Luke* Posted January 6, 2007 Report Share Posted January 6, 2007 Finally my pair of red melons decided to spawn after a good feast on my home made oxheart! I hadn't fed any to them for a while so I figure that was the catalyst. Also fed some bloodworm for a couple of days before that. They spawned for 40 minutes. They had only previously spawned in a community tank and of course the fry never made it. They're in a dedicated breeding tank now so at last a couple of months later they have done the wild thing. The female laying: The male fertilising: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luke* Posted January 6, 2007 Author Report Share Posted January 6, 2007 Note in this pic how many other options they had to lay on apart from the heater... (cylindrical plastic weighted cone, terracotta pot, glass sides, plants) :roll: :lol: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brianemone Posted January 6, 2007 Report Share Posted January 6, 2007 Those are some attractive parents. Good genes make good babies, i'll be in the market soon for some high quality discus so its good to know they are out there. nice work Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Discusguru Posted January 6, 2007 Report Share Posted January 6, 2007 Congrats Luke! Hope all the eggs are fertilised and the parents will raise them. Keep up the good work. Ron Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
candy Posted January 6, 2007 Report Share Posted January 6, 2007 will the eggs be ok on the heater? they are stunning fish. i could spend all day looking at them. Realy wishing i had more room for tanks... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luke* Posted January 6, 2007 Author Report Share Posted January 6, 2007 Thanks guys, wouldn't have been possible without you Ronnie So I cleaned out the tank and removed all the great spawning architecture I had provided and added some formalin to the tank to help prevent egg fungus. I see a couple have fungused hopefully no more will (shot of the whole tank for comparison) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Faran Posted January 6, 2007 Report Share Posted January 6, 2007 Looks great but my only suggestion would be to rip out that hygro and replace it with a sword plant with strong leaves. The hygro doesn't have enough structure for them to feel secure laying on or moving fry onto. Congrats on the spawning! We'll be doing some trades in the future, I'm guessing Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SpidersWeb Posted January 6, 2007 Report Share Posted January 6, 2007 Congrats Put me down for some! Gorgeous pair. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
evil_elmo Posted January 6, 2007 Report Share Posted January 6, 2007 just wondering where do you get formalin? and is it call the same name in nz? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SpidersWeb Posted January 6, 2007 Report Share Posted January 6, 2007 Most pet stores will stock Formalin 5%, will be with all the usual fish chemicals. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luke* Posted January 6, 2007 Author Report Share Posted January 6, 2007 Thanks guys. True I could put a potted sword in but I've managed to do some dicing around with the heaters and it's all worked out. Some eggs are looking dark now but doesn't look like it will be a huge batch. I use as many plants as possible to help reduce toxins in the water. Pretty stoked cuz these two are the roundest and best coloured melons I've got. Yeah you can usually get formalin on the shelf at your LFS, it's pretty cheap. Vets can get a stronger concentration of it (others can get that stuff off the shelf e.g in America) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Insect Direct Posted January 6, 2007 Report Share Posted January 6, 2007 Very nice, every one like's rounded melons I got some 40% formalin from the vet and was like $16 for 2 litres of the stuff & that included a crazy handling fee of $10 but still Id reccomend the vets as you'll pay $5-10 in a pet shop for 50ml of 5% stuff. Question does formalin basically do the same as methylene blue? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Discusguru Posted January 6, 2007 Report Share Posted January 6, 2007 If it's to prevent the eggs from fungus, methelene blue will do the job. Luke, I would get rid of the plants in the breeding tank. All you need is the filter and the heater . Ron Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
evil_elmo Posted January 6, 2007 Report Share Posted January 6, 2007 thanks guys, will check it out next time i'm fish shopping keep us updated with the discus fry luke, i just lost a batch of 9 day old discus fry, dunno what happen Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luke* Posted January 7, 2007 Author Report Share Posted January 7, 2007 Only thing is methylene blue will stain the tank (and eggs?!) and might freak the fish out a bit. I love the plants as they help remove toxins and makes it look more natural. Hopefully they are more relaxed with them in too. But, if it is a problem with fry getting lost and being unable to find the parents I'll remove them. That's a real bummer evil_elmo what happened? Did the parents eat them? What kind of discus are they? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
