I have babies

[LizStreithorst]

I have babies. I have babies! About 150 are firmly attached. Y'all don't know how long it's been nor how hard I've tried. Finally....And althoug they are ugly little long tailed things I think that they are the most beautiful babies in the world. (I think that it's a female mothering instinct thing on my part.) I know that it's just a bunch of fry, but to me they are perfect and beautiful and I love them.

[Second Hand Pat]

Congrats Liz, super happy for you. Pat

[Jason K.]

congrat's liz, it can be very trying getting these guy's to get thing's right...

[Kingdom Come Discus]

That is great news Liz. I hope things coontinue to go well with them. Keep us informed.

[William Palumbo]

Way to go Liz!...I know from BIDKA you have been having some BAD luck. With Discus, it's usually feast or famine...LOL...All the best with them...Bill

[LizStreithorst]

Way to go Liz!...I know from BIDKA you have been having some BAD luck. With Discus, it's usually feast or famine...LOL...All the best with them...Bill

Bill, When it's easy it is soooooo easy. When it's hard it can be very very hard. Strange, isn't it?

BTW, they ARE the most beautiful day old fry in the world;)

[William Palumbo]

LOL...That's so true...ALWAYS a sweet sight seeing them attached. Now quit pairing females together and you'll be fine!...LOL...Bill

[LizStreithorst]

I'll give your suggestion a try and see if I have better results. Thank you for making me laugh and spit beer all over my lap top.

[jimmyjoe]

Well, now that you have gotten the easy part all right or they did. Now the real work begins hatching BBS and not losing to many from gill worms. I know that's one of my heartaches, with mine, good luck ..................Jim in Ohio

[roclement]

Congrats Liz! Now let's see some pictures!

Rodrigo

[LizStreithorst]

Jim this ain't my first rodeo. I cleaned up the pair previous to putting them in the breeding cube. The fry should be OK. If not, I know what to do.

Rod the batteries died on my fancy dancy camera died and I've been too cheap (read poor) to buy new ones. Maybe if I suck on the old ones one of them will come back to life for a pic or two. Don't laugh. I tried it once before with my old batteries and it worked. Some may say it was due to the salinity in my saliva. I think that it was due to my expert technique

Don't pay any attention to me. I'm high on baby discus and know not what I say.

[Jennie]

congrats Liz, I didn't know you were having problems breeding

[Second Hand Pat]

Liz, stay away from the batteries :)

[joanr]

Congrats Liz! wonderful news, so who are the lucky parents? Have you paired that gorgous fish you got from the show?

[Elite Aquaria]

Congrats LIZ!!!

[LizStreithorst]

Jeanie, I've been having a time of it. The only male I have is old. He wasn't getting the eggs fertilized. I finally got him built up using Andrew's Pro Growth (I had it and didn't have the ProMor so I used what I had).Up to now I'd have spawns that were too small for the parents to bother with. They are a pair of excellent quality BDs who produced hundreds of fry for me years ago but are now showing their age. This time I won't sell off all their kids.

My other "male", the SS I got from Mike at the show, laid eggs the other day. That's what Bill was refering to. He read on BIDKA, where I fessed up, that that might be the reason I'd gotten no fry from "him" an the PE female that I bought just for "him" and who "he'd" been in a breeding cube with since August.

[roundfishross]

I'am having questions as to the sex of my show fish as well,thinking maybee the altum is female!

[BOBT00LS]

Conrats Liz ! Im glad to see this happen for you. Have Fun ! :)


Bob

[seanyuki]

Congrats Liz.....what happened to those albino blue diamonds you were breeding at one stage.

[kaceyo]

Alright Liz!!! It's been a long time coming, but I knew you'd get the job done. BTW, batteries to what? ;)

[Chad Adams]

:fish::fish:Awesome Liz, glad to hear of your success!:fish::fish:
Regards,
Chad

[Justice]

That's wonderful, enjoy! enjoy!

[joanr]

My other "male", the SS I got from Mike at the show, laid eggs the other day. That's what Bill was refering to. He read on BIDKA, where I fessed up, that that might be the reason I'd gotten no fry from "him" an the PE female that I bought just for "him" and who "he'd" been in a breeding cube with since August.

Ah, that's what happened with mine also. The three I could have sworn were males all started laying eggs this past month. Now I have only one confirmed male in the house and a PE who is still undecided. Well now you need to find a "hunk" for that SS beauty and re-name it. I'd keep some of BD fry also!

[LizStreithorst]

Thank to all of you!

Francis I never did get the ABDs to breed. A couple of years ago I had to move back here to my old stomping grounds.It was all rather sudden. I only had a place to set up 2 100 gallon tanks. I took most of my fish to my favorite LFS and had them put them up for sale saying that I'd be back for what didn't sell once I was able to get things set up. I wanted my most valuable fish, ABDs and AWBs to have a better chance. I gave them to George Garcia for the cost of shipping. He had no luck getting them to breed either. I don't know where they are now.

