Newbie baptism of fire

[colinchaffers]

I have had a roller coaster of emotions, highs and lows since I have had my tank (5 weeks or so). Let me explain: I wanted a "fish tank" for years as I had fish when I was young. This year my wife told me she wanted to buy me one for my birthday so I would stop talking about it. I'm a UK national but live in Thailand. We went to the local shop (it is local) and as soon as I saw the discus I was hooked. The shop keeper had been running the tank 5 years, he told us you had to change the water every 3 weeks, 30% each time. He came to our house and set up the tank. All was good, we had 5 fish about 3 to 5 cm.

When I found out the English name I looked on the internet and then my world started to fall in, I remember seeing "these fish are not for beginners" "water quality is more than just changing the water", and the one that killed me is where they advised not having stones on the bottom as it can harbor bacteria which will killed the fish over night if its disturbed, we had 4 to 5cm of stones.

I looked on the internet for a local supplier or farm, we found one 40km away, he was fantastic he told us much about the fish etc, he does not have filters for his fish and changes his water daily. He supply's the big Bangkok market. We bought some smaller fish and one big 4 to 5cm fish.

Our first disaster and fatal to 3 fish happened on the first water change, based on the advice that having stones could cause a water quality issue we decided to remove them, and replaced about 60 to 70% of the water, big mistake all the fish were distressed and 3 died, they looked like they could not breath which could have been high chlorine, what was really strange was the 3 that died were from the fish farm who changed his water daily, but I expect he may condition the water before he adds it, something I will ask him next time I visit. Based on this experience we decided to change the water every week.

3 or 4 days after water change I noticed the fish behavior changed they all hid and would not come out, also water "suddenly" appeared cloudy, we decided to change 30% of the water each day until everything was ok, which we did.

We are now changing the water 30% every 1 to 2 days, so far so good.

We feed them with pig heart, shrimp, salt and garlic paste, they love it. I also give them "Tetra" food which they like as well. I think were on the right track, but saw a post on a forum that said "I have been keeping Discus for 25 years and are still learning" ummm I would welcome any feedback.

by the way, I really thought the fish were some exotic Thai fish, lol

with kind regards

Colin

[adrian31@outlook.com]

lol almost positive everyone here has lost their share of Discus. Your experience is similar to mine in that about a year ago I brought my kids to the LPS to buy an aquarium setup and decided to buy 'those pretty fish' for it. I'd seen Discus before but knew practically nothing about them. Found this site a few days after that and have learned so much. I'd say the hands-on experience getting to know Discus is so very necessary, which of course takes time.

[colinchaffers]

Thanks for your encouragement

[Second Hand Pat]

Hi Colin and welcome to Simply. I would suggest sitting down and reading. Start with the stickies in the beginners section and go from there. You will learn that young discus like you have require lots of clean water and food. The video in the first post of this thread is a good starting place http://forum.simplydiscus.com/showth...CH-THIS-VIDEO!.
Pat

[colinchaffers]

Thanks Pat

[Filip]

Welcome to discus and our forum Colin .
You have jumped two steps ahead of the game , buying this fish unprepared .
Best thing to do now is read as much as you can about discus like Pat allready advised .
About the tank , just keep it bare bottom , suck out poop and leftovers daily from the bottom , clean the prefilter and tank glass and change water daily if you can .
Find a way to age your water in a barrel 24 hours before a water change , otherwise you won't be able to change big amounts of water without stressing them . Feed them at least 3 times a day at this young age until they grow a little .
The most important aspect of the discus keeping is fresh water , and pristine tank and filter condition.
Good luck Colin and please post us some pictures of your tank .

[two utes]

Hi Colin, and welcome to the hobby.
Don't beat yourself up about your loss. We have all been there at some point, and have even lost fish after we thought we knew what we were doing. Keeping discus is a little challenging which makes it exciting, but once you get on the right track it will be very easy and enjoyable for you.
Put it all down as experience and try to pick up more by reading through the lots of good information on here. Try to keep it simple and take it to where you want from there.

Good luck

[colinchaffers]

just additional comments: The water is aged as its goes through two 200L water tanks, which should take about 2 days to empty. We feed them at least 3 times a day, sometimes 4 if they have "cleaned" the tank and hovering around expectantly. I'm trying to upload some photos. We will change the water everyday or every two days maximum. 30% max.

[colinchaffers]

20171007_064736.jpg

[colinchaffers]

Joe, thanks. Keep it simple is the best approach

[colinchaffers]

Just some information about the prices in Thailand;

3 cm = 3USD,
5 > 7 cm = 5USD
10cm = 25USD
breeding pair 500USD

[Filip]

Your tank looks clean and "discus friendly " from the photos Colin . I think that after the roller coaster youve experienced , you are headed off to a good start with them .
If that on the photo is your only filter you got I suggest putting a lot more BiO filtration media (seachem matrix , fluval rings , Sera siporax etc.) Than just your current mechanical filter floss .

BTW acording to the prices of small discus in Thailand , you live in the discus heaven my friend and you can safely allow your self a failure or two with them and buy your self a new batch of discus in case things went south

[colinchaffers]

Many thanks for your encouragement Filip, our confidence is growing, were getting slicker at the water change (every other day 30/40%).

The filter is of concern its a simple type that could still lead to poor quality water, we change the 1st level filter with the water change and clean the all 3 filter every week, we will see how that goes. With the water change we add salt, an additive too address chlorine, plus another additive that the shop guy said it was for cloudy water, the bottle is in Thai and my wife says it does not say what it is, so on our next trip to the shop I'll try to find out more.

The Tetra food was not helping the filtering insomuch 30% was floating on the water and being sucked into the filter, I now submerge the food in water before adding it, this has help reduce the waste to a few %. The shrimp mix we add has shell in it, this floats about and is unwelcome, I'm wonder if when we make the batch of mix up we use the larger shrimp this might help. Lastly, we have some wood which collects food and debris under it, I'm looking for a solution to raise this up somehow so the fish can get to the food.

We have 11 fish now and its wonderful to see them start to change colour, worth the time and trouble.

[Filip]

Having only mechanical filter media in your filter is not a good filtration . You need to add Biological filtration , a media that serves as surface area for the bacteria that makes your water clean and transform the ammonia and nitrates to less harmful substances for fauna in your tank . Filter floos wool is very poor in Surface area and as such is not a good as a single filter media .

Do not add salt to your water unless you treat or cure your discus from some ailments.
They do not originate are not supposed to live in brackish or salt water nor in water with high conductivity.

I wouldn't use any product unless I'm not 100% sure what it is and what exactly its supposed to work for . So I would stop using the cloudy water conditioner for now IIWY.

Use shrimps without shell next time you do your mix of food and add Beefheart in it too.

[colinchaffers]

OK the penny has dropped, I'll take a look. Many thanks