The spawning process is the best part of breeding Discus. This has always been my favorite part of Discus keeping and I still, 40 years after my first Discus spawn, find it fascinating.
The first indication that your Discus are getting ready to spawn will be their obsession with cleaning a rock, breeding cone, filter tube or side of the aquarium. Once you see both of them doing this, spawning will usually follow within a couple of days. You will soon see them start to do the mating dance. They will swim towards each other at a slightly upward angle. Once they get next to each other, they will shimmy and then swim away from each other at a slightly lowered angle. The most spectacular part of the spawning process will be the colors of your Discus. Whatever their color prior to spawning, it will become MUCH more intense and vibrant during spawning. This will be the most beautiful you will ever see your Discus. They will also become aggressive toward other fish, including Discus, at this time. They will aggressively chase away other fish from the breeding site from all intruders, including you. The male Discus will be the one that is most aggressive.
After your Discus start doing all of the above, they will actually start laying the eggs. It will begin with the female rubbing her belly, and her breeding tube, against the surface that they have cleaned. She will always lay in an upwards motion. The total length of the spawning run will be between ½ and three inches. Some Discus will have extremely orderly patterns of laying the eggs. Others will look haphazard. She will lay between 1 and 12 eggs per spawning run. The male Discus will usually then follow directly behind her in
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
Your new fish should be kept in a separate, bare, isolation tank for 2 weeks.
If you do not have a separate isolation tank, any other large container, such as a bucket or tub, that is free of chemicals may be used. Make sure that you put a heater and bubbler (a new sponge filter is best) in the temporary tank. Remember, this is only for two weeks. The temporary isolation tank should be a bare bottom tank with nothing in it other than the aeration and a heater (no plants, snails, fake plants, gravel, driftwood, decorations or other fish). Make sure everything in the isolation tank is completely sterile or new. After two weeks, When the fish are showing no signs of stress or disease, they can be moved to their permanent aquarium.
CHANGE 40 PERCENT OF THE WATER DAILY FOR THE FIRST WEEK AND THEN EVERY OTHER DAY FOR THE SECOND WEEK. MAKE SURE THAT YOU USE TREATED TAP WATER, DISTILLED WATER OR SPRING WATER. DO NOT USE CYCLED WATER OR WATER FROM OTHER TANKS.
It is urgent that you unpack your fish as soon as possible. Float the bag in the isolation aquarium where they are going to stay. DO NOT open the bag at this time! You may find that you need to remove some of the aquarium water to prevent it from overflowing when the bags are placed in the aquarium. If necessary, remove some aquarium water into a clean plastic bucket or other food safe receptacle. Be sure the container for excess water does not have any reside from household cleaners or other potentially toxic chemicals, as you will use this water to refill the aquarium later.
Allow the bags to float in the temporary tank for at least 45
Introduction: Columnaris is a very common type of bacterial infection in Discus. It responds differently than other Bacterial Infections and affects the skin, gills and sometimes it also infects the internal organs causing sepsis. It is always associated with fish that are very stressed. The most common origins of stress are shipping, overcrowding, low oxygen, poor water conditions (improper Ph, Hard Water and water that is too cold). Most fish have the disease in a dormant state. It will occur in fish that have their immune system weakened due to stress or that are exposed to high levels of the bacteria from other infected fish. As it is dormant and can become inflamed when stressed, it is very important to quarantine newly shipped fish in a sterile tank after the stress of shipping. If a healthy, but newly stressed fish from shipping is exposed to other fish in an established tank that does not have pristine water conditions, the tank can quickly become infected. A healthy fish that it is exposed to an infected tank, even if it is dormant in some of the other fish, it will quickly become infected.
Pathology: Columnaris starts as a bacterial infection of the skin. Within 14 hours, it will often move to infect gills and within 24-48 hours it can infect the inner organs. Columnaris can become lethal as quickly as 18 hours and untreated it will be lethal in 50-90 percent of the fish within a week. The most common cause of death is infection of the gills, making it impossible for the infected fish to diffuse enough oxygen through the gill membranes. It is like the fish getting Pneumonia and suffocating. These seriously infected fish will usually die within 72 hours of becoming infected. Fish that are able to ward of
The Flowerhorn Cichlid is a result of hybrid between different South American cichlids. The Flowerhorn was developed in Malaysia during 1990s, and exactly which South American Cichlids that was used and in which combinations is still a secret. This secrecy has of caused a lot of speculation and a number of more or less reasonable theories have been put forth. One of the more unlikely theories suggests that the Flowerhorn Cichlid was artificially created in a Malaysian genetics laboratory by combining genes from a Goldfish with genes from the Trimac Cichlid (Amhilophous Trimaculatus). This theory does garner a little credibility as the Trimac Cichlid has the same basic shape of a Flowerhorn (albeit the hump is much smaller and is very colorful. A more reasonable suggestion is that the Flowerhorn Cichlid is the result of crossing many different types of South American cichlids with each other, and that different forms of Flowerhorn Cichlids can steam from different South American Cichlids. The most likely ancestry is a crossing between the Trimac cichlid and other South American cichlids such as Midas Cichlid (Amphilophus Citrinellum), Red Devil Cichlid (Amphilophus Labiatum) and Redheaded Cichlid (Vieja Synspila). This theory we believe here at Somethingsphishy.com is correct.
The look of the Flowerhorn Cichlids available in fish stores today is however not just the result of selective breeding. You can affect the appearance of a Flowerhorn Cichlid by adjusting environmental factors such as the water chemistry in the aquarium. The food you feed your Flowerhorn Cichlid can also change its look. The single most important factor behind the look of the fish is however the genetic makeup formed by selective breeding. Only males develop the signature Hump. Flowerhorn respond to color enhancing food dramatically and we recommend you use it with
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
