Help Needed: Discus spawned in my community tank

**garoo** · 4th Jan 2014, 17:11

Hi Guys,

I hope this is the right place to seek help. I am pretty new to planted tank and have been reading this forum for 2 months before finally starting my own tank.

I am currently 5th week in my 4 feet planted tank and 2nd week into introducing fishes into it. I have 3 adult Discus, 4 juvenile discus, 20 red Serpae and a marble angelfish.

Only this week I saw 2 of the adult Discus pairing up and to my surprise this morning, the female has laid eggs on one of the leaves of the Java Fern!

As you can see I am very new to planted tank, let alone Discus breeding! I need help and good advise what should I do next? Do I need to remove the rest of the community fishes? How long does it take for the eggs to hatch? What other measures should I take?

(Didn't mention water parameters here as fish and plants are growing well and no algae issues so far.)

Let me hear your views.

Regards

**greenie** · 4th Jan 2014, 20:55

Since you are new to fish keeping, my advice is to let them be. Don't be sad if the eggs gets eaten, but give a pat on the back to yourself because your tank parameters are conducive enough to trigger them to breed/spawn.

I've homebred discus before and it's a daily water change chore and more frequent daily water change for discus fries. Just keep up the good work and maintain your planted tank as it is.

**garoo** · 4th Jan 2014, 22:14

So you mean if eventually the eggs hatch into fries and is okay to keep it in the current tank with the other tank mates?? Will they be eaten or naturally the male will fend off its prey?

**coolgear101** · 5th Jan 2014, 00:57

It is better to separate the pair to another 2ft tank. If there are a pair, they will breed again. But it is not easy to take care of the fries. A lot of T&C needed.

**lengswee** · 5th Jan 2014, 01:11

It normally takes 72 hours for you to see wriggling within the eggs which means you have a confirmed pair.
If eggs turn white (not mouldly) that means the eggs are not fertilised and high probably that both are female (very common)
If the eggs hatches, high chances the fries won't make it in a com tank as these wrigglers will swim about and the parent fish may not be experienced to guard.
But the best news is that the pair could spawn again very very soon, so you need to separate the confirmed pair and wait for the next batch of eggs

**garoo** · 5th Jan 2014, 01:46

Thanks for the advice! So is it 100% true that no one succeeded to raise the fries in a community tank? (I mean somehow in the wild they need to defend against other prey also right?) Just curious...

**greenie** · 5th Jan 2014, 17:47

Sometimes we need to listen to our head more than our hearts. Those eggs if hatches most likely gets eaten up by other fishes, their own parents or get suck into the filter. If the parents are territorial enough to fend off other fishes in your 4ft tank until the fries is 5cent size, then good for you.

I hope you don't listen others advising you to separate the discus pair if you don't intend to breed. Just think for a second what to do if you manage to grow the fries, where to store them and unless they are those high quality ones, my advice is not to delve into breeding.

I've bred discus for the purpose of growing my own high quality discus, Penang Eruption. Strict culling is required during the stages of growing the fries.I don't think breeding discus is the reason you come into this hobby, right?

**Kiang** · 5th Jan 2014, 18:09

Originally Posted by greenie

Sometimes we need to listen to our head more than our hearts. Those eggs if hatches most likely gets eaten up by other fishes, their own parents or get suck into the filter. If the parents are territorial enough to fend off other fishes in your 4ft tank until the fries is 5cent size, then good for you.

I hope you don't listen others advising you to separate the discus pair if you don't intend to breed. Just think for a second what to do if you manage to grow the fries, where to store them and unless they are those high quality ones, my advice is not to delve into breeding.

I've bred discus for the purpose of growing my own high quality discus, Penang Eruption. Strict culling is required during the stages of growing the fries.I don't think breeding discus is the reason you come into this hobby, right?

Very true. I am also facing this problem with my angels.

But I am currently hand tied caring for the current batch not to mention more fries. As such, I decided to let natural take it course then.

Abit cruel but 'short pain rather than long suffering'

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**Kiang** · 5th Jan 2014, 18:16

Just sharing my own experience.

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**garoo** · 5th Jan 2014, 18:18

Frankly the objective is just to strive in this planted tank and that is why I didn't start with a bare tank for Discus. And my small flat will not allow me to have another tank also.

On the other hand, I thought maybe I could buy those plastic dividers and divide the tank into 2/3 so the discus pair and their fries can have their own space. Of course the divider will only stay there till the fries are about 20 cent coin size. But this will also mean that the flow in the tank will be affected which is essential for the planted tank. But maybe another internal pump will help curb that problem?? Anyone tried that before??

Sorry for all the questions but a lot of questions went through my mind since I saw those eggs.

**Kiang** · 5th Jan 2014, 18:39

Originally Posted by garoo

Frankly the objective is just to strive in this planted tank and that is why I didn't start with a bare tank for Discus. And my small flat will not allow me to have another tank also.

On the other hand, I thought maybe I could buy those plastic dividers and divide the tank into 2/3 so the discus pair and their fries can have their own space. Of course the divider will only stay there till the fries are about 20 cent coin size. But this will also mean that the flow in the tank will be affected which is essential for the planted tank. But maybe another internal pump will help curb that problem?? Anyone tried that before??

Sorry for all the questions but a lot of questions went through my mind since I saw those eggs.

I think I read up on this issue before.

If the parents and the fries are under stress due to environments ( external or internal), most likely they will eat up their own fries to protect them from others.

However, this is for angelfishes. I am not sure if this can be applied to all fishes including discus.

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