Skylar's Grow Out Challenge Thread

[Pool_skylar]

Again, Thanks Al! As said by many of the other challengers for this contest! This is a really awesome opportunity to be apart of and i cannot express how grateful i am to be apart of it!

To start off ill provide some back ground information about myself. My name is Skylar Pool, I joined the Simply Discus community last year around august in attempt to expand my knowledge on the Beautiful fish the discus! I had gotten really involved with the you-tuber King of DIY, Joey. This is where i discovered Simply discus through a convention that Al spoke at and Joey recorded the session. I believe i watched that Video 4 or 5 times just to make sure i didn't miss anything to important. A few months later I received my first batch of juvies. In attempt to put to use all of the knowledge i had learned from the forum and session posted by joey! I still have the batch today, they should have just turned a year old. Its been a great time learning the hobby and still working on improving to become a better owner of the infamous discus!

But, thats enough about me! I have the 10 gallon tank set up and ready for the discus! currently don't have pictures uploaded to computer to post but most definitely post them when i do! I plan on doing 1 large water change a day close to 90% and if i get a chance and have time i will most likely do another one. As of right now i have no set regimen just gonna start will Al has supplied and go from there. And of course i will update that as we progress in the challenge.

Along with the weekly updates to this thread I am going to try and do monthly videos on youtube of the growth of the discus and then try to incorporate a time lapse of the growth of the discus from start to finish of daily pictures of them!

[Pool_skylar]

So USPS has sent me an update but all the update said was it was still in transit. It says the arrival date is today but when I try to track the package it is not at my local post office or anything like that so hopefully I will get lucky and they will just arrive randomly or early tomorrow morning! still being hopeful! I was able to upload some picture of my tank and my water ageing bin. so here is what we are working with!


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This is the 10 gallon I have set up I used a cheap foam board from Walmart and surrounded the tank and all the essentials for the fish when they arrive.


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Here is my ageing bin. Got some make shift support on there just to ease the mind a little. I first set this up a year ago when I got my first juvies so I would say its holding up good even if its not needed!

[brewmaster15]

So USPS has sent me an update but all the update said was it was still in transit. It says the arrival date is today but when I try to track the package it is not at my local post office or anything like that so hopefully I will get lucky and they will just arrive randomly or early tomorrow morning! still being hopeful! I was able to upload some picture of my tank and my water ageing bin. so here is what we are working with!


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This is the 10 gallon I have set up I used a cheap foam board from Walmart and surrounded the tank and all the essentials for the fish when they arrive.


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Here is my ageing bin. Got some make shift support on there just to ease the mind a little. I first set this up a year ago when I got my first juvies so I would say its holding up good even if its not needed!

Got to love rachett straps amd scrap lumber. ! Nice DIY! I have used similar LOL

al

[Filip]

Welcome to the forum annd to this contest Skylar .
I wish you the best on your upcoming journey .
I would like to see your current discus tank and discus . If there is a thread on that tank somewhere on the forum , please link it here . IF you haven't presented your tank yet here on simply , please do so in our discus journal section.
We enjoy sharing photos and knowledge about our hobby and I would love to see some of your discus photos .

[Pool_skylar]

Got the update that the fish had arrived at the local post office so I got ready and met them there as soon as they opened and picked them up!

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They were my shotgun riders


The box was in fairly good condition a little damp from one bag that had been leaking in the box. unfortunately when I opened the box up that bag was almost completely drained. the little guy was still alive which is good but right now he is just kinda floating at the top of the tank. hopefully he will get some life back into him. Other than him I got 9 good looking fry!


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I just acclimated them to the water for about 15 minutes or so and then drained the water into a bucket and netted them into the tank they all seem to be doing well they are currently swimming around pecking at some pellets I dropped in that al shipped with the fish.

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This is from when they first was put into the tank they huddled up in the back corner but were looking good!

I had written this up a couple minutes ago and i thought I posted the reply but not entirely sure so if this is posted 2 times I apologize LOL

[Tshethar]

Awesome! Great news. :) Have fun with them!

[Pool_skylar]

With the little guy that was kinda hanging out around the top and his bag was dry on arrival. I noticed it was hard for him to gather his self with the bubbles causing a disturbance to the surface of the water and he was struggling even more so I grabbed a small piece of Tupperware and took some tank water and placed him in it to allow him to gather himself he seems to be getting a little bit more lively! so hopefully he will make it.


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not positive this will help but we can always hope for the best!

[brewmaster15]

Awesome news Skylar!Glad they got there finally. Hopefully the little guy makes it.

Al

[Jody]

Did he make it?

[LizStreithorst]

If he does live it will be because Slylar had done everything possible to give it the best chance to live.

[Pool_skylar]

When I left for work about 2 hours ago he was looking prettty lively and I put him in the tank with the others and he swam down and grouped up with them so hopefully he is doing okay! I’ll give another update once I get home!

[Tshethar]

Sweet! :thumbsup: Honestly I'm feeling better about keeping the ones I've gotten after reading everyone else's thread, especially with people successfully acclimating their fish tonight. They're tough! Sounds like you nursed him along great--congrats! :) Hope and trust it keeps trending that way.

[Filip]

Great job Skylar . Honestly I didn't expect that the floating discus would make it through .

[Pool_skylar]

Good news. Little guy is doing great! Performed a 75 percent water change last night before bed and just fed them about 10 minutes ago! Will post some picture later!

