colinmarshall Posted February 6, 2003 Report Share Posted February 6, 2003 My Snakeskins have just laid their third batch of eggs , hopefully this will be the first result in babies , any ideas on how many times they will eat their eggs as they have devoured the first two Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ajbroome Posted February 6, 2003 Report Share Posted February 6, 2003 colinmarshall said... > ... any ideas on how many times they will eat their eggs ... Like most pairs of cichlids, some will always eat their eggs and/or fry while others never will. There is no rule but it has been said that more mature pairs are more likely to raise their fry so it may just be a matter of time. Are you sure you've got a pair and not two females? Andrew. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
colinmarshall Posted February 7, 2003 Author Report Share Posted February 7, 2003 Yes definately a pair , had them under a magnifying glass and the eggs are definately fertile the first batch did hatch but they were in the show tank and I think they got some help from the other fish . My golden suns look as if they are pairing up as well they are chasing the other discus to all parts of the show tank Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nagual Posted February 16, 2003 Report Share Posted February 16, 2003 So dont flame me if I come across as a dork ok? Anyway only thing I can suggest is PH level. It took my Discus over 12 spawnings to produce young and it wasn't until I lowered the PH to 6.2 (normal PH in my tap water is 7.2 !!!) that they stopped eating both the eggs and fry. But having said that, theres also something to what ajbroome said about age because my fishes are at least a year old now and have been "trying" for over 6 months . Good luck with them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fee Posted February 16, 2003 Report Share Posted February 16, 2003 My Discus at home have laid numerous batches, but the last batch finally became wigglers yesterday evening. They have made lots of mistakes, they started off in a community tank in the shop: 1st batch- male failed to fertilise the eggs and female only thought discus of the same colour were a threat an therefore let the golden ones eat the eggs. 2nd batch- Male followed directly behind the female eating the eggs as she laid them. Moved to a community tank at home: 3rd batch- much more parental concern showed with cleaning and fanning, however eggs probably unfertilised and disappeared altogether after 3 days. 4th batch- As previous 5th batch- Removed all other fish from tank after laying, however interference probably caused the eggs to be eaten in stress. 6th batch- Not many eggs seemed to be fertilised, alot of moldy ones, and then finally yesterday evening the remaining became Wrigglers!!! Very excited and proud of their improvement in parenting skills, not sure whether they will raise them successfully this time, as you can see every stage has been a bit confusing to them, but i'm sure they will continue to persevere and hopefully will get there in the end. I think that this lack of skill is partially due to their young age and possibly can also be attributed to the fact that most Discus available have been captive bred and raised artificially. Good luck with yours! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
colinmarshall Posted February 16, 2003 Author Report Share Posted February 16, 2003 Yes thank you for your information,3rd batch devoured seen the chap I bought them from and he advised the same as you to decrease the PH to about 6 to 6.2 , has has bred Discus for a very long time and said this will help them to stop eating the egggs , hopefully they aren't to slow at learning parenting but time will tell , my golden suns have paired off now so I guess I will have double the drama Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nagual Posted February 17, 2003 Report Share Posted February 17, 2003 Be careful what you add to your tank to lower the PH if you havent already gone about doing this. Make sure the product you use contains NO PHOSPHATES, because in a low PH/ Phosphate rich environment, algae will go crazy on you. Not sure the actual type but I think its Volvox. In any case what happens is your tank turns bright green and resembles a very thin pea soup. Although not harmful to the fish, it is unsightly and stops you seeing whats going on. It can be cleared up by massive water changes and using phosphate cleaning pads in your filters (can ya tell I'm talking from experience? ), but the best thing is to avoid that extra cost and work from the outset. Just remember - NO PHOSPHATES! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
colinmarshall Posted February 18, 2003 Author Report Share Posted February 18, 2003 Well they have done the 4th batch now PH is coming down gradually the waiting for results is at hand , will 4th time be lucky (watch this space) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robert Posted February 20, 2003 Report Share Posted February 20, 2003 be patient .thats all Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peety Posted February 23, 2003 Report Share Posted February 23, 2003 I had fry with PH of 6.8 - 7.0. It just takes them a while to figure out not to eat their young. Go to simplydiscus.com for tons of info. Its really hard to keep your PH constant if you start playing with it. I would say stick with what you're doing and be patient. Are your fish by themselves or with others? Sometimes its best to have them go through the first broods when other fish are in the tank (it gets the protective parenting thing going). My first pair raised fry on attempt number 7 or 8 My second pair never did! Good luck, its worth the wait..... peety Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nagual Posted February 27, 2003 Report Share Posted February 27, 2003 So yeh I can well imagine that some peoples Discus have spawned successfully in water with PH levels higher than 6.2. I found that after a dozen spawnings, lowering the PH was the only thing that worked for mine. It's well known that Discus can survive in almost any type of water and since my last batch of young I havent bothered to adjust the water in my tanks and have been doing water changes with aged tap water so I'd say the PH is currently around 6.8 and everyone looks happy. But notably there have been no spawnings since. It might have something to do with the conditions the parents were spawned under, I really don't know but if you want to try absolutely every possibility then lowering PH is one option. Good luck once again and keep us posted. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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