PDA

View Full Version : Looking for Discus (Cinci, OH) and Advice



CincinnatiDeb
10-08-2003, 09:04 AM
Greetings Discus Lovers,

This morning, at a terrible 7:00am I found our coerulean blue on the floor under the aquarium. He happened to jump out the filter opening in the back which is about 3 cm larger than he is in the middle of the night. The fun part is we had just bought our discus a new 75 Gallon tank (more to come) and are planning on moving them this weekend.

So, among other things, we're in the market for at least 2 or 3 more discus. Here's some information that I hope will be useful to anyone who might have the time for some advice.

New Tank: 75 Gallon All Glass
Substrate: 75 lbs of standard small sized aquarium gravel (brown)
Planted: Yes, several small to medium amazons (from old aquarium)
Filtration: Marineland Canister Filter w/ Bio Wheel Pro System (Forget the model, but I can get it if needed, for a 90 Gallon aquarium, think it's the 350?)
Tank Mates: 3 Rummy Nosed tetras (from old aquarium), 1 12" High-Fin Tiger Pleco (from old aqarium), 1 1" Cory Catfish
Number, type, and size of discus: 1 6" Red Turquoise, Sex unknown, 2 8" Blue Diamonds, Sex unknown. (Only about 2 years old on the blue diamonds. The Turquoise we picked up from another hobbyist, unsure of it's age)

The new tank (we checked) has no openings which they could possibly fit through. The largest is where the bio wheels are on the back of the aquarium and is about 1 square inch. We've heard of discus jumping but it never occured to us that any of them would fit through the slit in the back.

The information we're hoping for is how many discus should/can we buy and obviously where to get them. We're in the Northern Kentucky area very close to Cinci and are willing to travel a bit (50 or so miles, give or take) to find discus. We have a strong preference to seeing the discus ourselves and choosing individual fish or buying from another hobbyist who just has too many to reasonably keep. Our discus are purely for the pleasure of having them with no intention of breeding them. They are pets and the loss of one is very sad for us. We take (well we thought we were) good care of them with careful water monitoring/changing and a diet that consists of live blackworms, beefheart, turkey heart (Discus delight), bloodworms (frozen and freeze-dried), and the rarely given pellet food.

Is there an advantage to buying more than 1 discus at a time?

How many can/should we buy?

Is there something we're not doing or doing wrong?

Abercrombie6202
10-08-2003, 03:17 PM
I would advice to you to read this whole begineer section above this, the stickies, they stay there for begineers to read!!
Also you can visit my website, it's not finished yet, but it is in progress! it has good begineer information so far.
http://www.angelfire.com/sd2/discushelp/Intro.html

it is best to buy all your fish at once from the same breeder becuase they all have the same water conditions, disease carrying etc... Also do you quarantine your fish? how long? it is recommended to quarantine them before adding them to the discus tank for 6 weeks. You have a gravel bottom tank? is it heavily planted, lightly, have you ever though about going BB (barebottom)?

CincinnatiDeb
10-08-2003, 04:36 PM
Thanks for the reply Abercrombie :) Your site is very good! It nicely sums up all of the information that people are wanting to know at the beginning. I'll be eagerly awaiting additions to it. Thank you for the link :) I've perused all of the major topics on the boards (the ones at the top) of all the subjects and almost off of the general and beginner topics. Most of it seems like common sense for a discus.

We tried playing it what we though was safe when we bought our discus originally and only brought home two (LFS said that was fine, it wasn't). Then we bought our remaining discus from a hobbyist and had four. Will adding new discus to an existing tank cause problems? We were, of course, going to quarantine the new fish but I am concerned with social problems, such as bullying arising.

We started out with a gravel tank, went to a larger bare bottom tank with potted plants and driftwood and now are moving to an even larger tank with gravel. I'd say it's medium planted but the plants are short and smallish. It's heavily lighted.

We never went BB because of the sheer ugliness of the junk under the aquarium, I've never heard of the sand paint job, it's a good idea and would solve the issue we have with the ugliness of a BB tank. (The tank is upstairs, so looks are an issue.) I'll have to see what the hubby says when I get home.

Also.. any advice on moving discus? We were thinking of trying to catch them in a plastic container rather than netting them. How do you move your discus?

Rick00
10-08-2003, 11:13 PM
Deb,

you can paint the bottom of your tank with American Accents Stone Creations.....looks just like sand....i've painted all my tanks with this and it looks nice...

Rick

Abercrombie6202
10-09-2003, 02:52 PM
Well the only problem i see with adding new discus to an aquarium is if you don't quarantine them. because if you don't then the discus could transmit a disease to the discus that were already in the tank. even the healthiest discus could be carriers of a diease that they are immune too. if you move discus (travel) they could catch a simple fungus or tail rot that could cause a lot of harm to your other fish. i recommend Quarantining definitally, but i think you already said you were going to. Social problems shouldn't be too big of a problem. But how many discus do you have? if you don't have many is there one discus that is dominant? if so that discus will probably be the only threat to the others. You could use a divider when you finally add the new fish. One side your new fish and on the other side the others. jsut make sure you quarantine for atleast 6 weeks!

Mykiss
10-14-2003, 12:40 PM
Hi CincinnatiDeb and welcome to Simply, Abercrombie6202 has got a bunch of good points about buying your fish and quarantine. As for catching fish, I just use a net and scoop them when the lights are off. I think it makes it less stressful than with the lights on. cheers and good luck
pt