Faran

Hi and welcome to the site! Great tank, thanks for sharing!

Thanks for that Caryl Well, the wrigglers were looking great until this afternoon. My other full-size discus decided to fight its way past the parents and eat them. By the time we realized what was happening there was only 4 wrigglers left so decided to let them start over in the breeding tank. Darn shame, but pretty much expected. Will let you know how it goes next week (we hope) with the next spawn.

Thanks Ant, here's hoping! So the eggs have hatched and the parents are catching the wrigglers and guarding them next to the clutch of remaining eggs. Whew, a successful hatch.... glad to know they're not 2 girls (as Kim was thinking they were)!

Yup, what Wok said. Lots and lots of ceramic noodles in my Fluvals.

or just make a trip to the beach...

Even if a LFS takes something for free they still have to feed it and home it (power, water, etc) until it's sold, so depending on how long it takes to get rehomed, they could make a profit or even a loss doing you the favour. Heya sharn, met you on my Blind Cave Tetra setup auction. Breeding anything can be a bit of a gamble with fluctuating prices and the fact that you can lose a tank of fry at any time. Heck, I had a school of cardinal tetras wipe out a whole brood of Blue Rams one time, and most catfish will munch down on a clutch of eggs if given half a chance. So can you actually MAKE money breeding fish? I believe the goal should be to simply pay for the habit and if you make something extra it's a bonus. My recommendations for WHAT to breed would be a cichlid species. Anything from dwarves to discus, they all can be excellent parents and all take care of the eggs and young to a certain degree. Good luck with your endeavours and let us know how u go!

Thanks for all the encouragement, guys. I try not to get excited about spawnings as I've had far too many disasters... like this morning finding out that a BN or Cory got a hold of about 10 of the eggs (no, I wasn't counting, just comparing to the pic above) Lynda - I tried telling them time and time again but they just weren't listening! I think they understood it was a bad idea last ime, as the eggs were gone within 24 hours and we missed what happened to them. This time dad seems even protective towards mom while guarding the eggs, so I can only imagine she ate them. To discourage the discus from using the filter intake tube, I added an airstone below the tubes to prevent access. I then added a suitable breeding surface (had to get pots since cones weren't at any of the LFSes) and hoped for the best. The airstone is just to the left of the edge of the picture and I thik it's doing a fair job of circulating water over the eggers (thanks 2 Winston for that idea). After all, they call them bubble walls for a reason. Oh, just be careful not to position the air so it gets sucked up... makes a heck of an annoying gurgling noise when air gets in filters, then all of it goes out at once... Good luck with the angels, I hear the wriggler stage is quite hard to get past... Blue

Have you tried adding a pot plant to give the discus somewhere to hide? Perhaps the 3 footer isn't deep or high enough... Another point is that neons can be VERY hard to catch.... was it a long chase? Your discus may stil be scared from the experience. I would add a potted sword first and then think about more fish. Good luck with them!

Congrats PJ!!!! At least you can see anything at all... my BNs breed in caves under the driftwood and I hardly know they're at it until I have babies running around the tank. The youngsters should be fine with guppies and you'll have a good number of offspring as long as they don't end up in the filter. Good luck and ANY pictures are appreciated.... even if it's just poppas head sticking outta the cave...

No need to be jealous. I've learned time and time again not to count my eggs before they've hatched. Besides, there's no telling yet if both parents are fertile (or even opposite sexes) let alone the fact that they'll be a cross-breed from two strains. Still a wcked experience though (the mating/spawning dance and caring for the eggs) so I'll let them do their thing. Anyone have any ideas what the offspring would look like?

I found that Riccia is the best floating nursery for baby fry. Gives the mother a nice place to hide and give birth, as well. Want some? In a well-lit tank with good water a small envelope full will triple in size within a month. Then you get to use it to carpet your tank and all kinds of cool stuff

Well, lots of good news about exciting spawnings these days with Billaney (as usual, hehe) and PJ and the rest. So here's my little addition. They've managed to do this in a community tank but will be moving to their own tank in a few days if at all possible. The chances of them raising the young in a busy comm tank is pretty slim so I'm not holding my breath.... just hope they still want to start a family after the move! Little history about the parents - Dad was the sole survivor after a bad shift down from Palmy. He barely made it, but pulled through. Even after 4 BNs spent most of the day stuck to his side. With a LOT of Melafix he's healed up nicely with hardly any scarring. Colouration is blue turq. Mom was aquired from a person up in Auckland who was converting the tank to Marine. The whole brood settled in nicely after a 9 hour drive with only one loss, but I believe it was a pre-existing condition rather than stress. Colouration is Tefe Green and she looks amazing under very good lighting. This is the third spawn - first on a heater, second on a filter intake tube and I've finally managed to convince them that a pot is the way to go. As I said before, they have a breeding tank curing as I type and should be ready for "the next go"...

