Paul Sabucchi
08-30-2018, 08:07 AM
Opening this thread to continue relating the progress of my fish. I started documenting our story here http://forum.simplydiscus.com/showthread.php?129691-My-Dirty-Dozen&highlight=Dirty+dozen and here http://forum.simplydiscus.com/showthread.php?132945-My-discus-are-one-year-old-the-story-of-the-dirty-dozen-so-far&highlight=Dirty+dozen.
To recap on the 8th of September 2017 I went to Bologna to fetch some 3 month old red melon juvies bred by Federico Dall'Osso from his pair (bred by SG, that is the top Italian breeder).
They went straight in the approx 100 gal tank I had prepared with a fishless cycle, I had added Sera salts to bring the conductivity close to that of origin (600 microsiemens), the tank is BB, filter was initially a Fluvial 206 swapped a few months ago with a much bigger Jebao 304, with a big sponge filter on the intake used as a prefilter. A Schego 600w heater controlled by an Inkbird 308 and an STC 1000 (belt and braces) set at 29C. Lighting is 2 x 1 meter cold white LEDs and 2 x 1 meter RGBs controlled by a TC420.
Daily schedule from the start has been 240 liter water change, syphoning the bottom, wiping the glass and rinsing the prefilter sponge. My aged tapwater is soft-ish at 120 microsiemens, KH 2-3, pH 7.5
They were already used to granules, Tetra and Sera, I later swapped them to a better quality local brand (SHG) while they were not so keen on North Fin krill gold. I tried crushed Six Fish cat kibble but too much hassle to crumble it (I got in touch with Champion Petfoods but they said they were not interested in making the same formula but in fish size granules, could the recent class action be divine punishment for their callous indifference?). I wanted to introduce some fresher food but had my concerns about beef heart , I would not knock it as multitudes of discus keepers over decades have had great success with it, just wanted to investigate alternatives. Not having a reliable year-round supplier of frozen fish food, I was left with the supermarket as an only option. I chose grated frozen wild salmon fillets and initially also grated Chilean frozen mussels. The latter although in theory precooked I blanched anyway in boiling water but after a few weeks I started to observe signs on neuromuscular incoordination, could it be Thiaminase was still active? So I dropped the mussels and carried on with just salmon and they have been doing fine ever since -so that is a first lesson learned - never use mussels again.
After all these months feeding is still granules at 6.30 am followed by salmon every 2 or 3 hours or so from 10 am to 8 pm followed by water change (on the rationale that if it ain't broke why fix it). What I did notice was that with growth the respiration rate increased, could not find any gill flukes Water tests remained spot on (NH3 and NO2 = 0, NO3 <5 mg/l) but noticed the breathing improved the first few hours after WC so presumably the fish needed better oxygenation. One thing at a time I swapped the airstone with a limewood block, then put in a 400 l/h headpump, swapped for a 1000 l/h one with increasing improvements and finally for a 2000 l/h (528 gph) wavemaker that proved satisfactory.
This is a video taken yesterday of the fish and their feeding. https://youtu.be/7WWFeFI26gU
I plan to continue in a similar fashion for the next year or so and then maybe add some minimal decor to the tank, I have an oak "tree" ready to go in, probably with a canopy of epiphytes.
Still undecided if I will put a thin layer of sand on the bottom, planning on soon doing a small scale test of sealing sand with clear epoxy as discussed on a recent thread.
To recap on the 8th of September 2017 I went to Bologna to fetch some 3 month old red melon juvies bred by Federico Dall'Osso from his pair (bred by SG, that is the top Italian breeder).
They went straight in the approx 100 gal tank I had prepared with a fishless cycle, I had added Sera salts to bring the conductivity close to that of origin (600 microsiemens), the tank is BB, filter was initially a Fluvial 206 swapped a few months ago with a much bigger Jebao 304, with a big sponge filter on the intake used as a prefilter. A Schego 600w heater controlled by an Inkbird 308 and an STC 1000 (belt and braces) set at 29C. Lighting is 2 x 1 meter cold white LEDs and 2 x 1 meter RGBs controlled by a TC420.
Daily schedule from the start has been 240 liter water change, syphoning the bottom, wiping the glass and rinsing the prefilter sponge. My aged tapwater is soft-ish at 120 microsiemens, KH 2-3, pH 7.5
They were already used to granules, Tetra and Sera, I later swapped them to a better quality local brand (SHG) while they were not so keen on North Fin krill gold. I tried crushed Six Fish cat kibble but too much hassle to crumble it (I got in touch with Champion Petfoods but they said they were not interested in making the same formula but in fish size granules, could the recent class action be divine punishment for their callous indifference?). I wanted to introduce some fresher food but had my concerns about beef heart , I would not knock it as multitudes of discus keepers over decades have had great success with it, just wanted to investigate alternatives. Not having a reliable year-round supplier of frozen fish food, I was left with the supermarket as an only option. I chose grated frozen wild salmon fillets and initially also grated Chilean frozen mussels. The latter although in theory precooked I blanched anyway in boiling water but after a few weeks I started to observe signs on neuromuscular incoordination, could it be Thiaminase was still active? So I dropped the mussels and carried on with just salmon and they have been doing fine ever since -so that is a first lesson learned - never use mussels again.
After all these months feeding is still granules at 6.30 am followed by salmon every 2 or 3 hours or so from 10 am to 8 pm followed by water change (on the rationale that if it ain't broke why fix it). What I did notice was that with growth the respiration rate increased, could not find any gill flukes Water tests remained spot on (NH3 and NO2 = 0, NO3 <5 mg/l) but noticed the breathing improved the first few hours after WC so presumably the fish needed better oxygenation. One thing at a time I swapped the airstone with a limewood block, then put in a 400 l/h headpump, swapped for a 1000 l/h one with increasing improvements and finally for a 2000 l/h (528 gph) wavemaker that proved satisfactory.
This is a video taken yesterday of the fish and their feeding. https://youtu.be/7WWFeFI26gU
I plan to continue in a similar fashion for the next year or so and then maybe add some minimal decor to the tank, I have an oak "tree" ready to go in, probably with a canopy of epiphytes.
Still undecided if I will put a thin layer of sand on the bottom, planning on soon doing a small scale test of sealing sand with clear epoxy as discussed on a recent thread.