Sunday, November 05, 2006

Proud parents


Quite awhile ago,i had noticed 2 pairs of discus fish in my tank displaying what i believed were signs of courtship but as i had never kept discus before,i was not really sure if i was right or wrong. However,on the 2nd of Nov,i was informed by my mother that one of the pairs had actually spawned(laid eggs) at one corner of the tank. I checked the said location and true enough,several eggs amounting to about 100 were seen attached to the aquarium wall. On the 3rd of Nov,I was amazed to find that the other pair of discus had also spawned,this time at the other corner of the tank,on my surface skimmer instead. Over the course of the past 3 days,i have been observing both groups of discus and they have been seen closely guarding the nest site as discus are known to be very good and defensive parents who will look after their fry for a couple of weeks till they are old enough to fend for themselves. This morning,3days after the first pair of discus spawned,i went to check the nest site again and as my discus information book had described,the eggs had hatched! Like the book had mentioned,the discus fry had hatched after approximately 72hours of incubation. A check on the other nest site showed that the eggs were still in the same state,with no visible changes. However,their continued presence meant that within the next 24-48 hours,i should be able to expect the eggsa to hatch as well. In the meantime,i will be closely monitoring both nest sites and i will be praying that the fry from both pairs would be able to survive. Though i am aware that it is impossible for all of them to survive,i am hoping that some of them would be able to make it through. It will be tough though,judging from the fact that i have several other fishes in the tank but perhaps with such caring and defensive parents like discus,the fry would stand a much higher chance of surviving.

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