Parents eating eggs

[Raghavan]

Hi all
I am new to simplydiscus forum.
we recently bought some discus breeding pairs. One of them start breeding. As soon as the female lay the eggs, the male eats off. This pair has bred three times in one month period. Do the parents will learn their parental care. How long should I wait?.
Cheers to all.

[danny2013]

They will get it right soon but if you don't want them to eat the eggs you can go to your local hardware store or home depot and buy plastic Gutter guard to put around the cone after they spawn, so they don't eat the eggs. Or you can wait and they will grow out of the stage where they eat there own eggs. Best of Luck, Dan

Here is what i use

http://www.lowes.com/pd_11632-205-85198_0_?productId=3009380&Ntt=gutter%20guard&Ntk=i_products&pl=1&currentURL=/pl__0__s?newSearch=true$Ntt=gutter%20guard$y=0$x=0

[mmorris]

Did the male appear to be making passes over the eggs? Were they a confirmed pair (ie had produced wrigglers) when you bought them? If so, how do you know that? Do you know, or can you find out, anything about their breeding history? You may have an immature male who will eventually get it right, you may have two females, or you may have a discus with a very bad habit.

[Raghavan]

Yes the male did during the last breeding

[mmorris]

OK, can you answer my other questions? It might help figure out the problem.

[Raghavan]

The eggs laid by them were observed under microscope and found they were very well fertilized.

[Raghavan]

We don't have any breeding history of the pair. They have been recently bought from florida.

[mmorris]

When you bought the pairs did they tell you if they produced wrigglers? Normally people show pics of the breeding pairs with fry if they produced spawns successfully. People sometimes put two fish together, call them a pair, jack up the price and then hope one is a male and one is a female. How did you confirm under the microscope that the eggs were fertile if the male eats them right off? I would think it would take a day or so to be able to detect anything positive under the microscope. Here's hoping you have a young pair that just haven't quite got it right yet.

[Raghavan]

Thank you....today another pair started laying. There are hardly 20 eggs. this time we could save the eggs by covering them with a mesh. I will keep posting the developments. Thanks again.