Old Stendkers meet New Stendkers!

Ok, today was the day that my jumbo's were set to join my new Fire Reds and Pigeon Blues in the big tank. I was nervous, but Hans was great about reassuring me that it was going to be ok. So I took a deep breath and plopped them in. In minutes they were up at the top begging for food. LOL

So here are some quick pics. This is right after a water change and I added new sand, so it's still a bit cloudy. There are tons of blackworms floating around too...on top of reflections from the french doors. UGH! I can only get decent pics at midnight!

Well anyways, here they are.

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And here's the second batch of pics. Hopefully things will get even more fun when I add the 3" tester discus into the tank! For now they are still in the 55g and will be "testing" out my one remaining GS discus.

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Toni, so how are the tester fish faring?

I still can't get over the size and shape of that Marlboro....so so so nice. Love the colors on them especially the pigeons....i've been in a pigeon mood lately. I think that will be the direction I head next.

Your fishes look great. My favorite is the 3rd one on your second post. If you don't mind, can you tell me what kind of discus is this one.

thanks
George

Love that blue Discus!...Bill

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Originally Posted by George001

Your fishes look great. My favorite is the 3rd one on your second post. If you don't mind, can you tell me what kind of discus is this one.

thanks
George

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That's a 6" adult Pigeon Blue from Discus Hans. And he is GORGEOUS! =)

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Originally Posted by William Palumbo

Love that blue Discus!...Bill

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Thanks Bill, his name is Fred Jr. He was named after my all time favorite flachen from Hans. Poor Fred Sr. hit his head and was paralyzed on one side, so I had to cull him. Thankfully Fred Jr. has turned out to be just as pretty and has the same super friendly personality.

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Originally Posted by Second Hand Pat

Toni, so how are the tester fish faring?

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They're perfectly healthy Pat! Hans told me to go ahead and plop my jumbo's into the big tank with the new adults, and once I was sure all was well with them, I went ahead and plopped in the tester discus this afternoon.

Shoulda seen the reaction from the big fish to those itsy bitsy guys when they plopped in. All the big ones dashed under the plant and hid! LOL

OMG Toni, that is hilarious :D ...but super glad all is well now.

Very nice!!! :)

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Originally Posted by yim11

Very nice!!! :)

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Thanks Jim, just gotta grow out the wee little guys, AND see if I can't get an extra inch or two on the Fire Reds and PB's so they don't look quite so small next to my big guys, huh?

My tank has never looked more colorful though and I LOVE it! =)

Nice! Love that blue discus! Is it a cobalt?

Hi Chris,

That's a Stendker Flachen. He has a great halo and is a big peaceful fish. =)

Hans fish are beautiful and grow big. I'm debating between Hans and Kenny when I start my grow out tank. What's making lean me towards Hans are his cobalts , silver pigeon and fire reds. Anyways really like the variety you have and how colorful your tank looks. :)

Thanks Chris! It definitely has some pizazz this time around. And just wait, I haven't added in my jumbo RT and will possibly be adding a Golden Sunshine who managed to pass the 3" discus test. For now they are still in QT and will be remaining there for at least another couple of weeks. Just want to be sure of them before they join the rest of the crowd. =)

Oh and you can't go wrong with either Hans or Kenny! I'm a Hans girl all the way simply because his colors and strains appealed to me 2 years ago and then his customer service totally won my heart.

Looking good Toni, make sure to run your test at least 4-5 weeks.


Rick

Hi Rick!

I'm testing the GS for that long and maybe more...depends on the mood I'm in. LOL

I'm still unsure of whether or not I ever want to put him into my main tank, but this is the guy who looks nothing like a true golden sunshine. He's pink and blue and breathtaking. Might be worth keeping him so long as he can prove that he's healthy, huh?

Toni, could always be a risk with this fish. Just saying...

Could be Pat, and that's why I'm taking my time with him and really thinking it over.

The little tester discus are in the big tank now, so they are going to relax, eat lots and grow a bit before I risk putting them in with the GS.

Thing is, if they head to the QT tank and live there for 4 weeks without getting sick, it's pretty safe to say that the GS isn't going to sicken the rest of the crew, right? Hans feels sure that the illness they brought in with them would hit fast and hard, and I trust him on that. I remember just how hard it hit my original tank. 3 days of exposure and they were sick as dogs... 5 days and they were knocking on deaths door.

