BELIEVE IT OR NOT!

Through Carol's help, I believe these photos should be posted.

Highfive

Another Severn

[shalu]

I also have a gold severum(it is now huge after a year) as well, in a 10g! I do have some extra plants from my 100g in there, I feed them(also have a jewel cichlid and a figure8 puffer) once a day and water changes vary from 25% once a week to once a month The 10g also has sparkling clean(most contaminants are invisible) water. It is a low/no tech planted tank. There is absolutely no algae on the glass and I haven't wiped the glass or changed the filter material in a year! Those fish never got sick, they are tough as nail. I would NOT put them in the same class as discus in terms of environmental requirements. I am new to discus as well, but I am planning to handle daily water changes for them(still waiting on Tim's David Lim discus). Good luck with yours.

[Carol_Roberts]

Your severums are really pretty ;D

It looks like you have a good program, Shalu. My two severums are in a 55 gallon tank. They like to go head to head and tear the aquarium up.

highfive

They are pretty Carol, but I don't think the discus would appreciate their tough guy attitudes.

[tag]

Warning..this is a total newbie's humble opinion but.... . I'm not sure that this is such a mystery. I don't think that most on this forum would agree that the w/c and maintenance schedule you manage currently would be most optimal however, my son kept discus (6 of them) in a 30 gallon tank, barely bothered with the tank, fully planted and gravel bottom that was hardly ever vacumned,the periodic w/c but mostly just topped up the tank, no filter cleaning, fed whatever was on sale and grew these quarter size fry to desert plate sized beautiful adults. Since I've adopted his fish through my utter disgust of his care regime...I've killed off all but 1 and I truly believe that they had adapted to their living conditions and became so acclimated that when I changed things for them so drastically they parished. So it's not impossible to vary the regime. Maybe you plan or create it and then stick to it. Don't remember him having any disease issues either....he would have come to me for the money if he had . I personally have a different regime and am still working at getting it to work but I will stick with the norm.

Good luck with everything.

Tina

That is amazing, Tina. Everything I have read says your son and I should have failed. In fact, a year ago, I wanted to raise discus, but the fear factor set in after all the internet information.

I've modified my routine now to have a better chance to grow them. The discipline relates to the cost factor.
Don't give up! Have another go!

Highfive

[Wolf_Mek]

From what I have read on another forum, fish can get used to "dirty" water. A sudden improvement in conditions (not changing the water for a year and then changing 50% once a week) can cause extreme health issues. They need to be acclimated slowly as not to disrupt the conditions they have become accustomed to.