Why Do Entrepreneurs Need Professional Advice?

Professional advice from a business counsellor or business advisor helps you as the entrepreneur deal with the formalities of establishing what legal form your business should take, drawing up your accounts, dealing with the relevant authorities about taxes, insurance issues and industrial related issues. Several service providers offer advice on many issues.

Small businesses usually fail because of poor management. It is the role of service providers to improve the quality of Small Medium Entrepreneurs (SMEs) management through the provision of training and advice. Accredited service providers should be capable of delivering the required quality of support services to business in a practical and timely manner. Accredited service providers obviously charge for their services, so it is worthwhile being prepared for any meetings, so that you can make the most of the time you spend with them. Take the time to talk to professionals before you start your business.

A professional advisor (accredited service provider) will be able to advise on how to retain receipts for all your business expenses. This person should be able to advise you on what your liabilities are and will help you establish the most appropriate bookkeeping system for your business.

Starting your own business and becoming self employed will mean you have to deal with issues like tax, industrial relations, provident funds, which are all responsibilities that were taken care of while you were working for someone else. If problems arise, they will land on your desk and sorting them out will not be easy. Seeking advice from professionals at an early stage in your plans, and ensuring your business operates with their continuous support will be of real benefit to you and your business.

The relevant government official departments can answer any general enquiries you may have. They publish leaflets that explain what your obligations are. But they cannot give you comprehensive information on available business opportunities, they also cannot refine your business idea and they cannot provide you with training, counselling and marketing support.

These professionals may also help an entrepreneur with helpful networks; also share with him or her upcoming business opportunities. In addition, professionals help an entrepreneur by also managing his/ her resources and also applying strict financial discipline. This can only be possible if the entrepreneur has signed a management contract with the service provider.

Other services that Service Providers should provide

(a) Researching new markets
(b) Developing products
(c) Business opportunities
(d) Finding customers
(e) Testing the feasibility of a business idea
(f) Testing the viability of the business idea

So as an entrepreneur you definitely need some good advice for your business. You can get so much possible opportunities and advice above your imagination.

Biggest mistake Internet business start-ups make

People earned millions literally, by working online from their homes in early days of e-commerce. When their amazing stories reached out, more people jumped in with new ideas. Businesses started on trial bases or even for fun purpose, transformed into large companies. Internet has always been a great opportunity for people willing to work for themselves, who are more comfortable while working from their homes. Online success stories (there are plenty) lure many into trying their luck. What most beginners have in their mind is, all they need to do is to set up a website and somehow the traffic will start pouring in, they will be earning a big fortune as soon as they start. Dreams should never be discouraged, but those without the backing of hard work and concrete planning, can soon turn into nightmares. What they actually see after few months is disappointing and heart breaking. A quick entry without proper planning and research, results in a quicker exit from cyber world. Biggest mistake what internet startups make is, taking things for granted.

Invest time:
Financial investment may not be a requisite that much in an online business, but you need to invest time. In e-commerce, time really is money. There is no alternative of hard work. Businesses that earn 24/7 online are a result of many sleepless nights. If you can’t spend hours and hours working on your idea, in front of your monitor, then internet business is not for you.

Research:
Internet and more importantly search engines have made searching a lot easier and fun these days. You can search for virtually anything.
Willing to start an online business, don’t have any idea? Search.
You have got the idea but you don't know how to get things started? Search.
You have launched a business, but you are clueless about online marketing? Search.
Online research not only provides you with what you were looking for, it can also bring so many dimensions to your searched information. New ideas seem to come into your mind from no where.

Be ready for Competition:
Competition is far more intense in online business now days. Even if you have launched a business as unique as yourself, you will soon find some competitor trying to catch up with you. This will be a sign of two things, first that your idea has worked and second that now you need to work harder to be on top.

Get help from Search Engines:
More then 90% internet users use search engines to find the information or product they are looking for. While you cannot force or request search engines to send more traffic your way, you can always do search engine optimization to get better ranking in search engines results page. Search engines are the easiest medium to drag customers to your site. Although it’s not that easy to get higher rankings in search results, but all your efforts toward improved rankings are well worth it.

Firepow Software Prelaunch Review

If you've heard about this new blogging software called Firepow around the web, you're not alone.

The programs not released until May 13th but I thought I'd post about it here with all the information I can gather for now so that you can stay well informed up until it's launch :)

Basically Firepow is a blogging software but with a whole lot of features
stacked on top of it... features that seem to make it a pretty darn interesting little (or big) tool.

