Foster parenting question

[kaceyo]

I have a pair in a breeding tank that havn't been able to get eggs to the wriggler stage yet and REALLY want fry from. They just spawned Today. I have another pair in the community tank that are good parents and they just happened to spawn within minutes of the first pair. You can probably see where I'm going with this,lol. What are the chances that if I pulled the good parents from the community tank and put them in the breeding tank with other pairs eggs that they'd care for and raise the eggs/fry as there own? Is this a big risk or does it have a fair chance of working, and if so whats the best way to go about it? Has anyone done this? I know the best way is to put the eggs in the tank that already have the foster parents in it but It's not working out that way and I have only one breeing tank.
Thanks,

Kacey

[Carol_Roberts]

All you can do is try it and see . . . or run out and buy a 29 and set it up real fast . . .

[John_Nicholson]

It does not matter if the foster pair has a current spawn or not. Take the eggs that you want and cover them, put them in the tank with the good pair and they will raise them most of the time. It is as simple as that.

-john

[kaceyo]

OK I'll stop worrying about the finer details of the art of discus breeding and just do it. I've found out so far that 90% of the questions I've asked can be answered with "do it, then wait and see", lol. A litte horse sense with a pro-active policy will take you far in this hobby.

[April]

or..as soon as they are freeswimming..you could screen them now....then with a turkey baster collect them and shoot them in with the other parents. ive done that. or take the parents out..and turkey baste them when they go freeswimming and put in with the good parents. sometimes..adding another cone..they get confused or upset and eat all of them.

[Robin764]

I've used April's method....it works:)

I also moved the cone of the eggs I need fostered to a 10gal. with air, heat, and water from breeding tank. Once the fry hatched out, I siphoned them onto the other fry the good parents have in their tank. They were close in age...just hours like yours. (They were wrigglers at this time, and the parents have them in a nice quarter-sized pile, so pretty easy to aim the new fry if your careful. Watch out for fingers though....mine like to go for em when they are with a spawn...lol.

Robin

[kaceyo]

I have thought of these options. It's good to know they have been done succesfuly before. trouble is the good parents are in a community tank. I will have to get another breeder tank for the foster P's but I'm going to have to do some cramming to find a place for it. Something is gonna have to go into storage to make room. Thats OK though. I don't need a sofa AND a chair, lol.

[John_Nicholson]

Cover the eggs. Take out the bad parents and put them in the community tank, pull the good pair out and put them in the breeding tank....

-john

[kaceyo]

Thats exactly what I asked if I could do in the first post. Thanks John. Now that I have a better idea of the possibilities from all the info I got in this thread I may even put the good parents AND their eggs in the breeder tank. Sounds like they should watch over both cones of eggs. And I shouldn't have any trouble picking out which are Yellow Crystals and which are Eruption X Lep cross.

Kacey

[John_Nicholson]

Usually if you cover the eggs you got a shot. They seem to really "bond" with the fry when they hatch out.

-john

[kaceyo]

Will do. The SE x Lep eggs are allready covered but I might just cover the YC's eggs too, just so they're both the same. Probably not nescessary but couldn't hurt.

Kacey