Updates on my "Little Ones"

[strawberryblonde]

I've been raising my 5 pigeon discus since June 15th, so almost 3 months now, and finally had to put them into my display tank. The poor things were so crowded in the 55g tank that they kept bumping into each other. LOL

I yanked the big driftwood piece out of the main tank so that cleaning up after them will be easier for the next few months and removed my favorite pair to the 55 to use as a temporary breeding tank. (The huge Red Scrib male and his petite Brilliant Turq female). I had planned to place them into my new 29g breeding tank, but our town switched over to a new well last weekend on the same day that I did a huge water change on the big tank. I didn't know about the change till I saw all the cloudy water entering the tank and by then it was too late to do much about it. Most of the fish were unhappy, but tolerated it. My big Red Turq male wasn't as lucky. He decided to go hide in the BREEDING end of the tank and got attached by both my super aggressive flachenSS and the Red Scrib. By the time the biting and chasing was done he'd cut his eye fairly badly. I made the decision to put him into the breeding tank in order to keep an eye on him. The eye got worse and I noticed fluffy tufts on it, so it was time for some salt and fungal treatment. He's recovering very nicely in his bright green water and should be ready to go back into the main tank in another couple of days.

Ok, gotta keep this to the readers digest condensed version, right? LOL

The carnation pigeon and 4 golden sunshines went into the big tank 3 days ago. I was only worried about the smallest one, but she seems to actually be eating a whole lot more in the big tank and the rest are large enough to hold their own without problems. I just forgot what a pain it is to feed all that beefheart in the big tank and then siphon so much water every day. <insert big sigh here>

Next up is the pics of the fish. There are currently 10 of them in the tank. The largest is the Marlboro at just under 9", then the male Brilliant Turq at 8.5" - way to go Number Five! - and then the FlachenSS and Flachen female at 7.75". When you see the pics you'll see why I had to move the pigeons. The Carnation is nearly the same size as the 2 flachens, so about 6.5-7" and 3 of the GS are the same size as the Cobalt, so definitely over 6" and just under 6.5". The little GS is 5.5" now and hopefully will sprout a bit with more water and more food in the tank.

Group-Shot.jpg

A group shot, just before the FDBW's started a feeding frenzy. The carnation on the far left is actually larger than the cobalt right next to her. She's a bit football shaped at the moment, but should finish filling and rounding out a bit.

Rosy.jpg

That's Rosie up there on the right. He's the pink blush colored GS that I'm hoping to breed in order to bring out more of his pink hues. Nod is to his left and the FlachenSS is right below Rosie.

Blinken.jpg

Blinkin is upper left with Nod off to the far left, the carnation, flachenSS and Number Five are sorta milling around and hoping for food.

Group-Shot-2.jpg

This is just a group shot as they figured out that I had their favortie FDBW's in my hand and was approaching the tank. They get fed on the left side of the tank so they started all moving in that direction. LOL

MR-and-Carnation.jpg

And that's a gaggle of discus in the midst of the feeding frenzy. Winkin, the bitsy GS is the up there on the left, just diving right in and not letting the size of the rest of the discus bother her one bit.

Ok, that's it for my first official post in what will become my Golden Sunshine journal thread.

[Second Hand Pat]

Toni, they look totally awesome. Great job girl. Soon all will be jumbos

[strawberryblonde]

Toni, they look totally awesome. Great job girl. Soon all will be jumbos

I'm working on it Pat. I wasn't too sure I'd be able to get these guys to jumbo size since they aren't Hans fish, but by golly, 2 water changes and 6 feedings a day and they're looking like they just might make it past 7 inches...woot! LOL

The carnation was the biggest surprise for me. I really had it in my head that these guys were a lot smaller than my big guys, so when I plopped into the tank and saw her next to the flachenSS and Number Five I did a double take. Other than being slightly shorter (height not length) than the FlachenSS, she's inch for inch the same size as he is. She's just gotten a lot longer than she is tall in the last month... I used to panic at that, but my marlboro did the same thing during a growth spurt and then rounded out again after a couple of months.

