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Thread: Updates on the new Fire Reds and Pigeon Blues

  1. #1
    Registered Member strawberryblonde's Avatar
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    Default Updates on the new Fire Reds and Pigeon Blues

    Ok, this is a bit of a repeat of a post I placed on Hans sponsor section today, but I wanted to put the pics here just for documentation purposes. Hopefully I'll refer back to it in a year and be shocked at how tiny these guys are today. LOL

    Soooo, to make a long story short and so that I don't repeat myself overly much, I've had this new group of four 6" discus from Hans for 15 days. They were alone in the big tank for a week and pretty mcuh didn't eat anything for that week. Once my jumbo's went into the tank they started to really eat, but for the most part I'd only see the 2 Fire Reds eating. The Pigeon Blues prefer to hang out behind the big sword plant all day...even during feeding times. I wasn't sure just how much food they were getting...till today.

    This morning I reached in with a FDBW cube and the more highly patterned of the Pigeon Blues shot out from behind the plant and hovered in front of my hand. He still wasn't willing to eat from my hand, but he WAS waiting front and center for the bits of worms to float off of the cube. Let me tell ya, this guy can vacuum up some worms in a big hurry! LOL

    Now as he was hovering there, the brightly colored Fire Red (the only one that I thought was showing some growth) swam up next to him to eat from my hand. Yep, he's the only one who does it in the new group and he's a big pig.

    That's when I had a chance to compare sizes. The highly patterned Pigeon Blue has grown about 1/2" already! The Fire Red is only slightly larger than he was, maybe a smidge less than 1/4" growth. I wasn't expecting this kind of growth from them...I thought it would be slow and steady for the next year.

    Here are some really crappy pics that I took. I have a skylight directly over the tank, and it's next to a set of french doors, so pics during the day are nearly impossible. LOL

    This one is the 2 pigeon blues diving for the same blackworm. The "normal" sized 6" one is on the right and looks tiny!

    Pigeon-Blues.jpg

    And here's a pic of just the big Pigeon Blue so you can see how fat he's getting. His head has filled in nicely in just 15 days.

    Larger-Pigeon-Blue.jpg

    This is the more orange of the Fire Reds, and swishing along on the left side of the photo is the big Pigeon Blue. The orange one is coloring up nicely, but still looks tiny next to that PB. LOL

    Fire-Red.jpg

    I'm going to try for more pics tonight during their last feeding. Just did a water change and they refused to pose during the after WC snack.
    Last edited by strawberryblonde; 08-12-2013 at 09:25 PM.
    Toni

    120g - 10
    discus, 4 cory's, 50+ Cardinals for now... give it a month and it'll change!

  2. #2
    Registered Member Discusdude7's Avatar
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    Default Re: Updates on the new Fire Reds and Pigeon Blues

    Looks good Toni

  3. #3
    Registered Member strawberryblonde's Avatar
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    Default Re: Updates on the new Fire Reds and Pigeon Blues

    Welp, no pics tonight. I had to drop in their snack in the middle of total chaos in my other tank, and by the time that was resolved they had eaten and were in their sleeping spots.

    Chaos: I did my last WC on the juvie tank, then headed out to the QT tank to do a 50% change on it. The two fish in there have been acting a bit "off" for a couple of days now, so I upped their WC from 80% every other day to 50% per day thinking maybe it was micro bubbles.

    As it happens, I burnt the back of my hand on the oven rack yesterday and today it's fairly raw. Soooo, I stuck my hand into the water to scrub the bottom back of the tank and got zapped!

    It was the heater, leaking voltage. No wonder they were so upset! Had to go find an old heater, test it to be sure it was safe and then stuff it into the tank before refilling. They are zipping back around the tank again and looking fine thank goodness.
    Toni

    120g - 10
    discus, 4 cory's, 50+ Cardinals for now... give it a month and it'll change!

  4. #4
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    Default Re: Updates on the new Fire Reds and Pigeon Blues

    Toni, what do you feed your Red fish to keep their red color? I bought from Hans but I cannot get better than red orange color.

  5. #5
    Registered Member strawberryblonde's Avatar
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    Default Re: Updates on the new Fire Reds and Pigeon Blues

    Hi Elliot,

    Ummmm, the reason my Marlboro is so faded out and orange is because I don't offer them any color enhancing foods. Way back when I didn't have any pigeons with yellow in them they ate Tetra Bits color formula mixed in with their flake food twice a day... and the MR was very vividly colored.

    I've thought about buying some more, because they really DID love those crisps and I no longer have any yellow pigeons in the tank. I just haven't needed to place a food order yet. They're still working on a 1 pound bag of Cobalt flakes from Hans, a large jar of OSI discus flake and some Ocean Nutrition Prime Reef flakes. =)

    The very vividly red one came that way and hasn't faded. The other was more orange in color but surprised me by coloring up quite nicely once he settled into the tank.

    If you DO find something that works well to turn them red, let me know, ok? I'd love to see my MR deep orange again.
    Toni

    120g - 10
    discus, 4 cory's, 50+ Cardinals for now... give it a month and it'll change!

