reef
07-14-2005, 04:44 AM
Hi, I got a pair of LSS - Female is a self-bred Penang Eruption x LSS, and the male I handpicked from a farm. I put them together coz they r my favourite. Both were 3.5" then and intend to concentrate on growing them. 1 month later they surprise me with a clutch of 50 eggs with 50% hatch rate. By 3days after freeswimming, left 2 fries then gone. 2 weeks later another batch of 70 - 80 eggs, then same thing happened.
On third attempt they had about 150 eggs and 95% hatch rate. Less than 100 survive up to freeswimming. By the 4th day parents became aggressive to each other. Lunging at each other until I can't stand it anymore. This was because the fries had a hard time chasing the parents. Decided to remove the male - Bad move! By 2 days later the female can't take the pecking anymore and constantly darting away when the fries starts to swarm around her.
All these I attribute to the parents inexperience. So decided to bite the bullet! and remove mom. Up till now my success rate on rearing less than 2 weeks fries is zero! So I decided to give it a go.
1. 1st hour after removing mom, I did a large w/c. Been doing this since egg- laying.
2. Prepared super finely grind beefheart. In the meantime throw in TetraMin Baby and Hikari's First Bites. Decided not to use egg yolk formula due to my zero success rate on it. Voila! a couple start pecking on that and by 1 hour 50% of babies belly is bulging.
3. By 6th hour water deteriorated, 20% died due to me putting excessive food. Another large w/c was done. Then repeat food but lesser amount.
4. Another 4 hour passes, and did another w/c b4 went to bed. By Morning only 2 of the smallest ones died. Repeat feeding but added small chunks of beefheart I prepared earlier yesterday. Decided to feed purely on beef heart on next feeding coz the powder food pollute the water too fast.
By today another 3 babies died. I guess they never ate since mom was removed. The rest have red bellies from the beef heart!
Since breeding discus, I only gave bbs to supplement food for my fries. Never did I thought they can take beefheart so early. Maybe this is a one-off thing but does anyone had similar experiences? Would like to hear from your experiences.
In the meantime preparing the pair for the next batch. Trying to get hold a Digicam and post some pics.
On third attempt they had about 150 eggs and 95% hatch rate. Less than 100 survive up to freeswimming. By the 4th day parents became aggressive to each other. Lunging at each other until I can't stand it anymore. This was because the fries had a hard time chasing the parents. Decided to remove the male - Bad move! By 2 days later the female can't take the pecking anymore and constantly darting away when the fries starts to swarm around her.
All these I attribute to the parents inexperience. So decided to bite the bullet! and remove mom. Up till now my success rate on rearing less than 2 weeks fries is zero! So I decided to give it a go.
1. 1st hour after removing mom, I did a large w/c. Been doing this since egg- laying.
2. Prepared super finely grind beefheart. In the meantime throw in TetraMin Baby and Hikari's First Bites. Decided not to use egg yolk formula due to my zero success rate on it. Voila! a couple start pecking on that and by 1 hour 50% of babies belly is bulging.
3. By 6th hour water deteriorated, 20% died due to me putting excessive food. Another large w/c was done. Then repeat food but lesser amount.
4. Another 4 hour passes, and did another w/c b4 went to bed. By Morning only 2 of the smallest ones died. Repeat feeding but added small chunks of beefheart I prepared earlier yesterday. Decided to feed purely on beef heart on next feeding coz the powder food pollute the water too fast.
By today another 3 babies died. I guess they never ate since mom was removed. The rest have red bellies from the beef heart!
Since breeding discus, I only gave bbs to supplement food for my fries. Never did I thought they can take beefheart so early. Maybe this is a one-off thing but does anyone had similar experiences? Would like to hear from your experiences.
In the meantime preparing the pair for the next batch. Trying to get hold a Digicam and post some pics.