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Thread: New member

  1. #31
    Registered Member + MVP danotaylor's Avatar
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    Default Re: New member

    I don't remember if you said if you were aging your water? Do you temp match? 100% daily changes with unaged &/or unheated water could be stressing your discus, especially if the pH diff between your source water and your tank water is >0.4.
    Also micro bubbles can stress discus so if you're filling straight from tap to tank and you see microbubbles on the glass I would recommend you aerate your water change water overnight even if the pH diff is <0.4.
    Are the black worms live? If so, that is a bad sign not to eat live foods...
    Last edited by danotaylor; 06-14-2020 at 02:55 AM.

  2. #32
    Registered Member MarcusP's Avatar
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    Default Re: New member

    Yes I age my water and heat it to exact temperature of their tank. No they were not live Black worms freeze dried. It could just be stress still I think I am just being paranoid. Tested my water everything was 0 but I do have .5 nitrate right now.

    I have 3 44 gallon brute containers that I age my water in. No micro bubbles in the tank at all. I have an air pump so each container has two air stones in them. When the light is off they party, they move around the tank more.
    Last edited by MarcusP; 06-14-2020 at 04:15 AM.

  3. #33
    Registered Member + MVP danotaylor's Avatar
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    Default Re: New member

    As you know, nitrates is the natural result of a fully cycled filter, so long as you keep nitrate <10 your fish will be happy. If you meant 0.5 nitrite that will stress them and means your filter is not fully cycled, but your large daily WC's with heated aged water will keep things under control until your biofilter catches up.

    I do not know anything about ifish so I cannot vouch for the quality or health of their fish, and shipping is stressful. If you have only had them a few days just watch them, try feeding lightly, removing any uneaten food, and see how things progress over the next few days.
    Last edited by danotaylor; 06-14-2020 at 04:38 AM.

  4. #34
    Registered Member MarcusP's Avatar
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    Default Re: New member

    Sorry I meant 5.0 ppm Nitrate, I know the sponges and the HOB filter are cycled. I will continue to do my water changes I have only had them 4 days. I appreciate all of your help and advice its my first time with Discus. I am sure I am being paranoid like I said. I've done a lot of reading on these forums and with that I should have good results.

  5. #35
    Registered Member + MVP danotaylor's Avatar
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    Default Re: New member

    No problem Marcus, try not to stress, just watch them and keep the water clean, and I hope they begin to be more active as each day passes. Like Frank said, I would keep the tank lights off for a while longer and let them acclimate some more with just the ambient room lights

  6. #36
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    Default Re: New member

    Quote Originally Posted by MarcusP View Post
    Sorry I meant 5.0 ppm Nitrate, I know the sponges and the HOB filter are cycled. I will continue to do my water changes I have only had them 4 days. I appreciate all of your help and advice its my first time with Discus. I am sure I am being paranoid like I said. I've done a lot of reading on these forums and with that I should have good results.
    I have new fish arriving in a few days. I may buy a branch to put into the bare tank so that there will be a point of security or place to hid to begin with until the fish get used to their new home.

  7. #37
    Silver Member Iminit's Avatar
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    Default Re: New member

    Hey Marcus I’m right there with you . I got 8 2.5 discus on tues. I’m keeping them in a 45g now. To later go into a 90. I’m changing 15g daily and all is good. They are eating like crazy and may be growing. To big of a water change may be stressing them. I feed right after water change. This way they know food is coming.
    Ok I do know i-fish and wouldn’t have recomended them. They are right by me and are just a fish wholesaler. How big are your fish? Could we get some pics.

  8. #38
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    Default Re: New member

    Marcus, sounds like your Discus doesn't like
    your water, so maybe back off on the waterchange and keep the lights off. You
    can also raise the temperature too. Feed
    sparingly to force them to come out of hiding.

    Cliff

  9. #39
    Registered Member MarcusP's Avatar
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    Default Re: New member

    Thanks everyone I appreciate the help greatly. They're about 2.5 they seem to be doing much better today. I will change less water see if that helps some. I raised the temperature to 86F they are swimming around more and I gave them some discus gold flakes. I have some Malaysian driftwood in my 180 that's not so big I could place it in the tank.

  10. #40
    Registered Member MarcusP's Avatar
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    They're doing much better now could have just been that they needed to settle in. The Blue diamonds seem to be the greedy ones in the tank. They seem to be a bit larger than the others. Not really looking to breed them just wanted to have some discus. So far every thing seems to be going very well.
    Last edited by MarcusP; 07-09-2020 at 11:36 AM.

