Discus fry

Shot Jason you must be proud.

What is the exact age of these fish now? How many do you have in total?

Andrew

 

Hi Andrew

I still want to come and see your collection this week. I have not lost (touch wood) any fry since day 8 after free swimming and then my count was on 32 fry, they are 24 days old now.

Jason

 

Looking forward to seeing more pics

 

Well done Jason, Job well done... Following this one...

 

Well the better camera was not available so her are some from mine.
strange how the camera will focus on a almost microscopic creature but not so often on the fry

 

Hi Jason,

I am back again from Germany, and whilst I did check TASA ever so often, I did not have time to reply. However, I see that your fry are progressing very well, congratulations.

I fully agree with Marco, that you should not combine those two batches, that will just result in losses.

Guys, can you see the hatch of those bs eggs, guess where they came from.....

What else are your feeding them on. Why I ask is because whilst you can continue feeding some freshly hatched bs, you should now also start feeding other highly nutritious foods, but you should also concentrate on foods containing some roughage, such as cyclops, and a few other foods.

But so far well done!

Kind regards,

Dirk

 

Hi Dirk

Thanks for the comments its been a great experience watching them grow from egg to where they are now, unfortunately the batch after is were eaten again but the pair. I have gone and bought some plastic gardening trellis and made a egg guard to put over the cone for when they spawn again. I am feeding the fry your +0.1 granules every alternate feeding. What else can I give them?


Regards and welcome back


Jason

 

well done jpvd.

 

Hi Dirk

What is the cyclops you were mentioning and the other foods as I am wanting to put them on something else other that your food and BS, how are the granules for them is there roughage enough in it?

Regards

Jason

 

hello @jpvd007

found the food you were asking about cyclops, not sure if the prof got back to you?
pm me if you need the link
cheers doug
PS or anyone els who wants to know

 

Fry at R2 coin size 3/7/12




Same date



3/7/12

3/7/12



3/7/12

 

they already looking good. weldone on raising them

 

These pics taken today they are now at R5 coin size and eating like they never get fed. I am feeding now at a rate of every 2 hours with Dirks granular high protein dry food and twice daily with freshly hatched BS and every other day with frozen full grown BS.



I have had cull due to defects like gill deformation and stunted growth but now it seems that they are all on a par with each other and growing rapidly to the point of each day I go in and look at them it seems they have changed in size its really amazing. I had no idea when starting this breed of fish that it could become such a fulfilling and rewarding hobby and on the other hand just as frustrating. The pair laid eggs again 4 days ago but only around 10 fry hatched last night so there is the frustration part of it.

 

Another update.

This morning I awoke to 2 of my planted tank discus have paired off and have laid eggs on one of the amazon sward leafs. For those of you that have seen my 390l Planted thread you will know the two fish I am talking about, the one is the white ghost and the other is the Red Turquoise, but of a strange pair but a pair none the less. I will try getting a pic of the eggs and the pair when I get home later.

Jason

 

Hi Jason,

As you know, I am a discus enthusiast all the way and have kept discus since 1988. As a result, I am always very enthusiastic when I see someone like you persevering and eventually getting your fishes to breed. That takes a lot of diligence and dedication and attention to detail. Basically, I am very glad to see that you have been listening to my constant nattering and as a result have been having the success of breeding your first batch of discus, well done.

However, I now feel that I need to inform you about the next step up and that has to do with strain choice and genetics. Obviously when one starts one does not have a clue and one is grateful if fishes spawn. Your first attempt with a red turquoise and a pigeon blood worked out ok because the red turquoise did the slime production. Also red turquoises were perhaps the parent strain of the first pigeon bloods so the combination is not completely wrong and it will be interesting to see what these fry will look like, there will be variation in the amount of turquoise as opposed to red base coloration in those that are not pigeons, and the pigeons will also show a fair amount of variation from more red to more turquoise body coloration. All that is fine and interesting. Persons that may want to buy these fishes will be pretty sure of what they will be buying eventually.

However, what you have now told us about the combination of a white ghost and a red turquoise is not good news. This is like crossing a Great Dane with a Corgi if you would want to compare this to dog breeding. The only things that can come out of this is a bunch of mongrels. As a result, I would strongly advise you not to allow this sort of cross breeding. Keep your strains separate and breed fishes that you know what the outcome will be so that you can sell them as a certain strain.

Much as though I do not want to dampen your enthusiasm, you should carefully consider the next step and this is to breed fishes of a known strain which you can sell reliably and not just the combination of any two fishes that are prepared to spawn with each other.

Enough said, you have made very good progress so far, but I would like to see you breed nice fishes of a consistent strain and quality in future, and not mongrels, the effort that you would put into them would be the same, but your customers would not know what they are getting and then it is better to breed a consistent strain of fishes.

Kind regards,

Dirk

 

well done jp well done ,hope those fish keep breeding for you mate great stuf

Now to try and breed nice strains mate

you probably will

cheers happy breeding

 

pics please

 

@salim

Sorry man when I got home earlier they or one of the other fish in the tank chomped on the eggs and there will be no pics of them but I will take a pick of the pair and post it on my 390L planted thread.

Regards

Jason

 

Thanks Dirk

It has as you say taken a lot of dedication to the point of my family and things around the house sometimes having to take a back seat to the Discus but in the last 5 months or so I have learned to streamline the operation considerably as cheap as possible and have got rid of the other fish I had so as to be able to focus on the Discus alone. I am in the hospitality industry and as such 16 hour days are not uncommon so juggling time between water changes and time to feed them is sometimes a circus act in itself. But it seems to be paying off. It’s got to the stage where I am even considering dismantling my planted tank indoors and making it a bare bottom tank with a couple of pots with 1 or 2 plants like aquazulu has done in his fish room.

No need to worry about the mongrels the post was just to show that my setups are in top form, I will not be breeding them. I am happy that they did pair up as I am very keen to see if the RT is a female as I would like to try and swop her with the other RT female that is with the PB at the moment as this one has a much better shape body, the current breeding RT has a bit of a flat forehead as far as I am concerned.

Well the better strain is what all this effort is for as I told myself on setting all this up that it will have to pay for its own advancement as I feel I put enough cash in to it in the beginning (although Sometimes I wonder when that beginning is going to end) as the species that I have fallen in love with is so damn expensive. So once I have raised this lot and sold them off as well as the breeding pair and friends and ordering a strain that I have had my eye on from the start. Well I have to admit there is more than one and I will probably just have to do a coin toss to decide.

In closing all the effort thus far has purely been a learning experience to prepare myself for that one maybe 2 strains that are going to cost me a small fortune to obtain and hopefully by then I well be wise enough not to kill them off within the first week or 6. In saying that I have really been surprised how the stigma of keeping this majestic fish is somewhat over accentuated and that if you are just able to put in that extra maybe 10% in to your tanks it is very possible to keep Discus but if you are willing to add another 40% you can breed them sucsesfully.

Once again thanks for shearing all your knowledge and experience and to all the others that have helped me along this incredible fishy journey.

Kind regards

Jason

 

could not have said it better.
hey @ jpvd007 thumbs up!! cant wait to see how your mongols blossom

cheers doug