Kacey, I'll be sucking on the batteries to my fancy camera. They died. They're expensive so I've been putting off buying new ones. Some people want pics so I'm going to see if I might revive them with spit. It worked for me once before.

[Jennie]

Pics are mandatory!!!!!!

[ockyra215]

Liz congrats and Id like to see a pic of battery sucking also lol J/k pics of the happy couple and fry would great good luck with them!

[LizStreithorst]

I'll have to do several more WCs before I can get pics.I used every precaution known to man with this spawn, including adding Meth blue. Y'all know how long it takes to get meth blue cleared from the tank.

[nc0gnet0]

I'll have to do several more WCs before I can get pics.I used every precaution known to man with this spawn, including adding Meth blue. Y'all know how long it takes to get meth blue cleared from the tank.

one day with an air bubbler and some AC ;)

[LizStreithorst]

I'll do it the old fashoned way. I could put a Magnum HOT in with the carbon filter, but as I said, I'm being very careful with these as I spent so long trying to get them. They don't need the added water turbulence at this point.

[mmorris]

Yea! The discus highs are so high. Before you spit on the battery, I recommend drinking a couple shots of whiskey first.

[LizStreithorst]

Ain't it strange, Martha? They can put you on top of the world and also make you consider blowing your brains out.

I didn't spit on the battery. I put it in my mouth and sucked on it. It hurt my fillings some, but that weren't no biggie. Glad though that there was nobldy here to take a pic.

I don't allow myself to buy Johnny Walker Black nor high qulaity vodka. I'm bad enough with only horse piss American beer. I don't want to end up like Joe Szelsie (I know I spelled the name wrong. I no longer can be bothered to look it up).

[Disgirl]

Congrats on the fry Liz!! Sucking on batteries huh? Never heard of that before. We all are waiting for those pics!
Barb

[LizStreithorst]

Next week, I promise. A kind guy is sending me a new battery (no more sucking for me!) and most of the blue will be out of the tank by then.

You know that all it will just be a bunch of little ugly baby Discus on their parents? We've all seen that picture 1000 times.
__________________________________________________ ______________________________
From my baby Discus from this fine old pair I will select the best to carry on. I have this thing in my mind's eye that I want to reach. It involves many many years of work and selecting the best from each spawn. I'll need to make several crosses.

I ain't no spring chicken. I will likely croak before I reach my goal. That's fine with me. The joy is in working toward a goal. It's not in reaching the goal. It's like that with eveything. Strange, isn't it?

[Second Hand Pat]

Liz, it's the journey that counts. Have fun with your babies.

[Larry208]

Liz,
Congrats on the babies, it really is something when you work so hard to get it right and things fall into place. Good luck and have fun raising those babies.

Larry

[LizStreithorst]

Here are some pics of them at 9 days. The last one is of them eating vermicompost after I threw a handful in the tank for them. They're 15 days today and have moved on to live blackworms. I'll get some more shots over the weekend.

[nc0gnet0]

I am curious...what is vermicompost? Never heard that term/food.

[Melissa]

Looks like a nice sized spawn! Congrats thats wonderful!

[LizStreithorst]

First allow me to apologize for the size of the pics. I had the camera set to give the most detail and forgot what would happen when I reduced them to 85 kbs. There are bigger pics on BIDKA is anyone wants to bother looking them up. Next time I take pics I'll adjust the camera.

Vermicompost is one of the two byproducts of red wigglers. The other is baby worms that I feed to my big Discus. I feed my worms horse poo, vegetable waste, and sometimes torn up newspaper. Horse poo is the best as it's full of microorganisms itself.
Once the worms have converted everything into compost I use it in my garden or, as I found out with this spawn toss a handful into a tankful of baby Discus and give them a feeding of a live food that is different from BBS or their parent's slime. They sure did chow down on it. And as I believe that their shape is exceptional for their age, I think that it did them good. Try it at your own risk. As far as I am aware, feeding baby Discus compost has never been done except by me.

[Eddie]

Thats fantastic Liz! Missed this thread entirely! Love the shots.

All the best,

Eddie

[Jennie]

Interesting and leave it to you Liz to come up with this one! Actually keep this thread updated, this is cool

[LizStreithorst]

I think that it's pretty cool myself, it having come out of my own brain and all. I'll see if I can post pics of them tomorrow. They'll be 16 days old then. I can't promise because the babies are here at the house and the photo software is in the computer at my shop. I really should to go to the shop to do another WC on the Angel babies there, though.

I could be wrong because it's been so long since I've had babies,but I believe that their shape is excellent for their age. Next time I have babies I'll start tossing vermicompost in when they are 3 days old. What's the harm? If they don't eat it I'll hoover it out.

[Jennie]

You may be future entrepreneur for live fish food!

[LizStreithorst]

Nope. The best way to feed it is straight from your own red wiggler culture. If I can encourage people to make their own live foods it'll be good enough for me.

