Reg. Discus fish. They do not produce enough mucus on their bodies to feed the fry. How to enhance it. Reply

Question

As mentioned above could you pls. provide me how to produce more mucus on the bodies of discus fish.

Also it is observed that may discus fish eat their eggs before it is fertilised. How to avoid it and what are the reasons for it. Can we separate one of them and see the results?

You reply on this topic shall be highly appreciated.

Thanks,

p k nair

Answer 1

There are additives you can buy to increase mucus on a fish. Stress coat is the only one on the top of my head right now.

Discus are usually good parents like most cichlids, but the first few times they mate they may mess up, and then eat the fry/eggs. They also will eat fry/eggs if they feel that the fry/eggs are in danger. They eat their kids before a predator can. Just try to make them feel safe. Maybe even cover up 3 sides of the aquarium. If you have any fish in the tank with them you may want to temporarily remove them. Or if you want you can remove the parents, no harm will be done.

Good Luck!

Answer 2

There are additives that will do it, but as usual there's always a home solution to do the same job. In this case it's as simple as plain, non-iodized salt.

You know those dyed fish the store sells? The way they do it they dip them in an acid to burn off the slime coat, dip them in the dye, and then dip them in a concentrated salt solution to force the coat to grow back.

In this case I'd start with about a tsp per 10 gallons and work it up to 1 tbsp per 5 gallons at most, depending how much they end up actually needing.