couple eats eggs

[polymer]

hi
i am new to this forum, but i have visited it for some time. I am also new to breeding discus, but have kept them for a while. I tried to form coupes for some months with some success and a few months ago I a saw a "confirmed couple" couple in a community aquarium at a pet shop and bought it. It was a confirmed couple since I saw the female laying eggs and the fertilizing them and defending them from the other fish in the tank.
The couple is formed by a blue cobalt female and a snake skin male.
Well, 15 days after I brought them home they laid eggs, but i freaked out and thought the eggs were getting bad and added meth. blue to the water, what made them eat the eggs right away. A week later they laid eggs again and they raised the fry wthout any problems whatsoever. I have now about 40 discus fry around 1/2-3/4" that are doing great and are fed only on dry food right now. I lost almost ten one night that I left the sponge filter off by mistake.
A week after I removed the fish from the parents they laid eggs again and I thought things were gong to flow smoothly like the previous time, however on the second day they eate almost all eggs and left only 12 or so, which were eaten on the third day. I had not changed anything and my water parameters were OK, conductivity 105microsiemens, ph around 6.8. The only thing that might be diferent is that now I am using a sponge filter and before I was using a small trickle filter. The cone I used was the same as before.
I thought that egg eating couples would only eat their first spawns but when they get into track i would have thought that they would go ahead and raise the fry.

I would appreciate any comments on this.
Best

[Chad Hughes]

Well, IMO the filter doesn't seem to be an issue. There are many reasons for discus to eat a spawn of eggs. You could cover the eggs until you get wigglers. A lot of people do this. While you are waiting for the spawn to hatch out, only change as much water as it takes to siphon the bottom of the tank for debris. once your siphoning is done, just replace the water that you removed. Large water changes can sometime prompt discus to want to spawn again and they will promptly eat the spawn they just produced.

Best wishes!

[MostlyDiscus]

I agree with Chad on this. I would add that in doing large water changes that is hard to keep the same parameters ie Microseimens and ph. I think large water changes would be the number 2 reason why parents eat eggs.

Ed

[polymer]

thanks for the quick reply
This time I did not do ANY water changes after they had laid eggs. I did that the first time they ate their eggs.

[Chad Hughes]

So they ate their eggs without water changes?

If that is the case, cover them.

How quickly after they are eating their eggs are they producing new spawns?

Best wishes!

[polymer]

the first spawn, they ate the eggs. a week later they produced a new spawn. they did not ate the eggs and raised the fry. a week after removing the fry from the parents, they produced a new spawn and they ate the eggs. that was last sunday.

[Chad Hughes]

Sounds like a cycle to me. Discus, if not prepared to raise another spawn, will eat the eggs. If you want to produce fry from each spawn, then you will likely have to cover the cone. If you don't "need" each spawn and want to let them do their thing, then just do that.

You will need to be careful when you remove the screen at the point of having wigglers. They can eat them then as well. I have heard of breeders allowing the screen to stay in place until free swimming and the fry swim out of the screen on their own. I have never tried this.

Best wishes!

[polymer]

had a new spawn last sunday! they did not eat the egss this time.
your were right about the cycle. last night I saw some wrigglers, this morning I saw a lot of them still attached to the cone. no signs of parents eating them yet.

[Chad Hughes]

Congrats! Hope all goes well for you from this point on. I would be careful with water changes at this point. Only remove enough water to get a good bottom siphon done then add back what you took out. Large water changes can trigger new spawns and they'll eat wigglers as quickly as they eat eggs. Remember to leave a night light on!

Best wishes!

[polymer]

hi,
a quick update on this one.
This couple (one of the three I have now) used to go like this: one successful spawn, and then one when they would eat the eggs, and then again a succesful one (rearing fry and so on).
After three successful clutches, they have kept spawning every 6-7 days, but they have been eating their eggs 4 times in a row up to now. One of the four times, I tried putting a steel mesh around the clay cone, and that time the eggs turned infertile, all of them. The other three times, they ate the eggs, sometimes on the first day, sometimes on the second day.
I have no idea as to why they do that now. I have not changed neither water parameters nor filtration, light, etc.
Any ideas on the causes? Can something be done to avoid this?
thanks

[polymer]

hi,
a quick update on this one.
This couple (one of the three I have now) used to go like this: one successful spawn, and then one when they would eat the eggs, and then again a succesful one (rearing fry and so on).
After three successful clutches, they have kept spawning every 6-7 days, but they have been eating their eggs 4 times in a row up to now. One of the four times, I tried putting a steel mesh around the clay cone, and that time the eggs turned infertile, all of them. The other three times, they ate the eggs, sometimes on the first day, sometimes on the second day.
I have no idea as to why they do that now. I have not changed neither water parameters nor filtration, light, etc.
Any ideas on the causes? Can something be done to avoid this?
thanks