evil_elmo Posted January 7, 2007 Report Share Posted January 7, 2007 i used a product called "tonic" it was the only thing that i found that contained Meth Blue, (is there straight Meth Blue we can buy off the shelf?), my discus didnt freak when the tank went all blue, so you should be fine my fry were all good, attachments and eating off the parents but all of a sudden on the 9th day, they started swimming funny and swam at the surface of the water.....i'm thinking they had flukes? alot of site i read said its a common problem for discus fry...i guess i just have to wait until they spawn again Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
evilknieval69 Posted January 7, 2007 Report Share Posted January 7, 2007 Haha tonic makes the water go mean blue! :lol: Good going luke, nice looking parents! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luke* Posted January 7, 2007 Author Report Share Posted January 7, 2007 thanks Rogan, they originated from the discusguru himself and I've raised them up since with daily water changes/oxheart etc. evil_elmo that's no good. Yes you can buy methylene blue straight from the shop, well here you can anyway. 1% and it's 50ml, pretty cheap as well. I can always send you some down if you wanna dc me. What was your filtration like? Discus will do that if the ammonia levels get too high. If I was you I'd treat the parents for flukes using 40% formalin or potassium permanganate (should be able to get this from a chemist but you might need to ring around), in both cases you have to be extremely careful with the dosages. Simplydiscus.com has more info. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
evil_elmo Posted January 7, 2007 Report Share Posted January 7, 2007 thanks for the info luke they are in a 3ft tank with a fuval 304, 50% water changes everyday, so the water should be ok i'm going to see what the next batch is like first then will see if i need to treat them for flukes, But i will have to do that when i come back from a trip overseas soon hows your eggs going? any turned white? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luke* Posted January 13, 2007 Author Report Share Posted January 13, 2007 Okay update time! Only a few eggs turned white. PH 6.9, temp 32 degrees celsius. It was so warm because of moving the heaters. The one I had taken it from my water storage barrel and it was set higher than I thought. I reduced it to 30. The eggs hatched and they moved the wrigglers to the front right corner of the tank. Unfortunately it was looking like a really small batch, first I counted 25, then 30, 40, but it was hard to be accurate as some were on the front glass panel others were on the right glass panel. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luke* Posted January 13, 2007 Author Report Share Posted January 13, 2007 A couple of days later I unplugged the air-powered filter. It makes it easier for the fry to find the parents if there's no other water agitation because they use subtle fin movements and flicks to attract the fry to them. If the current in the tank is too strong the fry will be washed away and may not have the strength to swim back or be recovered by the parents. I came home from work to find all the fry around the base of the filter (I had left it in the tank to preserve the bacteria). Because it the base is grey and the filter sponge black they were attracted to it more than the parents because they instinctively seek out the darkest object in the tank. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luke* Posted January 13, 2007 Author Report Share Posted January 13, 2007 I carefully removed the plants (some were surprisingly venturing to the top of the tank and getting lost in the plants) and filter. I reduced the water level to 50% to reduce the expanse of the tank. It wasn't looking good though. The fry were all over the bottom of the tank and the parents were looking unsure of what to do. Luckily they eventually rounded them all up and had them in the back left corner of the tank. The next morning I awoke to find the fry grazing happily on the flanks of the parents. That was a relief. Now it is looking more like 50 fry and I'm pleased with that. I topped up some water but the flow was too much and blew some fry away. I turned it off and filled it more the next day when they were more firmly attached to the parents. I also restarted the filter as ammonia would quickily build up and become very toxic to the fry. As far as I can tell the parents found those fry and having nothing in the tank helped as you can see. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luke* Posted January 13, 2007 Author Report Share Posted January 13, 2007 Day 1, 11/01/07: (counted internationally as the first day free swimming) Day 3, 13/01/07: (firmly attached and already looking considerably bigger) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brianemone Posted January 13, 2007 Report Share Posted January 13, 2007 Nice Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
quack Posted January 13, 2007 Report Share Posted January 13, 2007 nice pics! good luck with the fry Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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