my wild tank rescaped

[3dees]

removed the cypress and added more manzanita. wondering if I added too much. the fish seem to love it.

[mmorris]

Fantastic!

[William Palumbo]

Well done!...Looks so much better...Bill

[Discus-n00b]

10/10!!

I like it more then the last!

[Jennie]

I like both ways.

[Justice]

I like both ways.Me too!

[milton]

looks great

[Discus-Hans]

I like the tank but the Discus are still showing a lot of stress bars.

Do you know/what are your water parm.

Hans

[rly]

I did not look at the first one but like this one alot .So the next time you are in Toledo you are welcome to bring a box of manzanita and do mine ,dont yet have wilds but because Hekdiscus and mr.Hans i will have to change this soon.
Great tank
Ron

[jball1125]

Sweet setup!

[Kevin22]

love the setup, very wild looking tank, it's the pennywort, right?

[ExReefer]

Looks great! Love the fish too!

[VIOLIN33]

very nice great job

[3dees]

thanks everyone. Hans, the bars on my fish are usually more pale. photos were taken after about 2 hours of moving the wood from one spot to the next. I think they show thier bars more than they should though. I'm having a problem with them breathing hard and I'm at a loss as what to do. I test my water frequently. water is perfect. nitrates are always about 5. ph is 7.6 in the tank and from the faucet. I thought it was the sand as it was getting dark grey underneath. I removed all but a thin layer. I do 2 50% and 2 25% wc every week. the fish eat like pigs and swim all over the tank. after a wc they breath normally but after about 8 hours they start again. I have cleaned my filters (one at a time). I have had the fish for about 2 months and this has been going on since day one. anyone have any ideas of whats going on?

[erikc]

thanks everyone. Hans, the bars on my fish are usually more pale. photos were taken after about 2 hours of moving the wood from one spot to the next. I think they show thier bars more than they should though. I'm having a problem with them breathing hard and I'm at a loss as what to do. I test my water frequently. water is perfect. nitrates are always about 5. ph is 7.6 in the tank and from the faucet. I thought it was the sand as it was getting dark grey underneath. I removed all but a thin layer. I do 2 50% and 2 25% wc every week. the fish eat like pigs and swim all over the tank. after a wc they breath normally but after about 8 hours they start again. I have cleaned my filters (one at a time). I have had the fish for about 2 months and this has been going on since day one. anyone have any ideas of whats going on?

You have problems with the oxygen levels. At higher temps where we keep our discus there is less oxygen dissolved in the water. WC's are used to lower levels of dissolved oxygen than most tropical fishes but they still do need some ! You should re-direct the output of your filter so as to create more turbulance at the surface, thus dissolving more oxygen. I know it sounds simple but most people are not aware of this pheneomena and their fish suffer from it.

Nice looking tank btw.

[Eddie]

Great looking tank/fish!

Eddie

[3dees]

thanks erikc, but I don't think thats the problem. the fish are never at the surface. I have two spraybars pointed at each other and there is a lot of surface movement. it pushes all the floating plants to the back of the tank.
if that was the the problem would'nt it affect the tetras? they seem fine.

[ExReefer]

Maybe they have gill flukes? Or CO2 overdose (not sure if you use CO2 injection)?

[3dees]

no I don't run co2. if it's flukes are there any other signs besides fast breathing? thier poop is normal and no clamping of thier fins. I don't want to treat them unless I know whats really wrong.

[tacks]

Hi you have a really nice looking tank. I was wondring have you checked your nitrites in the tank? You said you cleaned both your filters notat the same time right? I also agree with Hans you need to get more oxygen into the water. Again very nice tank. Ed

[zooyorkthang]

awesome looking tank I like the dark feel! How did you manage to hang up the driftwood? and is it easily removable for cleaning/water changes? I'm about to put some driftwood in and was trying to come up with ideas to hang it.

[3dees]

thanks zooyorkthang, I used a clamp on the branches in the back. the rest are tied to the poles of my lights. they are not removable. it's a bit of a pain getting my hand and the python thru all the wood but to me it's worth it.

