I just thought I'd pass on something I was told by a discus breeder in Chicago recently regarding artificial rearing of fry. I personally have never tried this, but the man who explained it to me raised most of his fry this way, and he had about 35 pairs of discus and a great deal of success. He starts by removing the eggs from the parents (his pairs laid on a variety of surfaces including slate, pvc, and strips of stainless steel) and placing the eggs in a one gallon jar containing straight R.O. water at the same temperature as his tanks. To this he adds 2 drops of Meth. blue and aerates it slightly. Two days after the eggs hatch, he fills a white bowl with clean tap water (He stressed that white is important) and uses a turkey baster to wash the eggs from the slate into the bowl. After they become free swimming and most are swimming up to the top, he adds a pinch of O.S.I. artemia food (I don't recall exactly what it is, but it's the stuff that you would feed to brine shrimp.) He also starts feeding the smallest of newly hatched brine shrimp at this time with an eye dropper. His methods are simple, and he uses household materials to strain the shrimp. He siphons the newly hatched shrimp into a slightly worn linen handkerchief with a catch basin underneath. the shrimp that are collected in the handkerchief are fed to larger fry. The water that has passed through the handkerchief is then poured through a strainer lined with a bounty paper towel. (He stressed BOUNTY at this point) The shrimp that are trapped by the paper towel are the ones that get fed to the newly hatched fry. He actually showed me the process, and he had it down to where after pouring the water through the strainer with the paper towel liner, there was just enough liquid in the catch basin to leave about 1/2" above the center of the paper towel. He could then use the eye dropper to suck up the shrimp and feed them to the discus fry. He feeds the pinch of artemia food and shrimp to the newborn fish three times a day, at 7:00am,1:00pm, and again at 7:00pm. He does not feed anything after 7:00pm to any of his fish. He also claimed that there were batches of fry that he raised with only two feedings per day. He continues this method for about 5 days and then switches over to just brine shrimp until they are large enough to take other foods.

Jeff Leach
jgleach@msn.com