My VeryFirst Eggs!!

[smallfin]

Horay!
My young pair of Red Turqs have delivered the goods.
I came home from work this afternoon. Did a wc and went inside for dinner after seeing what looked like one of them doing a bit of a shimmy (which wasn't uncommon for this dancing fish) but this time he was pecking relativly hard at random spots over the 2 breeding cones. After dinner I went back out saying I'm going to watch my fish make babies and to my supprise when I got out there. Eggs! it looked like they were still going through the process so I didn't want to disturb them but there looked like lots and they were both passing over them so good signs so far.
I set the video going so I can watch their behaivour later with out disturbing them but wasn't there for the initial lay.
Very Exciting for me and now I have a lot more reading to do to work out my next moves.

After trying to breed discus over 15 years ago with out any success (not even eggs) to taking up the interest again over the last few months to now having my first 2 lay eggs after owning them for about 4 weeks! A big thanks to Kath for the pair in the first place.

Happy am I

Hopefully they will be there in the morning and I can post some photos.

Some points I observed. It's a full moon. Water Change was cold (I broke the heater the other day forgeting to turn it off) and they chose the terracotta cone over the taller plastic JBL cone.

Just had to share my good news with people that would understand.:D

Cheers
smallfin :)

[Eddie]

Thats great news, wishing you the best with them!

Take care,

Eddie

[David Rose]

Very exciting to hear...now a lot of fun begins! Well done! :D

[prabuddhasarkar]

thats a gr8 news. Im new to this forum. But always become happy after listening al,l these. Im crazy about everything of discus fish. But may be some of my fishes are stunted. anyways. Good to be attached with all of you. Take good care of the babies, and let us know all the exciting xperiences about the. Take care. Bye.

[velocilraptor]

hope everything works out for you goodluck

[Justice]

Best of luck to you!

[aquaman71]

Congrats! Look forward to updates!

[lpiasente]

yay

[Scribbles]

Congratulations! Best of luck with them.

Chris

[smallfin]

Thank you all for your kind words and best wishes.
Now for the proof. photos after day 1.

A few white ones developed through the day but not too many.

Happy Times!

smallfin :)

[Ben75]

looks good smallfin, good luck and keep us posted on the progress.
It's exciting stuff mate.
Regards,

[smallfin]

I now have wrigglers!
Over the last 2 days I have been watching the number of eggs turn white increasing and the number of eggs decreased dramatically while I was at golf yesterday Despite the fact they looked like they had little dark dots in them so I don't know if they were just hungry or they got fungus and were culed or something. Anyway went to work a bit deflated today ad the number of eggs left were no where near what I started with and came home wondering if I'd see any at all. First glances were no until I notice some wrigglers around the other side of the cone. For what ever reason they decided that was a better side. It's hard to see them around there but there looks to be only 30 -40 now but still, the longer they last the more experience I will get for next time.

Cheers for now

smallfin

[Eddie]

Thats great! Once you know you have a confirmed pair, there is plenty of options to think about!

All the best,

Eddie

[Mr Wild]

Oh he knows they are a confirmed pair, I had them laying.

They look after the eggs and fry really well Mark you should have no worries with that pair!

Great stuff.
Kath

[David Rose]

It is great experience regardless. My young female had been eating the eggs for months, but was getting better along the way with getting them to free-swimming. Then she had a batch I thought for sure were gone like your situation, but they ended up with 38 fry that are now going on week five of free-swimming. I don't know what I would have done if all 472 eggs went free swimming my first time wanting to grow out their off spring...LOL

One thing is for sure...it's different every spawn and you really get to learn their behaviors and work with them to make things better.

Enjoy! :p

[Eddie]

Thank you all for your kind words and best wishes.
Now for the proof. photos after day 1.

A few white ones developed through the day but not too many.

Happy Times!

smallfin :)

Totally missed the pictures...that pair looks great! Bet they produce some awesome babies.


Take care,

Eddie

[Jason K.]

:thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:

[smallfin]

Ok I need some advice. From that first batch of eggs I'm left with 2 babies going strong. The parents seemed to loose interest part way along the line and ate a bunch but have been doing much better looking after the 2. I juust walk in on the pair laying another batch of eggs!! Yay. My question is, I still have the 2 babes in with the parents. they are about 2 weeks old. 2.5 since first batch of eggs.

Should I move the 2 babies? do I need to do that urgently or am I fine to leave them in for another week or?

Hoping the parents are a little more practiced at raising them this time and keep more than 2.

Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks

Smallfin

[David Rose]

I would move them quickly; otherwise, they will soon disappear as well given the parents attention will be on the new batch of eggs. Hopefully, the two will accept live BBS and will be just fine separately. You should be able to start them on other foods in the next week like crushed flake or pellets, then shaved beefheart.

[smallfin]

Hmmm yes
I just went to check on them and was a little too late my 2 had reduced to one and that one was being chased around the tank by the male so out it came. I hope I can add the new babies to the same tank as this little fish all on his own.
Lots of work required to look after one lone baby fish but I still want him to do well. Looks like thi next batch was anoth big batch of eggs so hopping for better results this time.

Good to see them laying eggs again so soon.

Thanks

[David Rose]

This happened to me through a few batches of eggs. It would seem that the parents will not invest the effort when there are only a few fry.

The trick is to get your fry to start on live baby brine shrimp as soon as possible. If they are eating it at two weeks, you should be able to separate them and raise them. Then if your pair spawn again quickly as yours did, the first batch will have company in three weeks or so.

The advice I've received is to separate the fry no later than three weeks to prevent damage to the parents due to the aggressive feeding of the fry.

Hope this helps!

[smallfin]

Thanks David

I'll have to give hatching bbs ago now. So much to learn at each turn.
Hardley seems worth it for one fish but I'm sure that's the same attitude as the parents. At least it will give me a practice run before I get hundreds from this next batch! LOL.

Thanks Again David

Smallfin

oh one more thing? I've read in your post (i think) that the parents arn't too interested in food when breeding but do they eat eggs beause they are hungry? should I do my best to avoid them being hungry?
1 day gone and it looks like all eggs are they still as they were the fisrt time but day 3 or 4 I think was when a bunch were eaten last time

[Eddie]

oh one more thing? I've read in your post (i think) that the parents arn't too interested in food when breeding but do they eat eggs beause they are hungry? should I do my best to avoid them being hungry?
1 day gone and it looks like all eggs are they still as they were the fisrt time but day 3 or 4 I think was when a bunch were eaten last time

It is not hunger that causes them to eat the eggs/wrigglers/fry.

Eddie

[David Rose]

Thanks David
oh one more thing? I've read in your post (i think) that the parents arn't too interested in food when breeding but do they eat eggs beause they are hungry? should I do my best to avoid them being hungry?
1 day gone and it looks like all eggs are they still as they were the fisrt time but day 3 or 4 I think was when a bunch were eaten last time


I don't believe it's due to hunger and in fact, usually feeding the parents is altered to help keep the tank and water conditions very clean such as not feeding beefheart once they've laid eggs.

There are a couple of possibilities as to why they eat their eggs/wrigglers/fry. It is suspected that the parents may have a sense of development issues, such as the eggs are not viable, not fertilized, or may not be developing correctly, so they weed out these eggs, wrigglers, or free swimming fry. Another possibility is that some parents may become more sensitive to environmental stressors such as close movement in proximity to the tank, become threatened when you change water or clean the tank/equipment. They may feel that their young are in danger and rather than the predator getting their young, they eat them first.

[Mr Wild]

Congratulations Mark! I have to batches underway as I type, must be all this rain lol.

Kath

[ffilipinarush]

:balloon:
It is great experience regardless. My young female had been eating the eggs for months, but was getting better along the way with getting them to free-swimming. Then she had a batch I thought for sure were gone like your situation, but they ended up with 38 fry that are now going on week five of free-swimming. I don't know what I would have done if all 472 eggs went free swimming my first time wanting to grow out their off spring...LOL

One thing is for sure...it's different every spawn and you really get to learn their behaviors and work with them to make things better.

Enjoy! :p