New tank is almost ready!

[Mando]

Hi AquaticNerd, everything is looking good so far. One suggestion. The hose used for filling the brute container, is that a regular garden hose? If so consider replacing with a water-potable hose like an RV hose. Garden hoses have the interior of the hose coated with anti-mode etc coating which can be harmful to the fish.
Pat

What! I've been running my setup on garden hose for years. Time to change it up I guess.

OP, love your display tank! I like the combination of that rock and wood. very very nice

[AquaticNerd]

Thanks Armando!

My first delivery of fish should be arriving from Kenny this Tuesday, so I can't wait to see what it looks like with them in there!

[Second Hand Pat]

Thanks Armando!

My first delivery of fish should be arriving from Kenny this Tuesday, so I can't wait to see what it looks like with them in there!

How exciting Jake Be prepared for a mini-cycle. It generally lasts a week and do a 50% WC daily. This happens when you add a huge bio-load like discus to the tank. Takes a week for the bacteria to catch up.
Pat

[AquaticNerd]

Thanks Pat - I'll definitely be watching the ammonia and nitrite twice daily when I first get them just to make sure everything is going well, even though I'm not too worried about it considering my aquarium is still being dosed with 8ppm of ammonia/day and it goes down to 0 in less than 24hrs (about 18 hours each time due to my schedule).

With that said, I know I can never be too cautious with fish, so I'm still going to be taking measures to ensure that they are healthy and can thrive in the tank.

[AquaticNerd]

They've arrived! I am super excited to have them in the tank already. Kenny is a great guy - super helpful and really put my mind at ease by answering any questions I had. Just thought I would share a few pictures for everyone's pleasure. Please bear with me in these pictures due to the glare - I'm following a strict no-lights policy for about 24-48 hours to help them feel less stressed due to the shipping. They arrived at my door at about 9:30AM and have been doing great since. If I was a betting man, I swear they wanted food as soon as I put them in the tank.

Here's the group about 10 minutes after being out of the bag:


And here's some pictures about 10 hours later:

[Mando]

Congrats! Nice shape. Kenny delivers!!!

[danotaylor]

Very nice!

[BasNL]

Great shape, indeed. New fish are always a nice moment, especially with a new setup!

[Second Hand Pat]

Hi Jake, great looking crew. The few times I have received fish from Kenny they will eat the first day in my experience
Pat

[AquaticNerd]

Thanks all!

Kenny did indeed deliver - I'm extremely happy with the group. I did discover that they did not want to eat the yesterday, even after a 24-hour no-feeding period. They were a lot more eager to eat this morning using Al's FDBW.

I really like just sitting at the tank and watching them - although they are still quite shy and enjoy the driftwood/rock cover on the left side of the tank. With that said, they were active this morning for their feeding. And that's also when I found the "punk" of the tank. One of the Fineline SS (3rd pic from above) is a bully to the other Fineline SS, even though he/she is about half an inch smaller. Lots of lip-locking, and body/tail slapping. I know this is common in cichlids. I'll have to keep my eye on them to make sure they're getting enough food and not stressed out.

[Pices]

Hi Jake,
I’m late to the party, but congrats on those beauties! Love the shape and markings. Love Kenny’s discus! I’m gawking at the pics and would get nothing else done if I had them in my living room.

[AquaticNerd]

Hi All,

You can find new photos below. A little update - they're all doing great and very voracious eaters. They seem to do okay with Sera Discus granules as well as Al's FDBW. They go nuts for the FDBW - I can barely get my hand in the tank to stick a cube or two to the glass before they're all hovering over my hands. Some will even nibble my fingers! I suppose that is my fault though, because they're already eating out of my hands and recognize me when I go to check in on them. My only difficulty so far is that they are not taking to flake food. I've tried several varieties and they just spit the flake out as soon as they put it in their mouth. Guess I'll be sticking to the granules and FDBW.

Anyways, let's get to what we're all looking for - pictures! I tried my best to get individual shots of each one, but my Forrest Giant Blue is the shy one of the bunch and I couldn't get a picture of that one without being in a group.

Fineline SS #1:


Fineline SS #2:


Straightline Turq:


Ready for dinner:


Group photo:

[AquaticNerd]

Quick update time!

The group I got from Kenny is doing fantastic! They're all eating like pigs and I haven't had any issues with disease or otherwise. Their colors have improved greatly since I last posted photos - I'll try to get some good ones this weekend.

One could say they're doing a little too well. I've currently got two pairs that have formed - one pair I posted about awhile back because I was surprised that they were only in the tank about a week before they spawned (this pair can be seen here). They are both Leopards with Ring Gene.

And now I've got the second pair who spawned for the first time this week.

The female is a Forrest Giant Blue and the male is a Fineline SS.

What's everyone's thoughts on trying to take these pairs and commit to actually raising a group? Any of these pairs make sense?

[danotaylor]

The ring gene leopard pair is strain match so a great pair to work with. The FLSS x FGB is also a good pair to breed as they're both non-PB types, and you should get a good mix of SS & Turk types in their offspring.

[AquaticNerd]

Well, I figured it was time for an update for this tank journal.

For those who didn't follow, my group of 6 was whittled down to 5 back in March of this year, the other topic can be found here. I put that behavior and subsequent loss down to being bullied by the other two pairs in the tank from all of the breeding behavior they were exhibiting. About 3 months ago, I lost my favorite of the group, the one labeled Fineline SS #1 in my post above, due to him jumping out of the aquarium - he pushed the makeshift lid I had on there completely off the tank and landed about 5.5' on the ground maybe 6" from the tank. With me working from home, I immediately heard the ruckus and went to see what had happened. He went into a hospital tank immediately with 4tbps salt / 10 gallons to try and help ward off any infections, but it appears that the fall had damaged him internally as he was never able to swim correctly. I tried what I could for a couple of weeks, but without any sign of getting better I made the choice to euthanize him.

After that experience, I decided that I needed to shake things up with my aquarium. First order of business was to address the lid situation. I bought a Red Sea DIY Net Cover. This works well, but does nothing to help with evaporation or keeping the heat in, so on top of that I added a Polycarbonate panel which is secured using some discreet zip ties so the lid becomes one whole piece.

The second thing I needed to address was breeding. Out of the four I have remaining, they still continue to lay eggs. One pair is the Ring Leopard + Straight-line Turq and another pair is the Forrest Giant Blue and other Fineline SS. If you recall, my setup used to look something like this. It later became apparent that this scape wasn't going to work out long term. In my earlier post, the very middle of the tank where the wood goes vertical and curls back a little became the warzone when it came to breeding and both pairs continually fought over rights to that specific location. For that, I took a little more of an aggressive approach in order to separate out and provide specific "territories" where it would be more conducive to their breeding behavior without terrorizing the entire rest of the tank. The idea for me was to create several vertical surfaces that the fish could focus on for potential breeding locations and providing enough space between those vertical surfaces to where the fish wouldn't be eyeing each other 24/7. I took a little inspiration from Pat's breeding where there are two cones at opposite ends of aquarium.

I've included the results of about 6 hours worth of draining, sawing (with a hand saw), laying out, and rearranging the scape below. I think I came up with something that will work out well. Since I'm low on the stocking for discus and my aquarium can support it, I've made a new order with Kenny at Kenny's Discus and I should be getting 4 3R intermediates in the next few weeks!

P.S. I'll be removing some of the larger rocks in the middle to leave more open space on the bottom.