Fry not finding parents...HELP

[PopsE]

Hey guyz...

More questions...

My pair have laid eggs, guarded and cleaned them through to wrigglers, and just this morning they are free swimmers.... WOO HOO :)

Only prob is that the parents stay in one corner of my tank (its a standard 3ft with only a foam filter + heater) with all the fry. Just underneath them about 40% of the fry are hanging around the corner join in the glass and it looks like they are trying to eat the sylicon.????

Im not watching over them 24-7 so Im not sure if they are returning to the parents to eat???

Will they die if they do not find the parents?? If so how long do I have to try to bind them??? They have been there for about 12 hours now, still swimming. Im not sure if they have even been eating off the parents??? But I know that the parents try to attract them cause the male goes into the corner and sweeps by, trying to get them to attach!

PLZ HELP....

[larry lob]

Hi,

If they had not eaten anything they would be dead by now.

Some times the parents have already produced sliome coat b4 the eggs hatch and it comes off and sticks to places like the silicone, they are probably eating that.
In my experiance my wrigglers take about 30 hours to "properly" attach.

Lower your air filter to a slow Bubble Bubble, try dropping the water level to half and make sure there is light in the room not necicaraly tank lights, it all helps.

Good luck HTH

Larry

[jeep]

Hi Larry,

Do you know why would indirect light be better than direct light? I would think the fry would be more successful in finding the parents with more light. But then again, I'm having the same questions as Pops because this is only my 4th successful hatch and none have made it to 30 hours yet even though I do see some "semi" attatchment right off.

Also, if the parents do a good job of hearding the free-swimmers, would that help teach the fry to stay close to the parents?

Thanks,

Brian

[dred]

Jeep,

I don't think Larry suggested indirect light was better. Rather, it sounds as if he's suggesting the family not be left in complete darkness.

And, PoPse,

That feeding at the corners thing is probably because they are finding food. The corners are the hardest place to keep wiped clean, and some algea survives in the ridges where the silicone meets the glass. Not too different from finding them feeding at the sponge filter.

milton

[larry lob]

Hi,

Cheers milton, i find that if there is not enough light the parents put the fry "to bed" tank lights are ok as long as they are not over powering like some tanks, also i make sure there is light 24/7.

like i said mine normally take a day to truly attach.

Larry

[Carol_Roberts]

Mine are up in the corners the first day or so too and it does take a couple of days for really good attachment. I bet your babies are on the parents by the time you read this ;)

[gazzriz]

The following was going to be the start of a new topic until I read this thread.


Hi everyone

I had a spawning in a 50 gal comunity tank. I was not trying to breed them. This has happened several times before and the eggs never made it to the wiggler stage. This time the eggs made it so I removed all but the parents and later the papa. When the fry became free swimming they went all over the tank and most found their way to the sponge filter. Thinking that they needed to feed off their mother I removed the filter. They are still all over the tank.

What to do now?

Gary


Good luck to you PopsE

Also, I have replaced the sponge filter

[Carol_Roberts]

Like Larry said, lower the water level to just above the back of the mom, turn filter down to just bubble . . . bubble . . . bubble. Usually I leave dad with the babies, mom has a tendency to want to lay eggs again.

[gazzriz]

Carol

Are you concerned she will try to pair up with one of the little guys or eat the little critter? ???

Ok! Just Kidding :)

I pulled papa because he took a fry into his mouth and then went to the bottom and snacked on a CBW without spitting the little guy out. Momma has been good so far. One fry keeps trying to attach but not successful. She takes them into their mouth and spits them out at the sponge filter, but has not rounded any up. They are still all over the tank.

Gary

[larry lob]

Ok Guys,

Look at it this way, if they were not eating they would be dead!

They have found a source of food and will eat it, maybe the sponges because they draw the slime coat or the silicone because that also has slime on it, whatever they are doing they are eating.

Follow the instructions mentioned if you like and wait, when they realise what they are eating is running out or that there is a better source of food arround (mum) then they will attach. the main thing is even if they don't make it the parents clue up for the next time.

The more you fret and mess with them the worse it is, thats not my oppinion it's fact.

if your on days 4 - 6 suppliment with bbs if you can by sucking up bbs in a pippet and squirting it towards the fry.