It's based on wordpress, and begins by installing you a nice wp blog - in fact from what I can tell, REALLY nice - you can create your own blog theme from scratch if you want, with the advanced theme generator and then select from a list of all the plugins under the sun, to have installed and activated on your blog with no further action from you.

Then you can go about adding your content - you can set the content to appear on schedules, including into the future, plus you can take advantage of other people's content via various means not disclosed yet...

It also seems to have a focus on video content but I'm not quite sure in what capacity yet - in any case, more relevant video on your site can only be a good thing - oh and as well - they just released that there will be an "add camtasia video plugin" so you can easily get camtasia vids on your blog without using youtube... which if you're in internet/software niches is a BIG plus.

Anyway after your blog is looking good with all the cool content, Firepow helps you generate traffic and promote your site around the web. At the moment the only traffic tactic I've seen is the promotion of your site through an in house network of blogs owned by Andrew which you can use to obtain links and a few extra visitors.

I've also heard mention of social bookmarking and rss feed promotion but we can't be sure about what capacity these tools take.

Finally Firepow apparently lets you manage your sites too. You can view and make changes to your multiple sites from the one control panel, as well as monitor certain aspects of them.

One plugin we saw released was one that allows a user to split test variations of posts you make to see what generates the most click throughs. That alone makes this product exciting for me.

Even though what we've seen so far seems only a fraction of what this software will be capable of.

How To Avoid Spam With Akismet

This Tutorial is Part of Atomic Blogging ( A Step By Step Guide to Blogging )







What you see above are the number of Spam messages I get so far on my blog! It's HUGE! Arent they ignoring? To avoid and prevent all this spam you must use Akismet - A Free Plugin to avoid spam for your blog.



Before I start, Akismet is a free open source spam program online to help fight spam for wordpress owners.



Just follow the following steps to get started to prevent Spam on your blog.

How To Choose The Right Affiliate-Product To Promote

Why do we go through the hassle of promoting affiliate products? Of course that reason is to earn big! So are your efforts in endorsing these products going to be rewarded financially? Use the right product in conjunction with the right marketing methods. This article will help you determine which products to promote by looking at a number of factors.

First of all, you should consider the revenue you receive for each affiliate product. Consider promoting an affiliate product that can give you , $20 or more per. You must do the right amount of research and really get to know your product and your niche because high paying products are often much harder to promote. Rationally, try chasing 20 sales at $20 rather than 20 $100 sales per day.

Are the affiliate products you are already promoting good enough? Each day, some sales are being brought in by a particular niche product on Clickbank. Any similar products with a higher payout per sale will be brought to your attention by Clickbank so just set the links on your landing page to point to the new product. Using landing pages for your affiliate marketing means that it requires very little effort (just the changing of a few links) to increase your weekly income quickly and simply!

The Clickbank Gravity of the product (assuming you are using Clickbank) should also be thought about. If other affiliates are successfully making sales of a particular product then the product is popular and is the kind of thing people are buying so this will be indicated by CB. Don't dismiss a product just because it is low gravity, it might just be because the product is new. As there is no previous track record to go by, promoting low-gravity products could be a gamble.

Offering recurring-payment type products may be preferable to one-off payments. You get automated recurring sales each month by promoting this type of product. This type of payment setup can be a great long-term money earner and is usually used with subscription-based services or websites. You now have a better chance at choosing the right affiliate product to promote which is the key to a successful affiliate marketing career.

Steps to prosperity and success

Prosperity and abundance become a natural call to our desire. But the question arises, what would you do if you are given the opportunity? Would you fulfill your career /vocational wish, or buy a house to live in peace, fulfill some incomplete relationship, or go for money?

This depends on the personality that suits you the most. Things may be something else as well. But the key factor remains in achieving that abundance. Otherwise the same story repeats again and again- dream and constant secret wish converted into frustration after a point of time. Don’t be disappointed. The proverb goes “if there is a will, there is a way”. The ways are as below; find out whether you have the will within you to follow those ways:

i. What is this Law of Attraction?

Hey lo! Don’t skip. This is not a scientific theory, followed by an annoyingly lengthy formula. This law has been set on account of constant observation and experience. Display yourself and you will be displayed to the world. Don’t you feel that? Abraham Hicks expresses it properly, “You attract whatever you give your attention and energy to, whether wanted or unwanted.”

