Discus Eggs – finally – but it was a short lived success

Posted by Sarah on March 24, 2008

We noticed the discus acting funny yesterday – and realized that they were getting ready to lay eggs.

They were chasing the third discus in the tank, and the bushynose plecos in the tank away from their corner of the tank, and pecking at the filter intake tube.

After a while of pecking I noticed the female making passes across the tube, and I saw that her egg tube was out.

Since the discus are so skittish I was trying to sit close enough to see what was going on, without sitting close enough to upset them.

Finally I looked and noticed discus eggs!

I was excited, Jeff was excited.

But unfortunately the excitement didn’t last very long.

The eggs disappeared within an hour.

I’m pretty sure the parents ate their eggs, but it could have been the other discus or one of the four bushynose plecos in the tank.

After we noticed that the eggs were gone the discus were acting like they normally do – hanging out in their corner of the tank, and letting the third male come hang out with them, instead of chasing him and everyone else out of their territory and hanging out near thetube where they laid the eggs.

The discus were laying eggs every 8 days before we got them, so hopefully they will continue with that schedule, and get things right soon.

I think we are going to move the plecos just in case they were eating the eggs, or in case they are stressing the discus out enough that they ate the eggs.

I figured we might as well make things as calm as possible for them.