Bill's Grow Out Challenge Thread 2018

[Tshethar]

Okay, I admit that I've been a little shy with photos lately, but I'm going to see if I am mature enough to show my second-class fish!

They've seemed a little darker over the last week or two, but their behavior suggests they're okay. They've been more likely to get 1x/day rather than 2x/day 100% WCs this week, and I find myself wanting to get them into a bigger tank with more filtration. Will see what I can do about that with the holiday break.

Nevertheless, we're still here.

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[Tshethar]

Enjoying the discussions I'm seeing on the other threads, which is enabling me to keep learning as I go. Feel less of a need to upgrade the tank space, but want to make sure the conditions are what they need to be to sustain health and growth. Added an air stone to increase circulation and gas exchange; fish seemed to appreciate it.

[danotaylor]

Keep at it Bill!! At least you had the courage to give it a go mate, well done!!

[Second Hand Pat]

Bill, I am so glad you are hanging in there. The best way to learn is by doing it yourself. I was part of the 2013 growout challenge and it ended up in utter failure for me. But with the encouragement of our members I hung in there until there was no hope. Read it here if interested http://forum.simplydiscus.com/showth...t-Batch-B-quot. Please continue and make these fish be the best they can be.
Pat

[Tshethar]

Keep at it Bill!! At least you had the courage to give it a go mate, well done!!

Thanks, Daniel! As long as the fish are game then so am I. I feel lucky to have these to learn from, and while it's no fun to have problems, there's no doubt that I'll be a better hobbyist for having tried. And I may yet get these three to adulthood...

[Tshethar]

Bill, I am so glad you are hanging in there. The best way to learn is by doing it yourself. I was part of the 2013 growout challenge and it ended up in utter failure for me. But with the encouragement of our members I hung in there until there was no hope. Read it here if interested http://forum.simplydiscus.com/showth...t-Batch-B-quot. Please continue and make these fish be the best they can be.
Pat

Pat, I enjoyed reading through your journey with the Tefe. Really hope your new wilds from the show are doing well for you after you took a break. And yeah, I see that you went through lots of effort and disappointment working with that second spawn. Nice seeing the photos of your group from this go round.

As for me, I think my psychology about discus is getting better. Past the "why me!" stage, let's say. I recognize that I can run into similar or new problems to those I've had at any time, but I'm learning more all the time and I might also have smooth sailing and hardy adult fish to enjoy, too. (I'm admit that I'm glad to have a second tank that's doing well right now.)

Will definitely keep working with them, and honestly I'm feeling like they're doing okay at the moment, despite their limitations. Hoping for the best from here!

[Tshethar]

Had a little scare day before yesterday as I tipped my aging barrel so my pump could get the last bit of water out a couple of days ago. Unfortunately the cord to the temperature controller (which hangs on the side) ended up underneath the barrel, and when it refilled it was pulled just enough to loosen the plug at the wall. I drained the contest tank and was in the middle of my usual lightning-fast refill when I suddenly realized the water was cold! Between 70-71, in fact, a good 13 degree drop from where the fish had been.

Decided to watch them and let it ride unless they were in trouble. Since they could hang out in the warm spot by the heater, they seemed okay. They were actually torn about whether to swim out to get to the worm cube I added, or hang back and warm up. They mostly worked on getting warm, and I'm happy to say their temp was back to normal after a few hours, with no one the worse for wear. One of them got a tiny bit of discoloration on the outer edge of his dorsal fin, maybe from getting too close to the heater, I dunno. But they showed some of their resilience, and look fine today.

[Tshethar]

Need to improve my lighting, but here are some quick snaps with the phone... terrible quality, I'm afraid. Will try to do a bit better over the weekend.

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[Tshethar]

Okay, it's the weekend, so time to quickly move on from those terrible pics! I'm actually glad the forum remained silent about them, as that was probably the best that could be hoped for!

Still, I think there are three things of interest going on I can mention as we go forward from here. Well, one is not very interesting, but it is the fact that I haven't thought about lighting for the tank for photography or for showing off the fish in general. I have a small finnex freshwater light on it that was once a plan for a freshwater refugium that would be plant-filled for nitrate removal. So I've had partial coverage, not sure what spectrum, plus shadows from my tower of sponge, which has contributed to what you see above. Thinking about a cheap full-spectrum LED that can stay with this 10gal, which may improve the look of things.