So whenever you are out there with any dynamism and curiosity, you are paid back. For example, you talk to any person about anything, and if he/she reacts, your dialogue is automatically recorded in the web of rumor. Whatever we do, we are displayed to the world, and the reactionary attraction is there. (Remember Newton’s Third Law). And the knowledge of this will help you manifesting yourself insistently, and attracting things, you want or not, that would you in abundance.

Try to know that, and the next thing is, you are automatically updated.

ii. The things paid attention are rewarded to you:

This is the subsequence of the Law of Attraction. Whenever you have certain things in mind that you want to materialize at any cost, your focus is rewarded. There is no mystery or luck in it. You perform anything honestly working hard; you are bound to be paid back positively. Can’t you relate to that, remembering any episode of your life where success came to you doorstep owing to your sincerity?

Equally strong is the concept of moving away and being unrewarded. If you seriously feel that you are not able to do certain things, you lose the confidence every time, and follow the step of negligence and secret frustration. For example, if a footballer believes that he cannot score in a penalty, due to the previous failing attempts, the chances of materializing that becomes lesser. And another failed attempt leads him to more diffidence.

If you tend to move away from something, it is because of this frustration. Any work related to that will only bring in your mind the images of failure.

Thus, don’t lose your level of energy and confidence by trying something you don’t have complete faith in. Or do try them with true attention. You’ve got it, man!

iii. Confused?

No, not on my words! They are pretty clear. Are you

Confused of what you want? This is the most important part of life. We waste a considerable part of our life running after things that do not suit us. Shake off these confusions, and clear your head. Go to a quiet place, give yourself time, and find out what you need the most at present. You can set your long-time dreams. But you need to be judicious while acting upon that. Make step-by-step decisions and accord them with proper durations. Perhaps a meditation would do.

Be clear what you are trying to attract to. Always question yourself, “how would I get close to prosperity?” You might be at stake in anything (shortage of money, problems in relationships, profession, etc.); you need to concentrate on the basics. The ways you followed, and the mistakes you committed.

You are on the verge of having reparation or a lesson.

iv. Be positive:

Throughout the negative news, showered on TV, newspapers, or everyday rumors, the crux of which lies on spreading disturbing news, the very attitude of remaining positive is lost.

On any incident, the fear of risk and negativity comes promptly. Its result is that you lost the capability of appreciating things that you are gifted with.

If you open up your potential to the world, forget the past failure, and have faith in yourself, the near future is yours. Bring out what you appreciate in life; you will visualize so many opportunities moving around you. And you can select the path you want. Act positively in trying times. The attitude tells the story.

v. Pronounce affirmations repeatedly:

Del Karnegi, a famous human-mind reader, used to say that you need to pronounce repeatedly what you want. And say that you can get this. Telling things of your desire to others will give you the will to fulfill that, may be out of shame. But once you do that successfully, you are a lot more confident.

If you record your positive attitude, avoid reluctant appeal such as “will see it afterwards”, and believe you are only a step behind your goal, none can resist you from achievement.

First decide, and then take the initiative. Your rusty brain would soon act like a fertile one, steeped in positive information. Stated affirmation of your demand works as a catalyst to the gathering of abundance and prosperity.

These steps do not lead you to any technical proficiency of gaining. They are no theoretical postulations to sharpen your mind. They are only a way to know you and your desires properly. Rediscover yourself. If you learn to know you, can abundance and prosperity, mere human attributions, be far behind?

How to Profit from the Latest Dollar Rally Without Buying the Dollar

Good Day Currency Traders,

Sometimes predicting financial markets is a piece of cake.

Entire markets stretch out before you like a level playing field and anyone who's even the least bit market savvy can see where stocks, bonds and currencies are headed.

In those types of blessed markets, one plus one really equals two. A higher dollar equals lower commodity prices. A stronger U.S. dollar equals higher stock market prices all over the world.

Sometimes it's just that easy. Other times, it's not.

Take the current dollar rally. There are a myriad of "hidden" threats lurking that could derail its advance. The problem is there is money to be made on the strengthening greenback and investors realize it.

For example, an agitated client at our asset management firm just emailed me about the dollar. In his email, he demanded that I take advantage of this dollar rally. Of course, he could be right - assuming the rally lasts. Trouble is, no one knows if that's going to happen.

Right now, it's hard to say. You can't easily shrug off the long queues of angry people in front of collapsed banks or the protracted global recession. All those factors weigh on the dollar.

So beware of the notorious bear market rallies - including currencies.


After Nine Months, Has This Global Stock Bear Given Birth to a Higher Dollar?

Nine months of fierce bear market have pushed many stocks around the world down to attractive valuation levels again.