  6. #6
    Administrator and MVP Dec.2015 Second Hand Pat's Avatar
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    Default Re: Updates on the new Fire Reds and Pigeon Blues

    Toni, you can try the FDBWs with Bio-pigment from Al to assist with the red.
    Your discus are talking to you....are you listening


  7. #7
    Registered Member strawberryblonde's Avatar
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    Default Re: Updates on the new Fire Reds and Pigeon Blues

    Hiyas Pat,

    I have those cubes, and so far the only ones eating the little red bits and the spinach parts are my cories. LOL

    My discus are quite adept at either avoiding them entirely, or quickly spitting them out when they get a mouthful. Darned spoiled brats!
    Toni

    120g - 10
    discus, 4 cory's, 50+ Cardinals for now... give it a month and it'll change!

  8. #8
    Administrator and MVP Dec.2015 Second Hand Pat's Avatar
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    Default Re: Updates on the new Fire Reds and Pigeon Blues

    Darn Toni, Isn't that just peachy
    Your discus are talking to you....are you listening


  9. #9
    Registered Member strawberryblonde's Avatar
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    Default Re: Updates on the new Fire Reds and Pigeon Blues

    I thought I'd try to grab a few pics of this batch of discus tonight since they have officially been in my tanks for almost 8 weeks...it will be 8 weeks on Thursday. Close enough, right? LOL

    Soooo, I have one who took off right out of the gate. He's 7+" now and still growing like a weed. There's one who is a little over 6.5" and the other two were very shy for the first month and only in the last 2 weeks have they really come out and started to pig out with the rest of the crowd. They've grown quite a bit since they really started eating, but I haven't measured them since I'd guess they're still only maybe 6.25". I'll include pics and sizes of them as they start to fill out and catch up.

    First up, a pic of my two jumbo's in the tank. My Marlboro has always been the "Big Guy" in the tank, measuring a solid 9", but my flachen has gained and now surpassed him in length during the summer! This picture is a bit blurry since they were chasing down to the other end of the tank to get a fresh cube of FDBW's, but you can see that the flachen is longer than the Marlboro, but not nearly as round. I really need to get this guy out of the tank and put a measuring tape to him!

    IMG_4749.jpg

    And next is several pics of the newest jumbo in the tank, the blue pigeon. In these first 3 shots he's eating and hanging out with the other blue pigeon who was SO slow to come out and start eating. The angle of the pics is off, but you can still see the difference in size. Sorry for the bad photo taking...not the best timing on my part, but I really wanted to get pics of the smaller PB out there eating since it's new behavior on his part and look at those nice fat bellies!

    IMG_4740.jpg

    IMG_4739.jpg

    IMG_4738.jpg

    And this last pic is of the newest jumbo and the second largest of the new batch..the bright Fire Red. He's a fiesty little thing and will even chase the Marlboro away from "his" food now. In this pic, he was chasing away the blue pigeon. LOL

    IMG_4755.jpg
    Toni

    120g - 10
    discus, 4 cory's, 50+ Cardinals for now... give it a month and it'll change!

  10. #10
    Administrator and MVP Dec.2015 Second Hand Pat's Avatar
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    Default Re: Updates on the new Fire Reds and Pigeon Blues

    I can not believe the size difference in those blue pigeons. Can only say wow Toni
    Your discus are talking to you....are you listening


  11. #11
    Registered Member blueluv's Avatar
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    Default Re: Updates on the new Fire Reds and Pigeon Blues

    Beautiful Toni fifth picture , love how the color on that pigeon pops.

  12. #12
    Registered Member strawberryblonde's Avatar
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    Default Re: Updates on the new Fire Reds and Pigeon Blues

    Quote Originally Posted by Second Hand Pat View Post
    I can not believe the size difference in those blue pigeons. Can only say wow Toni
    I'm just as amazed by it as you Pat. I expected some growth from them since they're probably only about a year old, but to see this one guy just jump right out there so quickly was very shocking. I don't remember my first 2 batches of Stendkers doing that at 6". Seems like their growth was very slow during that second year of life.

    I keep telling him to watch out though, the way his "siblings" are all eating now it won't be long before they catch up to him. LOL
    Toni

    120g - 10
    discus, 4 cory's, 50+ Cardinals for now... give it a month and it'll change!

  13. #13
    SimplyDiscus Sponsor and MVP Nov.2015 Disgirl's Avatar
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    Default Re: Updates on the new Fire Reds and Pigeon Blues

    Hey Toni, I think there must be some magic in that Idaho water! Good foods and that water are growing your discus HUGE!
    Barb


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  14. #14
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    Default Re: Updates on the new Fire Reds and Pigeon Blues

    Toni, I just started feeding the FDBW from Al with color enhancer. Too soon for results. I am still hoping for more red color.

  15. #15
    Registered Member strawberryblonde's Avatar
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    Default Re: Updates on the new Fire Reds and Pigeon Blues

    The color enhancer does seem to help a bit Elliot. My marlboro is quite a bit more orange than he used to be. The bright Fire Red arrived that way and has remained super red. Marlboro man showed up bright orange but lost a LOT of his color when he grew so large. He even got red spots on his sides during the growth, as if the pigment didn't spread as the scales grew. LOL

    Let me know if it works with your fish, ok? I'm curious to see how much improvement there will be with time. So far my Marlboro has only been eating this stuff twice a day for a month, but recently I upped the quantity of each feeding and also increased it to four times a day since my 6" pigeons are starting to really get excited about eating now.
    Toni

    120g - 10
    discus, 4 cory's, 50+ Cardinals for now... give it a month and it'll change!

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