Nevertheless, #2 is that the discus still look a little dark to me in comparison to other contestants' fish, which has been the case for 2-3 weeks, it seems to me. So, last night I finally supplemented my filtration with a breeder box I've had laying around, and basically came up with a relatively slow-flow HOB filter where the extra sponge now lives, along with some 50 micron filter fiber I had to pull out more particulate matter. I also had some Purigen around that I decided to recharge and I'm planning to throw that in as well and we'll see if that makes any difference. If nothing else, the water clarity is better and I'm enjoying that. (Will need another round of pics or video later to see if we show much by way of comparison.) Fish seem happy with the circulation.

The last thing I'm thinking a bit about is the shape of these guys. There was a reference in Pat's thread to "the dreaded double-chin," and it's something I see here, especially in the largest of the three. Been hoping to ensure his forehead rounds up, but you'd think I'd been feeding him junk food all day if you look at his lower half. (Do FDBW have a high fat content? I'm sure I could look this up...) Hopefully this corrects itself; it may be I should worry less about making food available as often as possible and instead try to get in the two water changes/day rather than one.

Ultimately, I'm glad they're growing and developing--definitely able to set my own goals and not worry too much about the competition, yet having other reference points is very helpful for the process.

Hope whoever is getting some of Al's next batch will use these threads similarly, and will have success!

From yesterday just after WC and filter addition:

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[MickO'S]

Hey tshethar,

That biggest fish has some size to it ! How big do you estimate it to be ??

I have a few young ones too ......... not as small as you started with but one or two are getting a bit of a double chin !

I’ll be watching closely to see how yours grow over the few months

Thanks for posting

Mick

[Tshethar]

Hey tshethar,

That biggest fish has some size to it ! How big do you estimate it to be ??

I have a few young ones too ......... not as small as you started with but one or two are getting a bit of a double chin !

I’ll be watching closely to see how yours grow over the few months

Thanks for posting

Mick

Thanks a lot, Mick. I haven't had a lot of browsing time on the forum in the past few days, but I'm glad to hear that your new group is eating well and growing for you. Maybe we'll end up learning more about encouraging good shape in discus as we go...

[Tshethar]

So, I decided to take a series of photos last night of the fish to get some practice, as Pat has rightly encouraged. As two of my fish were on the small side (euphemism for runts) and the other has a double chin, I'm not pretending that they're show fish, but we can still document, right? At minimum I'm glad to be able to show that they're (a) still alive and (b) apparently growing. Haven't ordered a light yet (thinking about Liz's cheap Ebay find as the price is right), but I think the changes to the filtration are allowing them to show just a little better. Here we go:

First a couple shots of the larger snakeskin:

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And a few of the group:

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And dinner time:

[Tshethar]

Hello good people of the forum...

Here we are moving into December and the journey continues. My setup is mostly the same and I'm still working with the 10 gallon tank given my very small group of fish. As mentioned above, my setup has changed slightly from the beginning as noted above with the addition of a second air stone and the breeder box HOB, which now has a bag of purigen as well.

Water changes have been 1x/day, 95+%. I think one reason for this is because my aging barrel has been a bit slow to fill, which has meant I didn't usually have or want to take the time in the morning to mess with it. The cause for the extra time is because my pre-filtration setup was clogging up. I think I showed most of this once upon a time, but Steve asked about WC process and I have this in the middle of some python hose I have that quick-connects (with their brass fittings and adapter) to my bathroom sink:

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I bought it for $25 on Amazon and have used it for about 3 months, running between 30-60 gallons per day through it and when I changed it out today I feel like I've gotten my money's worth.

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My tank setup is next to a barrel about 10 feet or so from the sink, so i use the short extension Python hose on one side of the filter, which sits on the floor next to the barrel, and the usual siphon end in my barrel. I usually drain my tank out the window with a short piece of 1/2" hose, though at least around 3 times a week (this has varied, but was becoming more frequent due to the FDBW), I was draining a couple of gallons into a 5-gallon bucket so I had some tank water to rinse my sponges in. Wipedowns seem to be required also about 3-4 times a week as I do get white film on the glass and on anything rubber like suction cups and air line.

[Tshethar]

Anyway, the fish are coming along. I added some Tropical d-50 baby pellets to the mix, and continue with Al's pellets, flake varieties from Brine Shrimp Direct, and FDBW. They haven't yet gone for the freeze-dried beefheart, and I haven't been trying, as I'm not that concerned that they get it. (My other fish have taken a while to warm to it, but they will eat it if I break up the cubes.)

This week's photos for the file...

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[Tshethar]

Somehow the video updates seem like they do a little better job of showing them.



Happy fishkeeping!