pigeon checkerboard didn't attach to parents body

[itthinker]

hi...can anyone here advise why the pigeon checkerboard does not attach to their parent's body, i tried to lower down the water level and put some lighting on top, still the same :(

[kpotter2]

The only thing you can really do is take every thing out of tank,but leave heater. You must lighten up you background then do your lowering of the water and so forth. How big of a tank are they in? Try using a smaller tank around 20H and see if that may work. I use a 29 and lowerd the water and took out sponge filters and that work,but it took two spownings for that to work and then they went for the heater suction cups. I took them out and they went right for the the parents. Remember they will for the first days maybe 3 they will come and go to the parents and a corner or something.

Good luck,

Kyle

[itthinker]

kyle,

tnx for the adviced, im using a 3 feets tank but in between i separated out to 3 sections with black glasses, meaning my tank only 1 feet x 1 feet i guess. so that i have 3 spawning space in the 3 feets tank.

unfornately 100 over pigeon fries dead today, im so sad :( but i will try for the next spawning, i have lighting on top on the tank and without sponge filter. Do i need to put heater since the water level are so low, only about the parents heights.

[mmorris]

Do i need to put heater since the water level are so low, only about the parents heights.
I lay the submersable heater on its side at the bottom of the tank. Sorry about the fry. I know it's a drag. Here's hoping for the next batch. :)

[doc3toes]

if you put the heater in the middle section of the [][][] and give it some circulation and it might be enough to heat the outside 2 sections so you could move the heater out. white paper all the sides. just a thought. also foster to dark parents if you can. works great.

[cschwaderer]

One interesting thing I've found is that the pH and/or total dissolved solids (TDS) GH/KH affect not only the hatch rates, but seem to also affect the strength and ability to attach to the parents.

I have to use an RO/aged tap mix in order to get a decent hatch rate, but still, if the TDS is 180+ and pH is around 7.8+, the fry seem kind of weak, can't keep up with the parents when attach time rolls around, and seem to scatter around the tank. At a TDS of 150 or below and a pH of 7.2 or below, I get better hatch rates, the fry seem much stronger when they are initially free-swimming - so fast that the parents can't catch them sometimes. And they attach much better.

It might be that the parents develop a better slime coat at lower pH/TDS. It might be the process of getting out of the egg and/or the absorbtion of the egg yolk makes things harder on the fry at higher pH and TDS, so they end up weaker at free-swim time. Maybe a mixture of both.

But beyond this, with lighter/orange Discus, I've found lowering the water level like you did and having a very light or no current in the tank during the initial free-swimming hours helps the fry to find the parents. but it sounds like you've already done that.

I'd do a pH check as well as a TDS check (or better yet, independent GH and KH checks) and see how the attaching goes at various readings. Sometimes it just takes the parents a while to get the hang of things too.