knifegill;4537213; said:
Can discus fry be raised without the parents' slime coat in their diet?
Don't quote me on this, but from what I've read and spoke to some Discus breeders, the slime coating produced by the breeding pair, for their fry is a necessity.
In a sense, it like a canine mother's milk for puppies. The milk produced by a mother dog, not only has vitamins and nutrients needed for the puppies, but the mother's milk also has natural immunities that is passed on to the pups, which pups need to help them from getting parvo, a very horrible and deadly disease which some pups acquire at a very young age. This natural immunity passed on by the mother is to keep the puppies well enough up to the time when they can recieve their individual puppy parvo shots which will boost their immune system and these shots are usuall given to the canine puppies at about 6 months of age.
The slime coat of the Discus breeding parents not only provides food to the fry but, the parents also pass on to their fry, vitamins and nutrients to the fry and part of the parent's built up anti-disease immune system to help the fry from becoming ill. Once they reach an age or size to where the parents stop producing they slime coat for the fry, they will continue to feed off of the slime coat, so I would think and say, NO, they drift wood with the eggs should be kept with the eggs/fry until the fry can take regular solid food and no longer have to depend on the parents for food.
I hope this information helps.
~David