Sandip's discus journey - Starting August 2023

[Sandip]

That’s great! Why adding salt? How much are you adding?

I am adding salt because I am reading .25ppm nitrite.
1 tbsp per 10 gallon.

[Sandip]

While changing water and cleaning the glass, the fish got super scared and one of them jumped and hit the tank cover clips resting on the side glass.
This kind of stressed me a bit.

Yesterday, I made my first batch of BHM. It will take me a few more times to get the recipe dialed in. I feed them with it today morning. They fished it in less than 2 minutes.
Feeding is 3 times a day from now on. 1 BHM, 1 blackworms, 1 discus gold pellets.
They have been eating the pellets from day 1. I am little surprised by that. Not sure what magic potion Al mixed in it.

[brewmaster15]

.....Yesterday, I made my first batch of BHM. It will take me a few more times to get the recipe dialed in. I feed them with it today morning. They fished it in less than 2 minutes.
Feeding is 3 times a day from now on. 1 BHM, 1 blackworms, 1 discus gold pellets.
They have been eating the pellets from day 1. I am little surprised by that. Not sure what magic potion Al mixed in it.

Awesome Sandip! Glad they took to all your foods.. My advice is feed the beefheart mix before your water changes as this is your most messy food...at least until after your biofilter catches up.. you may see an ammonia spike and a bigger nitrite spike for a bit.

Al

[Sandip]

Awesome Sandip! Glad they took to all your foods.. My advice is feed the beefheart mix before your water changes as this is your most messy food...at least until after your biofilter catches up.. you may see an ammonia spike and a bigger nitrite spike for a bit.

Al

Thank you Al. Will do that.

[Sandip]

Here is a quick update from day 3 with some photos.
Despite aging water considerably, the pH of the tank continues to drop inexplicably. Current pH is 7.3. Measured with multiple calibrated ph meters.
I spoke with the LFS and he said this is the problem with our local water.
I measured kH and gH of tap water. kH was 35ppm, which I believe is low. GH was 89 ppm. Should i think about adding kH/ph buffers to avoid ph crash in the future.

The pigeon seems to be doing ok. Its fins are still a bit dark but not closed like on day 1. Here is a photo of the fish:



All of them are hungry all the time. They have started to associate me approaching the tank with food.
Here are a few more photos of the remaining ones:

[Sandip]

New discus laying eggs!
I have been observing extreme aggression in the tank since 2 days. I knew something is wrong.
Then yesterday, they started doing the mating dance...shaking and cleaning the surface of a temperature probe I have in the tank.
And now eggs!
I don't plan to breed them. I am also a bit disappointed that what I believe was young discus (5-7 month old) are actually adult. The are between 4 and 5 inches in size. Did I get stunted fish? As you can understand, I am not super excited with this new development.

Here are the photos:
I think the eggs are laid by the red scarlet snakeskin in front and the pigeon is just trying to fertilize it.

[brewmaster15]

Sandip,
On the kH dropping. a simple easy fix is to add some crushed coral (aquarium store) or crushed oyster shells(chicken supply at feed and grain store) in a nylon sack....place this in a power filter.. usually a cup is enough for most tanks but. Its trial and error. I would not worry excessively if pH drops a little over time.. water changes usually keep even low kH water pretty stable.

The breeding. I wouldnt assume your fish are older than you thought. Discus can start breeding at 5-6 months..particularly the females can lay eggs.. often males are not fertile until older but will go through the motions. Sometimes you do get early achievers though. Its a sign your fish are healthy and they like your water.

Al

[Sandip]

Sandip,
On the kH dropping. a simple easy fix is to add some crushed coral (aquarium store) or crushed oyster shells(chicken supply at feed and grain store) in a nylon sack....place this in a power filter.. usually a cup is enough for most tanks but. Its trial and error. I would not worry excessively if pH drops a little over time.. water changes usually keep even low kH water pretty stable.