So anyways, in another couple of weeks I'll expose the tester discus to him in the QT and take it from there.

I'll have to take some pics of him just so you can see how he turned out. He's 7.5" of breathtaking. Truly stunning! I've never seen a discus with those colors..and he's SO round and perfect.

Understand Toni, Hans is definitely way more knowledgable here. :) and do want to see pics of that GS

Ok Pat,

I took a couple fast pics during my water changes tonight. Darned fish refused to pose for me! LOL

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See why I'd like to save him if possible? He's big, he's beautiful and he's super friendly!

He is WOW Toni. I understand :D

+1 on the WOW! That is a beautiful silver pigeon

Isn't he just awesome Pat? It will be really sad if I have to cull him. Sooo, once the tester discus have had a couple of weeks to rest up in the main tank I'm going to plop them into his tank and see what happens. =)

Thanks Chris, he's actually a Golden Sunshine, which is why he's so unusual. He has very little yellow (some markings on his face) and the rest is just a metallic pink body and electric blue fins!

Crossing fingers this one last hurdle goes without a hitch Toni.

Any updates on your test?

Yeppers Rick, all is going extremely well!

The jumbo's are swimming in the big tank with the 4 new adults, the babies are in a 20 gallon of their very own for a few weeks just to grow a bit so they can compete for food and my GS is still sitting in his QT tank....waiting for me to toss in the tester discus. OH AND NO ONE IS SICK!!!

I'm not in any rush to do that and would rather give them a chance to put a little meat on their bones first...they had a rough first 2 weeks what with all the QT and new tanks.

Toni, happy everyone is doing so well.

Thanks Pat! It's a joy just to walk past all my tanks and see so many lively vividly colored discus swimming all around.

Only problem thus far is eating. The bright red Fire Red (one is more orange still) is an out and out pig and eats 24/7 same as my jumbo's. The other 3 are much more picky though and so far have refused ALL foods except for FDBW. I've been sneaking in the bio enhanced ones when they aren't looking just so that they get some vitamins and minerals. LOL

The teensy babies are a bit flustered at the moment so they are just picking at food. They were in the big tank and couldn't get much to eat, so I moved them to a 20 gallon last night. Needless to say, they weren't happy with that...it's just one more upheaval in their little lives... poor things. They look GREAT though and don't appear stressed at all.

The GS is never much of a problem with eating thank goodness. He's always been a calm fish and doesn't seem to care that he's all alone with just 9 cards for company. =)

This weekend I'm making the big push to get the FR's and PB's to eat some beefheart. I've been trying one cube per day and the only ones getting fat on it are my cories. They laid a TON of eggs everywhere again and with my huge sword plant in the tank I wouldn't be surprised if I end up with a couple of new cories again.

I guess what I'm saying is that all this fussing over my new HEALTHY discus is FUN! I'm doing four WC's per day (2 on the 20 and one huge on each of the other tanks) and loving it. Haven't been this busy in a year.

This may be a dumb question, but how do you get your fish to grow so large!!! Also, would it be okay to mix hans discus with asian discus? I thought his were german and I heard it wasn't a smart move to mix german and asian discus. thanks!

Hi David,

I actually don't do anything special at all to get them to jumbo size. I think my water is part of the equation. I have VERY high pH and VERY soft water, which is unusual. My TDS is only about 100 most of the time (varies from summer to winter, but never higher than 110).

In the beginning of my discus journey I bought from Discus Hans and thought perhaps the large size was all his fault, but then I raised a tank of oddball discus from another supplier and they got just as big. I still have one of those discus and he's a full 8".

And currently I have a tank full of Kenny's discus and they are growing out just as big, though not quite as quickly. They are all between 7-9 months old now. The smallest is 6" and the largest is 7.5". They have another year of growing to do, so I'm thinking they'll definitely be jumbo's by then.

If I was you I wouldn't mix Asian's with Germans. I know that some people on here do it successfully, and Kenny's discus are the Asians they mix with Hans fish without problems (from what I've read).

But for me? I lost an entire tank of my Germans when I accidentally cross contaminated my tanks during one water change. My Hans discus became sick within 3 days of exposure to the wrong cleaning brush and eventually all but 3 of them died... I had 11 of them at the time. So not good odds at all!