First success in breeding

[fobincorporated]

Finally succeeded after N times of failures with my leopard pair. Even though I didn't have the right water the pair succeeded with a generous hatch of 82 fries. As soon as the babies are freeswimming I will find my camera and log development. Wow it feels good to see a pair of discus succeed in breeding after countless failures.

[Tropical Haven]

Congrats, leopards are one of my favorite discus, I will look forward to seeing some pictures of them.

[AADiscus]

Congrats! :D

[alpine]

Congratulations on that first hatch.

roberto.

[Darren's Discus]

Good job,
exciting times ahead for you get that bbs ready to go !
look forward to the pics.

cheers.

[pcsb23]

Yeah, very well done :) Now the fun really starts! Leopards eh? I like leopards :D

[fobincorporated]

Anyone know why a discus would not turn dark? My male never changed colors during the whole process of caring for the fries, he's not golden based so he should have no problem with turning dark yet he just swims around like he doesn't care. Any explanation would help, thanks!

[fobincorporated]

Never mind the dad solved his own problem, he started turning dark at times but he's under surveillance! People cant comment in the timeline section so here are the pictures (again)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v53/fob_corp/IMG_0066.jpg
mom and babies

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v53/fob_corp/IMG_0067-1.jpg
dad's side view

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v53/fob_corp/IMG_0064.jpg
mom's not shy

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v53/fob_corp/IMG_0065.jpg
last one.

Thanks for all the congratulations given and congratulations to come XD

[Kenny's Discus]

Big congrats to you Steven! Your patience is finally paying off.;) It does feel good to see frys on their parents back doesn't it? I'd love to see how these guys turn out so keep us posted when you get a chance.

Take care Steven,
Kenny

[fobincorporated]

DAY 4! Hopefully my picture taking skills have improved haha, here are some photos of the babies, enjoy!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v53/fob_corp/babyday4.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v53/fob_corp/babies3.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v53/fob_corp/babies2.jpg

[fobincorporated]

Day 5: Microworm/bbs feeding attempt failed, babies still would not leave mom alone even though I sprayed the food right at them, will see how it goes, the babies are getting rounder and fatter.

[fishmama]

I love to see these experiences! Keep us updated and great work!

[fobincorporated]

Day 6 and the fries finally started eating bbs! very slowly but I can clearly tell who ate the most (since they're the biggest ones in the batch!) Unfortunately my camera ran out of battery so no picture until tomorrow =(

[Polar_Bear]

Great job Steven! You might want to try feeding them finely crushed flake food in a day or two. They are looking good!

[fobincorporated]

Haha funny you mentioned it because some are already trying to tackle the parents' tetra bits (of course they're too small to bite off chunks but they're trying). So far I'm thinking of doing 25% WC every morning when I wake up and 10-20% WC 30 mins after each feeding (or 2-3 15% WC when I cant be home as much), would that be overdoing it?

[Camden]

Haha funny you mentioned it because some are already trying to tackle the parents' tetra bits (of course they're too small to bite off chunks but they're trying). So far I'm thinking of doing 25% WC every morning when I wake up and 10-20% WC 30 mins after each feeding (or 2-3 15% WC when I cant be home as much), would that be overdoing it?


Nah thats fine for water changes, I think. I've heard of people doing 50 percent twice daily. Better the water the better the development. Fry looking great! Keep us posted with the pics:) Now if only I could get some of mine to pair. I swear I have all males...

[Darren's Discus]

Steve,
looking good buddy keep up that bbs and watch those little belly's swell nice looking pair keep the pics coming !


cheers

[fobincorporated]

Day 7! The fries are no longer blurs on my camera YAY! The majority accept brine like snacks whenever I drop some in. Unfortunately there's one that I have to cull for sure soon (some swim bladder issue, he/she's actually one of the biggest ones) and some minor runted fries. Enough said, here's pictures.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v53/fob_corp/babyday7.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v53/fob_corp/babyday7-2.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v53/fob_corp/day7closeup.jpg

I still have more than 60 at the moment, hopefully it'll stay that way. Will update another day.

