Freeswimmers

[pikashy]

I finally got freeswimmers. This is my first time and I'm not sure what they're supposed to do. Right now, they are all clustered in a corner with both the parents swimming off and trying to catch them and put them there. The freeswimmers then just swim off again, sometimes nibbling on the parents. How long does it take them to be consistently attached to the parents?

Also, I have a hydro-sponge, and some fry seem to be swimming toward it. I have pigeonblood discus. Is the sponge a problem?

[KD]

I have read that you can cover the sponge filter with a white nylon stocking. They are attracted to the dark sponge. Also some people lower the water level if needed.
Good luck with your babies!
Karen

[Clabbe]

Hi pikashy!

The sponge filter can be a problem. Since the parent can´t change to a darker coullor the fry will have some problems finding them.

I have a very lightcollored pair with fries (see pic below). I had hudge problems to get the fry to find there way to the food. I will try to explain, with my bad english:), how i did it.

When the fries got freeswiming i removed all objekts that could disturb them (All the filters, spawning cone etc.). Lower the waterlevel to 50%. Than i took a thin airhose and mounted it on a "suckingdevice" and started to suck up the lost fries (clustered in corners and spread over the whole tank) and eject them on the parents again. I repeated this for about 4 days. After 7days i slowly started to raise the waterlevel again and installed the spunge filter again.

Hope this will help you

[Willie]

I do the same as clabbe. Just had a spotted Marlboro pair spawn last week, with the frys going freeswimming yesterday. I lowered the water until the fish had just enough to stay upright (15 gal of water in a 40 breeder), turned off the sponge filter and removed the dark sponges. Within 24 hours, all the babies have attached. After about 3 days free swimming, the babies will stay attached and you can increase the water level and restart the sponge filters. The tank is covered with white paper and the light stays on 24 hours.

By the way, you can still change water. I change about 5 out of 15 gal of water in there daily with no harmful effects. I've also kept the water still without changes or filtration for 3 days. The water gets cloudy, but I see no deleterious effects on the adults or the spawn.

Willie

[ppv1951]

great idea willie

[pikashy]

Right now, I have about 50-70 of them in the corner of the tank. Some will swim off to feed off the parents for a couple seconds, then leave again. When the freeswimmers go to the other side of the tank, one of the parents will bring them back to the corner. Is this right? Or should the freeswimmers be constantly attached?

[Willie]

OK, one step at a time. This pair is in a 40 breeder. You can see I've dropped the water level to 15 gal, turned off the air and removed the sponges. I noticed this morning that half of the frys were attracted to the darker colored filter tubes. So the filter tubes are moved out of the water. Shortly after that, the frys were attracted to the parents.

Willie

[Willie]

I dropped the water level, turned off the air and removed the sponges yesterday afternoon. This morning, I moved the filter tubes out of the water. By mid-day, you can see the babies have all attached.

The frys don't appear to see very well until day 3. Until then, they are moving almost blindly, attracted by the occasional shake from the parents. That's why you need to turn off the air so there's no agitation in the water. At this point, I don't see any frys swimming by themselves, but it took about 48 hours to get to this point. Earlier on, the frys will wander off. Good parents will corral them and get them back.

Don't worry. If it doesn't work this time, there will be many more spawns.

Good luck, Willie

[tpl*co]

I'm hoping to get to this point soon (feel like an expectant grandparent!). Do you have to worry about water quality issues or dissolved oxygen when the filters are out? How long do you keep the filters out? do you do water changes or are the filters not removed that long?

[Willie]

I typically take the filter out for 72 hours. By then, the babies can see the parents and attach. The filters you see in the picture were removed Saturday morning. I just put them back (Monday evening), so they were out 2.5 days. During this time, there was no air running. I made a 35% water change daily. Even though the water got a little cloudy, the babies were fine.

This evening, I wiped down the tank, changed out most of the water, refilled all 40 gals, and put the sponge filters back. Now, the babies are firmly attached to the parents and are not at all attracted by dark objects or the agitation from the filters.

Willie

[greywalker]

Hello.
Don't know if this is the right place for this question but, here goes.
I'm currently raising a spawn of 134 Spotted Marlboro Reds. They were born on 07/03/05 and are currently about the size of a quarter, some are a hair larger and some are a tiny bit smaller. I've got them housed in two bb 55s because I didn't want to put them all in one 55. I do 3 partial wc/day (2 25% and 1 50%). I'm feeding them about every 3-4 hours. Their main diet consists now of frozen beefheart. Occasionally I'll feed frozen Daphnia, frozen Blood Worms, crushed Color Bits or crushed flakes. My question is, what approximate size should I expect and when? That is to say, can anyone provide their ideas concerning a growth timeline?
Thanks in advance.

