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Thomas' Stendker - Contest Thread
Hi everyone!
First, let me quickly introduce myself. You'll probably learn more about me by the way I'll post for the next months but to get it started:
I'm Thomas and I'm living in Switzerland (let me know if any of you passes by ;). I'm currently doing a PhD and taking care of my rather new discus.
So, how did I get started?
I've always had tanks. My father raised me in a rather aquatic environment. We've only kept fresh water with a particular interest in Tanganyika cichlids. After moving out of my parents' house, I've gone from city to city and room to room. Not really compatible with fish keeping... A few months back, my beloved (she may read my posts ^^) girlfriend suddenly told me that we should have an aquarium. She probably got the idea after she saw how excited I was while reading a book about fish reproduction!
Knowing what it meant, I warned her and let her decide on what we should do. I obviously told her about Tanganyika cichlids, their behaviour etc. I don't really know where she found out about discus but from the start, that's all she had in mind! Discus this, discus that!
It took me a few weeks or months to convince myself that it'd be doable. As many people, I thought that discus keeping was too complicated, that they were too sensitive, that we should start with easier fish... But well... that's what she wanted! ;P
I've read many things on discus, from bad to excellent information. From my point of view, it was rather hard to distinguish the truth from the lies. So I would like to take the opportunity to thank everyone on this forum for sharing their experience and knowledge. Without what you did and wrote, I may have never dared keep discus!
We've measured the different rooms in the apartment, the furniture, every space we may have and decided on the best place for the biggest tank possible. It then went pretty fast. We went to the shop, ordered the tank, picked it up from the shop, moved some furniture around to leave some space for the aquarium, levelled it, filled it and started the cycle. On the 28 of January 2018, the tank was filled and we started waiting some more...
Here's what it looked like on the 13 of February:
Attachment 115886
It is a Juwel Rio 350 (121x51x66 cm (length x width x height)). It holds almost 350 litres (approx. 92 gallons). The tank came with a built-in internal filter but we also added an external filter (Eheim eXperience 350), the intake of which I inserted in the compartment after the internal filtration.
Now that I've gone through these few months, it I had to do it again, I would probably not put any sand, less decor, fewer plants. I would probably just make it easier to clean :)
After a few weeks, we added 8 Sterbai Corydoras and a few Tetras.
We've visited all the fish stores we could find in the region, saw some rather nice discus, but nothing as nice as we had hoped. I therefore looked for a Stendker reseller. From the first order to the arrival of our fish, we've had to wait for almost 2 months. Every week, we called and were told that they'd be arriving in 2 weeks, that they'd be arriving in 3, in 1, in 2... That the sizes we wanted were not available. To be honest, we could have given up and looked for another shop!
They finally arrived on the 11th of April :D
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We've got:
(denominations according to Stendker's list)
1 Blue Snake Skin
1 Leopard Snake Skin
1 Blue Diamond
1 Solid Fire Red
1 German Wonder
1 Stendker Téfé
(from left to right on the next picture, taken 5 days after they arrived home)
Attachment 115889
The first month was quite stressful. We had never kept discus, so I started getting paranoid. Every time I noticed an unusual behaviour, I feared parasites, illness... I finally forced myself not to worry too much and to just watch and change the water frequently.
So far so good. They've grown and look happy!
Here's a family photo from the 1st of June (only the Leopard Snake Skin missing on the photo):
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And here is the Leopard Snake Skin eating! (8th of June)
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He's the smallest one. We started worrying but he seems to have started catching up with the others in the past 2 weeks. We feed them the Stendker "Good Heart" beef heart frozen food. I'd like to start preparing my own frozen food for them because for now, we have to pay around 30 dollars for 500 grams and it sounds like a lot to me... Anyway, meat is generally expensive here so I'm not even sure I could prepare anything cheaper taking into account the additives etc.
I'm still looking for some ingredients before I start preparing my own food.
I have many other things to tell you but come to think of it, my post is probably already long enough!
I should get back to work now ;)
Thomas :)
Re: Thomas' Stendker - Contest Thread
Hi Thomas, that is a pretty tank and the discus look great. Glad you started with larger fish vs juvies, it is easier in a new discus keeper to learn with larger fish. You can always remove plants and decorations if it interferes with a clean tank.
Pat
Re: Thomas' Stendker - Contest Thread
At first I wanted to start with 5cm-discus (approx. 2 inches), but after weighing the pros and cons and reading the advice on the forum, I decided to spend some more money for bigger discus that may be healthier on the long run.
So I ordered 8cm-fish. I think that they were ranging from 6.5 to 8.5 cm when I got them... They've been with us for 2 months and they are now measuring between 8.5 and 12 cm.
I will try to take a few photos of the whole tank later today. I've already started removing some things that made the cleaning a bit too cumbersome.
Thanks for your kind words! Being new to discus, I was scared that they did not grow properly or showed any bad symptom... They are certainly not the best-shaped discus but I've fallen in love with them!
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Re: Thomas' Stendker - Contest Thread
Here's the tank now :)
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Re: Thomas' Stendker - Contest Thread
Re: Thomas' Stendker - Contest Thread
Very nice set up and I think your fish look great. My husband and I also had a tanganikyan tank and found a lot of unusual varieties. It’s my favorite lake in Africa.
I don’t think I could ever tire of discus though. I can feel your excitement in your post. They are different individually and even that changes. One day a follower becomes leader, a little one may get scrappy and fearless so they are never boring. I think that’s what sets them apart from other fish other than their obvious beauty. Nice job. I bet you don’t miss those Tanganikyans now!
