Fryday!!

Day 24
(19 days free swimming)
2014/05/14

lost about 5 since last update, about 45 remaining, they seem to be growing slowly but steadily, not been succesfull hatching brineshrimp at all so they exclusively fed on crushed flake. This and being removed from parents obviously has an effect on there growth rate, but they seem to be healthy at this point and there are a few notible fatties in the group. they getting a 20% daily w/c now
their pelvic fins are also starting to show now

 

@1300wipass what bbs are you hatching? You don't want to lose such a big batch because of not hatching bbs....you can buy the decapculated bbs in a bottle for about R160 seems allot but worth while in raising your Discus fry, I did that with my Galaxy fry.

Have you hatched bbs before? And what area do you stay in?

 

Sorry, i should really update my profile. im in cape town and getting it from Panorama pets. they are the BrineShrimp direct brand and they keep it in a fridge so i think the problem resides with my hatching technique at this stage. Any idea where i can obtain those decapsulated eggs from in the Cape?

 

Hatching is easy....just google for a perfect selution, I always use 1 table spoon for 2 liters, let the eggs stand for 24 hours in the water to swell and drop. Then have on going rather intense aeration, so eggs must move all the time, if you find its to cold add a heater @ about21 deg C, if not room temp is fine, bright light will speed up hatching, should happen in a day and half to 2 days, depends on temp, salt, and light.

The decapsulated eggs you should be able @ all big pet shops, I think its a Tetra product.

 

Yes i think i need to do more experimentation with my salt:water solution. Sometime i think people make it out to be easier than it actually is lol.... How many fry were you feeding with your decapsualted eggs and how long did a R160 container last you? thanks...

 

It is actually easy, but trial and error, Fed about 100 fry, but can only last 4 weeks after opening in the fridge, but will help you pull those fry thru, by then shy should be able to take other food. This is the most vital times of their life, so feeding bbs is really needed.

 

@1300wipass I think it is the other way around I use a flat teaspoon on 300 ml water, good aeration and constant light. At 25 deg with quality eggs (I use ocean nutrition) I get 90% hatch rates. Recently I have not had many fry so only fed my fry microworms and I am astonished to see how much slower they grow on this than on bbs. Will your babies take microworms? May be worth a try and is a fraction of the cost of bbs...

 

how long do you aerate for before they hatch and how much salt is used in your mixture? I havent come across micro worms here in CT in any pet store only meal worms which are way too big unfortunately, i will check though, thanks

 

thanks, i will definately look into getting my hands on these the as i really dont want to stunt any of their growths. would be really sad to put all this effort into stunted discus

 

flat teaspoon per 300 ml water, no prior aeration. I can help with the microworms, they post very well... PM if interested.

 

@1300wipass you never stop earating even when they hatch.

 

How is the feeding going?

 

Since this is my first success at breeding, I have no benchmark to compare growth stages with yet, although I am documenting every second day now to compare (hopefully) a second batch in the near future, but just based on internet research i think they lagging slightly although there is definate growth.

they still on a variety of crushed flakes and at 10 weeks (if i get that far) I will move them to beefheart so that they can hopefully play some catchup to normal growth and size for there age

 

@Marco maybe you can be of assistance here in terms of growth rate?

 

Yes @Marco will be able to help. In my oppinion, if they are eating and your water is of good quality, and you are feeding a good food I would not worry to much as to how fast they are growing. Every fish will be different depending on a number of factors including gernetics

 

Hi there @1300wipass

Can you give an indication of how big they are now?

Age wise they should be eating finely chopped beefheart by now.
It makes a big difference. The problem with Discus fry is that if they are not fed properly at this vital stage then sooner or later you will run into problems with them. They will start having flagellate issues even at this young age and be overall sickly and problematic.

If you do not have freshly hatched brine shrimp to feed them I can only see you running into problems with the fry.
The big issue is the nutritional value of the food as well as the ability to constantly feed on the available bbs, instead of powdered food which will not be as tempting and "available" for 3 to 4 hrs constantly.
Discus fry should quite literally be swimming in food if you want them to grow to healthy juveniles. The "swimming in food" can really only be achieved with parent mucous and freshly hatched brine shrimp around them 12-14 hrs a day.

This is a picture of some fry I had some time back. This was the fry at 21 days of being free swimming. Their size is roughly between R1- R2 coin at this stage.


Just another thought - flukes will have an effect on the fry but not the adults.
The problem you had a few days back with the fry and parents was not Fluke related.
Flukes will also only harm the fry at a certain size, not so much age. The gills must be large enough for the fluke to attach and too small for the fish to accomodate the fluke and breathing.
My guess is-with the limited info you gave that either you had filtration issues or that you had ph issues. Not flukes.

Give some more info on them now and maybe a photo or two of the fry.

Rgds

Marco

Sent from my SM-T211 using Tapatalk

 

Thanks for that detailed post Marco, much appreciated. il prepare my beefheart and start feeding in the week. my fry are 30 days old now and are definately NOT R1 coin size, but probably half of that which means i messed up badly :banghead:

more bad news is that im on about 38 fry now...

good news is that the Parents are healthy again, they must be at least (see below)

 

Do them and your self a favour and add a spawning cone, or tile, or any where they can spawn vertically on. This will help them with their spawning process, might get better results. @1300whipass you need to understand that this is a big achievement, and its not everyone that can get a pair of discus to spawn, hatch with such a great number of success and then get them to spawn again. You are obviously doing it right, and by the looks of your tank, it is super clean, so keep it up. Just get the bbs to hatch.

 

Thanks for those encouraging words Hennie, that is actually a +-40L hospital tank they curently on. One thing i forgot to mention, is that the first batch was also layed and reared on the base of the tank, even though I put up 2 spawning vertical spawning pipes. Now that i calculate the first batch, the initial hatch was +-100..

it looks like she is getting bigger in her spawn as I counted +-300 eggs last night (kids were asleep and had nothing better to do )

i think they just prefer "doing it" on the floor lol

i have not lost hope in hatching those mythical BBS, ill keep at it.

dont have much space to work with at present so not sure how far this latest batch will go, but ill just leave it and see and rather concentrate on getting it right with the current 30 day old fry

 

I had a angel pair that use to spawn on the floor as well. Even though I had a tile in for them. That is a large spawn for Discus, you are 1 lucky man! Good luck, hope they all hatch.

Where are u based again?