[Paul Sabucchi]

Excellent work so far, wishing you all the best for the contest

[danotaylor]

Great work Skylar!! Nice comeback from a challenging start...you're in the running girl!! ;)

[rickztahone]

Glad the little one made it! Call him scrappy or something similar

[Pool_skylar]

Glad the little one made it! Call him scrappy or something similar

Haven't really thought about naming any of them! but yeah scrappy would be a good name for the little guy!

[rickztahone]

Haven't really thought about naming any of them! but yeah scrappy would be a good name for the little guy!

Lol. I've actually never named any of my fish but my kids sure did. Spotty (for one of my 14bar SS) was amongst my favorite

[Pices]

Wow Skylar, I’m really impressed that you were able to save that fish. You gave it just what it needed. I’m learning so much here. Good thread.
Patty

[Second Hand Pat]

So happy you were able to save the little guy, great thinking on your part Skylar! Well done :D
Pat

[Pool_skylar]

So officially a week into the contest and everything is going well so far! I don't want to jinx my self so I will knock on some wood! lol!

I have been performing about 70% water changes 2 times a day. no set schedule on that just maybe sometime mid morning and then late in the evening. As of the moment I am feeding the food Al supplied for us along with some freeze dried brine shrimp. ill crumble up the dried brine shrimp the best I can and let it soak in a container for about 10 minutes or until it looks pretty well saturated. then I am using Pats method with the syringe for inserting the food into the tank. I plan on adding to the variety soon. Going to get some freeze dried black worms most likely and maybe something else just to add some variety within the diet!

Definitely not great quality pictures but still kinda cool. these are just taking with my iPhone 6 so the quality isn't to awful but could always be better!
tried to do some up close shots haha. here's just a photo of the fellas hanging out together

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Update: uploaded the up close pics but quality was very poor and distorted maybe next time ill try a different method of uploading or taking the pictures

[brewmaster15]

So officially a week into the contest and everything is going well so far! I don't want to jinx my self so I will knock on some wood! lol!

I have been performing about 70% water changes 2 times a day. no set schedule on that just maybe sometime mid morning and then late in the evening. As of the moment I am feeding the food Al supplied for us along with some freeze dried brine shrimp. ill crumble up the dried brine shrimp the best I can and let it soak in a container for about 10 minutes or until it looks pretty well saturated. then I am using Pats method with the syringe for inserting the food into the tank. I plan on adding to the variety soon. Going to get some freeze dried black worms most likely and maybe something else just to add some variety within the diet!

Definitely not great quality pictures but still kinda cool. these are just taking with my iPhone 6 so the quality isn't to awful but could always be better!
tried to do some up close shots haha. here's just a photo of the fellas hanging out together

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Update: uploaded the up close pics but quality was very poor and distorted maybe next time ill try a different method of uploading or taking the pictures

They have nice clear eyes skylar and don't looked stressed at all. They should start coming out to greet you soon. Nice start to the contest for you.

al

[Pool_skylar]

They have nice clear eyes skylar and don't looked stressed at all. They should start coming out to greet you soon. Nice start to the contest for you.

al

oh yeah they have no problem at all letting me know they are ready to eat haha this was a couple minutes after a water change I think they were still hiding from the syphon at this point haha

[Pool_skylar]

snapped a few photos of them before this water change im about to do. its really hard to get a picture when they wont stay still haha

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[Filip]

Nice close-ups Skylar . Your babies look happy and healthy .

[Pool_skylar]

Sorry for the delay on updates! It’s been a busy week for me!

So unfortunately I hate to say that I lost two fish on Monday or Tuesday. I was rushing a water change because I was short on time which I should have never rushed well the water change went smooth. Except I forgot one thing to plug the heater back in and by the time I realized that the water had cooled off to about 72. Most of the fish were acting fine but it stressed some of them really bad. And I didn’t wanna just go ahead and do a water change and make the water jump up 10 degrees because I didn’t wanna stress then more. But I would say I got lucky only 2 died. But I plugged the heater in to let the water climb in temp back to normal and once It did I changed the water and added some salt hoping it would ease the stress. This was a big mistake on my part and I hate that it happened but diffinately learned from it.

But with that being said the 8 I have are doing great, they have great appetites and love some new water and gretting me at the front of the tank.

I’ll post some more info in the future along with pictures!

[Adam S]

Sorry to hear about that, Skylar. If it has enough cord length, you might consider placing the heater on the bottom of the aquarium so you can keep it plugged in.

[Tshethar]

Sorry to hear about the losses. Don't know what I would have done if I realized they were at 72; maybe someone else with more experience will say something. Glad you caught it quickly and didn't lose any more.

As I've learned, losing them is no fun, and especially when we make mistakes, but thanks for sharing and maybe someone can learn from it. Seems like the heater issue has happened to a lot of people.

Hope you have smooth sailing from here!

[Mr.BigBlock]

Sorry to hear about the loss.

[Second Hand Pat]

Aw Skyler, so sorry to hear about the loss. I think you did the best you could given the circumstances.
Pat

[Pool_skylar]

Yeah its definitely a tough loss for sure! but there is always a lesson to be learned and I believe I learnt mine! I check the heater about 10 times now during a water change! do not wanna make that mistake again!

[Filip]

Sorry for your loss Skylar. Maybe plugging the heater along with the lights and a filter on a single plug could prevent this from happening in future, lights and filter being more visible .
Good luck with the rest of them .

[sanjay21]

Sorry, to heat about the loss.

[Second Hand Pat]

Hi Skylar, how are these guys doing?
Pat

[Mando]

Hello, Skylar. I hope these guys are aren’t giving you much trouble. How are they holding up?