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Thread: New to Discus

  1. #1
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    Default New to Discus

    Hello everyone I am out of Corona Ca
    Been keeping fish all my life but I finally decided to try the discus approach. They are beautiful fish and love them so far. I’ve come to find out that they are delicate and I am not used to this. I am here to learn and give my fish a better living.
    I have a 60 gallon cube with a sponge filter and 2 HOB
    My water stays at 82-84 Fh
    There is 7x 3” discus
    2x 3” angels
    Golden ram and snowball pleco

    The fish eat vigorously but I don’t think they are too happy. Some guys stressed all the time and I see constant bullying.
    I have come to the conclusion my tank is too small and under filtered. I am buying a 120gal and fx6 this month. It will be a tile bare bottom in order to help with my water quality. Anyways loving all the helpful posts on here.

    I can share pictures but I’m not sure how to do so on here

  2. #2
    Homesteader jwcarlson's Avatar
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    Default Re: New to Discus

    It's probably a bit cramped, but I know most people suggest you grow out in a pretty small tank. Though I am no expert there. As far as filtration, all I have in my 75 sponge filters and my fish are fine. Though I would say that it lacks in particulate filtration, but that's OK for what I'm doing.

    I thought about doing a tile bottom, but came to the conclusion that it would be impossible to keep clean under the tiles. Something I am doubly sure of now closing in on 300 water changes for my grow-out.

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    Default Re: New to Discus

    My turquoise discus has his stripes visible at all times which I believe is due to stress. I’m hoping with a bigger tank there will be less bullying and of course more filtration to improve water conditions. Also some of the discus have like black dots on their fins or face do you know what that is ? Could it be my LED light? It’s an automated light I can control the spectrum but idk what the setting is for discus.

    As far as tile bottom and debris underneath it I was thinking of a wave maker at the bottom to help bring up debris into filter intakes

    Also since I have a good amount of fish how often should I be doing wc for these guys? I do 60-70% weekly right now

  4. #4
    Homesteader jwcarlson's Avatar
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    Default Re: New to Discus

    If you're growing them out, probably daily changes. I do 90% every night and have been for nearly a year.

    You might be correct with the stress bars, but it might not be bullying. The black dots sounds like peppering, which is typically because of how dark the bottom/back of the tank is. I had a black background and ended up changing it to a medium blue. I was skeptical, but it really makes the fish look better. All of my other community tanks have black backgrounds, but the discus really seemed to benefit from lighter colored back. And the bottom I painted (on the outside) with some textured spray paint a light sandy color. Bottom remains bare inside which makes keeping the tank clean a breeze.

    I don't have any experience with discus and "powered" filtration, but all of that waste is going somewhere and needs to be removed. I'm not sure that sweeping it into a bucket is the right answer, personally.

    How long have you had the discus? Can you post pictures?


    You can kind of see some of the peppering on my fish in this picture. Especially the "dark angel" to the right.
    discus3.jpg
    discus4.jpg

    Here they are some time later and with a blue background.
    20220815_194656.jpg.aec24d852d52193246954426f7fd3d8b.jpg
    20221008_185826.jpg

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    Default Re: New to Discus

    Oh man wc every day ? Wow okay I really need to step up my game lol I can’t say I’m going to do it everyday due to my work schedule but will definitely do multiple changes a week.

    That does make a lot of sense, my substrate is black and I am sure that isn’t helping. When I transfer to new tank I will get rid of the plant soil. Although I do like your idea of planting your plants in those ceramic pots I might have to do the same since I like the look of plants.

    I bought a group of 4 at 2” in September and lost 1
    And then another group of 4 in late October.
    I’d love to post pictures but I don’t see the option on here to do so.

    I do believe I have
    1 red turquoise
    1 turquoise
    1 red Pigeon
    1 orange Marlboro
    1 yellow
    1 leopard
    1 platinum Snow White

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  7. #7
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    Default Re: New to Discus

    Posting pictures from my phone is difficult on this sight lol not a big fan I think I will just take a video and upload it to YouTube and post here

  8. #8
    Registered Member seanyuki's Avatar
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    Default Re: New to Discus

    Grasshopper
    Francis

  9. #9
    Homesteader jwcarlson's Avatar
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    Default Re: New to Discus

    Quote Originally Posted by Alexxxsv View Post
    Oh man wc every day ? Wow okay I really need to step up my game lol I can’t say I’m going to do it everyday due to my work schedule but will definitely do multiple changes a week.

