# I finally got my discus to spawn. pics!!



## Tanganyikaguy (Apr 25, 2007)

well, I finally got these things to lay eggs and finally hatch them out. the male is the Alenquer with all the blue striping, the female is the reddish brown santarem. hopefully they will continue to raise these fry. this is only their second spawn and I was greatly surprised to see them become such good parents.

here are the pics:























































the pair is housed in a 29 gallon tank with a sponge filter. it's kept at 85 degrees and is filled with about 90% RO/DI water. I havent tested the other water parameters lately. but last time I checked the PH was 6.0 and the GH and KH was around 3 degrees.


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## hey_wood1981 (Apr 7, 2004)

congrats! my angels finally have some wigglers as of today. this is the first time they've gotten a spawn to this point on their own. only down side is only 15 or so hatched.


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## BurgerKing (Jul 1, 2008)

I never knew they stayed with the parents like that, I always see babies swim away and parents retreiving them to put them back in their cave!! Nice job, hope they all do well!!


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## AnDyF_27 (Aug 7, 2008)

the discus fry feed off the parents slime coat


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## AnDyF_27 (Aug 7, 2008)

thats y they stay with the parents


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## BurgerKing (Jul 1, 2008)

Thats cool, I have never heard of fish doing that!


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## remarkosmoc (Oct 19, 2005)

Thats awesome. Many consider spawning discus the 'holy grail' of freshwater fishkeeping. Congrats are in order :thumb: :thumb:

I love the parents 'milking' capability releasing nutrients on their skin.

Keep the pics coming as the develop opcorn:


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## Gordon C. Snelling (Apr 15, 2007)

Congrats on the babies, shame the parents are not as well formed as they could be. I have never seen discus with such pronounced "dips" above the mouth before. Are these wilds or domestics?


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## Dutch Dude (Sep 14, 2006)

Congrats with the spawn :thumb:

I agrea on Gordon but I have seen even more pronounced dips. What is the size of your breeding couple? The one you label as an Alenquer looks more like a red turquoise to me.


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## Tanganyikaguy (Apr 25, 2007)

they are domestics from wild parents. F1 or F2 I think. yeah, their shape is pretty awful, but I got them cheap and I am hoping that I get some better shape in the young. the male is about 4.5 inches and the female is around 4 inches. they are still really young.


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## Dutch Dude (Sep 14, 2006)

The reason I asked is that I have seen something similar in a lfs. I bought some young 3 inch discus back in June. They are Stendker discus and good qualety. Unfortunately they were already some time in the lfs ( +/- 8 weeks) but they still looked fine to me and maybe slightly smaller as normal for their age. Right now they measure 5 inch TL and their age is estimated at 10 months. There are still siblings from the same batch in the lfs. Those fish only received 2 times a day some beefheart and only 2 times a week a large water change. It is hard to belive but those fish are still 3 to 3 1/2 inch. Those fish also show the dip on the head while mine have a nice body shape and look normal. Depending on the age of your fish and assuming you measured the total length (TL) of the fish yours might be small as well for their age. This might very well be the reason for the head shape. So this might not have to do with the strain but more with growth. If so they can produce normal fry.


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## Dutch Dude (Sep 14, 2006)

Here a pic to compair. They are diferent to most red turquoise and most likely their is some blood of red spotted green in the strain. Check all the red dots.



















As you can see the size of the eyes and body size is very diferent compared to your fish. So I think your fish are older as you expect.


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## takasumi (Apr 19, 2008)

Those are beautiful fish, Dutch Dude! 
I've been having troubles with my discus lately. But my Red Turk is still alive and kickin'! 
Hopefully she'll breed with my pig. blood one of these days! (Whoo-HOO)

Congrats on the new brood, Tang! I hope that all goes well for the new parents! Fry are so cute!


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## Tanganyikaguy (Apr 25, 2007)

here are a couple of new pics. the fry are growing pretty quickly. 

I just separated half of the fry out into their own aquarium. they are being fed baby brine shrimp and frozen brine and bloodworms that have been shaved down on a cheese grater.

we'll see how the ones that I separated do compared to the ones still with the parents.


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## kj23502 (Jul 29, 2008)

Really neat Tang guy :thumb:


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## Dutch Dude (Sep 14, 2006)

Wow,..those fry are fast growing! :thumb:


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## George Walker (Nov 10, 2008)

Those Discus look awesome. I saw some at the LFS and was wondering how many you could put in a 75 ga show tank and with what else. I've heard they are best by themselves


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## Dutch Dude (Sep 14, 2006)

George Walker,.....I keep 6 in a 75 gallon and thats abouth the limit. You can keep them with tetras like H. bleheri (rummynose) or cardinal tetras. A few others also tolerate the high temps but not all tetras will. Be careful and don't add the fin nibbling types. I keep mine with Apistogramma but it is also possible with Rams (Microgeophagus ramirezi). Corydoras hastatus is suitable for cleaning crew along with Peckoltia species and small bristle nose pleco's. Be careful with introducing tank mates becouse most don't handle the high temps or act to boisterous and lots of pleco's feed on the slime coat during the night!!!

There are lots of myths around discus but domesticated discus aren't as delicate as people think. You do have to stick to some basic rules likes lots of water changes, feeding, high temps and suitable tankmates. Although domesticated discus aren't to delicate they still are an awful lot of work especially if you want to grow out youngsters. Before you consider buying them I suggest to read, read, read!!! You could start a topic on this board and there are a number of forum members that can provide you with valuable info. The source with the best and most acurate info still is www.simplydiscus.com. There you can find all the real experts and large breeders.


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