Breeding questions

[ycbs]

A little background: Okay, first let me say that I never intended to breed discus. I got them to be a part of a 75g planted community tank (rummynose, cardinals, lemons, marbled hatchets, blue rams, sterbai cories, otos, a couple of baby albino BN's, ghost shrimp, amano shrimp, nerite snails). The water is tap water with a pH that fluctuates in this tank between 7.0-7.1. About 7 months ago I got 3 blue turqs and a red melon-looking discus. The red melon-looking one and two of the blue turqs were the same size, but one of the blue turqs was noticeably larger than the rest. I was told they were all about 7 months old at the time. I lost one of the blue turqs about 4 weeks ago. It had been hanging by itself all the time, while the other three almost always stayed together.

So at this point I'm down to three total. About a week after the one blue turq died, the remaining smaller blue turq starts laying eggs on a piece of vertical driftwood one night as I watched. Within half an hour, though, the larger blue turq and the red melon ate all the eggs. I saw this with my own eyes.

Now, last night (about three weeks after the first egg laying), I notice the same blue turq shimmy-ing up a different piece of vertical driftwood. I then see the red melon doing the exact same thing on another piece of driftwood. Upon closer inspection, the red melon has laid a boatload of orange looking eggs. The larger blue turq, which I now believe is definitely a male, is guarding them, but not eating them. The red melon, then starts to make regular visits to the other piece of driftwood to eat the eggs the other blue turq lays, just about as soon as she lays them. The blue turq does nothing to stop her.

This morning, when I fed them before leaving for work, I expected to see no eggs anywhere, but ALL of the red melons eggs seem to still be there. The male still seems to be guarding them. At this point I'm thinking there's a good chance that some of them might hatch.

Now the questions: If they do, what should I do? Even though I didn't intend to breed them, if they end up with free swimming fry, I'd like to try raising them. Should I move the fry and one of the parents to their own tank? If so, at what point? Would a 10 g be large enough? Would Hikari First Bites powdered food be okay for them instead of BBS? Are the frozen BBS okay or should it just be live BBS?

Also, is it normal if you have a trio for both females to lay eggs? Would the male ever try to raise both sets of fry?

Before the egg-laying started, my plan was to get a couple more discus that were about the same size as mine are now so I'd have 5 total. My females are about 4.5 inches and the male is about 5.5 inches. When I got them the females were about 2.5 inches and the male was about 3 inches.

[Eddie]

If your die hard about raising them, they wont be a nice mix. A Red Melon is pigeon based and you'll get some very dirty (peppered) pigeons from this cross. My suggestion is to scrap this batch, let the eggs hatch and all the other fish in the tank will eat the babies as they go free swimming. I'd personally move the 2 Blue Turqs to a breeder tank of their own. These 2 will produce babies that will actually be appealing. Since you know you have a female and male, thats half the battle. They will most likely breed together but you need to keep an eye on them, just in case the male decides to turn "wife beater". Sometimes a pair can start fighting in the breeding tank but not always.

HTH,

Edddie

[mmorris]

Now the questions: If they do, what should I do?
1. Should I move the fry and one of the parents to their own tank? If so, at what point?
2. Would a 10 g be large enough?
3. Would Hikari First Bites powdered food be okay for them instead of BBS? Are the frozen BBS okay or should it just be live BBS?

4. Also, is it normal if you have a trio for both females to lay eggs? Would the male ever try to raise both sets of fry?
.

1. I wouldn't raise turq/pb fry. They will most likely be heavily peppered. I would put the two blue turqs in their own tank and hope that the one blue turq is a male. You'll know he's a male when eggs hatch and there are no other discus in the vacinity. Until then, you can't be sure.
2. No, a 10 gallon is not large enough. I don't recommend anything smaller than a 29 gallon; a 20 gallon is OK if you have experience.
3. IMP, there is no substitute for bbs. If you would like to raise fry, I highly recommend you learn how to hatch out bbs now. There are lots of threads with instructions. It is easy if you start with quality eggs. I don't think there is much nutritional value in frozen bbs. Bbs need to be fed as soon after hatching as possible before the bbs egg yolk gets used up. I start a new batch twice a day. It takes probably a minute and a half each time.
4. I've heard lots of people reporting trios, but I don't have first-hand experience on this. I haven't heard of males raising both batches but that doesn't mean they haven't.