New 125g discus setup

[Jason.M]

Received my order from Rick at Canadian Aqua Farms this past Saturday.
Dealing with Rick was a flawless and excellent first time online purchase experience and I look forward to future dealings with him as I plunge into the world of discus.
So after several months of preparation and research all arrived healthy and gorgeous.
Here's a quick vid of the stock I received: 2 blue diamonds, 2 leopard ring genes, and 2 red maps. Thanks for viewing.
https://youtu.be/bVfLxmiM3sw

[rickztahone]

Congratulations on your new group. The only advice I can offer is to possibly get more discus to fill out that 125g :)

[Jason.M]

Thanks. In due time I will add to the group. I'm thinking after grow out, if the low guy on the totem pole, or any others, ends up undersized, possibly rehoming that individual/s and replacing with a couple select large adults. Also plan on adding a school of tetras and maybe some cories after grow out. I've been an under stocking type of person on my tanks over the years. I like giving the fish the extra room and environment stability. For right now I'm gonna work on keeping these guys healthy and alive lol.

[discuspaul]

Congrats.
Rick's service and the quality of his stock is as good or better than any other in this country, isn't it ?
I've been dealing with Rick for several years - he's a great guy.

[Jason.M]

2 weeks now and all is good except the leopard that wasn’t eating still hasn't started eating. He must be getting some food from his picking as I've seen him poop and it is normal color. He does show stress bars from time to time and hangs by himself a bit, but no clamped fins and color is good. He comes to the front of the tank at feeding time but just watches the food and doesn't eat any. Keeping lots of fresh water going through the tank and I'm hoping that if he's fighting something off that he will be able to do it himself. I don't want to medicate, just gonna keep on pounding fresh water to them.
The others are attacking your fingers while trying to put food in. Not shy at all anymore. During water changes they are picking at your arm and hand while vacuuming.
I was worried about getting discus that they would always be shy and skittish. Not the case at all. They rush the front any time I go near the tank.
Still working on an update vid, busy week of work until tomorrow, here’s a pic I took after 5 am feeding and water change this morning.
http://i1260.photobucket.com/albums/ii568/jmunroe24/Mobile%20Uploads/IMG_4870.jpg (http://s1260.photobucket.com/user/jmunroe24/media/Mobile%20Uploads/IMG_4870.jpg.html)

[walt]

Don't worry about the leopard I had a stendker tefe that didn't eat for a month then one day its like a switch was turned on and started going at the food like crazy.

[Jason.M]

Yeah I'm gonna let him go until there is obvious signs of something. Don't want to just start throwing meds at them if i don't know what to treat for or what the problem might be. He is also the healthiest and fattest one of the bunch so he wont wither away for awhile.
Thanks for the heads up, its reassuring.

[Jack L]

nice, plently of elbow room in there!

[Jason.M]

Well it's been a busy week of work, family and fish. The leopard that hasn't been eating is now over three weeks and still not eating. It has had a slightly swollen belly for most of this time as well so I did a 48 hour epsom salt treatment thinking it might be constipation but that hasn't worked. They are now 3 days past treatment/ salt removed, and no better. Possibly internal bacterial? Shows no signs of stress really other than staying by itself in the low middle of the tank by a piece of driftwood it has claimed. Colour is still good and only shows stress bars once in awhile. I see a 3/4 inch length of poo come out once in awhile and hang out of him for a couple days before falling off. Slightly stringy but good colour. Thinking it might be time to add some meds?
As for the other fish, I lost a blue diamond. Not sure what happened. He was fine one night and dark and listless the next, then dead in the AM. All other fish seem fine. Colder weather is here and while I've never had a problem with micro bubbles I'm going to do a battery of water test to see if my winter water is changing. Any input on my fish that won't eat would be appreciated. Thanks.

[Jason.M]

Update after a couple months of getting things right. They've held up well, and I'm hooked for sure.
https://youtu.be/XKfW4qkbQKQ

[rickztahone]

I'm sorry I hadn't see your last post Jason. I'm assuming it started eating at some point in the last 2 months? As you may know, a school of 4 isn't ideal for discus, they tend to fight a lot which you can see in the video you linked.

I know you had more prior to this and had problems and it probably wasn't your intention to stay with 4 only. However, have you considered adding a few more to your 125g in the near future? Of course proper QT will have to be observed, but it may serve the group well.

