My Babies at 2 weeks

[steve.ryall]

Here they are guys, now 2 weeks free swimming. They are living alone in their own tank, Mum moved out yesterday, Dad packed his bags last week after falling out with one of the kids. :D

Hope you like them,
Steve

[steve.ryall]

last one for now, but more will follow

[AmberC]

Aww They are so cute Steve! You are doing great with them! WTG!!

Amber

[CAGE-RATTLER]

Lookin Good Steve ............. how many fry did you get out the spawn?

[oodi]

Congrats, Steve!! It's always a ton of fun to watch babies!

Judi
:)

[Kindredspirit]

I made it;) You are doing such a great job Steve! I have never seen fry so up close! Great pictures:)

How often do you feed them? What are you going to do with them all? lol!!


Marie ~ http://smileys.smileycentral.com/cat/29/29_4_11.gif

[steve.ryall]

Thanks for the positive feedback guys.

Cage, I have 26 little ones, but I do need to cull about 5 that I have identified so far, these ones have not developed properly and shake their tails instead of swim properly, and another one swims on his side and scrapes his eye on the bottom of the tank when feeding, a real shame, but necessary.

Marie, I feed them probably 8 times a day, I have a glass of brine shrimp next to the tank ans a tiny pipette, and suck up a few and squirt in for the fry. Being on holiday from college I am able to feed little but often, as well as frequent water changes.

Judi/Amber thanks, they are so much fun to watch, and they seem to grow before your eyes, everyone that has seen them are really facinated.

I'll post some more pics of them in a few days, maybe they will have some more colour showing, as they swim right now I can see a hint of orange/red in the fins.

Steve

[pcsb23]

Not bad Steve, not bad at all. :)

[alpine]

Steve, keep us posted with pictures of their development..Very exiting .

roberto.

[t_j]

They look so cute! CONGRATS!!!!!!!:)

[traco]

Steve, they are adorable and I can't believe how quickly they go from tadpole looking things to little mini discus. A lot of working, but worth it heh?

[Timbo]

Steve,

i enjoyed seeing your pictures of the fry very much! thanks for posting them and continue with your good work with them!

Tim

[edit] hey my 1000th post!

[yeomans]

What strain are your fry. Good luck with the babies.


josh

[swinters66]

Wow! Do all discus fry look so transparent and no coloration? First time ive seen them that small up close. Cute little buggers though!!

And by the way...what does "cull" mean? It doesnt sound very good. So, just curious.

[White Worm]

Cull would be removal of the undesireables because of certain characteristics, health, deformities, etc. This is done to make room for the others to thrive and keep a higher quality which is the goal of the hobby. Keeping the higher quality discus gives a higher % of quality offspring if you believe highly in genetics.

[steve.ryall]

I thank you all for your very positive comments.

As I said before, being off for the holidays for so long has enabled me to look after and feed these guys almost hourly. I hope they turn out ok as this is the furthest I have ever got any, well, since keeping discus again this is my first successful hatch. I keep them fat on BS and lets see if they turn out to be fine fish....that I dont know yet???

Swint', Mike described 'cull' well. As explained to me yesterday by an expert here, I have to take the place of the 'predator' not all fish will make it to maturity because of being poor genetically or health wise. As Mike said, this raises the overall quality of discus, and if I do have enough to pass on to discus keepers, they do not want runts or sub-standard fish.

Yeomans, the type of discus they will turn out to be is not clear yet. The cross was of a male Pigeon Blood and female Red Diamond. At the moment the fry are looking distinctly orangey, the tips of the dorsal and anal fins are hinting at orange to red. I have been told that the PB gene is dominant, so I will probably end up with some PB's HTH

Timbo, congrats on the Big 1000th post :D

[swinters66]

Uhm...what do you do with the undesirables once you take them out of the tank? I guess not every little fry can be a perfect fish. Thanks for answering that for me...ive seen that word on here before and thought "What's that?"

[1977]

Definitely cull fish that you see with problems or slow growth right away, the longer you hold on to them the more they will negetively affect the other fry. Get rid of them! I prefer to put them in the garbage disposal, seems like a quick way to get the job done, I do this to discus up to a couple inches or so

[pcsb23]

Uhm...what do you do with the undesirables once you take them out of the tank? I guess not every little fry can be a perfect fish. Thanks for answering that for me...ive seen that word on here before and thought "What's that?"
Cull is the term used when they are removed from the tank and killed humanely. Sorry don't mean to be brutal.

[AADiscus]

Way to go Steve. They are looking good. Nice fat bellies.;) Continue the good work so that we can see what they will look like when they are older.