Thanks Bob! (Bobtools)!

[roclement]

So in my quest to re-start my Discus addiction I decided to get some local fry from Bob, a memeber here that lives literally five minutes from my house! Tank is up and running and I went to meet up with Bob.

First of Bob replied to all my e-mails promptly, send me pictures of the fish's parents and other pairs, acomodated my schedule, and even sent me water and feeding information as requested.

Bob welcomed me into his house and showed me his very well kept, clean, and beautiful discus tanks. All pairs in the tanks come from well established breeders with proven lines, ad seem fat and healthy as one can expect!

As I am looking to get my feet wet again in this great Discus hobby, I was looking for any strain that can breed true, from known parents, so I can have a comparsion guide of sorts to gauge my husbandry. The goal is to use these fish as a control group of sorts, in order to further establish some discus tanks with pairs, etc.

The fry are healthy and look good, they took to food within a couple of hours from being in my tank and seem to be doing well. I am excited!

Bob, nice to meet a local guy that has great fish and whose rearing philosophy is similar to mine. These fish will make a great control group for my new start! Did I mention I payed for 7 and got 9??? Thank you very much! I'll post pictures tomorrow.

BTW, as I was there one of the pairs was about to drop some eggs, as I got home and already had an e-mail from Bob, he informed me that they had indeed layed eggs! I got dibs on some of the fry!!! : )

Best,

Rod

[Discus-Hans]

Good job Bob and Welcome back Rod in the Discus.

Looks like you found a road trip buddy there,

Hans

[GrillMaster]

Glad to see ya back Rod!!!

If the fry look as good as the fry he brought up to my place a couple weekends ago for the NEDA auction, you have some nice fish to start with!!

As Hans said he will make a great road trip partner!!

Fall NEDA meetin.... Hint.....hint....

[Eddie]

Thats great news! Bob must have some crazy breeding water as his fish are either about to breed, bred, and or are raising an insane amount of fry!

All the best with them!

Eddie

[dpt8]

Bob is a very personable friendly guy with beautiful fish. Great to meet you at our meeting Bob.

[subcooler]

Welcome back to the hobby!

Got to meet Bob @ NE Discus meeting -very nice guy(Wish I lived closer!)

Best of luck with your new discus,

Rob

[pcsb23]

Good to see you back Rod. I had the pleasure of meeting Bob at the NEDA meeting too, he brought some lovely fry for the auction, just wished I could have got them on the plane home! Good luck with them.

[roclement]

Good to see you back Rod. I had the pleasure of meeting Bob at the NEDA meeting too, he brought some lovely fry for the auction, just wished I could have got them on the plane home! Good luck with them.

Paul! How are things!? Good to see you are still around! We had some good arguments back in the day!!! : )

Thanks everyone for the kind welcome! Bob does have magic water, his fish are great and the fry are plentiful!!! All of them are doing good, still a little skittish but took food, today i will do my first WC in the new era of Discus! Pumped up! And to think I hated WC before!!!

Rod

[pcsb23]

Things are good Rod, thanks.

[roclement]

After day two:

all fry are eating like pigs! they have taken frozen blood worms and artemia, flakes, and a little bit of my own reef formula! This is way too messy for them but as a treat...why not!?

All fish are active, exploring their tank, show no signs of stress, and have fat bellies, and...dark healthy poop! in my experience healthy poop = healthy fish!

Here's a tank shot with actinics on, I'll try some fish shots next.

Rod

[roclement]

bad shots of fry...it gives you an idea...

rod

[Eddie]

bad shots of fry...it gives you an idea...

rod

Nice little buggers you got there. All the best with them Rod!

Eddie

[roclement]

Another couple of days in and still doing good!

I am getting an auto-feeder so I can provide these guys with a couple of more meals a day, any ideas on brands, etc?

WC are as follows, 3 to 4gal in the morning, after feeding, and 3to 4 gal in the evening after the last feeding, tomorrow on my day off, there will be a 10gal WC in the am and a 3to 4/gal in the evening. The plan would be to do larger WC on my days off. The tank size is 40gal by the way. I have found in the past that smaller changes doen twice a day stress the fish less and gets them used to all the action in the tank. Any toughts or suggestions?

Rod

[Eddie]

Another couple of days in and still doing good!

I am getting an auto-feeder so I can provide these guys with a couple of more meals a day, any ideas on brands, etc?

WC are as follows, 3 to 4gal in the morning, after feeding, and 3to 4 gal in the evening after the last feeding, tomorrow on my day off, there will be a 10gal WC in the am and a 3to 4/gal in the evening. The plan would be to do larger WC on my days off. The tank size is 40gal by the way. I have found in the past that smaller changes doen twice a day stress the fish less and gets them used to all the action in the tank. Any toughts or suggestions?

Rod

Thats great Rod! Go for the Eheim 3581s as far as autofeeders.

HTH

Eddie

[David Rose]

Hi Rod,

I admire your dedication to your WC schedule that you've started. I think everyone is different to an extent on this topic depending on the number and size of tanks that they have, planted/decorated or bb, time available and methods used to do water changes such as special plumbing, use of aging barrels depending on water quality etc.

IMO, I think Discus will get used to whatever routine you decide on, so on-going stress shouldn't be an issue. As to frequency of water changes, I have two tanks now 75g/gravel (vaccumed 3 times/week but will be converted to sand) and 46g/sand and am adding a 120g/sand. I use a 50g/day RO unit and accumulator tank and change 30% twice a week with a 70% change on the weekend. Given the output of my RO unit and not wanting to use buffers on my tap water, this works best for me and my current budget. At some point, I will probably add a higher capacity RO unit and more sophisticated direct plumbing.

My juvies are growing out nicely and the three times a week works for me.

Best of luck in finding what works for you.

David