little help? please

[calgarydiscus]

my name is nick and i have been keeping discus for about 3 months now. have had cichlids (that breed) and many other various fresh water fish. I currently have 3 discus all purchased from the same store a BD and a maui red i think, (the asian fellow selling the fish told me thats what it was...) or was that rio red i cant remember... and a turquoise snakeskin witch has stress bars and is much more aggresive than the other 2 . I think that the BD has parisites because he is loosing color from the back of its top and botton fins (thay are going transparent) and they are blackening at the tips i raised the temp from 86 to 88 (also had free floating worms in the tank), ph 6.5, 80/20 RO/TAP. in a 25 gallon with an aquaclear 30 an ceramic airstone.
what should my hardness be?
should i use blackwater extract ?
should i use discus buffer? witch brand?
should i add salt how much?
should i use peat?
should i have drift wood?

Also who ships to canada or where in canada could i buy decent breeding stock?? also i cannot find metro bits or prazi bits in canada??
the fellow at the LFS also said that the little holes where not hole in the head and they where vent holes lol...
fish seem happy a little skiddish but theres only3 can i mix discus with a ray

[Eddie]

One thing to note, if your fish is affected by a bacteria infection, high temps are not good. Can you get photos of the affected fish?

And you don't need to do anything to your water, looks great at 6.5 PH, just maintain that. Stability in PH is what you are looking for.

No need for any of that other stuff.

Eddie

[DiscusKeeper403]

Don't worry about buggering with the pH, better to just leave it in regular tap. I hear most asian bred stock, growing up in harder water, would prefer it over water that's a little more acidic. Mine do fine in Calgary water. Where did you get the Discus from? Pisces has a few good ones in at the moment. 25 gallons is not big enough to keep Discus in, and you need a bigger group of Discus then just 3. The dominant one will be really hard on the others. Not sure why you can't find Metro or prazi? Pisces carries it, Big Als should too, infact most store should carry both of those medications. Not really vent holes, there called sensory pits.

[April]

three discus togeather is bad news. thats most of your problem.
try to do daily wcs..and keep the tank very clean. bare bottom, see how that goes. if they are not eating or spitting ouut food..then could need metro. but it also could be your big one is pushing them around and they are completely intimidated now.then they get stressed and stop eatinng.
if you do get more discus..get a bigger tank..and get a group all at once. 5 or 6 if you can. read the beginner sectionn for tips.id keep your water whatever comes out of the tap.keep things simple. donnt adjust any ph etc. your going to get bounces..and discus wont handle them. first just learn to grow them..if it comes to a day you want to breed..then you can start asking about microsiemens etc. for fertilizing eggs. discus grow better with lots of good minerals in the water.

[calgarydiscus]

ok so currently i have 4 tanks going
33 gal with BD and red
50 gallon with turquoise snakeskin, 2 albino rainbows, puffer fish,6 tetras, 2 swordtails (i think) 3 female guppys a male guppy and a small angel and a teacup ray is in the works
45 gallon nothing
22.5 galon breeder 4 ghost shrimp
all tanks are bare bottom
was toying with the idea of a cichlid tank, or peacock bass for the 45 but nah...
but my plans where to use the 33 as a breeding tank
2 pairs hopefully fron 6 juviniles
then devide the tank?? 30 percent daily water change??
remove babies after 2.5 weeks freeswiming to the 45 gallon growout

am i way off base
no buffer really?
will include pics

[Eddie]

ok so currently i have 4 tanks going
33 gal with BD and red
50 gallon with turquoise snakeskin, 2 albino rainbows, puffer fish,6 tetras, 2 swordtails (i think) 3 female guppys a male guppy and a small angel and a teacup ray is in the works
45 gallon nothing
22.5 galon breeder 4 ghost shrimp
all tanks are bare bottom
was toying with the idea of a cichlid tank, or peacock bass for the 45 but nah...
but my plans where to use the 33 as a breeding tank
2 pairs hopefully fron 6 juviniles
then devide the tank?? 30 percent daily water change??
remove babies after 2.5 weeks freeswiming to the 45 gallon growout

am i way off base
no buffer really?
will include pics

PH stability, period. Messing with additives will just mess it all up. If your water needs some form of conditioning, you'll want to do all that prior to waterchanges. From the sound of it though, you don't need to do anything unless your PH is swinging everywhere. Really depends on what you PH does after 24-48 hours and what your water change schedule is going to be.

HTH
Eddie

[calgarydiscus]

microsiemens is a measurement of electronic conductance in water in this case?? or resistance??? i need a meter to test this??

does general hardness affect the microsaimens more or does the carbonate level contribute more???

if my water has a high ammount of tds it mostlikely will have a higher conductance as water with absoloutely no tds will not conduct electricity at all.

So my tap water in calgary is some where upwards of 8 i think
and with 20TAP and 80R0 its sits comftorably at 6.5 about and does not flux much even with 20percent WC every 2 days in a 25 gallon

should i run just straight tap??
Ibought the fish at golds in calgary

if my water is 6.5 ph and 3-6 degres hard how many microsaimens will u have

what should my gh/kh be close to

april i read your tap water is allmost ro what do you use to add hardness

thanks all

i was at picies the otherday a few of their discus looked like they wherent quite right... big alls was even worse they had the new black discus veritey lots of peppering! lol

i only use ro water to get the desired ph then 20 percent every 2 days give or take mostly ro but with some ariated tap (for 12 hrs min)

[calgarydiscus]

do you use deworming food once a month?
preventitive maitnance?

[calgarydiscus]

what are good minerals for discus sodium chloride?? :confused:

[DiscusKeeper403]

Only use R/O for breeding to lower the TDS, Calgary water is hard and no minerals should be added. I worm the fish every three months as a precaution. As April said, start with just keeping them, breeding is hard work and takes a knowledgable discus keeper. You do know they have to be a bonded pair in order to breed? You can't just throw two discus togather.

[calgarydiscus]

yeah im aware of getting 6 and hoping they pair;)

[DiscusKeeper403]

yeah im aware of getting 6 and hoping they pair;)

Ahh okay, fingers crossed.

[calgarydiscus]

One thing to note, if your fish is affected by a bacteria infection, high temps are not good. Can you get photos of the affected fish?

And you don't need to do anything to your water, looks great at 6.5 PH, just maintain that. Stability in PH is what you are looking for.

No need for any of that other stuff.

Eddie

so heres the BD thats loosing color
i have also got 2 red turks 1 blue turk 1 snow white and 1 red melon in the a 45 gallon now... not so skiddish any more :)

what is a bonded pair?? is that where 2 discus will pair in a community discus tank and clean and defend a portion of the tank??? or is there something more to it???:confused:

[Eddie]

The BD looks like he's been set back a bit. You would probably do good to deworm the fish.

Bonded pair? Couldn't tell ya, guess a pair that has formed and won't breed with another fish. Just a guess

Eddie

[DiscusKeeper403]

Bonded pair just means they are a breeding pair, not just any two fish.