A firmer U.S. dollar could trigger an impressive bear market rally. In particular, we could see a rebound in financial stocks and shares of European exporters tied to the higher dollar going forward.

That leaves us to answer the crunch question: Where is the U.S. dollar heading?

From a technical point of view a spike in the U.S. dollar would not be a surprise. Since 2000/2001, the U.S. dollar/euro (USD/EUR) exchange rate has fallen 45%. This means the dollar fell an average of 8% each year.

The downtrend was only briefly interrupted by a 10% dollar rally in 2005. In other words, there wasn't a noteworthy correction for 2 ½ years - that is suspicious. This doesn't happen too often to exchange rates (at least going back as far as 1973).

The best argument for a temporarily firmer U.S. dollar is the prospect of a weaker euro. There's no longer any question of whether Europe can elude the U.S. recession.

Now the question is: How long and deep will this contraction be in Europe?


Trouble in the Eurozone Paradise

The news coming out of Europe has been darkening by the day.

Consumer sentiment in the main Eurozone nations has plunged - especially in Italy and Spain with never-before-seen numbers. Eurolands' service sector is stagnating. Sentiment among businesses in the German export machine is in a freefall. Growth in new orders has come to a halt.

In other words, it's just a matter of time until the European Central Bank (ECB) loses her anxiety about inflationary pressure and stops talking about hiking rates. This should shed a new light on the U.S. currency.

So yes, the dollar may be heading higher. But here's the thing: My preferred way of drawing profit from a continued rally is not buying U.S. dollar but rather, I'm buying the few currencies and stocks that will profit from this rally.

Profit from this Rally, Without Sticking Your Hand in the Fire

It looks like it's time for a portfolio shift. As always, I and my colleagues consider protecting your assets as a top priority in an environment of high uncertainty.

But you cannot help but have a second look at this bunch of stocks in Switzerland, the Eurozone, U.K. and even in Japan that currently trade at fire-sale prices (with a recession already priced in). All of these should do well once the U.S. dollar moves higher versus the major currencies.

How can you benefit from the current U.S. dollar strength? Our recipe is quite simple. For our clients, my colleagues and I are planning to buy Japanese yen and invest in a dozen carefully selected stocks.

Of course, it's impossible to know whether we get away from this recession and banking confusion with only a black eye or if we'll end up in a depression before this mess is through. (If it's the latter, 40% of stock values could disappear.)

Therefore a good deal of our company's portfolio will be allocated to short-term investment strategies. For instance, we're looking at top-rated short-term bonds in the euro, Swiss franc and a few selected high-yielding currencies such as the New Zealand dollar (NZD).

Bottom line: The U.S. has deeply rooted problems at the moment. The U.S. is facing high debt, a zero % savings rate and depleted balance sheets. I simply don't believe all that jazz will be whisked away overnight.

So my colleagues and I would rather invest in the currencies and stocks that will profit from any short-term dollar strength than the dollar itself.

Google Adsense - The Easiest Money To Make Online

Fact number 1: Kids in high school are making thousands of dollars every month with Adsense.

Fact number 2: Housewives, retirees, mom and dads, who are just staying at home and have never made a dime on the internet have created full-time incomes by simply placing Adsense ads on their web site or blog.

These are just some of the “super Adsense earners”. You may have already heard about their story for they are among the few who are on their way to making millions worth of cash just by promoting Adsense sites.

Anyone, any age and gender can become money generating Adsense publishers as long as they what it takes.

Over the last year, Google Adsense has dominated forums, discussions and newsletters all over the Internet. Already, there are tales of fabulous riches to be made and millions made by those who are just working from home. It seems that Google Adsense have already dominated the internet marketing business and is now considered the easiest way to making money online.

The key to success with Adsense is the placing of ads on pages that are receiving high traffic for high demand keywords. The higher the cost-per-click to the advertiser, the more you will receive per click from your site. Obviously, it does not pay to target low cost-per-click keywords and place them on pages that do not receive hits.

With all the people getting online and clicking away everyday, it is no wonder why Google Adsense has become an instant hit.

With the many techniques that people are now learning on how to make the easiest money by their Adsense, it is not surprising that Google is trying everything to update and polish their Adsense in order to maintain their good image.

With Google Adsense, the possibilities are limitless. Yet there is also the possibility of someone taking advantage of the easy money process that this internet marketing is doing. If you think more about it, these negative factors may force Google to break down and thrash Adsense in the process. If that happens, people would have to go back to the old ways of internet marketing that does not make money online as easy as Adsense.