It's just so cute to watch all the greedy and uber outgoing Golden's in the tank! They sashay right up to the big guys and flutter all around them as if to say "Hey guys, whatcha doin? Wanna play?" LOL

[Disgirl]

Beautiful discus Toni! Last year our city changed deep underground aquifers overnight. One day we had soft but alkaline water, the next day we had very hard and alkaline water. I was very worried. But the discus did fine, just shows how tough they are and what a wide variety of water they can handle as long as it is clean and warm!
Barb

[strawberryblonde]

Thanks for the encouragement Barb! I've been wailing and gnashing my teeth this time around because, unlike past seasonal well changes, this time the cloudiness and sediments seemed to be hanging around (over a week now) and my fish seem a bit stressed, though certainly not sick.

Welp, as of this morning we had a city water technician out digging around near the water meter in our yard. My husband wandered out to ask what was going on, and the man informed us that there has been a ground water "situation" in our yard, plus our neighbors yard for "some time now". And they didn't tell us!

The fix involves shutting off our water and rerunning pipes from the main to our house, and from the main to our neighbors house. The tech apologized for the inconvenience and warned us that we shouldn't be drinking or using our tap water for cooking. Ugh, gotta love those guys.

[Second Hand Pat]

That is horrible Toni. So when was the water company going to tell you there was a water issue?? After it made you sick!! So where does that leave you and how long without usable water?

[nwehrman]

Ouch Toni! That stinks!


Nicole

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[strawberryblonde]

That is horrible Toni. So when was the water company going to tell you there was a water issue?? After it made you sick!! So where does that leave you and how long without usable water?

The water tech had no answers for us on how long we'll be without water, or even exactly when they'd be showing up to shut it off and start work. As far as being sick goes, Tim and I have both had what we thought was a week long stomach flu. Guess not, huh? Grrrrrrrr!

I just can't stop wondering how much fertilizer and other crap from the ground water has been entering my tanks every day...twice a day on my growout tank for pete's sake! Thank goodness I moved them to the big tank 4 days ago. They've only been suffering with one water change a day since then.

Tim is currently stocking up on water to see us through all of this.

[shoveltrash]

you're making me REALLY want to upgrade my tank...........
the group looks amazing all together in the new digs!

if your water is contaminated in some way, I'd be raising holy H*LL with the city water company!!!! wonder what's in it? hope it clears up soon.

[BobDaniel]

Toni, you certainly know how to grow some tank busters! What exactly is the diet you have them on?

[Eddie]

9 inch fish? Biggest fish I've ever seen was only 7.5". Thats record size!

[strawberryblonde]

Toni, you certainly know how to grow some tank busters! What exactly is the diet you have them on?

They just got 2 feedings of variety flakes, 2 feedings of frozen beefheart and 2 feedings of FDBW's per day when they were growing out. I also did 2 water changes per day and that was it. I was as shocked as anyone when they didn't stop growing at 1 year old and continued to grow for another 6 months!

[strawberryblonde]

9 inch fish? Biggest fish I've ever seen was only 7.5". Thats record size!

Hi Eddie,

I thought you'd already seen the measurement post of my discus. The largest is just a hair under 9" with the other 3 large ones being 8.75", 8.5" and 8". They're the oldest discus in my group. The second batch I grew out still isn't 18 months old yet, but they are well past at or over the 7" mark except for the petite one. She's only 6" and looks like a midget next to her whopping big Red Scrib mate. LOL

[Eddie]

Hi Eddie,

I thought you'd already seen the measurement post of my discus. The largest is just a hair under 9" with the other 3 large ones being 8.75", 8.5" and 8". They're the oldest discus in my group. The second batch I grew out still isn't 18 months old yet, but they are well past at or over the 7" mark except for the petite one. She's only 6" and looks like a midget next to her whopping big Red Scrib mate. LOL

Nope haven't seen it. You have them up against a ruler?

[strawberryblonde]

Nope haven't seen it. You have them up against a ruler?

Here ya go:

IMG_3614.jpg

IMG_3626.jpg

Same guy in his tank with the Marlboro right behind him. He's my largest discus at just under 9"
IMG_3482.jpg

And this is my Red Scribbelt. I didn't measure him that night because he was guarding eggs, but he's somewhere in between the size of the MR and RS
IMG_3485.jpg

And the "runt" of the litter:

IMG_3618.jpg