Newbe here - Thanks for your help

[drondy]

Hello all, I have posted a couple of times on this site when I needed help and you were all so helpful. This is my first time keeping Discus and have had some concern about this because my water has a high PH (8.2). As it turns out, that has not really been an issue. I purchased 4 small Tangerine Pigeon Blood Discus from a local breeder at 2.5 - 3 inches in September. I keep these fish in a 35gal bare bottom Hex tank at work where I can keep an eye on them. They have grown to 3.5 - 4.25 feeding five times a day on Frozen blood worms and beefheart as well as flake food. Other than a couple of bumps in the road, things seem to be going well. The plan is to move these four to my 75gal planted tank at home after they have grown out. Once that is done, I would like to get four more other strains to grow out.

I would like to give a shout out to Discus Paul who has been a big help to me as well as many others here.

I thought I would share a few pics with you. Please let me know if you see anything I should know about. The pics are not that great, sorry

http://i976.photobucket.com/albums/ae246/drondy/Discus/IMG_13191.jpg
http://i976.photobucket.com/albums/ae246/drondy/Discus/IMG_13261.jpg
http://i976.photobucket.com/albums/ae246/drondy/Discus/IMG_13201.jpg

Thanks for looking, Dean

[discuspaul]

A belated welcome to simply, Dean.
I finally get to see pics of your discus ! LOL
Didn't know you were also a member here, but it seems you knew I was a member of SD.
TPT is my second go to forum after simply. Great info on planted set-ups.

[jsullins]

looking good, keep up the good work and welcome to SD.

[DISCUS STU]

Welcome to the Forum. Nice looking Pigeon Bloods. You seem to be doing well. I like Pigeon Bloods they've always been one of my favorites, and as Discus go they're one of the tougher, less delicate strains to keep and a good choice to get started with.

Yours seem to have all the right signs to grow to be very nice fish; nice shape and proportions, good color, nice eye to body ratio (no stunted growth). I especially like the one in picture 3.

[aovifo]

Very nice discus. The airstone is more effective when it's closet o the bottom. I dont use blod worms. The nutrition value is not so good, and I heard many times it caused parazite problems

[drondy]

What would you suggest rather than blood worms? I already feed them Beef Heart and flakes. Is blood worms not a good choice?

Dean

[discuspaul]

Dean,
Bloodworms are low in nutritional value, and many discus-keepers feed them sparingly - e.g. only occasionally as a 'treat'.
While it is reported that live bloodworms in particular may carry undesirable pathogens, I have not heard of any issues with name brand frozen, or freeze-dried bloodworms. I've used frozen ones (regularly or irregularly) for several years and never had a problem.
Other choices of acceptable foods for discus include freeze-dried Australian blackworms, frozen Mysis shrimp, a variety of name brand pellets and flakes, and to a lesser extent foods like frozen brine shrimp, frozen krill, & other frozen or freeze-dried foods.

[aovifo]

I don't have experience with frozen blood worms. From freinds and reading I know that there are two opinions. Some say that there is no problem and some say that there is. Many sorts of pathogens dont dead when frozen, they just "go to sleep". Logically if I afraid from pathogens in live BW, freezing will not eliminate them. I don't think any brand can garantee 100% parazite free BW. Everything that came from salt water like brine shrimps etc. is safe to use. Because the freshwater pathogens can't live in salt water. I feed with fish and use only sea fish for that reason. Maybe I'm over careful here, but there is not any advantage in fresh water worms or fish so why not to be to careful with that?

[discuspaul]

I'm of course aware that freezing will not eliminate all pathogens.
But in mentioning frozen bloodworms above, I qualified that by saying 'brand name' frozen fish foods (Hikari is one that comes to mind), who I feel for reputation protection reasons, would take the necessary precautions with their sources of worms, or their own cultivation thereof, to significantly reduce the risks of their foods being thus contaminated. While there are no guarantees to this effect, nonetheless I'm one who is satisfied that the risk is extremely low.

[drondy]

Based in the conversation above I think I am going to eliminate BW from my feeding rotation.