Discus breeding in community planted tank

[Elliots]

This is just a theoretical question. If I have Discus in a community planted large tank and they spawn, is there any chance of they fry growing up? I do not have room to separate fish and fry so I will have to let nature take its path if it occurs. I could not find anything by searching SD. Has anyone on this site had this happen and the fry grew up? I know the chance may be slight or zero, which one?

[strawberryblonde]

The chances are, as you say, slight. VERY slight. I know that it's happened in a couple of threads that I read last year, but the surviving numbers were quite small and in at least one thread, the fry grew up very stunted.

Maybe if you have one of those monster tanks (500+), heavily plant it, create areas for the pairs to hide their offspring and offer enough tiny live foods for the fry to survive...it could happen.

[Disgirl]

I have seen this happen before. The tank was large, as Toni said, heavily planted with lots of places for the parent fish to hide and raise their fry until the young were large enough to go out on their own looking for food and grazing on all the things available in the tank they could eat. May not grow to be 6-8" but still looked good and healthy. Good luck with them, let us know.
Barb

[Second Hand Pat]

I have had my wilds spawn in a 230, placed a poret divider to separate the parents/fry from the rest of the tank and had the parents raise two batches so far. The tank is not planted but does have a sand bottom with wood.

There is a mega thread called "Wild Tefe Spawn" under the From the Source if you have an hour or two to blow.

[Elliots]

This has not happened to me. I am just curious. Thanks to everyone for their answers. So there is some hope but I am certainly not counting on it. The good part about the fry not surviving is my tank will not have too many discus.

[Saurav]

This happened to my pair recently. They had a batch of fry of which 18 have grown up to be independent. Initially the spawn was about 45. It’s the first successful spawn -> independent fry for this pair. Previously they had tried 3 times unsuccessfully. In the tank there are 4 other discus, few tetras and some bottom feeders. There are however, plenty of hiding spaces created from dense plants and driftwoods. Tank itself is not huge and is 230L in capacity, see pictures attached. I am now in a predicament and quickly need to source a grow out tank for these fry. So it’s definitely possible in a community/planted tank environment.

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