Old pair stop spawning, new formed pair suspect all female

[mikechen]

Hi, Everyone:

My old pair red cover started their first breeding experience about 20+days ago. The eggs became dark then I did a 100% WC and the next day the eggs were all gone. Ever since that day the female shows sign of oestrus but the male shows indifferent toward female and is sometime scared of my apperance. I now lower the ph to 5.8 (slowly lower in three days) but see no effect. Should I wait or just put them to my community tank?

The other "pair" are formed week ago, I am so glad because they are my new bought 2 adult BD. They were very enthusiastic at spawning and courting each other for days. Last Saturday, one of them laid eggs on the tank glass . I waited for the bigger one to fertilize the eggs but they always kept a distance and "he" also pecked on the glass. "He" and she kept doing the same spawning action parallelly within a short distance. The "he" and she have the similar shaped genitals sticking out. The only difference was the "she" really laid eggs and the "he" did not. Are they all females? If so, what should I do?

[Ryan]

Patience is key.

I wouldn't move a pair into a breeding tank until you let them practice in the community tank a few times. This should give you a chance to see if they even produce wigglers/fry. I have had fish spawn once in the past and then they lose interest in each other. Leaving the pair in the community lets them have a few practice runs, and gives you a chance to see if they are producing viable eggs.

Blue Diamond males often take longer to mature. Maybe if the fish is a male, he's not old enough yet? It's also possible that you have two females. Again, the best thing you can do is give them time. You can't rush them -- it will happen when it's ready to happen. Just keep letting them practice and eventually they'll get it right.

Ryan

[pcsb23]

I've found that if you disturb the tank, and a 100% w/c is a big disturbance, it can cause the parents to eat the eggs. IME its best to leave the w/c until after the eggs are hatched, then do little and frequent, keep food to the minimum too!
hth,
Paul.

[mikechen]

Ryan,

Thanks. I will take your advise and put them in the community tank. But I have a problem that is---the oldiest confirm pair won't let any discus to spawn in the community. He just swims in-between the egg laying discus pair and eats all the eggs laid.

Here is the video of the BD pair:
http://www.youtube.com/?v=DjtPy9gpTp8

The Red Cover Pair:
http://www.youtube.com/?v=2gYVuxo4tV0

[Ryan]

Great video :) Those blue diamonds have a great color. Looks like a lot of "coming of age" activity in the tank -- lots of bickering, pushing around, etc. How old are your fish?

Ryan

[mikechen]

Ryan:

Thanks! To tell the truth I do not know because I just bought them from LFS this November. I guess they are not young-the size of their eyes. The red covers are about 2 years old. They were bought when they were 1 inch big.

[mikechen]

Hi,

My red cover pair spawned again two days ago with 200~300 eggs. I was so happy and thought it was the Christmas gift for me. When they spawned I did not know so I did not turn off the top filtration. I added 2 ml formalin to the 40 galon tank. The next day (24+hrs)half of the eggs turned white. And today only 10- eggs about to hatch. The rest of the eggs are all white with white hairy fungus. One can see a sharp thing is about to break out for the remaining 10- eggs.(Ha! Sounds like alien.) They did not eat the white eggs but the dark ones, why? Is the volume of formalin 2ml for 40 gallon correct for preventing fungus? Thanks!

Happy Holiday for everyone!

[mikechen]

Hi everyone,

After I decided to give up the idea of breeding, I did not move my red cover pair back to the community tank asap. Last monday the pair was fighting, the male would not let the female near the eggs. If she came closer than he would chase her away. He ate all the soon to be hatched with little tails poked out eggs and left all the white eggs alone on the glass so I wiped all the eggs and cleaned the tank. Yesterday I found the male chasing the female and mouth fighting with no mercy which caused several wounds on the female. The male rushed to chase her and bumped against the filter which also caused him two surface cuts. When I went to feed them hamburger minutes later, I found the male was kind of trying to fertilize the hamburger. Then he chased the female Which stayed far away from him. After chasing he came back to fertilize the hamburger again. Back and forth he repeated the same two actions for 10+ minutes. I found the female was injured so I decided to put the both back to the community tank immediately.

Some other female discus showed their interest to the male and the original female swam around the male and tried to get him back. Two hours later I saw the female laid eggs and all other discus ate the eggs.(They weren't the dominant pair in the community tank.)

The point is the male would not let the female to eat in the breeding tank and the female do not eat in the community tank as well. How can I get her to eat again? Thanks!

[mench]

I guess,guess like humans,some couples are not meant to be together...I would try the male with another female...do you have any other tanks of discus that you can put the female in> If not maybe try a separate tank with just her and try feeding small amounts of food to see if she will eat..I have always found that when they get hungry,they will eat.


Mench

[mikechen]

Thanks Mench. I will observe her for couple of days see if she starts to eat.