Young parent not eating

[PJs]

Hi - I just started with discus and have two 4.5 inch/10cm discus that laid eggs 4 days ago. Hatched last night. The male has hardly eaten in almost 5 days and is very skinny, large eyes sw bulbous. Dropped in beef heart mix, no good.

Divided tank today so adult angel (very calm) now separated, in case that would help (plexiglass with holes, netting over). No eating yet, afraid male will be stunted. Should I get rid of the young so he will calm down? (I hoped to raise them but not that important, not worth setting up separate tank yet.) Will try froz. shrimp tonight, but not expecting results.

Thanks for any help you can offer.

[JimmyL]

No beefheart. That's a NO NO.. Only frozen blood worms or live black worms. small Red Wrigglers is the best. Only food that will not foul water. You need to keep the parameters stable. They eat very little rearing fry. Don't worry.
Jimmy

[PJs]

Thank you very much for your reply, but I am still a bit worried - how long can a discus of this size fast without becoming stunted? His eyes are rather large, and his stomach quite skinny. At the store (week ago), he was the champion chasing the others behind the filter. And he ate well the few days before the eggs appeared.

From the looks of it, he won't be any more relaxed when the fry start swimming. It's almost like he's forgotten how to eat, while the female more than makes up for him. (Regardless of type of food, I suction leftovers out after an hour. It's a 50g/200L tank, so I figure that's not too long. Tried the shrimp, they weren't interested in it, maybe next time.) FYI - my pH is 6.9-7, which seems fine for these discus, thus the eggs.

- And happy belated birthday!

[Carol_Roberts]

Healthy Discus can go several weeks without eating. If you are worried you can pull the eggs and start feeding what he was eating when you first got him.

[PJs]

Thank you thank you! I thought I'd heard that discus in particular get stunted if they don't eat well.

They are amazing parents! Only one white egg! Only about 40 eggs, though, I think (hard to count :) )