This article is a continuation of the previous post, “Breeding Discus – Symphysodon aequifasciatus – part 1.”
After three failed attempts, my new pair of discus have had a successful spawn. The eggs were laid on or around June 19st, 2012. The fry were all free swimming on June 26th, 2012 (Age = Day 1). Just as some others have noted, it often takes new pairs a few tries to get it right, and my pair succeeded on their fourth try.
The fish actually spawned after they had wigglers in the tank, but few to none fry survived from that spawn.
I have made every attempt to document the grow out of the free swimming discus fry. The tank water parameters are listed below along with a few photos to capture their development and size. I started feeding baby brine shrimp (bbs) starting at day 5 (free swimming). The bbs is offered 3 times a day, and the parents are fed 2-3 times a day also (except lighter feeding on Sundays).
Once the fry became more independent at around Day 10, I started adding finely ground earthworm flakes to the tank at feeding time to start to ween them off of bbs.
My water change schedule is mostly daily at this point, to keep the fry growing. If I miss a day, I try to compensate with a larger water change the next day. My replacement water is RO with Seachem Equilibrim added to raise to ~70-90 ppm on the TDS meter.
I test the water every week, and the usual readings are as follows:
- Ph – 7.0
- Temp – 78.5
- NH3/NH4 – 0
- TDS – 103
- GH/KH – 17.9 – 35.8 ppm
I will continue to keep up the hard work of raising these fry, for experience, and to turn them in for BAP points at my local aquarium society, Tropical Fish Club of Erie County.
Look for another update here once the fry are at an age of 2 months and ready for new homes. If you want to follow along more closely, I keep a journal at Simply Discus Forum.
Source: http://fish.joshvito.com
© Photos by the author