I FINALLY BOUGHT SOME ADULTS/CRAIGSLIST

[Elaine_Bryant]

I was looking through craigslist and saw some adults in my area. The site was northwestdiscus and found out he was in my area. I've never bought adults before but these are georgeous....big and fat. I got 3 scribbled, and 2 yellow thai..........I just can't stop watching them. Chris Sodeman, the fellow I got them from, said they're about 2 years old. Since they are grown I'm hoping to put them in a tank with decorations and was wondering if the constant water changes had to be kept up. I'm not planning a planted tank but one with sand or gravel and silk plants probabley. Chris had a nice set up and the fish he had were first class, everything was spotless (kindof like Carols tanks) :) elaine

[April]

thats great elaine. glad you found some nice ones and locally at that. congrats.

[GrillMaster]

Congrats Elaine!!

I personally wouldn't think of buying discus anywhere except for the sponsors here ...It is simply the best quality fish you can buy anywhere period!

Hope they work out for ya! :)

tc
Mark

[White Worm]

With adults, its not mandatory for daily water changes. However, I'll bet they didnt get to be great big adults by neglect. Just watch your parameters and keep the water clean. Maybe 1 or 2 50% w/c's a week? How big is your tank?

[Kindredspirit]

Good for you Elaine! Post some pictures when you can:)


Marie ~ :coffee:

[April]

well...how do you know the person who had them didnt get them from a sponsor. elaine lives in the boondocks...if you see nice fish...in person..nothing wrong with getting them from craigslist.
as already said..if he had a spotless tank and they are big and beautiful sounds like they had good care.

[Elaine_Bryant]

April, do you have all your adults in barebottom tanks? These guys are large and I have 5 in a 56 gallon high tank, it's hard to reach (impossible for me) to reach the bottom of the darn thing but it fit into the space we had available. If I can do the 50% water changes as suggested would that be only if it were a barebottom? I'd like to put some swimming pool sand in it and some silk plants, I have some rummy noses and cardinals in quarantine and my plan was to put them in with my discus but now I'm afraid they would just be FOOD. If anyone has sand how many inches do you usually go with? thanks

[traco]

I've got pool filtering sand in my 90 gallon. On the back and sides, it is banked and mixed with some gravel for substrate plants. The whole front and middle is just the sand about 1/2" deep. I vacuum it when doing water changes and I have no problem with it being sucked up the gravel python. I do have a 24" python though which helps. It gets the sand whirling around in the tube and does not suck it up to the top completely. On the off chance it does get up there, I just kink the hose and it falls back down.

All I can say is give it a try. Just a skim coat of sand, silk plants which can be moved when cleaning and keep an eye on your nitrate levels. If nitrate starts to climb up, then either up your water changes and see how that helps, or you can just suck all the sand out and go bare bottom. Cleanliness is the key. I keep mine vacuumed. I am doing water changes every 4 days on my 90 gallon of around 50%. I found that when I go longer between w/c, the discus start to show me they are not liking my laziness.:p

[White Worm]

Rummy nose and cardinals are most times quick enough to get away from discus. Once the discus get used to them, they live together fine. Try connecting some PVC pipe to the end of your hose for vacuuming the bottom. I no longer get wet when doing w/c's.

[April]

there barb said it fine. mine are in barebottom..but i have alot of fish to care for..so its for easyness on my part. but the food stays on top of the sand so easy enough to vacuum and catch it lightly..and if you get a bit of sand gone..oh well..you add a bit everynow and then.

[roclement]

I have sand in my 150gl and do the same as mentioned above, I use my Python to do water changes and the sand only swirls in the tube but does not come all the way up, if it does, i kink the hose as well, it is very easy to do and keeps my tank very clean.

As far as WC regimen, it would depends on many variables as number of fish, kind of filtration, feeding regimen, and so many others that make every tank unique...as my rule, i do as many WC as I can in a week period, I don't loose sleep if I do one less a week because of time contrains, most important is to make sure your filter has a pre-filter so the unit itself does not get clogged with gunk! Remember the waste does not come out of your tank if it goes into your filter, it is just out of site! My 150gl takes me about 1 hour to perform 50% WC, and most of it is becauuse I refill very slowly, the actual syphoning and glass cleaning takes about 15min. with the python, from there on it is just baby sitting for the water to get bcak into the tank, and not all over the house!

As far as were you got your fish, I agree that if you had a chance to see them before you got them, you did good! How they look now is because they are probably from good source, and were well taken care of! Enjoy them!

HTH, Rod

[Elaine_Bryant]

Thanks all, just bought 50 lbs of the swimming pool sand, I was surprised how cheap it was......$8.39 for the 50 lbs.

[brewmaster15]

Congrats Elaine!
Thats great news... Its always best to pick out your fish in person when you can...:)

So now you found a supplier near you and have somewhere to go handpick fish... Sounds like a win-win to me!:)

I'm happy for you!

-al

[Elaine_Bryant]

The hard part is slapping myself and repeating "you don't need anymore"......"you don't need anymore".......LOL thanks Brew, Elaine

[Greg Richardson]

Where's the pictures?

[Elaine_Bryant]

I'll try and post some tonite or tomorrow.I have to remember how to do this, I think I have posted pictures before but have to remember how I did it, I've been away from the computer quite awhile..........elaine