I started out breeding discus about 6 years ago, in my home town of Stonehaven, a small village on the east coast of Scotland, where the water was near perfect for breeding discus.

After a few years, I decided the time was right to seek employment in the Glasgow area of Scotland, to be with my partner Jan.

So while the searching for a new job took place, I started on my hatchery... or fish house as I call it. In January 2001 it was finished, so the tanks went in, and I bought some breeder stock, which bred for me, but with little success. So armed with money I decided to by an ro unit, after coming to the conclusion that something was wrong with the water in the area, as I had been filtering it with a GAC filter, and thinks were still amiss.  So with ro installed, I went to work again on breeding; but the results were even worse - the eggs were not developing, fry were deformed, leading me to the conclusion that discus breeding in this area was going to be a whole new ball game for me.

After a lot of help from the guys on DPH and lots of conversations with Fred Goodall [thanx dad], I decided to use straight tap water - the eggs began to hatch, but not very well.

After a visit to Dave Smith of Dave's Discus UK . . . and a look at his impressive set up, I decided to do the same as him, and I still wasn’t getting the good results I was hoping for.

So 3 weeks of phone calls to Dave, and lots of conversations to Fred on ICQ, they came up to the conclusion that my temperature was too high, I had always bred discus in the high eighties.  Which I was told was too high, 82-84 being the best temp for breeding.  So down went the temp and up went the fertilisation rates as I was told that the sperm from the fish are more active and stronger at the cooler temp.

But still something was amiss. I was running my breeders at pH 5.  But by chance a pair had spawned at pH 7 and the hatch rate was even better about 90%….so I had cracked it.  But there was still this 10 or so percent that were infertile.

One morning I noticed one of my breeding females had a bacterial infection on its tale ..so I promptly added some cooking salt to the tank to help with this problem.  The day after treatment, the pair spawned, and I thought well that’s the eggs spoilt, thinking nothing more about it, I covered the front of the tank to give the fish peace and quiet, and left them too it.  I checked the pH after spawning and it was 6.7 and a temp of 83.

During the course of the next 2 days the results amazed me - the eggs stayed perfect, and now 40 or so hours later, about 97% of the eggs are dark and are ready to hatch.

Having found this result .I have added salt to my other breeders, spawning them in the 6.5-7 range, temp 83, GH 40 ppm, and KH below 10 ppm - and I am more than pleased with the results.

I was almost ready to through in the towel, breeding discus, but with the help of my good friends on DPH [cheers Fred and Ron & Robin] and Dave and Pete of Dave's Discus UK, I have well and truly been bitten by the breeding bug again.

Just like the Beatles song .I got by with a little help from my friends.

Watch this space for more articles on my breeding adventures, and I hope you enjoyed the article.