75 Gallon First Timer

[Rapture]

Yesterday, I went to the discus store and had a really great experience. The store owner both breeds and sells Stendkers. There were many sizes and colors of discus in the store, including breeding pairs. There was a runt here or there in some of the groups of small discus, which he immediately pointed out to me while I looked through his stock, and he informed me that he doesn't like to sell them. He also sells wilds but was already out of stock when I went. He talked to me a lot about his protocols including quarantine, water, medications, temperature, food, equipment, etc. The only "bad news" he gave me about my plans was regarding my black background - he said that it can/will make the fish stay at the back of the tank. He has many more discus tanks at his home and started out as a hobbyist breeder. Very nice guy to talk to and I will likely be getting fish from him as soon as I am ready and he has the colors and sizes that I am looking for.

I also went to a big, fancy LFS with likely the widest selection of livestock in the city, and their discus looked absolutely horrible. I've seen their discus before but didn't pay close attention to them at the time. They were small, poorly shaped, skinny, poorly colored, and some of them had visible infections. They've also have a smallish, very densely planted display tank with very stunted discus in it for a long time, but yesterday I saw a body of a discus in the back corner that looked like it had been there for a while.

[Akili]

Black background is not suitable for Pigeon Blood Discus Pigeon Blood pepper more with black and very darker colours.

[Rapture]

I have heard that, but I wasn't worried about it because I am not planning on keeping any Pigeon Bloods or reds. Now I'm wondering about the hiding aspect, not peppering.

[Rapture]

After messing around with the Python water changer a few times, I decided that using a water pump may be a better choice for me as far as removing large amounts of water in a timely manner. I will still use the Python gravel vac to remove waste.

I ordered a couple more things - an automatic feeder, as well as a wood canopy, because at least one of the cats has been messing with the light fixture, and I know that at least one of the cats will try to get into the automatic feeder if she knows there's food in it. I didn't really want to buy it, but I think it will save me a headache in the long run. Feeder should arrive Sunday, the heater on Monday, and the canopy sometime next week.

[Rapture]

I finally got my Discus! I wanted to buy smaller ones, but I realized that wasn't going to work out any time soon unless I had them shipped to me. So I got 6 from the Discus store - 2 Brilliant Turquoise, 2 Snake Skin Blue, and 2 Kobalt. I want one more, but maybe I should stick with 6. They just don't fill up the tank at the size that they are currently, which is about 3 - 3.5 inches. They are doing awesome so far. They ate yesterday a while after I put them in the tank, more last night, and again more this morning. They come to the front of the tank to see me. They are a little more nervous today compared to last night, I think because the house is lit up so much more during the daytime, so there's a lot more for them to see outside of the tank. They still come to the front if i show them the fish food container, though. At the store, they ate a home made beef heart mix and Tetra color bits. At my house they so far have eaten Tetra color bits, freeze dried blackworms, and some of Ken's immune booster flake. The largest is one of the turks, and last night he was guarding the FDBW. When I put the flakes in the tank, all of the fish sampled them, but only a couple decided that they were edible after a few tries. The big turk did not consider the flakes edible, so he let the other fish eat them without any complaint.

Some pics (sorry for the poor quality)

On the way home


Floating for an hour


Kobalt


Greeting me at the front of tank last night


Tank pic requested by the owner of the store

[Rapture]

Here's a pic of them from yesterday that I posted on the facebook group. One of them is a bit skinny, the guy peeking at top right. He eats, so I hope he will lose the bony, dark-eyed look.

[Rapture]

A pic from yesterday. The dark Cobalt returned to normal light coloration after the daily water change.



I think their favorite food is FDBW, so I just placed an order from Al. I went with loose since there is some food aggression at times, and it's easier for the little guy to eat when it's free floating through the tank vs competing for a cube stuck on the glass.

