Parents eating wrigglers

Hi all

I have a proven pair of discus (they successfully spawned about six times, producing wrigglers on three occasions) however they always seem to eat the fry at their wriggler stage. The pair is just over 2 years old, and are in their own breeding tank.

At this stage I'm considering raising the next batch (which they laid this afternoon) artificially.

What are everyones thoughts? Any suggestions?

Thanks alot

 

With parental fishes, I like to give the parents more than a few chances at getting it right. Sometimes it isn't entirely their fault - they might spook easily. You can work around this, for example, by dimming the lights during the rearing period, or blocking off sections of the tank with opaque paper so they can't see all the movement that surrounds their tank.

If all else fails, they might just be bad parents. You can keep the eggs in the same tank as the parents, but separate them with mesh - this saves you the need of having to set up a new tank, or any worries about stressing the eggs/fry with a move. Of course, this still leaves a risk of the fry moving into the parent's side of the tank, where they may or may not be consumed. Otherwise if you have a spare tank, and can spare some water from the original tank and some seeded filter material, then I'd say go for that.

Personally, I like to see parental behaviour in action - both the good and bad attempts - so I don't often opt for artificial rearing. How you go about it ultimately depends on your goals.

 

Thanks for your response.

The parents look after the eggs quite well. They allow the eggs to become wrigglers, after which they tend to eat them.

I think I'm going to try artificially raising at least 10 or so wrigglers and see what happens.

 

Very common issue Abbas. You can try and leave them and wait like I did. I don't regret it as they became very good parents in the end. Or you can make a grid that you place around the eggs, look at some pics on google. Very easy to do. Artificial raising is a nightmare and you will most likely have deformities when doing so. If you can get them to free swimming at least with the parents and they still get eaten, take away the female, they are normally the eaters as they are getting ready for another spawn. The male will raise them alone, just feed plenty of bbs so that they don't cannibalize the poor guy.

 

My Discus pairs did that for a long time. They eventually stopped, but it helped to cover the sides of the tank with a towel after they spawn with dim lighting above 24/7. The less activity surrounding them the better.

~Pete

 

Very important ^

 

Thanks all.

They normally ate the fry at the free swimming stage. On day 2/3, on all three occasions.

My current batch of eggs will probably become wrigglers tomorrow, and eventually free swimming. After which I will try and remove the female and see if this helps.

 

Any News?

 

Going well this far. Out of the more or less 250 eggs, there's more or less 50 unfertilized eggs. So more or less 200 eggs going strong. Will update later/ tomorrow morning as they should be wrigglers by then. Holding thumbs.

 

this was last night

 

Excellent, dark eggs is a good sign, they'll hatch soon enough.

 

So what have you done different with this batch so far?

 

I have not done anything differently. They usually do this well. Up until the fry becomes free swimming.

 

Ok.. Fingers crossed! Good luck!

 

The parents

 

Immaculate condition.

 

HOw does you tank look that color, is it the lighting or the background. Either way, I like.

 

I added abit of methylene blue to the tank. They are a beautiful pair! Thats why im trying my best to breed them.

 

I can’t really see the one, but the other ( male I think) is very nice.