to my tank. After some issues with my heater and losing a few fish I then ordered some discus online because I wanted to see what could happen and if shipping live fish was even a viable option. To my pleasant surprise they came and after a month of quarantine were added to my community tank to replace the discus I lost to the issue with the heater.
I finally was getting everything down from the water parameters to the food and the discus showed their appreciation. A few months down the line I woke up to eggs on my back wall and one of my new fish guarding them heavily. After observing some aggression from one of the other fish in the tank towards the other fish I knew who the father was. It ended up being a blue cobalt for the mother and a red checkerboard for the father.
I did some research online and began setting up my breeding tank. I cycled it with media from the community tank for 2 weeks to establish a nitrogen cycle. I don’t age my water so letting it set for 2 weeks with bits of food and a seasoned filter was the best I could do.
The clutch inevitably failed in the community tank due to the high ppm in the water or the father not doing his job but I digress. I removed the fish and added them to my new breeding tank.
After a week they laid another clutch that failed and to the internet I went. It was at this point I discovered reverse osmosis water.
Living in an apartment and running an RO system had to be the hardest thing to come up with but I managed to find something that works for me.
The next water change I did was with the RO unit after I let it run for a half hour to let the toxins drain out. The fish immediately brightened up it seemed. It wasn’t but a few days later they laid another clutch. My ppm was still really high as I was only doing a 25% change out to adjust them so the eggs calcified and became white.
This is where my aggressive male comes into play. As soon as cone duty comes my girl is the first to tend to them but only for a few minutes before she is chased off by my male. He then takes full control over the eggs. It’s scary aggressive at first but as the eggs age he seems to calm down but the chasing and ramming still ensues.
After the eggs were eaten it took them a few days to become docile with one another.
It’s now a week later and I got another clutch last night for the first time within what my research indicates as the “ideal parameters” for eggs. 6.9 ph, 60 ppm, 0 ammonia, 0 nitrites and 0 nitrates.
The male did the same as last time by chasing her off the eggs after they were first laid and has held control over the eggs since. The chasing is aggressive for the first couple of hours but as time goes on he will still chase her off but not nearly as far from the cone or as fast as when the eggs are first laid.
It’s gotten to the point where my female is hiding in one corner of the tank to avoid confrontation.
After doing some testing on my water this morning I’ve discovered my ph has started to drop so I’m doing a changeout with some tap water to raise the conductivity to give the ph something to buffer on. This also may be afflicting my female and causing her to be so off. Could the eggs maybe have something to do with the vast PH drop overnight?
So now that you’re caught up my question is this:
To combat the males aggression do I pull the male after the babies have hatched(if they hatch) so that mom can take full care ? Or do I let them sort it out so that they can maybe share the parenting responsibilities? Im almost fully decided I’m going to pull the male from the breeding tank and put another potential male in the tank with her. If anything at all I don’t like his aggression and don’t want that to be a reproduced gene.
As a bonus question to any water specialists I’d like my ph to hold at 6.0 for preference and experimental continuity reasons and as of this morning Im fighting it at 5.5.
Any recommendations on what I can do for the water or my aggressive male so that I can raise some beautiful fry?
Pictures are of my breeding tank and the female and male doing as what I described above.
Thanks in advance and I’d love to answer any and all questions I may have missed in my report.
Here is the backstory:
About a year ago I bought some assorted discus from a few trade shows over the course of a couple of months and added them to my tank. After some issues with my heater and losing a few fish I then ordered some discus online because I wanted to see what could happen and if shipping live fish was even a viable option. To my pleasant surprise they came and after a month of quarantine were added to my community tank to replace the discus I lost to the issue with the heater.
I finally was getting everything down from the water parameters to the food and the discus showed their appreciation. A few months down the line I woke up to eggs on my back wall and one of my new fish guarding them heavily. After observing some aggression from one of the other fish in the tank towards the other fish I knew who the father was. It ended up being a blue cobalt for the mother and a red checkerboard for the father.
I did some research online and began setting up my breeding tank. I cycled it with media from the community tank for 2 weeks to establish a nitrogen cycle. I don’t age my water so letting it set for 2 weeks with bits of food and a seasoned filter was the best I could do.
The clutch inevitably failed in the community tank due to the high ppm in the water or the father not doing his job but I digress. I removed the fish and added them to my new breeding tank.
After a week they laid another clutch that failed and to the internet I went. It was at this point I discovered reverse osmosis water.
Living in an apartment and running an RO system had to be the hardest thing to come up with but I managed to find something that works for me.
The next water change I did was with the RO unit after I let it run for a half hour to let the toxins drain out. The fish immediately brightened up it seemed. It wasn’t but a few days later they laid another clutch. My ppm was still really high as I was only doing a 25% change out to adjust them so the eggs calcified and became white.
This is where my aggressive male comes into play. As soon as cone duty comes my girl is the first to tend to them but only for a few minutes before she is chased off by my male. He then takes full control over the eggs. It’s scary aggressive at first but as the eggs age he seems to calm down but the chasing and ramming still ensues.
After the eggs were eaten it took them a few days to become docile with one another.
It’s now a week later and I got another clutch last night for the first time within what my research indicates as the “ideal parameters” for eggs. 6.9 ph, 60 ppm, 0 ammonia, 0 nitrites and 0 nitrates.
The male did the same as last time by chasing her off the eggs after they were first laid and has held control over the eggs since. The chasing is aggressive for the first couple of hours but as time goes on he will still chase her off but not nearly as far from the cone or as fast as when the eggs are first laid.
It’s gotten to the point where my female is hiding in one corner of the tank to avoid confrontation.
After doing some testing on my water this morning I’ve discovered my ph has started to drop so I’m doing a changeout with some tap water to raise the conductivity to give the ph something to buffer on. This also may be afflicting my female and causing her to be so off. Could the eggs maybe have something to do with the vast PH drop overnight?
So now that you’re caught up my question is this:
To combat the males aggression do I pull the male after the babies have hatched(if they hatch) so that mom can take full care ? Or do I let them sort it out so that they can maybe share the parenting responsibilities? Im almost fully decided I’m going to pull the male from the breeding tank and put another potential male in the tank with her. If anything at all I don’t like his aggression and don’t want that to be a reproduced gene.
As a bonus question to any water specialists I’d like my ph to hold at 6.0 for preference and experimental continuity reasons and as of this morning Im fighting it at 5.5.
Any recommendations on what I can do for the water or my aggressive male so that I can raise some beautiful fry?
Pictures are of my breeding tank and the female and male doing as what I described above.
Thanks in advance and I’d love to answer any and all questions I may have missed in my report.