Breeding Discus Part 7
Posted on
We went over your options with raising the new fry once they become free swimming in our last post. We will now go over how to artificially raise the fry. In the next Post we will go over raising the fry naturally.
The keys to artificially raising the fry, which is what you have been waiting to read, are below. This is where the few who have gotten to this point successfully will usually fail. It is very important that you do everything below and do not leave anything out or take shortcuts. Artificially raising the fry is difficult and time consuming, but only those that are willing to do everything will succeed.
There are two keys to raising the fry artificially: Cleanliness is one of the key things to do and changing the water with water that is the same temperature is the other key.
Step 1: Use a 1 gallon glass jar or beaker, fill it with the tank water the parents (& eggs) tank. Then put the eggs, and what they were laid on, into the jar.
Step 2: Place the jar in a 5 gallon tank filled with water at 84f (50w heater is required). Also put a Sponge Filter in the 5 gallon tank and turn it on. This will keep the jar warm and allow the tank to cycle. I always have filters in my 5 gallon tank so they are cycled.
Step 3: Add an air stone or bubbler to the jar. Turn it on medium so that there is a good current in the jar.
Step 4: Add three drops of methylene blue. Three drops will work well and allows you to observe the eggs.
Step 5: The eggs will begin hatching in two days.
Step 6: They will become free swimming in three days.
Step 7: within 12 hours of the fry becoming free swimming, give them their first feeding. Use artificial plankton and rotifers (a.p.r.) used for feeding marine filter feeders. Add only a small amount.
Step 8: Four hours later remove the jar from the 5 gallon tank and float a small plastic tub in the 5 gallon tank. Place the airstone in the tub (the airstone should be off). Use a baster to move the fry to the little tub. Fill the tub with the jar water 75% and 5g tank 25% until the tub is almost full. Turn the airstone on to a small trickle, enough to keep the surface of the water in the tub broken. Keep the tank with the tub covered to avoid cooling or evaporation or drafting on the tub.
Step 9: Add the same small amount of food.
Step 10: Four hours later do a 50% water change of tub water using the baster. I go from the baster to another small tub before I dump the water in case I suck up some fry (so I don’t dump them out). Replace the tub water with the tank water (Hey, notice the tank water is the same temp as the tub water!). Feed same small amount.
Step 11: 4-6 hrs later do a 90% change using the above method. (NOTE: eventually the 5g starts to get low. NEVER (REPEAT VERY LOUDLY, NEVER EVER) fill the 5g until the tub water has been changed and refilled. If you do fill the 5g tank prior to filling the tub, the temp may not be exactly the same and when you fill the tub afterwards you might watch the babies go into shock…they WILL NOT recover! (This cost me A LOT of fry to figure this out!).
Step 12: Repeat 90% water change and feeding every 4-6 hrs. (8 at the most so you can sleep, I’ve gone 10 before, but don’t recommend it unless there is nothing you can do about it).
Step 13: On the second day of free swimming, add a tiny amount (VERY TINY) amount of NEWLY HATCHED baby brine shrimp (b.b.s.) with every feeding. Don’t stop using the a.p.r. at this point. A.p.r. shows up gray in the fry bellies, b.b.s. shows up pink in the fry bellies.
Step 14: Continue feeding a.p.r. and b.b.s. for one week. All fry bellies should show pink by end of week.
Step 15: Once all fry bellies show pink, discontinue the a.p.r. and continue the b.b.s. Keep performing step 12.
Step 16: One week later you should have lots of fry the size of baby angelfish. Let them go into the 5g tank and feed them there from now on. Keep the tank clean and watch the water and temperature. Once a day water changes are good.
