Defying all the odds

[frenchie100]

I now have wigglers that are defying all the odds. I didn't think this batch would ever make it this far. And unfortunately the timing couldn't be any worse. This pair so far had always eaten their eggs.

The pair layed eggs after a 2nd fluke tab treatment. I am still at the stage of trying to rebuild my biofilter that was nuked by the treatment. It seems like it is taking for ever. So I am having nitrite readings, that I am trying to keep a handle on with wcs. Then the eggs got fungus. Somehow about a handful of wigglers came out of that.

It has now been 2 days and the parents still haven't eaten them! I thought for sure they would since the water conditions are less than perfect.

The other thing is that they are in a 55 gallon grow out BB tank with 5 other discus. I was going to put a divider to actually separate the male and the female, because I don't particularly want those 2 breeding. I just didn't have the heart to separate them while they were protecting eggs. The male was attacking my arm when I was in there with a siphon and actually hurting my arm. So then, I felt like he ws being such a good dad that he should have the right to raise his babies ( which at the time, I didn't know they were even going to turn into wigglers)

So now what do I do? They are about to become freeswimmers. Will the tank divider work? Or is there a special kind that will work better for this type of situation?

Thank you,

Julie

[Peachtree Discus]

after they go freeswimming and before they attach , they will be all over the place and probably end up as an exciting snack for the others. unless its tight sealed, a divider will not work. if you are going to breed them you should be in a tank set up for breeding

[frenchie100]

My wigglers are freeswimmers and have attached to the parents!

Well I think they are attached... They still swim around and then go back to either the sponge filter or the mom! They swim really well too, it's really cute!

The mom swims to be itchy because of it, probably because she's never had little things crawling on her before!

Wes- Now I know exactly what you mean about the dividers. I am rigging things up as I go, but I am regularly saving some stragglers who make their way over to the other side :mad:.

I even have a double dividers: an eggcrate with the smallest patio screen sown on it, and the pennplax divider that has the plastic needle point thin on it. Unforunately the babies fit through both of those!!!

They only have about 10 babies ( the dad is still guarding the moldy eggs!!) so we will see what happens.

At this point I feel I have done everything I could for these guys under the circumstances, so now I just have to hope they stay on the one side until they are big enough not to fit through the holes.

*sigh*

-Julie

[waters10]

My wigglers are freeswimmers and have attached to the parents!

Well I think they are attached... They still swim around and then go back to either the sponge filter or the mom! They swim really well too, it's really cute!

The mom swims to be itchy because of it, probably because she's never had little things crawling on her before!

Wes- Now I know exactly what you mean about the dividers. I am rigging things up as I go, but I am regularly saving some stragglers who make their way over to the other side :mad:.

I even have a double dividers: an eggcrate with the smallest patio screen sown on it, and the pennplax divider that has the plastic needle point thin on it. Unforunately the babies fit through both of those!!!

They only have about 10 babies ( the dad is still guarding the moldy eggs!!) so we will see what happens.

At this point I feel I have done everything I could for these guys under the circumstances, so now I just have to hope they stay on the one side until they are big enough not to fit through the holes.

*sigh*

-Julie
Cool! If anything the parents are getting experience and so are you!

Are these the fish from Kenny? Any pics? :)

[frenchie100]

The mom ( domestic brown) is from Kenny's Jan shipment. The male is a PB that I got in Nov. from my LFS.
You can see them here with previous eggs that they ended up eating:

http://forum.simplydiscus.com/showthread.php?t=69902

They are both being awesome parents, I just can't believe it.

I technically don't want them to breed together, just didn't think it would go this far :o. So this will be the last time they are together, hopefully I can find them other partners that they each like.

Like you said though, this is an awesome experience for me and good practice for them. I now know that they both are capable of raisinf young, so in my next pairs I will know that at least one of the parents is good!

I just got some pics of the babies on mom so as soon as I upload them I will post it here. :)


-Julie

[frenchie100]

Okay, here are the pics I was talking about in my previous post. I now have now babies left.

http://i93.photobucket.com/albums/l62/jcain100/IMG_1012.jpg

http://i93.photobucket.com/albums/l62/jcain100/IMG_1013-1.jpg

The next day I think I had 2 left, eventhough I had done everything in my power to make sure they weren't going to the other side. I was rigging things up as I was going along, as you will see in the pics. I even put a long filter pad in between my 2 dividers to try to stop the babies, but they would still find the smallest opening ever.

This is the divider I rigged up. It's an eggcrate to which I sowed patio screen onto. Well the babies could fit through that, so I added the Pennplax divider that says fits 55 gallons. It doesn't :mad:, so I had to use hangers to try to keep in place, but the babies fit through the hoesl as well. The picture is while I was doing a wc. The parents were separated on the left where the spong filter is. I had put and aquarium background in the front so that they could have more privacy since our kitchen is high traffic.

http://i93.photobucket.com/albums/l62/jcain100/IMG_1014.jpg


Then my pair layed eggs again with 2 babies on mom still :confused:!
Can you see the baby on the left side of her dorsal fin?!
Unfortunately he died the next day. I tried feeding him newly hatched BBS, but it didn't work.

http://i93.photobucket.com/albums/l62/jcain100/IMG_1016.jpg

So that's my update. It was great to go through this for the first time but also opened the door to some new challenges like: How the heck do you do wcs when you have crazy babies swiming everywhere. I was always scared I was sucking up babies with the poop! :o

-Julie:)

[rwong2k]

beautiful fish from Kenny,

thanks for sharing!