Discus Breeding - Hatch success photos

[Aquaviewer]

I was looking into the discus tank this morning and noticed larval fish clinging to a sword leaf.  At first I thought that they were cory's, but then I realized that our green snakeskin was being quite attentive along with the green discus.  I didn't expect any breeding at this point as I assumed all the fish were under 12 months old.  We had noticed that the snakeskin had been aloof of late, hanging out among the leaves of one of the swords, but as it was eating well we didn't think much of it.

I can see the remnants of eggs on an adjacent leaf, so the parents must have just moved them.

It will be interesting to see how far they get, at this point I'm just going to leave them alone to see whether the larval fish swim up to the parents.  There is a high probability that they could get eaten, but I'll be interested to see how it turns out.  Anyone else had successful discus breeding in a community tank?     



[attachment deleted by admin]

[succinctfish]

Congratulations!
It's fascinating to watch new discus parents get the hang of spawning and then caring for the young.  I've had several spawns from one pair in a community tank.  It's been a learning curve for them, first they ate the eggs, or someone else did, then they left the wigglers alone, and they got eaten, then they seemed alarmed when these little creatures started picking at their bodies(so they ate them ).  Finally they have learned to care for them and protect most of them, but quite frankly, they are losing out to predation.  Now we have a lot of cardinals in that tank, and some rams and of course other discus, and as the parents have learned about baby rearing, the predators have learned the yummy fact that discus babies are tasty.  Depending on the inhabitants of the tank, and the number of them, I think you can have success raising the fry, at least past the stage that they are dependent upon the parents slime coat for sustenance, and perhaps then consider pulling them out if they are being snacked upon, and raising them yourself.  I haven't actually made it to this stage with my discus, perhaps you'll have more success, as if I remember correctly, your tanks are not as well populated and the fry might stand a better chance.

[Julie]

Congratulations, nice little batch.
What are the stats on your tank - size etc.....

[Aquaviewer]

Thanks Succinctfish and Julie,

The parents are still attentive taking turns guarding the brood, even chasing the cherry shrimp off that graze to close.  There are cardinals in the tanks which, from what I gather from Succinctfish, could pose a problem.  Other fish include 2 other discus, 6 corys, 2 SAEs, 12 cardinals, 2 rummynose and 3 glowlight tetras, 6  hatchet fish, 3 otocats and lots of shrimp.  I'll just have to see what happens as there is no point trying to move fish.  If the fry do manage to make it I'll move them once they stop feeding on the parents - who knows, it has just been interesting to observe the process so far.

The fish are in a heavily planted growout tank waiting until the 125g project gets done.  The tank has been more or less stable, pH ~ 6.4, temp - 30C, GH - 20, KH 0 with pressurized CO2, 96 W PC for light, canister filter etc...  I've been having trouble with the KH recently, as you can see it has been bottoming out.  I read elsewhere that it could be the demands of the ever growing MTS population that could be taxing what little carbonate that there was (KH was ~ 1 dH).  Fortunately the pH controller turns on an airstone whenever the pH starts to go down past 6.2.  I've since been culling the MTS and adding a bit of baking soda to the water at each water change (20%, twice a week).  Regardless, the fish seem to like whatever I'm doing.

I'll keep you posted if the larvae start having dinner or become dinner....