[Willie]

Quarter body size is reasonable for 3-month-old discus.

Willie

[pikashy]

Well, it's been two weeks and now they are growing fast. I'm having a lot of trouble with hatching brine shrimp. I'm afraid I might get the egg shells mixed with the shrimp and those tiny shrimp are darn near impossible to discern. How long am I supposed to wait after hatching? Should they grow a little or shoudl they be fed right after they hatch?

Also, has anyone ever had success with just skipping the whole brine shrimp feeding process and waiting another few weeks so they can start eating tetrabits or some other type of small food? Some people on this forum might call me crazy...hehehe...i'm just too busy.

[Clabbe]

I feed my fries with cyclops and beefhart. It saves alot of time and the fries are growing very fast!

[Edlund]

I feed my fries with cyclops and beefhart. It saves alot of time and the fries are growing very fast!


Fan va du snackar skit din swedish röv*******

[Alight]

For hatching brind shrimp, first make sure you have good quality eggs (old eggs, will have a low percentage of hatch).

I put the eggs in small white waste baskets and mix the salt water according to the directions ( I think it was a Tablespoon or two per quart, can't remember) in warm water from my tap (moderately hard water at pH 8.5).

I use either two quarts or two quarts of water depending on the size of the waste basket. I aerate the eggs with an air stone. I put them on top of my warmed water hold tank I use to change my Discus tanks with so they stay warm in my basement.

To harvest the shrimp, I take out the airstone, wait a short time, then use a pipette to "blow" away the eggs on the bottom away from one side of the basket. This creates a place with few eggs on the bottom on one side. I then put a flashlight (an led light is good for this because you rarely have to change batteries) against the bucket shining on the cleared area. Most of the eggs float. I about 15 minutes, you will have a red zone in the clear area on the cleared bottom that the light is shining on. These are almost clean shrimp with no eggs. I pipette these out, and into a coffee filter, that I then rinse with tap water to get rid of salt, and then put the shrimp in the filter directly into the fry tank and wash all the shrimp into the tank. You can rinse, dry and reuse the coffee filter.

Usable quantities of shrimp hatch in 36 hours. I add more eggs each day to supplement those I have taken out. You get plenty out for about 4-5 days, and then, because the water gets polluted, you start to get fewer shrimp. I usually clean out the bucket and start it over after 6 or 7 days. I usually have two buckets going at a time for 100 + fry.

[ppv1951]

you might want to look into mike reed's no Baby Brine Shrimp fry food. heard it's great.

www.mreed.com

pat.

[pikashy]

I've been feeding BBS consistently for a week now, 2 times per day. I was wondering if I could wean them off of BBS to crushed tetra-bits. I tried some today, they didnt' like it as much as BBS. I was thinking of stopping BBS altogether and just feeding tetrabits, or should I continue with BBS?

[tthdung]

Dear all,
This is from Dung from Vietnam
I have the same issue . My pairs is diamond blue they has been spawning many time and there are a lot of fries comming . Unforturnately ,even I lowed
the water 50% ,the fry are swimming alone , come to the bottom , stay there until they die !!!!! :angry:
The pair does not have any actions to collect them to get them attach.Actually the pair hatching, fertiflier , cover the egges very well , attack aggressively when I use the tube to clean the tank , means thay are quite good parrent to protect their fry but that is .They seem not to pay attention to their fry , just ignor and let them free swimming and die

Can i learn from experiencer :
How to get the fries attach the parrent?
How to educate the parrent attach the fries ?
Any tips


Tran The Hoang Dung

[Willie]

Here's how to maximize the chance for attachment:

1. Line the tank with white paper or paint the sides white. Don't use light blue for Blue Diamonds, go with white.
2. When frys go free swimming, drop the water level as low as you can until the adults can barely stay upright.
3. Turn off aeration and filtration so the water is still.
4. Remove all dark objects, including sponge filters, from the tank.
5. Keep bright lights on the tank 24 hours a day.

In general, the frys last about 24 hours. They will usually find the parents during this time. The tank can go without filtration for 24 hours. Once they attach, you can resume water changes. I usually wait 48 hours before restarting filtration. You can also add water back to its original level after 48 hours.

I keep feeding the parents as normal and maintain 30% water changes daily after this first 24 hour period.

Willie