Discus Fish Breeding Techniques

An interesting technique for discus fish breeding about which I have read but have not tried myself is foster parenting. In some circles, this is known as the 'assassin method' of discus fish breeding. The basic premise is that discus fish have become so heavily inbred in recent years that incredible strains of fish have been created but they aren't producing large numbers of eggs and they're not very good at raising the discus fry.

It turns out that you may find that some strains of discus fish are better at rearing the young than they are as breeders. There are differences of opinion as to which strains can serve the best as foster discus parents but the technique is apparently quite effective. There are some who think the original brown discus fish can serve well in this role and there are others who employ turquoise discus fish instead. One thing is certain: anyone who has a successful pair of foster discus parents is even less likely to give them up than he or she would a breeding pair!

The general technique is to separate the fry from the breeding parents as early as possible and then to introduce them to the foster parents. It's suggested that light levels be reduced when the fry are introduced as that will help mitigate any shock that may come when they suddenly arrive. It's also suggested that you give the foster discus a rest fairly regularly lest you over-work them. After all, the fry feed on the mucus coat of the foster parents. If this is happening on a continual basis then it could over-strain the fish.

The most subtle part of this is in determining which of your discus fish are best at breeding and which of them are best at raising the fry. It won't take long to determine which are the worst at raising them as there's nothing quite so heartbreaking when you're getting started with raising discus fish as to see that a new brood of fry has been eaten by the parents. I never discovered what triggered it and, as far as I can tell, no-one else has either but it would seem like some signal went off and then the discus fish would eat all of the fry very quickly.

This process of identifying the best discus fish parents versus breeders cannot be a fast one but you wouldn't be trying to raise discus fish if you were not already confident of your patience. Observation is the key this determination and this is going to take some time but the satisfaction must really be enormous in creating an environment that is really successful for raising discus fish.

If your interest is in raising large numbers of discus fish then it would be worth your while to research this approach to discus rearing. While it was never my intention to raise discus professionally, I would have liked to have achieved greater success in the survival of the fry and this technique looks very promising for that. If you would like to read further on the approach I took to raising discus fish, please see my discus breeding log.

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