My Final Update

Hi all, First I wanted to thank Kenny's Discus and Discus Forrest for donating these beautiful fish. I also wanted to thank Al for picking me in this contest. Now for the update. I have had these fish for a year now and I have learned so much about them. I have kept them in a 45 gallon tank and then moved them to a 125 gallon tank. I probably moved them too soon for most into the 125 but I wanted to try something different. They were fed 5 to 6 times a day with a beef heart -seafood mix, and also given brine shrimp. Water changes on the 125 were daily but only enough water taken out to clean the tank. Every once in a while they were given a 80% to 90% water change. They were also put through the process of a planted tank which is when I had 2 pair off and lay eggs. After problems controlling nitrates with the planted tank , they went back to bare bottom which is when the egg laying stopped for me. A few facts for me as these are only my personal opinions,
1) Quality of the fish matters.
2) Go with a bare bottom tank.
3) Fed heavily and quality products.
4) If you use bigger tank than needed, with proper filtration, water changes do not need to be 80 to 90% daily. I relied on my tds meter for this.
5) These fish do require more main. than even my salt water tank.
Like I said, these were my opinions only and because they worked for me does not mean this is the standard. Now here's my final pictures of these fish and a movie of them: http://i959.photobucket.com/albums/a...h_100_1503.jpg

Hi Jim.
Some of those guys look huge. You have done an excellent job with them and have enjoyed watching your posts. :) Wish you the best with the contest judging.
Take care,
Bill

Good job Jim with your group. I personally found it interesting growing this group out in a planted tank. Thanks for all the information on it. The fish look great.

Looking great Jim, they sure look healthy and hungry :D

Good luck in the contest,

A job well done!

We've all learnt from your experiences. Thanks

Very nice looking bunch you have raised, your hard work shows, Best of luck in the judging

Great job Jim! I enjoyed all of your posts throughout the contest. Good luck in the judging!

Jim:

It was interesting to see your progress in a planted tank, I have thought about doing a planted tank for a display and have been encouraged by your progress. I also have to agree with you that for the contest it was better to use a BB tank, they seem to do much better. Your fish look great and the hard work really shows through. Good luck with the contest.

Larry

Jim,

THe fish look awesome! Great work my friend!

Best wishes and good luck!

Fish look great! Interesting paint job on the tank's bottom!

Awesome group Jim, they all look fabulous! Excellent work and thanks for sharing your experience in keeping them.

All the best!

Eddie

Jim, from a little I think scrapy begining, too a tremendous turn out. Yes you are never too old my friend. Keep up a remarkable job with them!

Regards
Ahmed ;)

I enjoyed watching them grow and develop over the year. Hopefully the next step is getting fry from this group. Its amazing to me how much I learned about these fish and the care they require. If I had to do it over the only thing I would have changed would have been to keep them in a 75 instead of the 125. I believe they would have grown bigger than what they did. I also believe the quality of the stock matters more than anything. I hope every one enjoyed the updates on these fish. Thanks to all for the input during the course of the year, Jim.

You've done a great job with your group of discus. They look wonderful!

Chris