Tropical Fish Discus Forum Questions Answered!

I have a confirm breeding discus pair. It lays eggs and they do hatch but after they free swim, they die within 2-3 days of free swimming.I have tried a lot of procedures with no result.
The procedures were segregation and varied diet. The pair is about 18 months old, they are not even scared where I have placed them.There is one point to be noted,I have acclimatized them to hard water from when they were young because of no sufficient material availability in my city to fiddle around with their water chemistry (pH=7-7.5). One more thing to note is that the pair breeds rapidly, even if it has a spawn with it still lays eggs and forgets its previous spawn, the fry somehow are not allowed by the parents to stick on its slime, or they are not attracted.

Reply:
Indeed the water pH is quite high. At pH 7.5 is a border line for discus fish to survive.

There are many ways to put the pH down. If you cannot get from the aquarium shop; in fact you can use acid or vinegar to put it down gradually.

There is another way, collect some dried broad leaves, soak it in clean water for several days, and this water will become acidic with low pH. Add it to the breeding tank before they spawn. pH should be changed gradually; otherwise you weaken them.

Yes. It is true that the parents will not allow them to stick on the bodies. With hard water, it is difficult to obtain slime (food) from their bodies. So in the end the fries will die of starvation.

Keep it up. You will succeed one day. Come back to us if you have any doubts or good news.

First of all I would like to thank you for answering my questions. The fry are hatched now and are looking for food from parents
but they seems to ignore them. My aquarium is 3ft x 2ft x 2ft. Do you think it is too big and they are loosing them? With what shall I help feeding them? Thank you in advance.

Reply:
As I have told you the pair is still young. You have to give them time to learn. Or this pair when they were fries could be raised by artificial method.

The ideal size for breeding is 24″ x 18″ x 18″.
Your tank is too big. They have to work extreme hard to pick up the fries.

You need not feed the fries. The parents do. But you need to feed the parents more than the normal.