Patty
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Re: Thomas' Stendker - Contest Thread
For now I'm happy with my discus situation. We'll have to wait and see how it goes on the long run though. For now cleaning the tank and changing the water is ok. We may have to find a way to do things differently depending on the job I will get, if I get a child, etc.
I've kept several species of Tanganyika and there are still some I would have liked to keep.
One fish I've really enjoyed (Ophthalmotilapia Nasuta Tiger Chimba):
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Now, let me get back to the discus!
When I bought them, they had a size that should have corresponded to an age of 3-4 months.
If we assume that these fish were born in January, they must be 5-6 months.
The thing is that I noticed last week that the Blue Diamond started flashing to other fish and defended his place of dominant with ever-increasing devotion. He seemed to be courting the German Wonder and kept pushing the Blue Snake Skin as far as he could.
Every day, I got more and more convinced that the Blue Diamond was courting the German Wonder.
Now, they are almost always side by side and dancing (shaking their bodies and flashing their fins) for one another.
Oh! I've just noticed that the Blue Snake Skin also tries to display for the German Wonder. (I'm seated in front of the tank:)
While all this is happening, the other discus are calm as always.
From time to time, the Solid Fire Red "argues" with the Blue Snake Skin. They don't chase each other but rather go face to face and do occasional head-butts. I've filmed some of these behaviours. If any one is interested, I may put the time and effort into selecting the clips from different videos etc. Let me know ;)
In the past 2-3 days, the Blue Diamond and the German Wonder have been cleaning one of the pieces of wood and the German Wonder almost always stays close to it while the Blue Diamond chases the others to the other side of the tank.
So... I guess that all this suggests that a pair is forming. (?)
I'm a bit surprised because I thought that these kinds of behaviours only happened once the fish are around 1 year old! So I'm either wrong about their age or about the fact that their sexuality starts when they are 1 year old.
I feel like I have teenagers at home. When all this started, the fish also started eating less aggressively. They tend to wait a little until I drop the food, rush on it, then scatter, and only then spend some time to eat it.
And finally for today (it's midnight where I live), from the moment we bought the tank, I started wondering how important the lighting is in an aquarium. I guess that it is somehow important for the plants, for the well-being of the fish and for our own pleasure.
I've tried to find if someone did a comparison of different lightings on a discus tank. Maybe you guys would know where to find such info.
The problem is also that colour fidelity is quite hard to control in the photos or videos we create.
I'm slightly too tired to dive further in this topic. Maybe I should start another thread...
I've therefore tried to photograph the same fish (Blue Snake Skin). One of the photos was taken with the flash and processed to look more natural (without processing, the fish looked green), the other two are with the tank lights only, at different places in the tank.
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I feel like I'm on therapy and discussing openly what's going through my mind :P
Maybe I should make my posts shorter though :/
Re: Thomas' Stendker - Contest Thread
I’m enjoying your thread. Mine did the same courting behavior with the male chasing others away. I think you will be seeing some eggs soon. Once my females started laying eggs they stopped growing, but I’ve seen many pairs that are the same size so I’m not sure if they were more mature when they mated or if they caught up. Some more experienced people here would know more. I think the general consensus is that they grow slower.
Re: Thomas' Stendker - Contest Thread
Thomas,
Great looking tank and very nice stock! That group of discus looks in excellent health! I'm going to enjoy watching your thread. I'm glad you decided to participate!
Good Luck,
Al
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Re: Thomas' Stendker - Contest Thread
Hey!
Today, I'll make it shorter.
I tried to film the tank yesterday for 1h. I've uploaded the footage on Youtube!
No worries, I've sped the whole thing up to have a 8min video. You can also add the 2x speed of Youtube if you're in a hurry.
Maybe I'll try to do the same in higher quality or in different ways.
http://youtu.be/lZCsfMlwKkE
And here's a small photo of the group after today's clean!
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;)
Re: Thomas' Stendker - Contest Thread
I love the look of your tank. Very artistic. The Discus look very pretty in it. I especially like your SS types, but I admit to having an attraction to SS's. I'm afraid that I can't help you with the lighting thing. I bet someone in Germany could. The Germans keep Discus in planted tanks all the time.
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Re: Thomas' Stendker - Contest Thread
Hey!
Thanks for your replies :)
My questions about the lighting was more about the fish colouration than about the plants. It is somehow important for the plants as well, but for now I'm mainly wondering about the discus.
I've seen/heard that certain people use different background colours depending on the colours of their fish and that some people also play with the colour of their lights. I have fluorescent tubes on my tank so changing the colour is not as easy as with LEDs :P
I wanted to keep it short today so here I go!
Yesterday, I filmed my tank... just to try it out.
I'll do it differently next time, but I'm not too sad about the result. It's 1h worth of footage, sped up in order to obtain an 8min video. If you're in a hurry, you can also add Youtube's 2x speed ;)
http://youtu.be/lZCsfMlwKkE
And here is a small picture of the fish from an hour or so ago:
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;)
Re: Thomas' Stendker - Contest Thread
As others have said, very nice scape, very stylish.
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Re: Thomas' Stendker - Contest Thread
Thanks! I'm happy that you share my taste in terms of scape. I also like the biotope kind of scapes but I'm not there yet ^^
Today the fish were doing good! They start becoming more and more active in their relationship, which is exciting for me too!
Here's a photo of the German Wonder:
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And one of the Téfé:
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In the future, I'll probably find a way of also adding links to higher-resolution photos ;)
Let me know if there anything you'd like me to try to photograph!
Re: Thomas' Stendker - Contest Thread
I’ve watched the sped up video about 3 times now. A nice substitute while I wait for the next season of Game of Thrones.
Patty