Baby Alencer Red Discus

Hi Guys,

I have had a pair of Alencer Red discus for a few years, which I gave to a friend to look after whilst I was overseas for a while. He raised a spawn from them but he has now given them back to me. After settling in into my setup and good conditioning, they spawned unsuccessfully three times and then spawned again on 25 April. The young became free swimming on 29 April and the parents looked after them excellently, allowing the babies to go onto their bodies and eat very well. On day 6 I started feeding freshly hatched brine shrimps and they are now also eating other foods as well. They are still eating off the parents but are also starting to get more adventurous and swimming further away from their parents. I estimate that there may be about 100 young and they are clearly growing like rockets as the pics below show.

Kind regards,

Dirk

Babies on the parents, 6 days old:



Father with 12 day old babies



Both parents with 12 day old babies



Closeup of babies, already clearly looking like small discus at 8 mm long

 

Beautiful and awesome pics. Will you be selling any of the babies? If so, I'd be interested in getting a few from you.

 

whats your location dirk?

 

Hi Veronica,

You would be welcome to get some babies from me. I would aim to sell them at a size of about 6 cm which they should reach when they are about 2 1/2 to 3 months old. They still have a lot of growing to do though.......

Speedz, I see you are based in Durban, I am in Somerset West. I have often freighted fishes to Durban so no problem there.

Kind regards,

Dirk

 

Great thanks Dirk. As soon as they are ready, please let me know - my 2m tank awaits them

 

Great news Dirk. Would love some too please.

 

Hi Rowland,

You would be welcome to have some, but I would just like to point out that these are not the Curipera Alencers. They are also coming along just fine and are also showing signs of wanting to spawn, but they are a lot more temperamental.

Kind regards,

Dirk

 

Hi Dirk
A great achievement nonetheless! What is the origin of these fish? I look forward to similar news on the Curiperas.

 

Hi Rowland,

I bought the parents as part of a batch of 6 cm youngsters from Derek Lo from Fish Fantasy World in Johannesburg some years ago. They were imports from Malaysia, I think, but they were certainly not from Europe. As you can see though they are nice fishes and do breed normally, which cannot always be said for fishes from the East, I fear.

Kind regards,

Dirk

 

Great, thanks Dirk. Yes, they seem to look great as well, which is not always a guarantee from the East.

 

Wow well done! Id love to come by and see them some time...

 

Hi Dirk I would also love of the offspring once they have sized up. Please keep me on your list.

 

I will keep everyone on the list, but I am not counting any chickens before they are hatched i.e. before the young are 2 1/2 to 3 months old. I will keep you posted, so far so good, today they are getting really adventurous and swimming all over the tank.

Phil, you would be welcome to come and have a peak whenever...

Kind regards,

Dirk

 

OK,

The little guys are now at 16 days after freeswimming and are now swimming all over the tank in search of FOOOOOOOD, they almost can't get enough into themselves. Although they are searching for food all over, they go back to mom and dad ever so often to take a snack off their skin and because it is such a large batch the parents are taking a bit of strain. The male has actually lost some scales (you can see that on the pic, just above the top baby) because they are nibbling so hard and what this indicates is that I will have to take them away from the young pretty soon.

In typical Alencer fashion though, they are so protective that if I come to the front of the tank with the camera, the female storms out and becomes black from agression and she dashes up to the front glass to attack the foreign object. These are the only discus that are as protective as this to their young and it is nice to see that they still possess this instinct.

A few pics:


The parents with part of the team


Three babies with dad in the background


Close-up of some of the babies

Kind regards,

Dirk

 

wow they are coming along just great!

 

Thanks for the compliment, Speedz.

If I can get completely off topic, your avatar looks suspiciously Aussie, right? I can also show you a couple of those signs. I think we must start a separate thread and do some Aussie bashing..... what do you think?

Kind regards,

Dirk

 

haha, i have no idea if it is aussie or not. Serves for a good laugh though, i mean cumon....there has to be water on the road if its raining lol

 

I am sure it is Aussie, I will start a separate thread and show you some of the signs they have up, we saw a sign saying: "Road may be slippery when wet", that is stating the obvious, but these folks have not been to Africa and everything is just so regulated and under control in Aussie.....

Kind regards,

Dirk

 

i think you should extend it to signs from anywhere

 

How are the babies coming on Dirk? Any updated photos yet?