For now, however, Google Adsense is here to stay. As long as there are people wanting to earn some easy cash online just using their talents, the future ahead is looking good. Besides with all the strict guidelines that Google is enforcing over Adsense, it will take awhile for the Adsense privileges to be spammed and even terminated.

To learn more about Adsense, we recommend that you take a look at our top rated resource

Keyword Country – Reviewed Inside Out

Using KeywordCountry for keyword research is just like searching on Google. Yes, you get the relevant keyword results right away with all the details that you need to be successful with AdSense! Just imagine Google suggesting keywords for your website! Well, this is what you will feel while searching keywords via Keyword Country.



This is not all! I strongly feel that Keyword Country seems to have discovered a way through which it can suggest keywords that attract traffic, get more clicks, and fetch you more EPC.



Keyword Country positions itself as a “Keyword Search Engine.” And quite obviously, I was more than curious to test whether or not the product stands up to what it commits. Here is what I found:



In fact, I have been keeping an eye on Keyword Country for quite some time now. I must say when Keyword Country started off, it was not so striking. But, their latest version seems to have done the trick!



Just type-in a keyword in KeywordCountry, and you have millions of relevant keywords within a few seconds, each with key details like:

• Max CPC
  
• Number of Advertisers


• Number of Clicks per month


• Estimated EPC


• Number of competitors


• KEI Analysis


• R/S Ratio


• Number of Searches (according to Overture)


• Traffic on Google (estimated) …and much more!

Keyword Country is really user friendly. In fact, using it is as easy as walking down a smooth lane in the bright sunshine with both the eyes wide open. More importantly, what impressed me a lot is the way Keyword Country produces thousands of high paying keywords and niche keywords in the blink of an eye.



Keyword Country allows you to search for keywords in 3 different ways via Basic Search, Advanced Search, and Price Range Search. At the outset, I thought they are shuffling the same keywords in the three different searches. But no! The results are actually search specific, and enable you to choose the best keywords that suit your requirements. There is no cheating in their search results.



I was planning for an auto loan, so I tried the keyword – “loan,” I just typed the keyword in BASIC Search and I got 21,086 relevant keywords within a few seconds, each with key details like Max CPC, Number of Advertisers, Number of Clicks per month, Estimated EPC, Number of competitors, KEI Analysis, R/S Ratio, Number of Searches (according to Overture), and Traffic on Google.



I was really impressed by the relevancy of the keywords that I found. The results are so relevant that you can actually export the list and use it right away in your website without even filtering out any record. However, the results become a bit irrelevant as you dig deep into the list (just like in a search engine). But, I must say that the results seem to have been sorted by humans, and not by software. It is more like stealing the keyword research from a professional SEO.



Not just this, I had another option of choosing high paying keywords from 206 different sub-categories for the search term - Loan. I picked - Auto loan, and Keyword Country listed 1,257 keywords for the sub-category - Auto loan.
Price Range Searching is another remarkable feature Keyword country boasts. This search enables you to search for the keywords within a specific price range. One of the key advantages of this kind of a search is that it brings forth lots of low priced, hidden keywords that are really profitable. Besides, you can brainstorm new ideas for AdSense as well.



Above all things, it is the Advanced Searching option that makes Keyword Country a bit special. I think these guys have really thought hard! This time they have come up with a tool that allows you to do in-depth research for each keyword. Offering a variety of searching options just like Wild Cards of Google, Advanced Searching can sort results on the basis of Max CPC, Average CPC, Searches, Sponsors, or anything else you like.



After going through Keyword Country videos, Advanced Search starts making a lot of sense and you really get the hang of the powers of KC’s Advanced Search tool.







Sort the results by “Rating,” and KC will give you only profitable keywords. Sort the results by “Clicks per month,” and you will get the keywords that attract the most clicks for Google. Just integrate these keywords in your website, and you will increase the chances of getting more CTR. Furthermore, there are many more types of keywords that you can find out with Keyword Country. Just run through the Keyword Country videos for complete details.



Here are links to all the videos:

• Finding high paying keywords


• Finding Traffic attracting keywords


• Finding High CTR keywords


• Choosing better anchor text


• User manual of KC

Besides, you can customize your search the way you want. Whether you type in a search query, or you search the keywords without typing in a search query – Keyword Country generates hordes of keywords spanning different industries. I won’t hesitate to say that I found such a tool after a long… long time! Well Done!



