Fry not attaching to parents. 2 days free swimming

[Tobrienne]

So I have a 40g tank that my discus pair live in. They have been really trying to "get it right" so to speak.

This latest spawn I thought for sure they ate all the free swimmers. They went free swimming the night of Aug 2 so today is day 2 of free swimming. Well on the morning of the 3rd I didn't see any in the tank then found one and decided to pull him and practice my artificial raising. (I do this with my Boesemani Rainbows all the time wanted to see if I could do it with discus)

So I pulled the loner. Then today I found another loner in the tank with the parents. He was just swimming around so I came on here did some reading and decided to pull all the decorations out of the tank and lower the water so that the 2 loners might attach to the parents. I read that PBs have a difficult time attaching because the parents dont darken up. The only thing left in the tank is the substrate.

I took the two loners out, put my hand in to agitate the gravel (was going to do a WC initially) and once the agitated gravel settled (I was letting the debris be sucked up by the filter before I gravel vaccuum) I noticed another free swimmer! I had THREE! So I spent about 20-30 minutes searching the tank and in total after all said and done I was able to "rescue" 6 free swimmers from the tank!!!

So here were my options:

1) Lower the water to above the anal fin, return the 6 free swimmers to the tank and see if the parents can get it right and the babies attach

or

2) Raise the 6 artificially

I decided to go with option 1. It's been about 3 hours since lowering the water - I also turned out the lights but since it is daytime thats moot. I just dumped a bunch of bbs in there and I saw some of the fry go after it.

Since it is day 2 free swimming and they STILL haven't attached to the parents..

What would you do?

[DiscusDrew]

Well it can take a day or two but the biggest thing is having almost nothing in the tank, especially substrate, that's why breeder t tanks are always BB. If they are taking brine shrimp and you have the time to feed almost constantly them you can go the artificial route but it will be slow going by comparison and pretty difficult. If you have a small tank you can set up I would put them all in there and allow them the opportunity to attach. In the future obviously you'll want to always keep your breeders in a tank that is as bare as possible. Lights should be on during this part, and hopefully the parents should be the darkest thing in the tank. Some even remove filters during attachment or wrap the sponge filter in cheese cloth so that it is very light, the goal being that all the free swimmers can see is the parents. HTH and good luck! Ohhh and a 40 gallon is simply too big btw, big footprint which is working against you, divide off half of it, remove the gravel (pull the kittle ones first) then lower the water level and see off they will attach then.

[Tobrienne]

Hey Drew,

Here is a picture of the setup I have now. I noticed 2 of the fry attempting to attach and the parents seem to be very patiently just sitting in one spot to allow them the opportunity. I know the parents are stressed out and pissed off at me too. Bonnie (female) attacked me many times while I was doing preparing the tank to lower the water. She rammed my hand at least 3 times!

I have dark grey pantihose covering the filter tube so they don't get sucked up. Part of the heater is black and the substrate is mostly dark blue. So I'm stuck between a rock and a hard place.. ugh!! I dont own any pantyhose.. this was the only pair I had, they were new, and they got chopped up :D The heater I cant remove because they need the warm water and the substrate... well I really do not want to stress them out anymore then they already are and I am afraid if I go "too far" with messing with the tank they will just eat the fry to protect them and I would have to start all over.

My discus are in the 40g because they were SUPER unhappy in the 21g that I had for them. I think you will remember my multitude of posts because wondering what could be their issue lol... ever since I put them in the 40g show tank they are spawning regularily and SO happy. I don't want to jeopardize that :(

My intent with this pair is for them to live and be happy in the "show" tank. Yes, I'd be happy if they bred because it's amazing to watch but I really don't want their tank ugly and bare and empty :( So my intent is conflicting. Yes I want them to breed.. no I don't want them in an ugly tank LOL

74930

[Orange Crush]

I guess you will have to decide which is more important to you.
I would put them back in the BB 21G tank. Once they lay eggs and get to the free swimmer stage the parents will only need to be in that tank for 1 month and then you can put them back into the 40G. However, you will need a 55G+ tank for the fry to grow out in once they get bigger.

[Tobrienne]

Well I decided what is more important for the discus - not me.

First I took out 6 fry, 2 were dead bodies so I flushed them. I had 4 remaining fry.

I took out all decorations, took out the HOB filter and left the sponge filter going, syphoned out all the gravel with my hose into a bucket and once the bucket got full of water I emptied the water back into the tank and kept doing this until I had sucked out all the gravel and debris off the bottom of the tank. Guess what! I found 2 more alive fry!

Now I have 6 remaining fry.

Mom and Dad were attacking their reflections off the bottom of the tank. I guess they thought they were more discus so I taped white paper to the bottom and sides of the tank. Mom and Dad have calmed down.

I re-added the fry into the tank. The light is on they are swimming around. Now I am going to leave it and not touch it EVER again. They will either eat the fry, the fry will die or the fry will attach and the heavens will sing lol.


From now on.. their once beautiful 40g pretty tank is ugly as hell lol...

Side note: when I start working I am going to save up some $$$ and I plan on buying a 100g tank and making it a beautiful show tank purely for discus. I will keep my 40g for a grow out and my 30g for the breeder tank. I think I am going to downgrade and get rid of my boesemani rainbows and just keep discus like the original intent. My LFS just got some beauties in.. but I will be patient until I go bigger :D

[james1234]

Gonna stir up the usual lights on, white as possible method.
I have a pair of checkerboard pbs and couldn't get them to attach for the life of me, tried every method i could find.
In the end i removed everything from the tank (except heater), covered the tank completely and turned the lights off, a few hours later went to the tank and all attached. I am now very very successful in getting 100% of any of my pbs attach with this method, i have gave a few others this advice and has worked everytime.
I believe having the tank in complete darkness makes the pbs stand out hence attracting the fry.
Give it a shot