My Discus Journey ....

Hi there

Here's a pic of my newly acquired babies ....

 

I particularly like the darker orange one near the front.

 

Hi @Takumi

Some people will probably say Im just being negative, but Ill rather be honest and try and help than just say what you want to hear without you learning anything. So, tell me to bud out if its how you feel.
Your fish need a Metro treatment asap, and you need to feed more.
The little Turq on the right front has already got that dented look to his abdominal region, as well as two fish on the left.
Failure to do this will result in them stunting, and/or dying, and Im sure you dont want that.
I would get Metronidazole into the water asap, you dose at 7mg per liter of tank water, for three days, do water change, 50%, then repeat. Increase the temperature to at least 31 with some added aeration also.
At the age these guys are at, you need to get food to them at least 6 times a day. Ox heart, quality flake food and some frozen brine shrimp should make up the bulk of your feeding.

Hope you view my comment in the light in which I made it.

Ps- a dark substrate like yours will always make the fish go darker as they attempt to adapt to it. Luckily you have mostly pigeon blood fish, which cant go dark, but thats the reason for the barred fish being quite dark which hides their colouring.

Regards

Marco

 

No offence taken Marco. Pictures are about a week old and they have been eating a lot better. I will add the brine shrimp though and the meds. I have been advised on meds and temp by Altum aswell and will do so. I am really concerned about the turk as it only wants blood worm and refuses any dry foods. Saw a little hope last night, but still no go. Strugling to get hold of ox heart. Been looking for ocean nutrition discus mix with no success in cape town. Will formula one be okay ?

Will the meds be okay for the tetras and other fish ?


As far as the substrate goes, well I was going for a look as the tank stands in the lounge ... In retrospect not a good choice as the peppering on most of the fish is quite apparent.

 

Hi Takumi

Where did you get these fish from?

Andrew

 

Five from Altum , another LFS and from someone I know.

 

Hi @ Takumi

No harm in the choice of substrate, like you say, the peppering will just be more evident, and the others will be darker than normal. Just makes it difficult to see their true colour.

If you could get hold of Dirk Bellstedt on here, he has some very good food. I dont know Formula one so cant judge it.
The guy eating only bloodworm is probably just cause its all he was fed. Just dont give him any, increase temperature and do metro, he will come around to eating other foods, hunger always wins.
The problem with feeding bloodworm, which is mainly only roughage, along with Flagellate infestations, is that an already irritated digestive trackt gets more irritated by the bloodworm roughage. Some say it helps getting rid of flagellates, others seem to think flagellates already cause harm to the intestines, and added roughage just add to the possible damage. I cant comment, but normally dont feed bloodworm to fish treated with metro until right at the end of the treatment.

Rgds

Marco

 

Been meaning to get a pricelist from the prof, must pm him

 

hi takumi!
How big is your tank?
What other fish do you have in your tank?
Hoe many discus are ther?

Charles

 

Tank is 90 X 48 X 50

FISH:

Rummy Nose, Head and Tailights and Cardinal Tetras

Two German Blue Rams and a Bolivia Ram(which I want to remove, he's quite a bully)

Two Serbai Cory's and an Otto

Three Small Discus
Seven Small to Medium Discus

Definately looking @ removing the small ones. They were an impulse buy.

Wanted to added two pairs of apisto agazizi's but have decided against it.

Would still like to add apisto inka's but budget is blown

 

Takumi

Sorry to say this but your tank is a sitting time bomb. 10 discus in a 216litre tank, let alone all the other fish? You are heading for a disaster. 10 discus = a 600litre tank minimum. There is plenty of good reading on this forum as to all the requirements of discus keeping. Sound advice from the likes of @Marco and @Dirk Bellstedt. I suggest reading it.

Hope this doesnt come across as harsh but these fish need more water volume than what they currently have. Unless of course the dimensions you gave are in inches?

Regards

Andrew

 

Hi ANDrew

I agree with u. Like I said oinky planning on keeping six in total, gonna be getting rid of three for start.

Also I do a 10 liter water change everyday and another 25 liter once a weekm

 

Howzit

I would still look at budgeting for a larger tank. 6 discus at a minimum of 60litres/fish is a 360litre system. Your current tank is still 40% undersize.

HTH

Andrew

 

Budget is not really the issue, but rather space. My previous tank was a meter X meter X 80 cm plus a sump, over a thousand litres of water, my marine set-up. My tank before that was the same size as this and I kept 4 tangs including the super sensative powder blue tang and a host of other fish, not to mention corals and inverts. That won TOTM on MASA

So, in retrospect should probably have gone with a 100 X100X60, but that ship has sailed for now.

Should be able to add a 100 liter sump ? Will this help ?

 

Well done on the TOTM. I too keep a few marines and my first love is for tangs. Have kept various Naso sp, Zebrasomas and Acanthurus in the past. Love the character of these guys: cows of the ocean hey?

Anyway, to get back to your discus, I have only been keeping discus for just on a year now, and am currently growing out about 30 juvies. Bare bottom tanks, lots of space and plenty of food and water changes and these fish are rocketing in size. All extremely active, healthy and growth rate. I have a batch of 12 in a 400litre tank that came in 7 weeks ago at 4.5-5cm and they are almost ready to be graded and split into 2 tanks of 400l each.

Adding a sump tank to increase total water volume will most certainly help, but perhaps @Marco can suggest a minimum footprint for a main tank to house 6 eventual adult discus. My honest opinion is i will ensure I always have the minimum of 60litre per fish in my main tank and view the added water in the sump as a bonus.

Just my HO

Whereabouts in CT are you?

Andrew

 

I wish you all the best bud, but it is very difficult to raise discus in a community tank, let alone with a substrate. I can recommend checking out http://www.simplydiscus.com. Best free discus resource out there.

As for the size of your tank, IMHO it's the least of your worries at this point. I know the advice on this thread is not really what you wanted to hear, just keep in mind peeps are only trying to help

If you want to stay motivated, remove the substrate. Much easier to keep the water clean. Why don't you get yourself a 2ft tank and use that as your community tank for now, once you have raised your discus you can chose which ones you want to keep and flog the rest. By that time you might be keen on building a new setup. Then you can put your prized discus and community tank together. Boom, win win...

Good luck bud

 

Thanx

I am not offended @ all. Taking it all in.

 

Hi there Marco

Managed to get hold of some frozen brine and mysis shrimp yesterday and the good news is that the turq is chowing that.

Must still get hold of the meds ....

 

With a attitude like that, your fish are going to do fine : ) Look forward to following there progress on this thread.