Keeping and Breeding Discus
By:
Matt Parsons
Discus have long been
thought of as a hard to keep and even harder fish to breed. I am by no means an
expert on anything much less breeding discus, but I have had great success
breeding them by doing a few simple things.
The most important thing to keeping or breeding discus is water quality. If
given the right water discus will not only survive, they will thrive.
So what is the right water? Well, that is a loaded question no two discus
keepers will agree on. For me I have found it is any water that is clean and
stable. The myths of a perfect pH are long dead in my opinion. A stable pH is
much more important than a specific one.
Another factor is water temp. I keep the water at different temps for grow outs
than breeders. Higher temps of 88 degrees for young fry will stimulate there
metabolisms and they seem to eat much more aggressively at warmer temps. Be sure
to keep up on water changes with warm water like this to avoid big spikes and be
sure to have lots of air in the tank. Higher temps mean much less dissolved o2
in the water. Daily water changes once or twice a day depending on how much food
is fed during the day. Clean the filters daily on fry tanks also, if you are
feeding enough to get good growth, the filters will be filthy daily.
Breeders I keep between 84 to 82 degrees depending on the pairs. I have found
different pairs spawn better at different temps so play around a little with
temp to see what works. remember to do any adjustments slowly as discus are not
to big on changes and will let you know it by there behavior. I only clean the
filters once a week on breeders unless I see they need it. A little common sense
and a good eye can take you a long way here. Be observant here and watch the
fish for behavior changes will also let you know if a sooner filter cleaning is
needed.
The last factor in my opinion is hardness of the water. Depending on your water
source, hardness will also decide what your pH will settle at.
For grow outs I use straight tap water. No aging or pre treating is done. I
adjust the temp out of the faucet and dump it straight in using a hose connected
to my laundry hook ups. My pH is 7.8 to 8.1 depending on time of year and
usually around 335 ms.(micro Siemens) My fry are very hardy and strong raised
this way. The higher mineral content of the water the better the growth rates. I
have tried raising fry in ro tap mix to find much slower growth rates. I expect
to see 2 inch fry in two months if I am doing everything right. If I see slower
rates I know something is wrong and will cull the whole batch. Remember that the
first few months of a fishes life will determine how it turns out later on, so
it is very important to make sure you do all you can early on to get the best
adults. There are some breeders I know that shoot the hardness up to around 700
MS, but I feel that keeping it simple and easy is better for me, so what I can
reproduce without fluctuations is my tap water and Thats what I use.
For breeders I use a tap water/ro mix to get the hardness down. I also use peat
moss to add tannic and humic acids and to help soften the water. I shoot for 70
to 100 MS on average. This brings my pH down to around 6.8 to 7 depending on how
long the water is in my reservoir. I have found my best hatch rates in this type
water. I have also played around with acid to try and get a lower pH only to
find wild pH swings and stressed out fish. So now I just let the hardness settle
my water out and I have no swings to speak of. A low MS also means having to be
diligent about water changes as the pH will drop fast without doing regular
water changes. I do them every other day at about 50%.
OK, so if I do all the things I have just written I will get pairs to spawn. The
next step is eggs on the cone (hopefully on the cone). I keep using my daily
water changes as usual. In 48 to 60 hours the eggs if fertile will begin to
wiggle. The wigglers stay on the cone or wherever the parents move them for
another 48 to 60 hours depending on water temp. Then they go free swimming
assuming the parents dont eat them along the way.( a common problem with young
pairs so dont be discouraged if it happens)
The freeswimmers will hopefully start to feed off the parents backs in the first
day or two. It is also common for young pairs not to attract the fry, so there
are a few things we can do to help. One is to lower the water level. This makes
less room for the freeswimmers to get lost in. Another thing I have done is
place some tinfoil under the lights to make it dim in the aquarium. This seemed
to help also. I will lower the water level to just even with the uplift tube on
the sponge filter so the surface water is calm. Fry seem attracted to movement,
so if the parents are the only thing moving it will help the fry find the
parents.
Once the fry are on the backs I fill the tank back up using tap water. I add it
back over a few days keeping up on water changes. By using tap this early I have
had much less fry loss than keeping them on ro. Again the stable pH seems to be
critical in there development. By the time the fry are 10 days freeswimming
there on pure tap water.
Feeding the fry on the backs starts as early as 4 to 5 days freeswimming. I use
BBS (baby brine shrimp) hatched daily to start them on. At first they dont know
what it is and take it slowly, so feed sparingly. Over the next few days they
tale it greedily and you will see there bellies turn pink when there eating it
good. Feed as often as possible and as much as they will eat. Be sure to keep up
on water changes here to as the shrimp will foul the water fast. Clean the
filters often too.
If all goes well the parents will tolerate the fry for 3 to 4 weeks. This is not
always the case, but if they do leave them with the parents for a min. of 3
weeks. Sometimes the parents will want to spawn again or just get spooky with
the fry and you have to pull them faster, but in my opinion there is no beating
a 24/7 food supply perfected by mother nature.
When it is time to remove the fry I actually pull the parents. It is easy on the
fry to stay in the same tank and it also helps the parents to not spawn as quick
so they get some rest. Keep up on feeding BBS and add some other foods. I use
grindal worms with the fry very young. 10 to 15 day old fry take it easily. Add
whiteworms, black worms, crushed flake, beefheart and any other thing they will
eat. Variety is important in getting all the nutritional needs met. The fry will
be growing like weeds by now and pooping steady, so water changes are a must. We
will do 2 to 3 a day during this time to keep the water clean. When the fry
outgrow there breeding tank, you can split them into what ever tanks you have or
put them all into a bigger tank. I like to keep them together and put them into
a 75 or 100 gallon at this time. The more fry, the more they seem to feed and
the less shy they seem to be.
Well, Thats about it. Please remember I am just a hobbyist and these things are
just what I have found to work for me. There are as many different ways to breed
and raise fish as there are fish keepers so nothing I have said here is written
in stone, just what works for me. IM sure I have forgotten some things here, but
if you want to call and talk fish, it is one of the things I really enjoy to do,
so fell free to call me at 920-405-0881.
Matt Parsons