An Advanced Breeder’s Breeding and Grow-Out Setups

The sample setup that is being described consists of 4,000 gallons of tank space. Tank sizes range from 20 to 150 gallons. Each tank uses appropriately sized Ebo-Jaeger heaters and Hydro-sponge filters.

Breeding Setup

We are currently working twenty-four breeding pairs of discus. They are all kept in twenty-nine gallon bare bottom tanks with a spawning cone. The back and sides of each tank are painted white, blue, or tan. Each pair gets a thirty to fifty percent water change prior to spawning

Reverse Osmosis water is collected and reconstituted in 100 gallon plastic barrels for refilling each breeding tank.

Grow-Out Setup
All of our baby discus are parent-raised for eight to fourteen days and then moved to their own twenty or twenty-nine gallon tank. All of these grow-out tanks have PVC overflows and are on a tap water drip system. It’s a very simple system that is nothing more then a pressure-controlled manifold and drip emitters that are commonly used in horticulture.

We try to drip 1/3 to 1/2 of the tank volume of new water to each tank every twenty-four hours on top of a twenty percent daily manual water change. Once the fry reach 1″ at 4 weeks, they are moved to a forty or fifty-five gallon tank, depending on the size of the spawn.

These tanks are also on a drip system, and get 1/2-3/4 of the tank volume replenished with new water every twenty-four hours on top of a twenty percent daily water change.

When the fry reach one and half to two inches in size they are then moved into seventy-five gallon tanks.

Seventy-five to one-hundred percent of the tank volume of new water is dripped in every twenty-four hours and a daily twenty percent manual water change.