The breeding. I wouldnt assume your fish are older than you thought. Discus can start breeding at 5-6 months..particularly the females can lay eggs.. often males are not fertile until older but will go through the motions. Sometimes you do get early achievers though. Its a sign your fish are healthy and they like your water.

Al

I would look for some crushed corals.
Regarding age being 5-6 months. My questions is, will they still grow significantly after starting to lay eggs? Like everyone else, I want to see and grow them to at least 6" if not more.

[CliffsDiscus]

Regarding the age of the female snakeskin she looks older than 10 months. As far as growth still a little left especially getting thicker body.

[Sandip]

A quick update.
The fishes are doing fine.
The fish that I thought was red scarlet snakeskin (in post #21) is actually a Tiger Snakeskin. Lynda from goldenstatediscus corrected me after looking at the pictures.
The same fish laid eggs again today. It is actually laying eggs now as I type this post. I kinda feel sorry for this one because, it doesn't look like she has a mate now. The pigeon seems disinterested this time. Another Tiger Snakeskin that I have in the mix is showing some interest, but it might very well be a female too.

On water quality. I have been changing 25% water everyday.
There is still some nitrite in the water. Like Al predicted, the nitrite did go up. I have been keeping up on the water change and hoping the filters will catch up.
I am also planning for a slightly larger tank. Hopefully by mid September, the plans will be in place.

[Sandip]

Leaving a quick note here for future ref. The nitrite levels in my tank is showing signs of climbing down.
Today evening, I read the nitrite at .25ppm with the API titration kit.
The BB seems to be finally catching up to the tank load.

[Iminit]

Glad to hear the nitrite is coming down. With the breeding I’ve heard different things. Some say young fish can breed some say they need to be a year old. I’ve had many new fish breed. Added to qt tank and within a week they’re breeding. Seems like it’s brought on from the stress of shipping. Next we’ve got no clue how old the fish are we receive unless bought from an honest private breeder. Anything the online sellers are selling can be any age. Right now I have at least 5-7 4-4.5” discus I’ve bought online that have never grown. Most have been involved in breeding.

What is the Neptune stuff in the tank? What does it do? Is it for water changes?

[Sandip]

Glad to hear the nitrite is coming down. With the breeding I’ve heard different things. Some say young fish can breed some say they need to be a year old. I’ve had many new fish breed. Added to qt tank and within a week they’re breeding. Seems like it’s brought on from the stress of shipping. Next we’ve got no clue how old the fish are we receive unless bought from an honest private breeder. Anything the online sellers are selling can be any age. Right now I have at least 5-7 4-4.5” discus I’ve bought online that have never grown. Most have been involved in breeding.

What is the Neptune stuff in the tank? What does it do? Is it for water changes?

Thank you Tom for taking the time to share your experience. My fear is the same. I think some of the fish I received, even though are healthy, may actually never grow much beyond their current size. Because the breeders might be dividing the fishes from the same batch based on size and pricing strategy. So the 4-5" inch fishes might just be the runts of their batch. I don't think the seller (who is not the breeder) can do much about this. Hopefully, I am wrong. Time will tell. I will wait an year to see how it goes.
In future, I will be looking to buy from a trusted breeder directly. Hopefully, this forum will help me get in touch with someone like that.

The neptune stuff you see are ph probes connected to neptune apex aquarium controller. One ph probe is old and another fairly new. These equipments are not really necessary in keeping or maintaining a freshwater tank. They are there from my reef tank days, so I keep them in use.

[Iminit]

Ok was thinking they were from reef stuff. All I’ve heard is they are not accurate in fresh water. If they were I’d think many would be using them.

[Sandip]

Ok was thinking they were from reef stuff. All I’ve heard is they are not accurate in fresh water. If they were I’d think many would be using them.

The pH probe and the temperature probes are pretty accurate. Rest of the stuff like conductivity and ORP probes are not accurate in freshwater, hence I don't use them. The pH probes needs calibration every 4-6 months. I verify the readings with a handheld good quality pH meter. It's an obsession of mine to see how the pH changes throughout the day.