Discus

Yip, the parents of these fishes were a male leopard and a female snakeskin. In fact, the female is the same mother to the batch of the little guys in the above pics.

 

@pHish_man

Andrew, if you look closely you will note that in actual fact all the "bar-less" fish do have a colour difference in the area where the bars should be. It almost appears as if its a lighter shade of gold.
You can however clearly see that it is multiple bars and not a 9 bar (with no bars). So that confirms my initial comment that its barless Snakeskin.

As to the colour-the ones with no bars definitly seem a tad more golden in colour. Note the concentration of a reddish colour in the origin of dorsal and anal fins.
I think these areas will remain quite red as it grows. Lets wait and see.

Looking good Andrew


Marco

 

@Marco spot on!!

In fact I must just add that the photos also don't depict this completely (and this is even more reason for me to upgrade my camera lens ). When one sees the 'barless' guys in person you can easily pick them out by this red colouration on the anal and dorsal fins as you stated.

 

As anticipated, this pair has spawned again with this cold-front hitting the Cape.

Eggs laid Friday 4/7/14

 

Congrats you have really got this down to a fine art.

 

@dash lets see what happens with this latest batch of eggs. Have a pair at home that spawned last night and holding thumbs they don't eat their eggs this time around. They have spawned 4 times in as many weeks but one of the parents keeps eating the eggs

 

Ok, so the pair were EXTREMELY busy last night. The eggs hatched and the parents have moved all the wrigglers to the adjacent cone. This is by far my best hatch to date so lets see how many get to latch on. Anticipate free-swimming by Friday.

 

Geez about 170 fry nice.....hope they make it.

 

yeah, thanks Hennie. This pair is definitely doing things right. The pair at home that spawned Sunday evening have gotten over the egg eating hurdle on their 4th attempt, but unfortunately the male didn't do his job and so all the eggs are white this morning. Eish!!

 

Well done on your estimate @HennieRoux

Just had my PA do a tally and there are 167 wrigglers. Now lets see how many make it to the next stage.

 

Ok, so we copy the image to paint, then block out the eggs or wrigglers in different colours of batches of 10. Count the number of colours, multiply by 10 and add the left over guys.

167

 

So this is when you know you have to much time on hand :laugh: and sorry we don't support colour injected fish....hahahaha

 

hahaha you guys are so funny.

Yeah, thought I would 'create' some new colour strains of smartie-box discus

 

So to update on this particular pair, not all the eggs were infertile. There are 3 wrigglers on the cone, so at least it is a confirmed male/female combo but now to get the male conditioned to do his job properly next time around.

 

So these guys should go free swimming tomorrow, 11.07.2014

Holding thumbs all goes well.

 

Andrew I am astonished it seems that you get this right like clock work and as a well oiled machine.

You make it look so easy although I know there is a lot of hard work going on at the background, like getting your PA to paint lol

 

Great scott... Love it when a plan comes together...
@pHis_man, well done. Just glad yours decided to stop eating the eggs. Mine started the egg ritual again last night... It is as if they swim away from the egg, then the female goes in and chews the egg. The male will join in on the egg session most of the time. Mine runs on a schedule of about 8 days. But they are almost a year old. So hope that they will see that the eggs ain't food...

 

@fhmarais just keep persevering. In the meantime, are you able to give some specs on the tank these fishes are in, filtration, water parameters etc. And are you able to upload some photos?

My snakeskin pair with this huge spawn are catching the fry now that are going free-swimming this morning and spitting them back on the cone. So glad this pair is working as a team. Going to be interesting when ALL the fry go f/s. Good to see both parents have darkened up so lets see what happens.

 

Free-swimming and latched on to dad.