    That does make a lot of sense, my substrate is black and I am sure that isn’t helping. When I transfer to new tank I will get rid of the plant soil. Although I do like your idea of planting your plants in those ceramic pots I might have to do the same since I like the look of plants.

    I bought a group of 4 at 2” in September and lost 1
    And then another group of 4 in late October.
    I’d love to post pictures but I don’t see the option on here to do so.

    I do believe I have
    1 red turquoise
    1 turquoise
    1 red Pigeon
    1 orange Marlboro
    1 yellow
    1 leopard
    1 platinum Snow White
    I don't know what everyone else on here does, but I do know that the best looking discus consistently seem to be posted by the people who keep their water changes huge and pound the fish with food. So that is what I did. I am pretty good at monkey see-monkey do.

    The substrate people really needs to go for a good growout anyway. The amount of food and poop made by growing discus is pretty impressive. Now that mine are about 5-5.5" and eating a bit less and growing more slowly, they aren't making quite such a big mess. My tank is very plain and that plant got absolutely shredded by the fish after that picture. I have some driftwood I'm putting in probably this weekend and have some anubias to add to it to liven it up a bit. And then try the potted plants again.

    Tom (iminit) on here has really nice planted tanks, everything potted.

  10. #10
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    Default Re: New to Discus

    Gotcha ! Well thanks for the feedback I most definitely will up my water changes. The only plant to be thriving is my Java fern lol the rest of them are barely making it by. It could have a lot to do with my lighting but for sure I do not see my fish messing with them. They just stick to bullying each other. The 2 biggest ones eat like pigs and always butt everyone away when feeding so the rest get less food unfortunately. I hope to get the new tank in the next weeks so I can give them more swimming space and have a bigger territory so they are not so mean. I’ll add more driftwood and plants to break boundaries

  11. #11
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    Default Re: New to Discus

    Thank you for doing this
    How would I go about rotating them myself ?

  12. #12
    Registered Member seanyuki's Avatar
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    Default Re: New to Discus

    How to Rotate a Picture on iPhone and iPad.

    https://www.howtogeek.com/728502/how...hone-and-ipad/




    Quote Originally Posted by Alexxxsv View Post
    Thank you for doing this
    How would I go about rotating them myself ?
    Grasshopper
    Francis

  13. #13
    Homesteader jwcarlson's Avatar
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    Default Re: New to Discus

    The image posting is absolutely archaic, I am not 100% sure how to control the orientation, I send them from my phone to my email and then save them on my computer and the orientation seems to follow whatever I upload. People can turn their heads otherwise. Francis is pretty good about flipping them though!

    It could be that some of the others are just feeling kind of crummy and so they're more likely to be bullyed. I've got one right now that had a pretty bad worm infestation for some time and while there was never any hard bullying going on, he certainly hasn't been eating for some time. It's kind of funny now he's feeling a little better and eating some stuff, he's started to stand up for himself and it's cracking me up. But mine have never been hard bully-ers. Not sure why, but about the worst I have witnessed to tail whapping each other and occasionally pushing on each others' sides. But never more than 15 seconds at a time and never really chasing off of food aggressively, though sometimes they will kind of defend the food. To get around that I just started feeding in more places. So two smaller beefheart pieces instead of one and put them on opposite sides of the tank. Or worm cubes split them into 2-3 pieces and let them float around or pressed to glass so that there are multiple options. Some fish (probably lower in the pecking order) eat more off the bottom/scraps. But I certainly feed enough that they're still well fed as long as they're eating.

    I'm not sure that a bigger tank is going to automatically make things better, but I'm certainly no expert.
    I do wish you luck! Your fish don't look like lost causes so I'm sure they'll turn it around!

  14. #14
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    Default Re: New to Discus

    Quick update for you guys !
    120 gal running for 7 months now. 2x fx5 filters
    7 Discus all about 3-4” range. I made the mistake of trying an arowana with them worked for a few months now he’s starting to stress them out. He will be rehomed asap. I would like to add a gold nugget pleco since I lost my old snowball.IMG_3164.jpgIMG_3163.jpgIMG_3162.jpgIMG_3161.jpgIMG_3159.jpgIMG_3157.jpgIMG_1759.jpgIMG_1757.jpgIMG_1758.jpgIMG_1750.jpg

  15. #15
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    Default Re: New to Discus

    80% wc twice a week. They eat frozen beef heart/ocean nutrition flakes/vibra bites/hikari discus pellets
    I would like to add a few more to the group after I regime the arowana. Oh and the angelfish have been with them from the start (Bonnie&Clyde)

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