Discus breeding .... three is a crowd ... tending eggs ... how I did it...
Like 1 Dislike 0 Published on 9 Oct 2015
Discus fish (Symphysodon) natives of the Amazon are interesting fish in the chichlids genus, and are a favorite for tropical aquariums. They are actually difficult to breed, but when you succeed it is quite rewarding and fun. Unlike most fish, they tend their eggs, feed and guard their young. I managed to get them to breed a few times in my aquarium. First you need to fatten them up. Go to the butcher and buy a beef heart (usually you need to special order one.) Cut it up, into little pieces and get rid of the connective tissue. Put it in a blender and make it into a smooth paste, adding in a touch of water if needed. Then add in about an equal amount of Tetramin flakes... mix well and put it in those mini ice cube trays to freeze. Take one cube or a half out each day (depending how many fish you are feeding), and feed your discus with it. It is more fun to cut off tiny pieces and put them in the water with your finger and let them eat that way... they get used ot you too. Feed a part of the cube at different times of the day... not all at once. When they have grown up, a male and female will pair up. It is hard to tell them apart. Look for pairs that do that arch swim next to each other and try to chase other discus away. Put the other discus into a different tank. Use an upside down brown flower pot for their egg nest. Keep the temperature at around 85 F... they actually like it hot. Use an accurate thermostat so the temperature is very stable (I made an electronic one because the bimetal thermostats go up and down too much and sometimes fail.) They may prefer slightly alkaline water. Keep the water very clean. Change out some water every day. When you see them cleaning a nesting spot, you are in luck. After laying and fertilizing their eggs, they will stay near the nest fanning the eggs to give them oxygen and keep all dirt away while moving eggs that fall down back to their nest. When the tiny babies hatch, they stick to the nest and the parents will keep trying to put them back when they drift off. Eventually, the parents can no longer control their swimming and then the babies hang around the sides of the parents and eat the slime off of their sides. The parents take turns tending them. As the babies get larger, they will start pecking at other stuff in the water. At this point, try putting in some freshly hatched brine shrimp. I would keep a production line of about 8 of those one quart tupperware containers hatching brine shrimp (each with an airstone) so that I can keep them fed. Later, start introducing pulverized Tetramin flakes along with the brine shrimp so that they learn this is food too. After they are at least dime sized, you can drop off on the fresh hatched brine shrimp... you can try the larger live brine shrimp, tetramin and then beef heart mix later. Often you don't get a good hatch or they eat all the young because something is wrong.... or something else in the tank eats all the young... or there is too much external activity around the tank which frightens them. Hand feeding helps with that. Some breeders do this in a very bare tank... no gravel, just the flower pot or something equivalent. Anyway, good luck! This video was taken in 1988, so sorry about the old VHS quality. If I find some more scenes (hopefully with babies) in my archives, I'll repost with more.