Breeding My Discus

this peat you put in the filter... what is it and how does it work? Is it for more of a temporary fix or does it support a long term softer lower Ph? I've got some hard water here, was thinking it might help me out a bit...

thisguyek said:

this peat you put in the filter... what is it and how does it work? Is it for more of a temporary fix or does it support a long term softer lower Ph? I've got some hard water here, was thinking it might help me out a bit...

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You need about 1 liter of peat for every 100 liters of water, and you need to replace it every 4-6 weeks. I personally don't think it would be as effective in a large tank, because you would need to prepare the water before each water change. It's fine in the breeding tank, as it is such a small volume of water, and I can easily pre-treat the tap water. That said, it can't do any harm. When you say hard water, do you know the kH, gH readings. Farmed fish are pretty tolerable to harder water, and as long as the water does not fluctuate they will be fine. The most important thing is clean water and clean tank.

Not much to report at the moment. The fish are looking a little lazy just now. Initially they looked like they were going to spawn straight away, but now they are just having some half baked goes at cleaning their cone, and then stopping. Will keep you posted if I can get them back into some more love action!

The fish have been looking rather lazy and bored the last couple of days, so I just popped a 3rd fish in again to try and get them fired up. Dude fish got instantly annoyed and jealous.......by jez did that wake them up! I won't leave the poor guy in there too long, just long enough to kick start some action. I don't want him bullied, I just need those two to get some love fire in their blood again.

Yep! That got them fired up!!!!!

DevotedToDiscus said:

You need about 1 liter of peat for every 100 liters of water, and you need to replace it every 4-6 weeks. I personally don't think it would be as effective in a large tank, because you would need to prepare the water before each water change. It's fine in the breeding tank, as it is such a small volume of water, and I can easily pre-treat the tap water. That said, it can't do any harm. When you say hard water, do you know the kH, gH readings. Farmed fish are pretty tolerable to harder water, and as long as the water does not fluctuate they will be fine. The most important thing is clean water and clean tank.

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i dont know the gh or kh readings. i actually dont know how to test them... err lol My Ph has been a constant 8.2ish forever now. tank and water and crystal, and all other readings are spot on. Been told many times over that steady readings are more important than the perferred ones. I was just curious about the peat...

so on that note... how do we test kh and gh? are there seperate tests out there or what?

good to hear about your pair! really anxious to watch the little gaffers grow

thisguyek said:

DevotedToDiscus said:

You need about 1 liter of peat for every 100 liters of water, and you need to replace it every 4-6 weeks. I personally don't think it would be as effective in a large tank, because you would need to prepare the water before each water change. It's fine in the breeding tank, as it is such a small volume of water, and I can easily pre-treat the tap water. That said, it can't do any harm. When you say hard water, do you know the kH, gH readings. Farmed fish are pretty tolerable to harder water, and as long as the water does not fluctuate they will be fine. The most important thing is clean water and clean tank.

Click to expand...

i dont know the gh or kh readings. i actually dont know how to test them... err lol My Ph has been a constant 8.2ish forever now. tank and water and crystal, and all other readings are spot on. Been told many times over that steady readings are more important than the perferred ones. I was just curious about the peat...

so on that note... how do we test kh and gh? are there seperate tests out there or what?

good to hear about your pair! really anxious to watch the little gaffers grow

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8.2 is a tad high, but I am not about to say it is impossible to keep them in that water. Testing kH and gH are two separate tests, similar chemical tests as you have done for your pH. However the pH, kH and gH are generally linked, so I suspect your water is pretty hard. Which IMO would mean you would need to pre-treat your water, and store it for water changes. Is not too difficult, just means having a good plan on how best to do it.

I am not sure why, but my pair went all shy They would look like they were in the mood to get ready for some luvin' and then they would see me near the tank, and it would ruin the mood! So I popped up a modesty screen to let them feel the love in private

So I dripped some wine in the tank to get them frisky and(No I didn't!), but the privacy screen has worked, as the love juices are in full flow and my pair are seeding their cone again

Lucky number 7

The wine worked!!!! Hope this goes better!

Dieses Madchen said:

The wine worked!!!! Hope this goes better!

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Claude Val Rouge, Syrah Merlot 2009 ...... a fine vintage

hopefully they werent too sloppy when they went about it there is a point past being too drunk for sex...

thisguyek said:

hopefully they werent too sloppy when they went about it there is a point past being too drunk for sex...

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Yeah, that might be the problem!!!! Last I checked there were around 15-20 unfertilized eggs. The issue now is keeping any fungus forming on them and infecting the others. I put some Formalin in a syringe and blasted it directly on the eggs, so I hope that will do it. I was also having a chat with my friend from the fish farm about why the parents would have eaten the fry last time. She told me that some fry(especially with this strain) struggle to find the parents when they become free swimming, and so the parents end up eating them. Her trick with fish like this is to drop the water level really low for the first day of the fry free swimming as it gives them less water to swim around in, and so more chance of attaching to the parent fish. So I will be trying that. Busy with a remodel of the main tank just now

The eggs are about 9 hours away from hatching, and about a third of them were not fertilized. I have been treating them to try and keep the fungus at bay, but its a battle. So to save any of the bad eggs getting fungus on them and infecting the good eggs, I have removed the bad ones. A cocktail stick, a steady hand and big helping of patience was required for this task

Mum and Dad went ape when I took the eggs out to do it........not happy! Job done now though, so I hope I have upped the odds a little.

She's back tending the eggs now, as if nothing happened

Fingers crossed for better luck this time!