[Jason.M]

The other ring leopard that never ate only ever picked at food a time or 2 for the first month of having them. He then died. The other leopard in the video always ate good along with the others. I will definitely be adding to the group at some point, just not for now. Proper QT of course.
They pick a bit at each other sometimes but no real fighting. Just usually one saying to the other "get outta my space". I'm hooked on discus now after years of wanting them but never getting them. I plan to grow these guys for a bit to make sure I have everything right, then order a couple more of matching size. I would like to have at least 6-8 in the tank. Once adult size if I can get them there I would like to add a school of tetras.

[farebox]

I also have an 125G tank with 16 Stendker discus from Hans. Sometime all will eat like crazy, then all of sudden a few go an hungry strike for like a month. Two had white feces, but not hiding, just not eating. So I dosed the whole tank with Metro and Prazipro for three days with 50% water change each day. After this treatment last week, one of the hold outs all of sudden darted to the food source and chowed down. I came to the conclusion that discus fish will do what they want for no apparent reason, just maintain those water changes and they will rebound back to normal over time. I medicated the whole tank as an preventive. Good luck and enjoy your tank. Check this out: https://youtu.be/iy0PLZQr6QM

[Jason.M]

I also have an 125G tank with 16 Stendker discus from Hans. Sometime all will eat like crazy, then all of sudden a few go an hungry strike for like a month. Two had white feces, but not hiding, just not eating. So I dosed the whole tank with Metro and Prazipro for three days with 50% water change each day. After this treatment last week, one of the hold outs all of sudden darted to the food source and chowed down. I came to the conclusion that discus fish will do what they want for no apparent reason, just maintain those water changes and they will rebound back to normal over time. I medicated the whole tank as an preventive. Good luck and enjoy your tank. Check this out: https://youtu.be/iy0PLZQr6QM
Very nice. I'd be scared to put that many in my tank. I'd feel like I had to change the water 3 times a day. They are a bigger bioload then I expected with the frequency of feeding and high protein food.

[Jason.M]

Pic update.
They are doing great. Seem to be growing at a good rate. The ring leopard was the largest when I received them, at 3.5 inches or so and the red maps are now almost as big as her, at or close to 5 inches. I say "her" as she acts like a female cichlid to me. The blue diamond was the smallest and is catching up nicely, at around 4.25 to 4.5 inches. This is the best guesstimate on the sizes with a scale up to the tank and from having them swim in my hand during water changes and feeding.
The red map with the partial pattern missing has become the dominate one and will literally sit in my hand when I'm in the tank doing things.
As for feeding... I dont think I've ever kept another species that's goes so crazy for food. The FDBW really are like crack to these guys. Just recieved my second batch of FDBW from Rick at Canadian Aqua Farms yesterday in the mail. Got the colour enhancing ones this time and I think they like these even more than the original ones.
My 3 year old daughter loves to hand them, and gets a huge kick out of them picking at her hand during feeding.
Water changes have been 50% or so every day or second day. I have gone three days a few times when I have to go out of town for work, but there is skipped feedings in there so it haven't seemed to bother them yet.
Thanks for checking it out.
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And an in action shot of bonkers for blackworms
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Tank shot. In the process of sinking my large center piece driftwood that has been floating for a couple weeks now. Once it's waterlogged i'm going to rearrange the tank and remove some of the smaller driftwood pieces.
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Hopefully this post turns out ok, trying to do it on my phone.

[Jason.M]

Update:
Fish are doing great except for the other ring leopard which I decided to cull. It seemed as though its immune system had been compromised at some point. It had some damaged fins from the spawning females that didn't seem to want to grow back and started showing signs of internal bacterial infection. It was never picked on but had always been a heavy breather and always had on and off weeks.
I decided to do the cull as I plan to get another order of discus soon and didn't want to waste time and money trying to treat a fish that may always be weak. It hadn't grown much either since I received it and the others had caught up to, and passed in size. And I was tired of looking at my tank everyday and wondering how it was doing that particular day.
The red map with the full pattern is a gorgeous fish as well as the blue diamond. The other red map is the ugly duckling of the group and I will probably rehome her down the road as I increase my stock and keep the ones I want. The red map females spawn at least once a week and usually twice.
The blue diamond is showing signs of maturity now and is trying to get into the spawning mix with the others.
So now I'm waiting for Rick to get his next order, which I believe will be late summer.
I'm hooked on discus for sure and I can see it taking many orders and several years of grows outs to get my tank stocked the way I want it. But that's the fun of it all.
Cheers.