[Jennie]

I can't keep a houseplant alive, lol

[roclement]

Awesome Liz!!!! Now how do you separate the composte from the dirt? I am sorry if this question is totaly stupid but I have no clue how to raise red wigglers but I would sure love to try this! Can you elaborate on the culture?
Thanks!!!

Rodrigo

[CliffsDiscus]

Liz,
Congrats on your new babies!

Cliff

[LizStreithorst]

Rod, In post #5 of this thread http://forum.simplydiscus.com/showthread.php?79933-red-worm I tell about how I have my culture set up. The worms mix the dirt and the food together until what is left is compost. None of the components are recognizable. I just pick up a small handful and dump it in the tank.

[roclement]

Thanks Liz! Is it safe to start a culture with worms from my back yard or should I order some on-line?

Rodrigo

[LizStreithorst]

It's easier to buy them on line or get them from a bait shop, but there's nothing wrong with using the ones from your back yard. When I rework my flower beds I always have a container with me to save the worms I find. I don't know what worms are in your NJ soil. Down here we have night crawlers and red wigglers. The nighht crawlers are bigger and tougher. The Discus don't like them much and they will out compete the red wigglers in the culture. If you don't know wich are which, buy them.

[roclement]

Done!

[LizStreithorst]

Cool. Let me know how you get on.

[roclement]

Ordering from this guy.

http://www.unclejimswormfarm.com/index.php/Worm-Kits/View-all-products.html

[William Palumbo]

Thanks Rod for the link. I had tried the red worms years back, but never stuck with it. I just picked up yesterday some from my local Petsmart to try again, mainly for my wilds. My wilds from years past, used to go nuts for the smaller ones. Tho back then, it took awhile for the fish to get used to them. I had to cut some of them up with scissors for some tanks...Just have to be sure that there is no fertilizers/pesticides in the worm bedding....Bill

[roclement]

Yeah! That's why I am ordering from the farm, to make sure they are safe! They sell them to fish and reptile stores so I am pretty sure they are "clean"!

Rodrigo

[William Palumbo]

Hey Rod, you getting the worm hobby kit?...Bill

[roclement]

Hey Rod, you getting the worm hobby kit?...Bill

Yep! I figure why not? All in one, easy and if I kill the worms I know it wasn't my fault!!! I am gonna try to add some of my flake food from Ed in their feed to improve their nutritinal value is at all possible...

Rodrigo

[William Palumbo]

Sounds good...Was what I was looking at too...Bill

[LizStreithorst]

I think that the place I got my first ones from was called Wormman.com. It was a long time ago.

Any of these sellers will raise them right. The chemical fertilizers that people use on their lawns and gardens are for the most part toxic to worms. If they were to use these for their worms the worms would not do well and they would put themselves out of business.

I'm not a purist, but I avoid chemical fertilizers and insecticides becuase there are better ways to build soil that make the worms and plants thrive as well. And since the worms themselves benifit the soil,it's win win. It just takes a little longer doing it the old fashioned way. Yes, there will be some losses of crops or flowers due to insects, but a plant in the right place in good soil that is teaming with microorganisms will for the most part have the strength to withstand them.

[William Palumbo]

Hi Liz...that was who I got mine from years back. Am I mistaken, or is it alright to thro in eggshells, and old coffee grinds? I know I did that back then...Bill

[LizStreithorst]

Toss 'em in. The egg shells are high in calcium, the coffee grounds are high in nitrogen. They both make good worm food.

[William Palumbo]

Thanks. Will do...Lord knows I go thru the coffee!...Bill

[roclement]

Me too! The worms will be racing in the container!!!

Rodrigo

[LizStreithorst]

Mine are more mellow. They get tea bags.

[Jennie]

Liz, what do you mean throw a handful in?? Compost/worms into tank??

[LizStreithorst]

I just take a small handful of the worm's compost and toss it in the tank. I tried it again yesterday to see if they'd still eat it and there was a worm in there.The 15 day old babies didn't eat the compost but little by little they pecked at the poor worm until it was gone.

The compost does cloud the water some. But it all settles to the bottom eventually. I also use a Magnum HOT and it clears the water fast enough.

[Jennie]

OK I thought you were only feeding the compost to worms and worms to fry...I had no idea the fry would eat compost?? Interesting

[LizStreithorst]

Apparenty there are many little wiggly things in the compost that we can't see, but make good food for the babies. Remember, this is JME with one group of fry that appear to be doing exceptionally well. Try it at your own risk.

[William Palumbo]

That's interesting Liz. I would imagine there would be "bugs" that they could eat. I mean, how small is a NEWLY born/hatched red worm?... Everything we do is at our own risk. Some things I do that work for me in my fishroom are probably best left alone by others!...Bill

[roclement]

No...I will blame Liz for everything!!! :)

Ringo

[LizStreithorst]

:p:p:p To Ringo.

[bach]

Hi Liz! congrat. to you. Can you share your para. of water. I have nearly 80 spawned but never have even singlebaby. Thanks.