My Discus just layed eggs, WHAT DO I DO?

[seshat]

My two discus are in a 36gallon tank, I bought a year ago at about and inch and a half size. I noticed the eggs, already fertilized, late last night. I have no idea what to do. When they hatch and are ready to be separated what size tank do they need to be put in? Once they hatch, how long before I need to start feeding them myself instead of the parents body secretions? When that happens, what do I feed them? The only other fish tank I have right now is a little 1.5 gallon I used as a hospital tank for my German blue ram a while back. I assume they will quickly outgrow that if they can ever use it at all. Can I keep them in a little mesh cage that's in the same tank as the parents? I have one of those but it's algae stained from when I went on vacation and had left it in the water..... Should I jsut buy a new one?

[bronzie8]

Welcome to Minnfish. First, if the eggs are fertilized you should be able to tell by tonight. If you see a black spot in them they are fertile, if they turn white they are not. Depending on the temp of the water you should have wigglers by Friday evening. You won't need to feed them until they are free swimming. They will feed from their egg sack for about 3 days, then go free swimming. From there, hopefully they will eat from the parents. If they do you can just watch and enjoy for up to 4 weeks or so. After they are about 2 weeks old I start feeding them hatched brine shrimp. Be sure to rinse them, the salt water will kill the fry. Use a baster and squirt some gently near the parents and babies. I pull my babies at 4 weeks and put them in a 20 gallon tank. I continue the brine shrimp along with micro worms, golden pearls and finely shredded beefheart mix. I would get at least a 20 gallon tank to start. Mostly it depends on how many babies you end up with. I also put a small sponge filter in the grow out tank and keep the water at about 84 degrees. Feed them every 4 hours at least, if not more, but you will need to keep up on water changes. Small during the day to get out uneaten food and a big change at the end of the day. I hope this helps. I'm sure you will get more answers from people here. Another great forum is Simply Discus.

[Skip]

nothing...

let them be.. they will make more..

take your time.. research the breeding threads..

and see if its something that you want to get involved it.. fry need to be feed every 2-3 hrs all day.. AND MASSIVE water changes..

but don't worry.. they will lay more eggs.. so settle down..

ps welcome to SD

[seshat]

The discus are starting to be aggressive towards each other. The blue one stays close to the eggs, the one with stress striped behind. The blue one nips the other when he/she get's to close. The blue one always guards the eggs and chases away the ram is he gets to close for liking. Which do you think is the male, can you tell by behavioral? I wasn't around when they laid the eggs so I didn't see which was which...

[cyberx]

so..did you end up getting any baby discus?

The discus are starting to be aggressive towards each other. The blue one stays close to the eggs, the one with stress striped behind. The blue one nips the other when he/she get's to close. The blue one always guards the eggs and chases away the ram is he gets to close for liking. Which do you think is the male, can you tell by behavioral? I wasn't around when they laid the eggs so I didn't see which was which...