i have wigglers!

two of my discus spawned the other day....these are the parents:
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this is what I came home to see after work:
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up close:
 
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and from above:
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right now I count 16...I don't know what the mortality rate is from here on out. I had a good many eggs not make it this far as you can see in the pics

Congrats :)Hopefully u get the most out of them

 

just counted 2 more on an adjacent plant...the leaves are vertical, and I never saw any eggs there...my only concern at the moment is what happens if these guys fall off the leaf? will the parents retrieve them from the substrate?

Its either they pick em up and then eat them OR put em back to a diff location mostly where they have the other wigglers at. Dont stress it. 2 is not worth damaging the whole breeding process. They will for sure continue breeding. After the first mate. So congrats again. Discus are worth something in fish business.

Awesome! Congrats  

I moved parents and both plants to a quarantine tank. most of the fry fell off the plants and fell to the bottom. there is some detritus from moving the plants, but I guess that's better than being stuck next to rotting eggs? hope the parents find the fry..or is that even necessary?

you gonna sell them???

Its kind of a stressing situation. What is your reason moving them? Is the tank crowded badly or you just want the frys to be "safe"?

jettej(was your screen name intentionally a palindrome, or did it just happen that way?) playing it safe, and hopefully to reduce social stress on everyone. ive got 5 discus in a 75, and when two of them are busy chasing everyone away from their near central spawning location so nobodys happy right now...the other 3, including the one who just came out of quarantine, are stuck hiding otherwise...im hoping everyone will finally relax now that parents &fry are off in another tank
 
earthfish the young discus will have to go somewhere, and 5 is all im comfortable putting in the main tank. that being said, they've got a long way to go till I can think of rehoming them, and I don't know how many of my 16 wigglers will make it.. with luck all of them...

Yes. My nickname is Jeth. People call me jetjet. so i came up JetteJ as my internet Name. So i never thought about palindrome and that. it just happend that way.

Hopefully they survive. Are they still trying to take care of the wigglers?

my name is nick. people call me...nick. somehow that ended up being my screen name...hmmmm

i counted 4 wigglers on the plant today. all the dead eggs were gone. i dont know if the unaccounted for 12 wigglers are among the small amount of detritus and gravel that ended up in the tank when i moved the two plants to the QT..or if those 12 are in their parents bellies as a late night snack
that was 4am..hope i see something when i get home.

im sure this wont be their last attempt- i dont know how often discus will normally do this, if it happens on a regular basis, these two will have to get their own planted tank (i really hate to see empty breeder tanks, i understand the reasoning but what a crummy life to be stuck inside a bare tank with nothing but a cone in it)

i also saw somewhere you can dose the tank with something or other to prevent egg mortality...formalin i think it was...maybe on future spawnings

I think if you want a pair to breed then they should be on a breeder set up. It boosts the success rate up. That became one of my problems. I had a community tank ang my BN pleco spawn. I let it spawn there grew them out outgrew them and kept spawing eggs start giving me dead juvies. Cuz either they get shredded by my gouramis or the tank just start to become an ammonia factory. Now i'm being more cautious. I rather have an bare tank with breeding caves than a decent looking tank and gravel makes everything hard to see, clean, and maintain.

well, im not looking to become a breeder, but rather looking at their quality of life in between "incidental spawnings" which i have no idea how frequently thatll happen...if its only once every 6 months or so, then they can live in the general population tank and get moved to QT as soon as i see eggs

See the thing is moving in the middle of breeding is stressing. But yeah you do what you gotta do. Just keep them in goow condition they might just spawn another month or so.

my discus pair once they got going seemed to breed every two weeks at least. sometimes more. they were terrible at keeping track of the babies however, everyone i talked with suggested sponge filters as they have less turbulence. anyways good luck with ya but a breeding tank is going to be your best bet as once they start they just wont stop.

for the time being, I have returned the parents to the general population tank...the wigglers are sitting in a shot glass which is sitting in a pyrex measuring glass which is in the QT. at least that way I can keep track of them and do water changes without fear of siphoning my fry. ive recovered 6 or 7...imagine doing a water change one syringe at a time examining for fish...yea it took awhile and the plants they rode in on brought a small amount of detritus and gravel but it doesn't take much for these guys to hide in.

I will move the parents back into the QT when the wigglers become swimmers...

here is a day old discus in a test tube after I caught it..
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annnddd...heres two more busy during their first day of life
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my bad...since they hatched yesterday, today would be their second day, yet their first *complete* day
I chose to not have kids, I have three dogs instead...but if the sight of day old wigglers in a test tube or inside a syringe (one of many pics & videos I didn't upload) doesn't get you thinking of the fragility of life, im not sure what will..

are the fry separate form the parents?...they have to feed off the parents to live.

I plan on reintroducing the parents as the fry start swimming. my QT is only 15 gallons, which is no place for two grown discus to remain in while they wait for the wigglers to become swimmers.

I separated them cuz ive lost 10 overnight and it was just the parents in the tank. im just hoping the separation doesn't kill the parental instinct, or whatever, and they eat the fry as soon as they are re-introduced

You're not understanding.
The fry. For the first few days, up to 2 weeks.
FEED. From a secretion. That the PARENTS produce.
There will be no fry to reintroduce, if you take the parents away. Because they'll all starve. And die.

Congrats and good luck Nick. Sounds like you are trying to make the best decisions for the group (parents and babies) given your tanks and setups. Now that you know they are going to spawn giving them their own tank and setup may be the solution. And often 1st time fish parents need time to learn how to be "good" parents...they will get it right in time.

pvtpain-
im understanding more than you realize, but for the first few days, the wigglers are immobile. they are not capable of swimming to their parents and feeding off the secretions yet.
this is the stage. where they stay put. and wiggle.

when they are freely swimming, and have developed surther, then the can feed off the parents

Actually, at this stage, the parents move them around to avoid predation. And feed them through this secretion the whole time.
Presuming you're right, and I'm wrong; If they're NOT eating that secretion while they're wigglers, then pray tell, what are they eating?

for the first few days, the yolk sac...once that is consumed theyre ready to venture out to their parents to feed off slime...and the parents have moved a number of wigglers around...from the leaves and bottom of the QT right into their digestive tract.
this is their first time getting this far, the previous time the female immediately ate the eggs. i dont have high hopes for the remaining 6 fry, but if they make it they make it....these two will spawn again