HTH

Larry

[Nightowl]

Hello to all! I believe that fry will swim a bit, using up their egg yolks before they feed off parents. I also agree that indirect light is the way to go. Sometimes I shine a small bright flashlight on fry to see their bellies to confirm that they ate bbs & they scatter, moving quickly in all directions for a second or two. Maybe bright light keeps them down a bit? I do find them on the sponge sometimes too. Maybe cover end/corner of tank & make cave effect... it may attract parents & fry, and put sponge at other end of tank? Just another idea. I currently have a gold marlboro spawn that on 4-26 was all around tank in clumps of fry, stuck to sponge and even to parents ventral fins! By noon on 4-27 they were buzzing around in back r.h. corner of tank & by 5 pm were up and feeding off parents. Now 12 days old! Guess I got lucky! Good luck to all! J. p.s. must agree w/ Carol R. about removing mom & letting dad tend fry.

[gazzriz]

Hello Again,

Two weeks prior to my recent spawning, for what ever reason I added stress zyme to the water in my 50 gallon tanks. I usually don't add anything but Amquel... It was quite embarrassing because of all these nearly microscopic worm things are visible to the naked eye and were all over in my tanks. I took them apart 75 to 80 % water change, scrubbed the glass, (maybe not the corners real good) rinsed out the filters, cleaned the tubes, air hoses. You get the picture! With all the following water changes I never got rid of them altogether, they just kept coming back. They are in abundance, much smaller than bbs.

Could it be that I have stumbled onto a source of nourishment for the new little free swimmers that can not find their momma? I would prefer the fry go right straight to the parent. But if it keeps them alive and they can still get antibodies from the parents slime, its a bonus.

Also, had not the dad eaten the fry, I would have pulled mother.

Gary

[PopsE]

Hey ppls,

Just to keep you updated...

All my fry are going really strong, as carol said, my fry stuck to the side of the tank for the first day, the next day all successfully met the parents, they continuously get swapped from parent to parent now as there are that many that the parents cant keep them eating on their bodies for more than about 30 seconds before they swap...

I cant believe it, my pair is only about 11 months old, and they are acting like fully mature discus.... They have really cared for this batch, only took them 2 times to get it right, first batch they ate the eggs, this batch they have fully brought them up... ;D

An example of what they did was when they were wrigglers, there were fungus eggs in the middle, so they moved all the wrigglers around to the other side of the cone, ate the fungus, then carried on moving the wrigglers, then when free swimming, some (about 4-5) still were left in the corner, so the mother swam right up to them and slid against the glass to get them to attach....

I will post pics soon, there prob is about 140-150 free swimmers ;D

Big batch hey???

PopsE

P.S. Once again, thanks for all the help ppl, just one more question, it looks like the parents cant cope with all the fry eating at them, they are now at 7 days free swimming, when can I totaly remove both parents???

PopsE

[Carol_Roberts]

HI PopsE:

Your discus have produced 150 babies after only 2 tries! They will be successful from this point on. Now the hard part comes. . . . do you have tanks to grow out 150 babies? It will be several months before they are big enough to sell . . . . do you have a market for discus in your area? For your first time you might want to cull 30% - 50% of the babies.

You can remove the parents when they are eating other food. I usually wait until 2 - 3 weeks, but others remove the parents earlier. Are you home all day so your can feed week old babies every few hours? At 2-3 weeks you can leave black worms in the tank all day for them to nibble on.

I grew out my whole first spawn and learned a lot. You can learn as much with 50 babies as 150 babies. I have a batch of 5 week old PBxSS that I have culled down to 20. Babies grow better in groups, but you can't crowd them unless you are able to do massive daily water changes

[PopsE]

I dont know how they managed to fluke the "parenthood" there doing such a great job....

All is going well.... I have 3 other tanks to grow them up in.... a 4ftX2ftX2ft and also x2 standard 3ft's.... hopefully that should be enough ;D

Im gunna advertise these babies in a few months, prob only sell them for about 10 dollars each (australian) just so that i can get rid of em...

Im dredding to see how much they eat... I wonder how much that is gunna dig into my savings..hehehe I think that the beefheart mix is looking good

PopsE

[gazzriz]

Congratulations PopsE

It sounds like you have a winning pair there. I hope you find a market for all those fish. All of them deserve a good home with plenty of good clean water. My pair is only 9 months old and I am surprised that they got this far this young. All the fry died but it was a learning experience for both the fish and for me.

Many happy spawns in the future PopsE,

Gary