Thread to track Discus Hobbyist Challenger 2012 progress..

[a volar]

Reading to some of Discus Hobbyist Challenger 2012 participants something came to my mind, how about if a thread is created to compare side by side development of fish, like some graphic with columns where you ad data let's said every two weeks or else.
Something similar to an excel sheet, on top of columns names of participants and side columns things like: date, how many fish left, water parameters of course, food been used, feeding regime, size of fish, size of tank, water changes, special comments, etc, etc.....

That way, I think we can compare side to side progress



I jus t have general idea; let me know what you think.

[Second Hand Pat]

Ismael, this is a great idea. There is actually a movement under foot to do this and BobDaniel's has volunteered to do exactly this. Being that the fish are at various ages I would suggest normalizing the dates at days/weeks so the side by side is easier. I would also suggest documenting when the 30 and 8 groups of fish were selected.

I would be happy to be the guinea pig if one is needed.

Pat

[Harry Marsh]

Get to work

I think its a good idea

[Second Hand Pat]

Get to work

Yes sir

[Harry Marsh]

Al should endow you with the power to request certain bits of info 'or else'
(Such as ph, etc)

[Second Hand Pat]

Something like this:

Spawn ID: (for those with one than one spawn)

Update Date:
Age of Fry:

Water Parameters: (Optional)

TDS:
Ammonia:
Nitrite:
Nitrate:
Ph:
GH:
KH:

Daily Feeding Schedule: (include food and time feed)

Daily Water Change Schedule: (Include % changes and whether using tap, RO, mix with % ratio and how often)

Filter and Filter maintenance

Fish Behavior and Appearance: (Include feeding vigor etc).

Other Observations:

[a volar]

I'ts getting shape Pat,how about: tank size, what kind of filter, also tell us about parents background.......

[nc0gnet0]

TDS:
Ammonia:
Nitrite:
Nitrate:
Ph:
GH:
KH:

I think it is safe to assume 90% of us don't measure alot of these things.

[Second Hand Pat]

That is why it is shown as Optional Rick. Like you I known my "normal" water parameters like the back of my hand.

[BobDaniel]

For clarification, I have been tracking compliance to the rules for 2012 competition; not anything that really compares the growth rate of fish of one participant to another.

Granted, it is a good idea and some important information will be obtained from a serious study, but I think in order to do it right, we'd need to measure the 8 fish at regular intervals and chart the data. Some concerns would be 1) Not all participants started at the same time and a common starting point for regular measurement determined 2) The stress to the animals during handling might cause illness/losses and 3)We are talking about a lot of data on top of monitoring rules compliance. This in itself has been taking me longer than I initially thought it would and 4) Measuring the fish 1 through 8 and recording the information consistently will be the biggest issue. Getting ten people in a plant environment to use a tape measure the same way was hard enough and those guys were paid.

So it could be done, but I would like to discuss ideas with others to create some consensus for future projects.

Anyone have experience with how other clubs have done this?

[Second Hand Pat]

The only thing I can tell you Bob is the contest rules call for the fish to be measured at six months and at the one year mark. Perhaps future contests the fish could be measured every three months. Plus if you wanted to compare individual fish growth over a period of time then you need a way to id the same fish each time.

[nc0gnet0]

Everytime you net and measure a fish there is a certain element of risk involved. I would not be a big fan of needing to measure all eight fish on regular intervals. The data that it produced would be almost useless anyways, as you are dealing with different strains of fish that grow at different rates. The only way such a test could produce data of significance would be if you were dealing with fish from the same spawn and comparing different growout vairiables, and even then the sample base would be to small to be conclusive.

I think another point that needs to be brought out is this is not a conatest to see who can grow the biggest fish the fastest, but rather the nicest overall fish in a given duration of time.

[a volar]

See, that was my initial intension, get de ideas/discussion flowing, all of you are right about frequently measure fish because of the stress it will cause to them, perfect, but as Pat mention rules specified fish to be measure at six months then in a year, if it’s not convenient people can just calculate size as many people do whit markings in tanks as rulers........... my general idea was to have as much data as possible together, lets suppose that somebody move to another house, how that affect to fish? I know some of you will think there is an obvious answer for that........
I can't remember the name of a member who was dealing whit ammonia in fry tank, every body jump on and start criticizing that, even I thought that was crazy, but as Al mention on that tread the purpose of the challenge is to see different forms of rising fry, I’m sure we will learn something when this end, if nothing new comes up then at least we reaffirm what we know all ready.

Getting back to the point, it’s just collecting as much data as possible in one place to compare and to be analyzed.

[Skip]

I measure my largest one every week.. And one other.. Avg size.with ruler

[nc0gnet0]

I measure my largest one every week.. And one other.. Avg size.with ruler

You mean every two weeks?