My Discus Are A Laying - I'm New Any Info?

[hexed]

Hi Everyone! It's 1:30am and my white dragons are laying eggs and I mean A LOT of eggs. I have convicts in another tank and they never laid as many. This is my very first breeding pair and I do not know exactly what to do. Carol please email me privately as well as post here. I do have another question for you reguarding my other discus babies I purchased. I know I have to do water changes, but my aquarium said that they will not eat, is this true? Anything else I need to do is much appriciated :) I have the miracle beam system in my tank and they are laying under the blue light. There is also a green light and a red light, but they chose the dimest which was the blue. I put a breeding cone in front of each light because I was curious as to what type of light they would choose to breed by. I read in another post about lighting. I'm really excited right now because it's my first and everyone told me that it was very difficult to get them to breed. Now if they babies survive it will make my YEAR! ;D

[hexed]

I forgot to say that these discus are in a planted tank. I was told to take everything out of the tank in another thread and leave it bare bottom because they won't breed. I guess that was wrong :) I do have small rams in with them - will that be a problem?

[GulfCoastDiscus]

Congrats on the pair. chances are the fry will not survive in the planted tank. I would let them practice a couple of times to ensure the bond, then move them to a 29gal tank.

Dan

[jamesmcsyd]

Have to agree with Dan. I've had a 2 pairs lay in planted tank with no survivors. In the planted tank, there are potentially alot more flukes, fungus, and potentially lost eggs. If there are any other fish in there, like tetras or catfish, then they'll eat them.

Moving them to a BB breeding tank, with a sponge filter run by a air pump or small powerhead on low turnover is the way to go. Well, this has what worked for me.

Good luck, hope you enjoy the drama as much as I have!

James

[hexed]

Hi,
Thanks for the advice. I just wanted to let you know that she laid a lot of eggs, about a 3 inch by 1 & 1/2 inch area. I went to do my water change starting at the opposite side of the tank and when I did they both ate the eggs while I was doing it. I must have scared them with the vacuum. I only saw about 20 eggs that were white from the reflection angle off the back glass. Is that good? Again I have only had these two for about 2 months and they were never bred to each other before. The guy I got them from said they have bred before but with different mates and both raised the young successfully. Both were fanning the eggs for 2 days until I went in to clean :( My tank is planted but not that planted, the side they are laying on only has a small watersprite and the other end has about 6 plants. My tank isn't overcrowded with plants.

[Carol_Roberts]

Had any of the eggs turned black? Fertilized eggs are usually black and close to hatching after 48 hours. If they were still orange they probably were not fertile.

[hexed]

Carol,
Hard to tell if they were black because she laid them on the algae which was brown. They were not 48 hours old yet. They were laid at about 1:30 am on the 10th and were eaten on the 12th around 3pm so they were only about 36-37 hours old. Like I said the white eggs stood out in the algae. When I bought the cone off ebay it was in a plastic container with a mesh basket around it. I just found out what that is for :). Thank GOD I did not throw it away. I thought it was for shipping LOL. Next time she lays I will cover the eggs with it so when I do a water change they won't get eaten. I removed all the algae from my tank, which I would've done sooner had I known she was going to lay eggs. Carol, I do have a question that I want to ask you privately. Is it all right to email you?

[hexed]

Oops, I ment the 11th about 3pm sorry

[Carol_Roberts]

Sure you can e-mail me or Instant Message - see the little green scroll to the left of my picture at the bottoom of this post?

[hexed]

Hi everyone. My discus laid more eggs last night. They had eaten half of them by the time I got up but still a little over 100 are left. I used the mesh cone cover so they can't eat anymore. Now, do I remove the cover when they hatch into wigglers or keep it on until they are fee swimming? I was waiting for them to finish laying, but I couldn't keep my eyes open any longer. Well a small batch is beter then none at all. Hopefully I will have baby white dragons soon :)
I put some methy blu in the water, just enough to turn in a light blu to protect the eggs. Someone told me to do that in an email so the eggs do not get fungus on them. Well I guess I will find out in 55 hours. Watching the egg laying and the male fertilizing the eggs is cool, but I want to see them hatch :)
Thanks for all the advice it is much appriciated!
Frank

[hexed]

Hi,
I can't believe she worked the mesh cover off and ate the eggs again :(
Next time I will put a rock on top of the mesh screen or get weights to hold it down. She should be laying again on Tuesday night. Below is a pic of the pair.

[hexed]

Hi all,
They laid eggs again last night and all were there this morning. The male started eating them so I put the mesh up and placed a rock ontop so they can't remove the mesh. Should I keep the mesh on or remove it? I don't know if I'm doing the right thing. All the other batches the female ate. Now it's the male. I don't know if I should uncover the eggs or not?

[Carol_Roberts]

Leave them covered and see what happens. Have they produced wigglers yet or just eggs?

[hexed]

Just eggs and they eat them within one day :(

[Carol_Roberts]

At least you will get an idea if they are fertile or not . . . .

[hexed]

Well the latest batch was covered with the mesh but the eggs were not fertile. Right now she's laying again so I will wait and see if these are fertile or not.

[nokoto]

Your get there

Your winning till you give up, remember that...

Let know how your doing

Wayne

[jaydoc]

Wayne, I was seeing a lot of posts from you for a while about your pair breeeding in your planted tank. Then I lost track of you. How has it turned out?

[nokoto]

I am still here...

I have 25 day old free swimmers so far so good...

I am around add me to your messenger if you want

Wayne x

[nokoto]

My update is that the fry have since been moved and are now at 5 weeks, I hope to see there eyes change colour next week how you getting on?

You still winning

Wayne

[jaydoc]

I got a batch of 16 juveniles 3-4 inches I am growing out. Haven't tackled the breeding yet but my 3 adult pigeons are doing the dance. The 2 apparent boys are still rattling there swords to see who is going to get the girl. She seems to favore the smaller but prettier of the probable males. I will keep following your thread with interest. Any pics of the little ones yet?

[Texmex_discus]

HEXED still have gravel on tank? as carol said if their fertile try separate the male from female & viseversa to find out who has the hunger for eggs you can do that with a plastic grid within the tank