  11. #41
    Registered Member MarcusP's Avatar
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    Default Re: New member

    Well it's been a while and I did lose one Marlboro red. I have one that is stunted but the rest seem fine. Two of them are a bit larger than the others though that kind of concerns me. This is my first time growing them out and its been three months. So far the only thing I can say is that I should have bought them from a better breeder as suggested. Eventually I want to have 20 in my 180G tank. From what I have been reading, I should get them all from the same breeder. I don't need any issues of any of them becoming sick. My stunted one is a scrapper though, even though he's such a runt. Hard to take photos of fish I will try but I'm terrible and taking photos. One question, they should all reach their full size in about a year or does it depend on other things? Thanks in advanced, I have gain a lot of knowledge from this forum and the members here.

  12. #42
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    Default Re: New member

    Some strains grow faster or larger than others. Occasional runts happen. I would not think that it was anything that you did to cause that. Fish are not so uniform in and shape. Like people there are big ones, little ones, fat and skinny. I have a runt which is also skinny but scrappy and no other fish in the tank bothers him.

  13. #43
    Registered Member MeganJK's Avatar
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    Default Re: New member

    Hey Marcus!
    I've been a lurker and now officially joined and caught this thread. I'm also in Lakewood CO. so I can tell you about some of the good local shops, and the ones to avoid. I'm getting 6 Discus from iFish later today, I've ordered Discus online before and been pretty lucky, but research and communication is key. Golden Fish, she always has amazing Discus and she's in Lakewood, her prices are great, too. And try out Fush Den for live black worms, my Discus go nuts for them! Well, all my fish, really��. Anyway, I've dealt with most of the local stores that sell Discus here in Colorado, feel free to ask away on that. As I said, I've also bought online too. I put an intro post in, but I keep Discus and other South American Cichlids, as well as breeding some bettas on the side. Like you, I've also learned a lot from this forum. I know you posted back in June but I'm curious if you eased back on the water changes and if you noticed that helped? I usually 25% at a time but I have heavily planted tanks for my Discus with a whole lot of "clean up crew" critters. They seem happy with smaller less frequent water changes and my water tests beautifully. (I also use Prime like it were water��) I use an RO/tap mixture because as you know Denver and surrounding areas have had a massive increase in water pH and hardness. You can get jugs of RO water that only cost a few cents to fill, once you've bought the jug. I'd also recommend Discus Trace (Seachem, amazing comapny) instead of salt, as Discus don't tolerate aquarium salt the way other fish may but Trace will give them their proper nutrients without the harm of salt. It's really helped ease my maintenance, all these little things. I can tell you all the additives I use, if you're interested, but I tend to swear by Seachem and a few other brands.
    Hope your Discus are doing well, and don't despair, this is a real trial and error deal, as I'm sure you're well aware now. I'm Megan, nice to meet you fellow Colorado Discus keeper!!
    M*

  14. #44
    Silver Member Iminit's Avatar
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    Default Re: New member

    Megan I’m just seeing this. Please qt the ifish. Do not put them in your main tank. Many on another site have not qt and lost fish. Ifish does not have a good rep.

  15. #45
    Registered Member MeganJK's Avatar
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    Default Re: New member

    Hey Iminit!
    Always good advice! And yes, I always QT my new fish,and most especially fish I've ordered online. (I did learn this the hard way early on in my Discus days because I was impatient and didn't wait for my QT tank to be ready) I use my 55 gal as a QT and match it exactly to my primary/show tank.
    I've read the negative comments, and the positive but so far I am very pleased. Valerie, who was my contact was extremely kind and helpful and communicated and continues to communicate, through the whole process.
    They're acclimating now, and their colors are really something for being so young. They got pretty cold though, but they seem to be doing alright, all considered.
    I also order from SomethingPhishy several times, which has some scathing reviews out there. I can say this,all the fish I ordered were spectacular, but the guy, he is a loose cannon and just plain mean. Very odd behavior and he'll snap and ban you over the oddest things without a word. (My 4th order from him I made a mistake with one fish, emailed him immediately and asked if there were any way I could change it, as it had been minutes. He said I did it on purpose, and he could "see" me making my orders and all this other whacky stuff. I apologized profusely if I had upset him but he banned me. So, some of the reviews may also come from that.
    Long post short, always stellar advice to QT. I could preach the need for it all day long. As for how long to QT, I think there's as many thoughts on that, as stars in the sky. I tend to go for the 'better sage than sorry' approach and QT them a bit longer. It depends on the fish, too. Discus I QT the longest, but if it's a group or Cardinal Tetras, for example, I don't QT as long. But with 150 gal, it's awful hard for something that small to be problematic.
    I'm always curious to hear others thoughts on QT, how long, approaches, what not. (I may have said one of my favorite things about this hobby is there is always more to learn and this site is like the zenith for Discus knowledge)
    Thanks again for being sure I knew about QT! That was very thoughtful.
    M

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