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[LizStreithorst]

Does anyone know where we can send get well cards?

[LizStreithorst]

And Willie, Hansie treated you as someone who really knows Discus. You have some special fish there.

[Willie]

Hans and I go back quite a bit, even before "Joe". I first met in in the days of Discus-L, before website were even a thing.

Hans always been more about friendship than selling discus. Many people here are not aware that he single handedly kept NADA alive during the first 3 - 4 NADA only meetings. The number of kindnesses he did for people who he didn't know particularly well is countless.

I expect Hans is going bananas lying in bed, so reach out...

[LizStreithorst]

You knew him even before I met him. For me it was back in his early time with Joe.

[Willie]

These guys have been in my fish room for 2 months now, so call it 60 water changes. The Flachens came in as 3" discus and have grown at least 1/2", maybe more. The body shape remains good, perhaps a little rounder than in their first video. They get 4 - 5 feedings daily, alternating between beefheart and VibraBites, and are hungry every time I come by the tank.

[Oxboy]

Are those Vibrabites FD or frozen? The Hikari ones, right?

[Willie]

Are those Vibrabites FD or frozen? The Hikari ones, right?

It's dry food from Hikari.

[danotaylor]

Really stunning group of Flachens Willie...every one of them is beautiful for shape and color!

[Willie]

Thanks, Dan. I'm trying to take the mystery out of raising discus. It's an old 40-gal tank with a heater and a sponge filter. Every morning, I drain and refill. Hopefully the newbies will learn how simple this process can be and how even older varieties can produce great discus.

[Willie]

These guys have been here for 3 months now, so we'll call it 90 water changes. Given all the commentary recently on feeding, I threw in a chunk of frozen beefheart for them. They'll get 3 - 4 feedings of beefheart daily, as well as VibraBites in between the BH feedings.




I think this is their third beefheart feeding of the day, otherwise they'll be more frenzied. Still, this much beefheart will be consumed by 8 discus in about 5 minutes. I've been told that their stomach is roughly the same size as their eyes. If so, then the stomach must expand to eat this much.

If they finish feeding before this time, I'll feed a larger chunk next time. If the food stays after 5 minutes, then I'll cut back the portions. A benefit of raising them in a bare bottom tank is that I know exactly how much food they will consume at each feeding.

[Willie]

The 3-month video looks like the 2-month video and begs the question if the fish are actually growing. So I took one out and measured it. They arrived from Hans in late February as 3" fish. They looked like the right size and I didn't bother to measure them then. In my experience, Hans' fish are always exactly as advertised.

I laid the fish on the floor of my fish room (bad paint) and placed a pair of scissors at the end of the anal fin (which may be hard to see in this picture). So the fish is somewhere between 4.5" - 5", which translates to 1/2" of growth per month with the old-fashioned drain and fill method.

IMG_2158.JPG

This fish has the least amount of horizontal pattern in the body. You can see it in the video above. It's neither the biggest nor the smallest of the lot.

[CliffsDiscus]

Willie, awesome growth, all those waterchanges paid off.

Cliff

[danotaylor]

Beautiful Willie. Love the green coloration

[Shan_Evolved]

Damn Willie!!! Looking good.

Thos rams are gorgeous too.

[Willie]

It's been four months (~120 water changes) since these Flachens came from Discus Hans. They're still growing well and eating 4 - 5 times/daily. Although I haven't measured them since last month and it seems, to my eyes at least, that growth has slowed a bit.



These guys are still in a 40 Breeder, but doing fine with 100% daily water changes. Notice how they still instinctively school and feed together.

One guy is missing. Yesterday, I noticed him/her doing a little swirl for 15 minutes. I'm concerned that this could be the prelude to a dashing around, knocking yourself against the wall disease that I've experienced before in the fishroom. During the swirling, edges of the fins darkened considerably. So that guy/gal is sitting in quarantine for now. There's been no recurrence of the symptom, so we'll see.