Category Archives: Discus

Breeding Angelfish Part 9 – How to raise the fry?

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Previously we went over Angelfish fry prior to them becoming free swimming. Now we will go over your options as to how to raise the fry.

You now need to make a critical decision. Do you let the Angelfish raise their own fry naturally or do you artificially raise them.  Both ways have their advantages and disadvantages.  We will briefly discuss the advantages and disadvantages of both methods.

The main advantage to letting the Angelfish raise their own fry is that it is MUCH less work. Other than keeping the water ultra clean via water changes, as you will not be able to run any filters except a sponge filter, there is not much to be done different to what you normally do.  If possible, please take any other fish out of the tank.  The huge disadvantage is that the parents will eat the fry a majority of the time.  They will do it very quickly, you will not know they are eating them and there is really nothing you can do to prevent it.  There is one other advantage to naturally raising the fry that most people tend to forget.  Angelfish fry will feed a little off the natural slime of their parents and in eating the slime they receive antibodies from their parents, thereby making them much more resistant to disease later in their life.

Conversely, the advantages and disadvantages to artificially raising the fry is just the opposite. There will be two to three weeks of caring for your fry several times a day.  The positive side, your chances of getting the Angelfish fry past this stage is greatly increased.  Generally speaking, more fry will survive when you artificially raise them.

As Angelfish are much easier to artificially raise that some other fish such as Discus, we recommend that you go with the artificial raising of them. In our next segment, we will go over artificially raising Angelfish.

Breeding Discus Part 5

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Previously we went over Discus fertility. We will now go over the fry prior to them becoming free swimming. Next we will go over fry after they become free swimming.

This is the easiest part of spawning and is also one of the most fascinating.

After 48 to 72 hours, depending mainly on water temperature, the eggs will begin to hatch. Only the dark ones will hatch. They are dark because after about 36 hours, the eye starts to develop and will show through the egg sack. Most of the fry will stay attached to the surface where the eggs were laid via a small membrane on their head. A few will become detached and will fall to the bottom. At this point the fry will look like a small comma to the naked eye. Under magnification, they are quite ugly and will look like something straight out of a monster movie.

They will remain attached to the substrate for another 48 to 72 hours. There is not much to do at this point. They will have an egg sack and will live off of it during this entire time. There are only two real concerns. The first is the parents eating them. If you are going to artificially raise the fry, you will want to take the parents out. If you are not going to artificially raise the fry, you should cover them with a screen. The second concern is fungus. Adding Methylene Blue to the water will mostly solve this. If you are going to artificially raise them, and have taken the parents out of the tank, you should add aeration about one inch from the fry to keep the water moving around them. They will start to become free swimming about 2 to 3 days after hatching.

Breeding Discus Part 1

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What you need to understand is that you are not in total control. If Discus do not want to pair off, they are not going to pair off and there is nothing you can do about it. What you can do is provide the right conditions so that it is more likely that they will pair off.

If you have a sexed pair of Discus in a tank by themselves, there is an approximately 70% chance that they will eventually pair off if left together for a long period of time.

To encourage the potential young lover Discus along, provide conditions that are conducive for fishy love. We put seven mature Discus in a 125-gallon tank and let them acclimate to it for two weeks. We then start doing sudden changes in the tank conditions to encourage courtship. Some of the changes we make are

  • Change the water temperature to 76 degrees for a few days and then bring it up to 88 degrees over about 12 hours and then leave it at 88 degrees for a week.
  • Let the tank get somewhat dirty by not doing the daily water changes for a week and then doing an 80% water change.
  • Feed your potential breeder Discus heavily for three days and then stop feeding them for two days, followed by feeding them live food for three days.
  • Do two 60% water changes six hours apart where the Ph goes from 6.4 to 7.0 at the first change and then from 7.0 to 7.6 at the second change.
  •  Leave the tank totally dark for two days and then turn the lights on for two days.

If you have tried all of the above and after two months your Discus still have not paired off, we switch out three of those Discus and start the process over again with four new Discus along with the four remaining.

Instructions to Artificially Raising Discus Fish Fry

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This article describes in detail how to artificially raise Discus Fish.  

Step 1:
Give the parents a 2 inch PVC pipe 14-16″ long to let them spawn on. You can attached it to a 4 inch converter to give it a base.  pH must be below 7 with 6.5  being ideal and water used throughout this process must be soft (around 200 ppm TDS). 

Step 2:
Make sure that the males is fertilizing the eggs, otherwise any attempt is futile.  You will see making a breeding run after the female lays eggs.

Step 3:
Wait four hours after spawning is finished. This gives the eggs time to fully fertilize.

Step 4:
Using a 2 gallon glass beaker, fill it with the tank water the parents (& eggs) are in. Put the PVC in the jar (quickly and calmly).  Then put the beaker into a 5-10 gallon tank.  So you will have the eggs inside a beaker which is inside a 5-10 gallon tank.

Step 5:
Then quickly remove the PCV pie and put it into the beaker filled with water at 84f (50w heater is required). Also put a small Sponge Filter in the tank and turn it on. This will keep the jar warm and allow the tank to cycle. 

Step 6:
Turn the air flow in the Sponge Filter on so that there is a good current in the tank (don’t blast the eggs though).  The current will help keep the eggs from growing fungus.

Step 7:
Add three to six drops of methylene blue. Other people may recommend more, but I believe that it may cause fry loss. Six or less drops works well and allows you to observe the eggs.

Step 8:
They will begin hatching (if they are fertile and the correct water parameters/hardness/uS are present) in two days.

Step 9:
They will start free swimming in three to four days . They will be clogged in a bunch on the bottom of the tub during this period and will untangle when ready.

Step 10:
As soon as they become free swimming, give them their first feeding. Use artificial plankton and rotifers (a.p.r.) used for feeding marine filter feeders. Add an amount the size of the winding screw on your watch.

Step 11:
4 hrs later remove the jar from the 5g tank and float a small Rubbermaid tub in the 5g tank. Place the airstone in the tub (turn it off first). 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 blip…blip..blip….. enough to keep the surface of the water in the tub broken. Keep the tank with the tub covered to avoid cooling/evap/drafting on the tub.

Step 12:
Add the same small amount of food.

Step 13:
4 hrs. later do a fifty percent 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 14:
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 15:
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 the is nothing you can do about it).

Step 16:
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. Continue performing step 15. a.p.r. shows grey bellies, b.b.s. shows pink bellies.

Step 17:
Continue feeding a.p.r. and b.b.s. for one week. All bellies should show pink by end of week.

Step 18:
Once all bellies show pink discontinue the a.p.r. and continue the b.b.s. Keep performing step 15.

Step 19:
One week later you should have lots of fry the size of baby Discus. Let them go into the 5g tank and feed them there from now on. Keep the tank clean and watch the water changing temp. A once a day water change is good enough. The rest is standard baby fish stuff!