A Blue Knight is a high bodied Turk.
Thank you. I'm very happy with them
Eventually I would like to move them into my community tank. That tank is planted. I still need make several changes to that tank before it can be a suitable environment for discus. That's the plan months down the road and it will all depend on how comfortable I feel about it as time passes. Everytime I've attempted to keep discus in a planted tank in past hasn't yielded great results. Right now that tank is running well I've had my angels and blue rams spawn in that tank which to me is a good sign.
I've already started to making small adjustments to my community tank.
Crossing my fingers
For now they have their own 75 gallon BB tank
A Blue Knight is a high bodied Turk.
Mama Bear
So this morning I wake up and check on the fish and noticed that they were really dark and huddled together in the corner. I tested to water for ammonia and found that the ammonia level was at 1ppm. I guess 4 feedings a day and a 50 percent water change was too much for the filter. I'm running a ehiem 2215 in the tank. The inlet is covered with a sponge to prevent any waste from actually going into the filter.
I changed 75 percent of the water and the ammonia is now at .25 which is the same reading I get straight from the tap. The fish have responded very well and colored up right away and are now behaving normal.
I'm going to cut the feeding down to 2 or 3 per day and up the water changes to 75 percent twice a day. I'm also going to add some sponge filters to the tank.
My only real concern is aging the water. I have only 1 barrel and I age the water 24hrs before changing the water. The ph here is very stable and sits at 7.6 I've been testing it daily since I got the fish. After 6 hours or so of aging the water to ph is the same in barrel as it is in the tank.
Is 12 hours enough time to age the water?
If you have Prime dose it to detoxify ammonia. It converts harmful ammonia to harmless ammonium. This is cool because it won't stall your cycle by removing the food source for the BB but allows your biofilter 48hrs to consume it.
The purpose of aging is pH stability. If you can achieve that in 6 hours then your good. I can achieve it in 3 hours with my water.
Because your discus are already past the rapid growth phase, cutting back to 2-3 feedings/day is wise. With the water volume & stock density 1 daily wc @ 75% should cover your needs satisfactorily and allow your filters to catch up.
Thanks I use seachem safe which I think does the same thing. To error on the side caution I've been doing two 75% waterchanges daily along with 3 feedings a day. The fish are responding very well. I'll keep this up for the nest week or so then I'll go to one WC and keep testing the water.
Sounds good mate! All the best to you and your discus Filipe!
Thanks for the help Daniel
No worries mate, my pleasure!
Today another problem I just changed the water and Immediately the fish all went dark and some of them started to show white patches right after the water-change but they looked a little dark and stressed this morning before the water-change but it got a whole lot worse right after.
Problem
1. Please explain the problems with your fish. When did you notice the problems and did anything unusual happen that you think started them?
A little dark and stressed this morning before the water change. White patches and fish got really dark right after the waterchange[/COLOR]
2. Symptoms (i.e. turning dark, excess slime, not eating, clamped fins, flashing, darting, clamped gills, white/yellow/green poop, hiding, headstanding or tailstanding, white on tips of fins, rotting or fungus, blisters/white zits on fish, bloated, cloudy eyes, wounds).
Huddled together in the back corner of the tank really dark
3. What medications/ treatments have you already tried and what were the results. Include dosage and duration of treatment.
None
Tank/Water
4. Tank size and ages, numbers and sizes of fish.
75 gallon 7 fish about a year old fish size ranges from 5.5" to 6"
5. Water change regime (What percentage and how often).
75 percent 2x a day
6. How long has tank been running? Is it bare bottom? If you have substrate, what type and how deep is it?
Tank has been running 5 days it's barebottom
7. Do you age your water? If you do for how long and what is the ph swing.
water is aged water was aged for 15hours. PH in tank and barrel matched 7.6
8. What type/brand water conditioner do you use? Do you add it to the tank or aging barrel? How much do you use?
Seachem safe added to barrel 1/4 TSP for 50 gallons
9. Parameters and water source;
Note: Water Parameters are important in diagnosing problems within a tank. If you don't own test kits for the following information, you can purchase them, test your parameters and post this info as soon as possible.
- temp 84
- ph 7.6
- ammonia reading 0.5 (reason for spike was mentioned on previous posts)
- nitrite reading 0
- nitrate reading 10
What type of water or combinations of water sources do you use? If it is an RO/tap/well water mix, please list percentages in the mix.
- well water NO
- municipal water YES
- RO water NO
10. Any new fish, plants or inverts added recently. NO
11. Please tell us what you feed your fish and how often. This can be critical information for solving the problem so be as specific as you can.
Feedings are reduced to 2-3 per day They are fed Freeze Dried Blackworms and Discus D50 pellets
12. Include any pictures or videos you have which shows the symptoms. If you can't add them to this post, please provide a link to them.
Anyone know what causes these patches?
Just an update after several hours the fish a looked much better and their behavior and colour have returned to normal. I don't know what happened maybe the city put something in water as we've been going through warmer weather and had a pretty good thaw over the last couple of day's. I added more conditioner to aquarium shortly after I noticed them darken up and saw the patches appear. Needless to say that was a bit of a scare.
I changed the water on my planted tank straight from the tap the same day and noticed nothing out of the ordinary. Granted the water for the discus tank was aged and was drawn from the tap the night before
I'm still wondering what happened but happy that everything is OK now.
The conditioner should be added to the tank and not the barrel. It's ok if you don't let ot sit there, but if you're not going to use it right away don't put any in the barrel. Especially, if chloramine is used by the water supplier. You might be adding ammonia with the WC. If the suppler is using just chlorine then you should be just fine.
That white patch is a scratch from a possible scare. Don't over think it. Maybe they need to get used to the environment. Try not to make sudden movements or hard taps near the tank or it's cabinetry.
My fish used to hurdle in a corner when I did water changes and the slightest tap sent them darting all over.. They used to sit high at the suppliers shop and barely saw traffic. Now they see me more than they wish. lol
I started to feed Al's worms as I water changed and now they let me grab them and even feed them from my hands.
Salt 1TBS/10 g will help the scratch or you can just look the other way. it will heal on its own.
This confirms my message above. They just don't like you in their tank. They will eventually get used to the husbandry.
you can also reduce the water changes. No need for 2x75% on adult fish.
Last edited by Mando; 12-10-2019 at 03:02 PM.