I also posted a thread regarding the larger Turk's fins, and some white spots seen on a couple of the other fish's fins, if anyone is interested in giving advice: http://forum.simplydiscus.com/showth...cus&highlight=

[Rapture]

Yesterday I did some cat proofing on the tank stand and canopy by closing up the backs of both. This morning I woke up to an open cabinet door into the stand with ravaged fish food again. So, today I installed some baby proof cabinet latches as well. I also set up the automatic feeder, which resulted in a bunch of tetra color bits in the tank, so it got a early water change as well as another one in the evening. Some Cobalt flakes came in the mail tonight, and one of the snakeskins in particular really loves it. The rest are interested enough and eat some here and there. I may swap out the color bits with the Cobalt flakes and various other flakes in the auto feeder. I'll have to watch and see which the fish like to eat more.

I also decided to go ahead and trim the larger Turk's fins. They were damaged from some unknown previous incident, but did not look actively infected at all. It took a minute or so to catch him, and a few seconds to trim. He started eating flakes again as soon as he was placed back into the tank. I'll have to wait and see if I trimmed short enough for the damaged areas to grow back evenly.

I really love these fish and it's really interesting to see how much they love the large daily water changes. They look their best, eat their best, and are most inquisitive right afterward, so it's always worth the hour it takes me to do it.

A random pic from 2/19

[Rapture]

The Turk's fins are already noticeably growing back little spikes, all evenly spaced so far, I hope that means I trimmed enough. The fish are great. I studied more pics of babies for a while after my fish were rather harshly criticized on my other thread, and realized that even my better looking ones aren't quite where they could be for their age. They do seem very healthy though, and I am thankful for that and will try to keep them that way. Next time I will likely get smaller ones directly from Hans or another breeder instead of trusting a middle man to take care of them for X amount of time before they are sold again. I definitely don't regret buying them, though, and look forward to seeing them progress.

[Rapture]

I've been zip tying a 100 micron filter pad to my pump, and realized it's getting dirty and slowing down water flow within just a couple of days of putting on a new one, and the clogged flow had a pretty major negative impact on the fish. I'm pretty sure I'm going to buy a small powerhead as a back up for water movement, because I'd like to be able to keep polishing the water. Tonight the fish are in great spirits. They aren't hiding at all - they usually hide a bit more other than during feeding, and their colors looked quite nice when I got home rather than after the water change like usual. They also ate from my hand for the first time - some of Al's FDBW cubes with spinach. The big Turk's fins are even more noticeably growing back, up to about 3mm of new growth since trimming 2 days ago. The automatic feeder is getting better sorted out as well, I think today was the first time that the food actually got into the tank more than on top of the tank, and now it is feeding them food they eat (various Ken's flakes and Cobalt flakes) rather than just let sit at the bottom (Tetra Color Granules). I also feel like the fish are a bit bigger than when I got them 12 days ago, but I can't be sure.

[Rapture]

3 days post trim

[Rapture]

Things are still going well and I've now had the fish for 2 weeks.

The most stunted one has a small white growth on his dorsal fin. He eats well and tries to boss around the smaller cobalt.


Larger turk still working on growing fins back after trimming.


This cobalt is probably the most round of them all, and I wonder each of the discus will look as adults if I keep up with the 80%+ daily water changes and multiple feedings.


One of the snake skins... both of them are almost always showing their bars.


Now they don't even let me break up the cubes anymore.

[Rapture]

The little Turk's white growth resolved. All fish are well. Missed a water change last night but they seemed to be unaffected. The larger Turk's fins have almost completely grown back. I think in one more week they will be normal length. I stopped feeding the home made food for now, it seemed like it was difficult for the fish to eat it because it was made using only a meat grinder. Planning on thawing it out, adding a couple more ingredients, and using a food processor next.

[Rapture]

Driftwood finally sank!


Waiting for Al's FDBW


Another update on the Turk's trimmed fins

[Akili]

Both the driftwood and the trimmed turk looking good.