One of the most striking features of this software is “Blank Search.” Now, this is one feature that I have not seen anywhere else. Blank Search allows you to reach the most searched keywords on planet earth, most clicked keywords that exist, most high paying keywords, and most low competition high value keywords. Just leave the keyword field blank in Advanced Search, and Keyword Country will give you such amazing lists. This feature makes Keyword Country really outstanding. I can’t believe they are selling its access so cheap!



They claim to be a “Keyword Search Engine.” I believe they have already achieved what they claim. And they are still making it better and better day by day. I am sure they can make their product even more special.

Keyword Country’s the Good and the Bad

The Good

• Its not a Keyword list or keyword software, it’s a Keyword Search Engine.


• Highly relevant keyword results that work. And all this, within a few seconds!


• Displays everything you need to be successful with AdSense




• Maximum CPC


• Estimated EPC


• Number of Sponsors


• Number of Clicks per month


• Profitability rankings


• Number of competitors


• Traffic on Overture


• Traffic on Google (estimated)


• KEI Analysis, R/S Ratio




• Gives you access to:




• Most searched keywords that exist on planet earth


• Most clicked keywords


• Most high paying keywords


• Most low competition high value keywords


• Anchor texts that work




• Equips you with three unique searching tools - Basic Search, Price Range Search, and Advanced Search.


• Provides you with lots of Niche Keywords from 600,000 industries.


• Provides Keyword Map that comprises of hosts of categories such as Arts, Computers, Health, Games, News, and Society. Helps you brainstorm for new topic and research out new topics for your existing website.


• Gives you amazing niche keywords.


• Good for adsense as well as affiliate websites.

The Bad

• Database conks out at times, but the frequency has reduced tremendously.


• Keyword map can be quite confusing because of its depth.


• Does not allow any keyword additions to database.

How to care and breed your discus fish ...the correct way!

More manuals over the years have been written about keeping and breeding discus fish then any other exotic fish. This is because they are very popular with pet owners. Discus fish are very sensitive creatures, if you want to keep long lasting discus fish you need to be aware of there preferred living conditions and feeding and breeding habits.

Discus is a native of the calm and warm Amazon River Keeping discus fish requires the pet owner to have the right information about what to expect and what to offer them to make these exotic creatures happy. Discus fish keeps changing their behaviour according to the environmental factors.

They are generally shy but if your planning to keep discus fish you will notice that they become quite aggressive to there own kind this is because of breeding territory protection. In this type of situation only the strong discus will survive and the week get attacked. Its best to keep to keep discus fish in groups of minimum six individuals is considered ideal. By keeping them in groups it will increase confidence in group members and lower the risk of misbehaviour. Keeping discus fish can bring lots of challenges and rewards at the same time too.

Here are some quick tips for you...

Pairing: Discus fish really don't take well to arrange marriages, the best way to get a pair to gather is to buy a group of young unrelated fish of the same colour type and let them pair up themselves. This might happen from when the fish are half grown, spawning usually occurs when there ¾ of their adult size. The fish will usually remain a pair until the remainder of there lives.

Spawning: Discus will choose a near vertical smooth site, which they clean and then the female will lay any ware from 80-400 eggs and then the male fertilises them. It can take between 50-60 hours for the eggs to hatch and another 36-48 hours until their swimming freely.

Breeding Tank: It’s best to keep the breeding tanks simple and to have a simple air powered filtration, spawning sites (terracotta cones, broad leafed plants or slate) and no substrate. The water needs to be very soft so the eggs can develop properly. The quality of the water needs to be excellent and have a temperature of about 84-88F. Also a suitable tank size is 24x18x18.

Feeding and Conditioning: The parents will need a good and varied diet not just to condition them to spawn, but to provide nutrition when they are feeding their fry. Large water changes, a temperature rise and heavy feeding is often a good spawning trigger.

Fry Rearing: It's a good idea to give the fry additional feedings of small foods such as (BBS) baby brine shrimp whilst with parents. You will notice after about 3-6 weeks the parents will be exhausted, also the fry will be growing fast it's a good idea to remove them. This is where lots of tanks and water changes are needed to achieve a decent growth rate. I used to grow circa. 40 fry to just under 2" in a 55G tank, and this required heavy water changing. The discus market is saturated with fish, so it best to grow 20-50 excellent fry than 80 runts. Growth is reasonable, but not spectacular.

So if you're thinking about breeding discus fish I hope these quick tips have been of some use to you.

Remember it pays to do your research. You can learn everything you need to know at discus fish secrets.

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