New to this - Tetra Blackwater?

[rubley]

I've been keeping Discus for about 8 months now. I recently purchased two 5" fish being sold as Red Melons, but they're more orangish. Anyway, 2 days later the Red Melons laid eggs on a piece of artificial driftwood! Not knowing what to do and figuring the other fish would eat the eggs, I moved them to a 20H tank. I watched them laying eggs and I think they are male/female because one fish didn't appear to be laying eggs, although I didn't really notice anything that looked like sperm either, can you see it? They ate the eggs the next day though. :(

I don't do anything special with the water, just add Tetra Conditioner. pH 7.0 It's quite hard though, 150+ ppm I think (at work now). I was wondering if anyone had any experience with the Tetra Blackwater Extract, especially in a breeding tank. I know I can use peat in a power filter, but if/when they have free swimmers I can't use the power filter, so I was thinking the extract would be easier to add during a water change. I'm not hardcore enough to setup an RO system... Any thoughts?

[Carol_Roberts]

Blackwater extract will not help your eggs hatch. You want to remove things (minerals) from the water - not add things. If they lay eggs again watch to see if they tend them, if so you can buy RO water to mix with your tap. 100 ppm should be good to hatch eggs.

[rubley]

Thanks for the advice. The female is doing "the shake" again, but the male doesn't seem to be too interested.