My Old Discus Breeding Adventure

[LizStreithorst]

It's an adventure because it has been such a long, long. long time and I don't know where it will go.

My number 1 pair is actually spawning with M'Lady putting down actual eggs. The last time she acted sexy it had been just a long lime since her last try. She was hot to go for days. She was what I think of sex obsessed. Of course, she made Big Boy feel the same way. But when she made run after run after run, no eggs kept coming out. Poor Big Boy followed her by making his runs over nothing. It was very strange from the start.

After only a long time since then she started flirting in a more subtle way. The male did the same thing back. After 4 days of Big Boy being gentle and patient with her they are happily doing the dirty (in a most loving way).

This spawn is so important to me, I guess I should cage the eggs, although I would really not interfere in any way with the progression. I may have had Discus since almost the beginning of time, but I'm still worried about doing the wrong thing;

The important tanks got their normal WC today. I was going to do the less important tanks this evening. But I'll wait 'till morning. I don't want to disturb a love affair at the climatic moment. Funny...I've never tip toed around my tanks until now.

[fljones3]

Great news Liz!

[Vanman]

This is good news.

[brewmaster15]

Awesome awesome awesome! :)

[LizStreithorst]

Don't get too excited for me. It's a long time between eggs and attached fry.

[Second Hand Pat]

I'm excited for you Liz and crossing all the body parts :D Super happy!!
Pat

[Vanman]

Do you have a daily update?

[LizStreithorst]

I'm glad that I took a chance of the couple and didn't cage the eggs. All eggs are still there this morning with parents taking turns guarding them. They are such a gentle loving couple, but I won't be out of the woods until their little 'uns are covering mom and dad's side. I'll be changing their water as soon as I finish my tea. I hope that Big Boy bites me.

[LizStreithorst]

Greg, I sent my daily up-date to you via email because I didn't want you to hear it here, first. All my eggs are turning white. The few that are left don't look right to me. It was a disappointment, as you might imagine, but I always had in mind that eggs don't always mean a batch of fry.

I am not without hope. This was their first spawn in close to a year. These may not have been the best quality eggs. Could this be possible?

The pair is still guarding the hopeless white eggs. Big Boy comes front of the tank and threatens me when my big head shows up in the front of their home. M'Lady guards the cone as well, but I have caught her shimmying and pecking on an other part of the cone. My hope is that they will get in a grove and that next time all will go well.

[Vanman]

This is disappointing, but maybe they will get their act together soon.

[brewmaster15]

Liz I bet the next batch does better. The male may just be warming up.

[LizStreithorst]

I actually believe they will, Al. I don't know why but I feel it strongly.

I was surprised when I woke up to find all these fungused eggs still on the cone. I was certain that they'd have been eaten. But when I put my glasses on and walked my big head up to their tank, I saw life. Maybe 5 or 6 wigglers. I'm not going to lower the water level and waste time trying to help these attach. That few is simply not worth the effort. I'm hoping that in a week or 2 I'll have another batch. It's obvious that they want kids. By then M'Lady will have gotten rid of her old stale eggs and Big Boy will have made fresh new milt. Look forward to it, Greg. Sometimes woman's intuition is more than just hope.

[LizStreithorst]

Now that most of the fungus is gone I see that I have between 15 and 19. It's hard to count since Big Boy doesn't want my big face in front of the tank and he blocks my view while in attack mode. That's enough for me to bother with, at least for 3 weeks when I can raise them in there own tank. If the parents are willing, I am, too.

[brewmaster15]

Go for it Liz.. thats about what my pair left me with and I got a good 9 keepers out of the group.

[LizStreithorst]

I plan to, Al. Attachment will be harder with just 17 (I think). I'll sure find out the parenting instincts these to have. Besides, next time, they'll give me more. I just know it.

[LizStreithorst]

I plan to, Al. Attachment will be harder with just 17 (I think). I'll sure find out the parenting instincts these to have. Besides, next time, they'll give me more. I just know it.

[Second Hand Pat]

Great news Liz :D
Pat

[LizStreithorst]

The kids are still wiggling on the cone this morning. Every day is one more step to a small success.

[LizStreithorst]

I'm down to 10 this morning. I'll put this batch behind me and wait for the real spawn that will come next.

[LizStreithorst]

The fry were already swimming when I went down to the fish room early this morning. I waited until just a bit ago and went ahead and give them a flopping on the bottom WC with pure RO. We'll see now how long it takes the pair into spawning mode again. I expect to see some action in the next few days.

[MichiganDiscusEnthusiast]

Best of luck Liz! Im curious what you keep your parameters at as you seem to have some degree of success with your process.
1. Do you use RO, and if so do you mix it or do you add something to the RO?
2. Is this done in a holding tank or are you bringing your RO water directly into the Breeding Tank?
I'm still waiting for my potential breeding pair to mature more before I start the process over again, but it doesn't hurt to try and educate myself in the meantime.
If you're curious to what I have going on ~> here (http://forum.simplydiscus.com/showthread.php?139992-The-Makings-of-a-Dream-A-working-journal) <~ is the link to my thread in "Our Tank Journals"
Again, wishing you the best of success with this attempt, love keeping up on your gorgeous fish.

[LizStreithorst]

Thanks for the well wishes, Kyle. I have weird water so you won't have to do what I do. I used to be able to add enough RO to get my TDS to under 90 but all of a sudden something happened with my water making it so I couldn't even get a viable spawn in TDS 20! I thought that my fish were sterile. I even sold a bunch of them as good fish to look at but not breeding stock.

Then Cliff came along and helped me. He suggested that after 30 minutes post spawning I moved the breeding cone to a gallon pitcher hanging inside the tank and guess what? I got wigglers. It was a water problem not a fertility problem. But these days, since spawns are few and far between I keep the pairs in tanks of straight RO.

Once again, nobody has to do this except me and people who raise fry artificially. So don't do what I do. Do what works for you. Don't change your methods unless you have a good reason.

[MichiganDiscusEnthusiast]

Liz, that's very interesting. When you say put the pitcher inside the tank, do you mean so that the cone is visible to the parents yet separate from the parent's water? I'm assuming you're filling the pitcher with uncut RO as well? Maybe some MB? An air stone perhaps? This is truly fascinating and I would love to learn more about this process of "pitchering" the fresh clutch. I'm of course going to wait a while until my breeding pair matures and attempts a couple of batches in the breeding tank itself but if it comes down to it this pitcher idea may be something of a "ace up the sleeve" .

[LizStreithorst]

You've got it exactly. Pitcher of RO with the cone inside, all in view of the parents with a dribble of meth blue and an air stone. You do get attachment when the babies free swim, but at least I get better attachment when the parents can have the cone in the tank with them.