new pair eating the fry

[chandra2b]

Hi I have joined the forms few months ago and I have to say I found so much useful information and advice in here. I had discus for a long time now. I recently got a pair they are really beautiful pair of fish. As I have noticed them pair off I left them in the community tank for few weeks and noticed that they are not showing any interest in spawning so I have separated them into a 51cm cubicle of their own. After 3 weeks they have spanned in the new tank, I use RO water in the breeding tank change 20% everyday, pH 6-6.5, temperature 29oC and other stable conditions.
About my fish: the female is 20cm fish and the male is 15cm, I had them for a year, bought them at 6 months old they are both blue torques. They are very cool fish not aggressive or violent compared to other fish in my community tank, they are very calm always. The male is active every time I give it food it eats but I have never seen the female eat, may be it eats after I leave or don’t know! But they never had any problems or diseases before, very healthy fish.
Three weeks ago they laid eggs on the cone in my breeding tank, they (both the parents) took very good care of the eggs, flushing water, clearing fungus and so on.... on the third day the eggs have hatched and the they even took the hatched fry that have fallen down and put them on back on the cone, I was so happy that I really had a very good pair that are doing good parenting. But on the fifth day they ate the fry, I don’t know if both the parents ate them or only one of them, I was really depressed because the parents are so good I was not expecting this.
Now they again laid eggs few days ago and it’s the same situation again I couldn’t see which one ate them.
Is there anything that I could do to help the fry? Or should I give them some more time because his is just their second spawn? Am I being too greedy, please help some advice, is there anything that I can do........
Thanks
Jay

[smiley]

IMO there are 2 ways to follow,

1. Let the fishes figure themselves out (after all they have held themselves well upto 5 days)
2. Try to make a wire guage for the cone - You can check David's thread on his breeding timeline for pics (http://forum.simplydiscus.com/showpost.php?p=601519&postcount=4)If you are sure they dont eat it to 4 days...then put the wire blockage on the 4th day. This way you know they dont stand a chance of eating the eggs before they are hatched. Try to figure out which one out of the 2 are eating the fry.Then move it out of the tank.

I didnt have to move any of the 2 out of the tank as both the parents have good parenting skills...The only issue on moving out one of the parents is that the one with frys could get stressed out because of the initial feeding of the frys..they remain attached to a single parent which may weaken it completely.

Hope it helps

[mmorris]

But on the fifth day they ate the fry, I don’t know if both the parents ate them or only one of them, ...
Now they again laid eggs few days ago and it’s the same situation again I couldn’t see which one ate them.
Is there anything that I could do to help the fry? Or should I give them some more time because his is just their second spawn? Jay
I would go with 'patience' first too but it's hard to preach that when fry, rather than eggs, are being eaten. What is your wc regime? I recommend 50% daily, wiping everything down daily too. I have one pair, though, that knock eggs or fry off the cone in their fury when I try to wipe down so I have to wait until the fry are free-swimming. Did the eggs hatch this second time? I would remove the female and see if the male will take care of things. The female is often, but not always, the egg eater.
You could try a cone guard but it's impossible to know if they will eat the fry as soon as they go free-swimming.

[pinoysport]

Hi I have joined the forms few months ago and I have to say I found so much useful information and advice in here. I had discus for a long time now. I recently got a pair they are really beautiful pair of fish. As I have noticed them pair off I left them in the community tank for few weeks and noticed that they are not showing any interest in spawning so I have separated them into a 51cm cubicle of their own. After 3 weeks they have spanned in the new tank, I use RO water in the breeding tank change 20% everyday, pH 6-6.5, temperature 29oC and other stable conditions.
About my fish: the female is 20cm fish and the male is 15cm, I had them for a year, bought them at 6 months old they are both blue torques. They are very cool fish not aggressive or violent compared to other fish in my community tank, they are very calm always. The male is active every time I give it food it eats but I have never seen the female eat, may be it eats after I leave or don’t know! But they never had any problems or diseases before, very healthy fish.
Three weeks ago they laid eggs on the cone in my breeding tank, they (both the parents) took very good care of the eggs, flushing water, clearing fungus and so on.... on the third day the eggs have hatched and the they even took the hatched fry that have fallen down and put them on back on the cone, I was so happy that I really had a very good pair that are doing good parenting. But on the fifth day they ate the fry, I don’t know if both the parents ate them or only one of them, I was really depressed because the parents are so good I was not expecting this.
Now they again laid eggs few days ago and it’s the same situation again I couldn’t see which one ate them.
Is there anything that I could do to help the fry? Or should I give them some more time because his is just their second spawn? Am I being too greedy, please help some advice, is there anything that I can do........
Thanks
Jay

hello... did the fry go free swimming? did they eat them while they were free swimming?

or did they eat the fry right off the site where they were wiggiling from?

[chandra2b]

thz for the reply you guys, even the second spawn has gone, they ate them just after the fry started to free swim..... now they laid eggs again its been 2 days and i guss they will hatch tomorrow i dont know what to do????:confused:

[mmorris]

I would remove the female now. It is commonly, but not always, the female that eats the spawn. The male can raise them on his own, and if he eats them, try removing him the next time. Good luck, and keep us posted.

[Keith Perkins]

I would remove the female now. It is commonly, but not always, the female that eats the spawn. The male can raise them on his own, and if he eats them, try removing him the next time. Good luck, and keep us posted.

Agreed, try removing the female.

[David Rose]

Hi Jay and welcome to Simply Discus!

All the advice above is good and can be considered for possible actions to take. I suspect they are learning how to be good parents and will take some time and patience. If it were me I would help them along with adding a cone guard to get the wrigglers to the free-swimming stage. As Martha said, they may or may not eat them at that time. For me, they did not and then this next step of getting the fry to attach was a new hurdle to help the parents learn. So lowering the water level to above the parents dorsal fins was a help for the fry to find the parents to feed.

Keep us posted and best of luck during this exciting time and collaborative learning process!

David