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BREEDING DISCUS

So you have some Discus, who are starting to do some unfamiliar things, lack of appetite, fighting for territory or aggressive towards other tank mates except one fish. There are also physical changes happening, protruding genital parts, darkening of the face and tail, bright red eyes and extended fins. All of these signs are that of a pair forming and that breeding is close.
Breeding Discus is easy; the key to success is in the water. With the right method and a good state of mind and heaps of patience this can be achieved.

WATER

The water in the breeding tank has to be perfect to breed successfully. Discus raised in home tanks spawn best in water that is PH 6.2 6.8, temp 27- 28c, hardness of zero 1, and or water conductivity between 60 to 80 microseimens.

TANK SETUP

The only things you need are a barebottomed tank, around 125-litre, low watt light, spawning cone and sponge filter (air operated).Placement of the tank should be away from doors, windows and avoid direct sunlight, shadows or drafts. They should be placed in a low traffic area; however they do like the sight of humans either for food or company.

TRANSFERRING YOU PAIR

Your tank is ready and your pair is about to spawn what now? This is the time to move them to the breeding tank whooooo. Transferring them will cause them some stress, the pair will seem withdrawn, and show no interested in spawning while they get used to the new tank for a few days or so. Once they are used to their surroundings the spawning interest is regained.

BREEDING PREPERATIONS

This is the time to check your pair for internal and external parasites and worms; you may want to treat these things before they spawn to eliminate the loss of the spawn. This is not always done as a blanket treatment, treat only if you suspect something.

STIMULATING SPAWNING

Your pair have picked out a site and have been cleaning it for up to 3 weeks and you think it is time to try to get things happening well what do you do now?. This is a controversial issue because everyone does things different, but the most preferred way is to leave the water for about 7 days without changes, then do a 50% w/c with cool water (3 degrees cooler than the tank water), this may take 2 days to happen but you will find that they will really get the spawning urge and will lay shortly afterwards. Keep feeding them HIGH quality food right the way through (conditioning them for spawning).

SPAWNING PROCESS

Discus lay their eggs up the side of things, breeding cone, PVC pipe, filter tubing even on the glass of the tank. You will see the female glide upwards, in which she will lay the eggs, the male should follow after her and fertilizes as he goes. She will then make another pass and again the male follows. This process can last for a few hours and the pair should not be disturbed during this. This happens in a perfect case but sometimes the male will follow and eat the eggs.

I HAVE EGGS WHAT NOW??

Both parents will stand guard over these little gems, and blow and fan the eggs 24/7. It is important to have some lighting in the room so they can continue to do this. In 24 hours you should be able to see tiny black dots starting to develop inside the eggs if they are fertilized, if they eggs start to turn white, they are either fungused or are not fertilized.
Some breeders about 2 hours after the eggs are laid put Methylene blue into the tank at this stage to stop the fungus attacking the eggs, not completely needed but as a protective barrier for the eggs. They may also put a shield over the eggs to stop the parents from eating them. The eggs will continue to darken and in about 55 60 hours they start to hatch. At this stage you will notice small black things wriggling around on the cone or site where they have layed. Up to now no water changes are done at all. This is the time to start very small water changes at the rate of 20% daily very gently keeping away from the hatch site.

WRIGGLERS

The wrigglers remain attached to the breeding site, with parents still fanning and blowing on them. Discus fry are born with sticky heads and will wriggle and jiggle around on the cone for a few days. At this time the wrigglers are eating the egg sack and trying to break free. After 2 3 days they break free and become:

FREE SWIMMERS

Once these tiny wrigglers break free from their egg sacks and start to free swim, the parents will start to round them up and try to keep them attached to the spawning site. When they can no longer do this as the robust little fry become more active, the parents should start to let the fry attach to them. They fry will feed of the parents eating the slime coat of the parents (Discus Milk). This is the first hurdle as not all parents like this or have enough slime coat to feed all the brood, hence the babies starve and die. There are ways to help this, like lowering the water level so that the fry can easily find the parents. The water should now be changed 20% twice a day to make sure the water is free of any contaminates. The fry will eat of the parents for about 1 week before you should start to introduce other foods like Baby brine shrimp, and crushed flake for them to eat. This relives the parents and gets them used to other food. The fry should be left with the parents for about a month, or until the parents start to show stress due to the fry, they should then be separated into a grow out tank. If possible the parents should be divided and reconditioned before they are let to breed again for a few days.

This is a perfect scenario but things can go wrong. At any stage the parents can and will eat the fry, this is where patience comes into it. Inexperienced parents, any threat to the fry of any kind can make the parents eat. Also the presence of flukes will lead to dead fry, sometimes there are no reasons they just do it. PATIENCE AND MORE PATIENCE is what is needed as the final outcome is so awesome.

Trace.




[span class="edited"][Edited by trace-russ 2004-03-17 12:48][/span]

Another home run, trace. Keep them coming......Now if I can just get a few more tanks setup so I can put all this good info to work!

thanx for info trace u know ur stuff *lol

6x2x2 - Firemouth and Oscar Tank
30+ royal pythons.

Back in the game after 4 years out ..

Great read there Trace, I'll keep you posted & let you know if it works for my Red Turqs.

Frenchy

Hi Justin,

No probs will be waiting to hear from you. Im sure Rod would have given you some great advice also, listen to Rod as he knows his stuff, thats who I learnt off.

Trace

Wonderful article. I would post it in the breeding advice forum, but you already announced it here, so I won't bother for now.

very detailed

~*~ Caviar? no thanks! ~*~

I've heard in places that fish will eat there babies, whats this about? also, the advice you gave is that the same for all fish, or just for 'Discus'.

Followed your advice Trace. The pair I took to the bedroon haven't done anything exept eat the eggs. The pair in my livingroom laid and fertalized last night! and yes they are still there this morning Its a planted tank should that make any diffrence?

Trace-russ, I breed Angels.Some of my pairs eat their eggs. So I pull their eggs, and hatch them (artifically)without the parents. Can this be done with Discus?? I have looked at many forums, and have not seen anything on this subject? My best guess is that the Discus fry MUST need the slime coat in this crucial time of development...Plz repley Mike

Hi,

You can raise Discus artificially but it is really hard to do and the sucess rate is very minimal.

It involves 2-3 w/c daily the right food which is an egg yolk smeared around a shallow dish 3 times a day. It takes heaps of time and patience to do this.

Discus are much better if raised with their parents/parent.

If you would like a detailed article on how to raise yourself PM me and I will e-mail it to you.

Trace