Mike's Moments
(April '96)

I had some discus hatch!!! APRIL FOOLS!!! It was close. I thought I would try a trick from one of the big time breeders . . . if the female seems to be the problem, in terms of eating her eggs, then take her out . . . the male will be just fine. Wrong . . . !!! Well in any case MY male seems to be part of the problem of egg eating as well as the female. OK, now I have a solution . . . next time I'm going to try raising the young without the parents . . . yes, you heard me. I could have been rich with the young that these discus have eaten. My water was perfect . . . 35 ppm hardness . . . pH 6.5 . . . temperature 85 degrees. So next time it's bada bing . . . no parents. Couldn't be any worse than it is now. I've been fighting these fish laying eggs now for about a year and I am about to run out of patience. New thinking . . . I will win . . . they keep telling me this discus raising is easy . . . I can fly if could flap my arms fast enough. More news later!

Now that I have some Blue gularis females I don't know what to do with all of the eggs. The original bunch weren't fertile, but I think that is almost a given with killies that have just met each other. Now the eggs are coming in droves and I have to decide how to treat the eggs . . . some people say just leave the eggs in the water and they will hatch . . . so that's where I have them . . . it will take 6-8 weeks. Some of the killie breeders place the eggs on a layer of "moist" peat and then wait for the necessary 6-8 weeks . . . but I don't know what "moist" is, so for the moment I think I will leave them in the water.

Live foods . . . my recent journey back into killies has brought back my interest in live foods. Mind you the live food is not necessary . . . it just seems to go with the territory. I now have the obligatory microworms . . . done three different ways . . . vinegar eels that have crashed twice . . . supposed to be the easiest . . . right . . . and daphnia in a 10 gallon tank. Now I normally have "black worms" around and most of the time I have live adult brine shrimp somewhere in the house and I always have been hatching baby brine for my baby angels. It seems like a "feed store" around here . . . but guys . . . these foods aren't hard to raise . . . maybe you shouldn't try to raise all of them at the same time, but try Daphnia in a 10 gallon tank it will surprise you. Do the following:

1) grab an old 10 gallon tank and clean it
2) fill with aged water
3) scrunch up a couple of pieces of lettuce
4) siphon some old fish gunk and put it in the tank
5) get some "wheat flour" . . . not white but wheat flour and put a couple of pinches in a glass and mix it up and pour it in the tank until you can barely see through to the other side
6) now put in your culture of daphnia and let them grow for a week or so . . . you'll see the culture getting bigger and bigger and then you can harvest the food with a brine shrimp net
7) feed with the wheat flour every 3-5 days as the tank becomes clear and there is no more suspended food
8) a couple of snails will help keep the bottom reasonably clean . . . not sparkling! Also a bit of air will help . . . not an air stone . . . just some air line with a piece of lead at the end and just let it bubble a bit so there is some movement, not a tornado. Done . . . enjoy!

Try a killie . . . 1 gallon pickle jar!!!