Hey Paul, Rams are good parents but you may want to remove the female or she may eat the eggs or young (they get a bit impatient and want to spawn again). As for the filters, the eggs should hatch tomorrow and you'll have wrigglers, followed by free swimming young a few days later, so there's a bit of urgency in getting the filtration sorted. Have you thought of just covering the intake with a stocking? Another method I've found works with those intakes is to cover it with gravel... kinda works like an UGF that way.

Very true, but does that work for both high/low? I was at the local "grow shop" and saw an in-line thermo, but it was $100+. Is there a cheaper solution?

Hi Kim & Dan, Glad you didn't lose any fishies! We DREAD heaters breaking and have "Marina Aqua-Minders" on all the tanks. These have a high/low temp alarm and let us know when the water temps are going off (if someone is home to hear it). Just a thought, but at $30+ a pop it's an expensive investment if your fish are easily replaced. Now, as for cycling. This is your third tank and you're still using stress-zyme? Wow, I can't believe no one has told you this before. When setting up an addtional tank don't bother with the store-bought chemicals if you have a properly cycled tank already. Simply transfer some filter media and gravel and your bacteria should establish itself within a matter of days. Another thing I should mention is that the bacteria doesn't do well if it doesn't have Ammonia to work with. This counts for both your bacteria and store-bought stuff. Always good to add one or two fish to start the cycling and add more fish gradually until you have the tank filled. Good luck with the thermometer and buy new next time. PetPlanet has great prices on new heaters if you're looking for a deal. Blue

From my recent experiences I strongly recommend removing BNs from spawning tanks. I saw a pair of bolivian rams attack a large female BN quite vigorously trying to protect a brood but made absolutely no difference as she scoffed the eggs. Either way, better luck next time!

Aww, really nice when they flower for yas. I have two E. Osiris that I'm raising from runner off-shoots. Will soon be moving them into my Amazon tank, as they're doing very well. Congrats on the runner, hope it doesn't break anytime soon. I assume you don't have cats?

Discus don't often eat for the first day or two. This all depends on the age/size of the discus, and younger discus will often feed almost immediately (sufficing there is no transport shock/stress). If your discus is hesitant eating, I strongly recommend white worms as they are hands down the favourite food of discus. Otherwise, try thawing one of the blocks of frozen bloodworms and feeding using an eye dropper. This will squirt the worms in the direction of the discus and will hopefully prompt him to feed. Jammos is completely spot on with the grazing info. There should be JBL NovoBits and frozen discus tucker readily available at your LFS. Between white worms, novoBits and frozen foods your discus should be very happy in the new tank. Enjoy your discus and good luck!

Actually, yeah. A few months back I was dreaming of having a new house with a nice big discus tank in the lounge. Santa was kind and it's all come true. The tank is a 500L (4ftx2ftx2ft) stocked with some 20 discus of varying strains and colourations. Some of my larger ones have paired off and will soon be having breeding tanks set up for them and eventually I hope for some little baby discus running around the house as well

Yup, shiuh covered it. White worms are for adult fish. Microworms are tiny (therefore the micro). As for your LFS having cultures it's really unlikely but worth checking. If you have no lck getting any, PM me and I can start a culture for you. Takes a little while to get going though.

Take a serious look at your thermometer. I've found that they can cause some serious grief when bung. Good luck!

As they said, it really is the only way to go. Microworms are another choice for fish that are willing to bottom feed such as blue rams. Good luck with the baby rams!

Okay, I just looked at the pics and it looks like his body is dark and his tail is light. This is just a guesstimate as I have no idea what he looked like before he started hanging out back there. If he has darkened up as well as being reclusive/lethargic it possibly means that he's got an infestation. This could be as simple a solution as de-worming him or you could end up having to hit him with a whole range of meds to try and help him recover. Is he eating? Otherwise, beautiful discus' and tank. Hope we can help!

You can get a shark power filter with the fry-guard or just cover the inlets with a bit of stocking. Stocking requires a bit of maintenance or the filter gets real slow real quick. Hapy X-Mas!

Adding some sugar to the porridge mix helps too.