[Apistomaster]

Wild Discus enjoy more flow than some think and however you provide it, venturi/power head, spray bar or an air stone you will also bring the dissolved oxygen levels closer to it's maximum potential saturation point for a given temperature,

And Green Discus do not adapt as well as S. haraldi to relatively high pH and high TDS/ EC.
Using mostly RO water with a little tap water the pH the pH will drift down into the acidic range. Most waters where Green Discus are collected will have a pH near 5.0 and >20 ppm TDS. The pH will easily drop in such water to at least 6.0 if the KH is kept low. It isn't necessary to exactly match their native waters but it should at least be closer to that than your tap water.

The setting is ideal but your water is not.
Unless you treat wild Discus during a lengthy quarantine period you can be sure they have parasites and those are another stressor. Rapid breathing in well oxygenated water of the correct water chemistry is usually caused by some parasites. Skipping the quarantine and treatment period then keeping Greens in water with a slightly alkaline pH and high (for Greens) TDS/EC is not conducive to their long term well being. Only if you treat them yourself can you know whether they were treated with the right medications long enough.
Even the most reputable dealers can not assure you that your Discus have completed an adequate quarantine period. They are usually in quarantine when they are sold but selling asap is how things are done.

[3dees]

thanks apistomaster,
I'm starting to think I should not have bought the greens, but I was under the impression that they could be kept in 7.6 ph. my tank is in the basement rec room with a small side room for laundry. I have no room to keep a water storage container. don't have a qt but there were only a few tetras in the tank when the discus were added. would there be other signs besides rapid breathing if it's parasites? as I have said the fish look great and eat like pigs. what can I treat for if I don't know what the problem is? why do they breath normally fo 4-5 hrs after a wc. my spray bars create so much surface movement that I have trouble growing the frogbit. some people have told me if they are eating good and acting and looking good then don't worry about it, but this really bothers me. maybe I should try to trade them with someone in the area for domestics but they look so good in the tank.

[ExReefer]

I sent you a PM.

[TURBOFROG]

Really a great looking tank!!

[Apistomaster]

Your Greens are healthy enough to halfway keep the parasites under control with their own immune response. You can tell they are struggling because many of them are quite thin. This would be enhanced if their water chemistry was closer to what is ideal for wild Greens. The fact that they eat well is a very good sign and is helping them cope with the parasites.
It is hard to know what all the parasites wild Discus are carrying but there are different ways of treating them which satisfy different Discus keepers. I use a combination of flubendazole and PraziPro)praziquantel because they cover a fairly wide range of the most common parasitic worms. At the same time i treat them with metroniadazole for the parasitic flagellates commonly found in Discus. I have never experienced any adverse reactions to this combination. The last time I had any wild fish I wanted to treat was when I bought 10 wild Zebra Plecos, Hypancistrus zebra and even at a bargain price they still cost me $1500 plus about $100 in overnight freight.
I treat for about one month but continue making large water changes. This requires replacing the amount of medications you use to maintain a constant therapeutic dose.
Remember that is what I do. Others are satisfied with a different method or different drugs but we all have the same aim to minimize the numbers of parasites. When wild Discus have been treated then maintained in proper water chemistry they can keep the parasites under control as they do in the wild. I don't think there is any way to eliminate 100% of the parasites from wild caught fish but we can diminish their numbers so low that the Discus can handle them on their own.
The best species choice of Discus for your water conditions would have been Symphysodon haraldi.
They can adapt well enough to tap water similar to your water that they can even spawn successfully. Green and Heckel Discus are more specialized for a soft acid water environment but S. haraldi are much more adaptable fish and that is why they are the Discus with the greatest range.

[Joe]

I love photo 3

Joe

[lee1]

do you have a film on the water surface? if so that can really block the flow of oxygen, easily solved with a surface skimmer.

[3dees]

I guess I should have asked if there might be a problem with my water other than the PH. I have no ammonia or nitrites and nitrates are always 5ppm. I see videos of snookn's greens. his PH is 8.5 and they are not breathing fast.
just wondering if something else could be affecting my water. my fish are thin? I've never kept discus but I thought they looked fine. I feed them 3 times a day with different foods. It takes them about 10 minutes to eat everything. is this enough? sorry to drag this out but the only answer I seem to get is lack of oxygen which I'm sure it's not. in 25 years of fish keeping I have never medicated any fish so I'm a little hesitant to add any meds if I'm not sure of what I'm doing. lee1, no there is no film. there is too much surface aggitation.

[ockyra215]

I like the tank setup very serene looking good luck with it!:D

[shyro77]

Beautiful Natural Tank!!!

[Deltad]

oh my... those wilds are soooooo nice!!!