Feeding BBS for how long ? Unwanted babies after culling ?

[ping]

Hi,

How long do you feed the babies with BBS ?
What do you do with unwanted babies after culling (ie. 1 eye only, short /half fin) ?

I have been keeping 2 of my abnormal discus (only have 2 so far). 1 has slighly bump (bone/meat) near dorsal fin. It's not so obvious now as he has grown up to 3.5 or 4 inch.
The other one is extremely :puke: ugly. He is the only survival on my second batch (54 died coz of gill flukes). He has 1/2 dorsal fin, and shorter on lower fin. The worse part, he has square body. :blockhead:
He eats a lot as other discus hardly disturb or bite him.

Arghhh why i keep him ? Waste my food :banghead:

Thanks for your help.

Regards,
Ronny

[Nightowl]

Feed bbs until you can get the fry on to bigger foods, say from 5-7 days old to 20-25 days old( rough average). Sometimes w/ big spawns parents can't provide enough natural food and some fry lag behind. If you feed enough bbs, which many of us don't the first few times we have fry, the weaklings often catch up. In my own (recent) experience fry start to pick at other foods from about 2 wks. on. As far as keeping ugly fish, you really have to learn to cull to be successful. If it bothers you, just realize that in nature the stunted, deformed undersized fry would not make it..... hth, J.T.

[Carol_Roberts]

Hi Ronny:
I agree with Nightowl. I feed bbs to 21 days by then they are eating live blackworms, etc.

It is much easier to cull when little (dime/nickle size) by putting them in ice water. They die very quickly. Fish as big as yours can be killed by throwing with force on concrete floor, cutting off head, etc. . . . not very much fun . . . any fishermen in the family to do the job for you?

[ping]

Hi Nightwol and Carol,

Thanks for your reply.

Upss, i feed mine with BBS until 4.5-5 weeks. From week 3 above, i give them daphnia as supplement and bloodworms at 4 weeks above.

Carol, no family here in Australia. I am all alone with my discus as my family here :)

I cant kill the ugly babies ... Maybe i will get my neighbour kids to do it ;D

I will have to kill 1 soon. He has only 1 eye. :crazy:

Regards,
Ronny

[Wolf]

The easiest way for me to cull is just turn on the garbage disposal and send them down the sink.

[ping]

A cat, a cat, i need a cat.

Need a cat to do the dirty job ;D
Almost forgot this creature. Since the cat has 9 lives, he is the best to do the job. ;)

Too bad, i dont have neighbours with cats. Otherwise, i will give the cats free dinner. Make them fat and teach them bad things. :P

Thanks Wolf.
It will suffer them too much. I need Instant Death. ::)

I might put them in plastic bag and smash them to the concrete.

Regards,
Ronny

[limige]

put them in a bag and throw it in the freezer, then you can dispose of it later! this way you only see it as you put it in the bag, after that it's easier without the visual right!

[ping]

Hi Limige,

Thanks.
I have 50 over free swimmers today ... That means .. more to do and more to kill ... >:(

Ronny

[Wolf]

I have a cat actually ;D but I don't want her to get a taste for my fish and I was concerned she might pick up something if the fish had worms I didn't know about or if anything strange would happen my girlfriend would have my ars. She loves the dried fish flakes and I'm afraid if she ever got a hold of one of my discus I would have another problem to worry about.

Ronny: I cull heavily. A few fish always miss the knife and grow in the shadow of the keepers. Instead of commit mudering to a fish which I raised from an egg. I put them in good use in my experiment (cull) tank where I test new products, food, water condition, new meds. Somehow I always find something to test or new fish to quarantine and keep myself busy in that area. Most of the culls become my favorites. If they survive till adulthood and start to breed. Their offsprings will be normal like anyother discus. Very often they were able to save their own line of breeding if disaster strike on my breeders. I was able to line breed the original Wattley turquoise up to F8 mainly becasue of the cull came to rescue each time when I lost the breeders from pratising high platform diving or run away heater. If they are really ugly. You can always use them as a foster parents. HTH
Jimmy.

[Barb Newell]

Why not put the babies and larger fish in a bag in enough of their tank water and a few drops of hypno, and put them in the freezer ----- ?

Barb