[fobincorporated]

Sorry have been lazy, but today I decided to clean up and prune my tanks. The fries are now 10 days old WHOO! I'm still seeing a decent number of them now (cant count with them moving everywhere). Here are the pictures!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v53/fob_corp/tank.jpg
VERY clean isnt it (totally not the case before cleaning :p)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v53/fob_corp/clearestshot.jpg
My clearest shot with the camera so far

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v53/fob_corp/pleco.jpg
ABN baby hiding in corner

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v53/fob_corp/closeup.jpg
Took a while but one of them is the biggest one of the batch (1/2 inch almost)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v53/fob_corp/plantedtank.jpg
After pruning my planted tank

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v53/fob_corp/loner.jpg
This guy still hates me for taking him out of water to take a snapshot

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v53/fob_corp/chewedupamazonsword.jpg
My fish does not know what not to eat *sigh*

AND finally~ *drumroll* the result of doing alot of cleaning and pruning as a consequence of being lazy before!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v53/fob_corp/prunyrighthand.jpg
Pruny right hand

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v53/fob_corp/prunylefthand.jpg
Pruny left hand

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v53/fob_corp/garbage.jpg
This is the amount of plants I threw away, took up 1/2 my small garbage can space (it's enough to cover up a 10 gallon tank LOL)

Will update later on, but this is it for now

[Namor!]

Those Leopards are very nice! Keep the pics of the fry and parents coming...

[Tropical Haven]

As long as your water parameters are exactly as the water in your tank you can never over do it.

[fobincorporated]

Should I have the babies in their own tank now? Mom's starting to look a bit pissed off and looks like she's chasing the fries. Hopefully I wont have to separate the babies from parents, I want to squeeze out some more growth.

[jczz1232]

Good work I alway and want a leopard or lss pair. Nice job. Keep us updated. Is a that a 29 gal the one with the pair in it?

John

[fobincorporated]

Actually no it's just a cheap 20 gal I got from LFS, it was originally used as a sump and was for sale at 10 bucks. Honestly, with the work I had to go through to clean the damn tank makes it not worth the price AT ALL LOL. On top of that, I had to seal the pre-drilled hole they used for sump inflow. It works really well though surprisingly, my plecos can hide in the pvc "cave" when the parents try to harass them and they keep my tank clean. Breeding... now that's a different story and all I can say is have patience haha. - Steven

[AADiscus]

Looking good but how about cleaning the outside of the tank. lol ;)

If mom keeps acting up pull her and let dad finish raising them.

[fobincorporated]

The babies died less than an hr of transfer from the breeding tank to their growout tank =(. I'm not sure what I did wrong at all, I aged the water for well over 3 days, I made sure the parameters are the same. Could there be some bacteria bloom in less than a week? My water was clear as well (treated it with hydrogen peroxide for over a day) and I did not put the fish in for the days where I was aging and treating the tank/water. Any input will be great, what a bummer, I did so well for 2 weeks.

[AADiscus]

There could be quite a bit that could have happened to the new tank. Was the tank cycled fully? Any chemicals in there? I would have moved the parents and let the fry grow more in the tank they were bread in.

[fobincorporated]

I've transferred the spong filters I've been aging and I'm pretty sure that the tank is only slightly off balance on cycle since it always take a bit in a new tank. I had prime added a day before hand in case there were chlorine or chloramine. 3 days ago there were some hydrogen peroxide added as a bacteriacide and fungicide. Lesson learned, will make sure the babies get better treatment than parents LOL.

[fobincorporated]

Just for future reference, what are some of the methods you guys use in transferring fries to a different tank? How old/big are they? Also, would you guys spend the time to grow out 2 2 week old fries? I found 2 survivors and I'm hoping to raise them to adulthood.