Uncertain future

[Jason F]

I just graduated college and am about to start a temporary summer job. This job will have me about 3 1/2 hours away from home for about 4 days a week and will hopefully keep the rent paid until I am able to find a more permanent position. I'm trying to get into law enforcement, or more specifically fish & wildlife law enforcement, so when and if that happens I'll also have to deal with being away at the academy also, but one thing at a time. I have 4 aquariums running right now, 3 of which I'm not too worried about, they have pretty hardy fish in them and I don't have a ton of money wrapped up in them. The one I'm worried about is my 75g with my discus in it. My wife and kids will still be home so if some emergency happens there will be someone there, however, they have never done any of the maintenance or feeding and my wife really doesn't like doing anything with the tanks.
Should the fish be fine if while I'm gone I just have my wife give them a little flake food each day and I'll do their regular feedings and water changes of the weekends? At one point I mentioned I was thinking of finding the discus a new home and get out of discus keeping until I got through the academy and we got moved and my wife just about flipped out that I would get rid of fish I had spent so much money on.
So the question is if you had a job that would have you away from home for half the week and you had minimal aquarium help at home what you do?

[alron2]

I suggest you answer these questions to arrive at the decision: Are the discus adults? How large and how many in the tank? How long do you think it will be before you will be available to give them proper daily care? If the fish end up stunted will you still be happy with them?

Good luck
Ron

[Keith Perkins]

Whether or not they're adults makes a huge difference in answering your questions.

[Jason F]

They are about 2 years old right now. They are also my first discus and I got most of them when they were pretty small and they have been a learning process. With that a few of them are stunted already and the others are around 5 to 5.5 inches. I started out with 8 PB's that were about 1.5 to 2 inches if I remember right. At that time I still had pool sand in the tank. After about 6 months I pulled all the sand and added 4 more from Kenny's Discus. That was about a year and a half ago. I've had one of the Kenny's Discus die and the rest have been in pretty good health. I used to do daily water changes at around 80-90% but since they are a little bigger now I've been doing about 4-5 a week at the same %. I figure with work I would still be able to do 3, maybe 4, water changes a week just they would be lumped together over consecutive days instead of spread out throughout the week.

[chuckiesmalls]

do you want to grow them any bigger?

I think past the 2 year mark they grow slowly.

Im pretty novice but I think you might be able to get away with it and maybe teach your wife how to us ea supbmersible pump and hose to get out some water mid-week and pump in some fresh? Lots of people use a product call python but I just use a sub-pump and hose from HD I cut to length and use that.

http://www.amazon.com/EcoPlus-728310-Submersible-Pump-396GPH/dp/B0018X2XT4/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1463151588&sr=8-3&keywords=submersible+pump

http://www.amazon.com/TotalPond-V16010-Vinyl-Tubing/dp/B004DL0Y9O/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1463151644&sr=8-2&keywords=1%2F2%22+tubing

I pump water out...then I keep a bucket in the closest sink...fill it up, condition the water..put the pump in witht the other end of hose in tank...and turn it on....

Incredibly easy, no hauling buckets. I am sure your wife can manage this..no? Maybe she does not like fish? Haha

Hope you figure it out.

[Jason F]

Oh I've already got the whole water change thing down, it's just getting my wife to do it. She doesn't want to touch the icky "fish water". lol
Right now my process is fairly easy. I use a 75 foot python with a 10 foot extension to reach from the downstairs laundry room to the upstairs fish tanks. The water is drained straight into the deep sink in the laundry room. To refill my water is first filtered through a Bulk Reef Supply RO/DI unit which right now is bypassing the RO membrane and DI chamber so its just filtering through a 5 micron sediment, 5 micron carbon block, and .6 micron carbon block. Water then goes to 2 44g brute trash cans where the water is heated, circulated, and aerated. When the tanks are drained the Python is moved from the deep sink to a Little Giant 3-MDQ-SQ pump that is connected to the trash cans and ran off a remote switching outlet. The remote switching outlet was a later addition and I swear is worth its weight in gold. It allows me to turn the pump on/off from upstairs while I'm in front of the tank.
So like I said I have the the whole water change thing down pretty good, its just getting the wife to help. lol

[Phillydubs]

So I take it you will be gone monday-thurs? Home friday, sat and sunday??

My suggestion would be to almost treat this as a mini weekly vacation. Your fish aren't really growing anymore, you have had them a decent amount of time and you admitted that you learned with them and still got them to a nice respectable size, which is all fine...

If your schedule is as I laid it out before then I don't see a problem. Will you be home thursday night, driving back after work? If thats the case I would always make sure you do a big WC sunday night before you head back. Don't feed them until wednesday, have your wife do some feedings, she can feed again during the day thurs, once you are home thurs, do a nice big wc, up to you if you do it friday as well, maybe you chill for a day and do another saturday and then back to your big one before you go...

If you follow a plan like that or something close, I see no issues and your wife doesnt have to touch that icky fish water!!!

[Keith Perkins]

I would let your wife feed them on Thursday, feed them heavy yourself on Friday and Saturday, and do huge WCs on Friday and Sunday night and call it good. They'll be better off with clean water while your gone than your wife feeding them and not changing any water. They'll do alright until you can get back on a more normal schedule.

[LizStreithorst]

If your wife is unwilling to help you with their maintenance it is unfair for her to complain about you re-homing them. These were starter fish for you. 5 to 5 /2" is small for 2 year old fish unless you are measuring standard length. You've learned a lot since you first got them. I suggest that you sell them for what you can get so you don't have to worry about them and when you are settled and doing better buy new Discus again.

[Phillydubs]

I think Liz makes some very solid points and goes a different direction but maybe the worthwhile one...

Really up to you but you have options and can make either work.

Best of luck

[LizStreithorst]

I keep wondering what Jason decided to do. He's trying to the best while in a difficult position. Whatever he decides I wish him the best.

[Dhavalsp]

I really don't see this as a big problem...if he is able to get WC on Thurs and Sun and adds 2 canister filters....and reduces feeding to 2 small feeding (thurs -sunday) and one feeding (Mon-wed) this is completely doable as this would ensure stable water condition through out the week. These are 2 year old discus so there is very little growing potential(almost none)...He has 11 Discus in 75 G, I would get the number down 8 (get rid of stunted or the least favorite ones).Getting rid of discus may lead to rearrangement of pecking order so be vigilant if you take that route...

[Jason F]

Sorry, the last few days around the house have been busy. I start my new job this week however I also have an interview with a Sheriffs Department a few hours away on Tuesday. Because of this my new job doesn't start till Wednesday and I should be back home either Thursday or Friday. Right now I'm not planning on getting rid of any of my discus. For one my wife has agreed to do a small water change while I'm gone. Also I just got done repainting the back of the tank, went from black to light blue, and while I didn't have time to take the tank down completely so I could flip it and paint the bottom I did get two sheets of large thick white paper and slipped them between the bottom of the tank and the stand. Both of these modifications are in hopes that my PB's will lose some of their peppering. Additionally I just bought new lighting for the tank and am almost done building a hood. With all this I don't want to come home every weekend to see and empty tank. Plus while they may not be of the nicest quality I've had most of them almost two years and I really like them.
With this the wife and I have also been discussing me going into the navy reserves so that I can finish out my time and be eligible for retirement. If that does happen than sometime in the next year or two I'm going to have to go away for school for a few weeks to months, not to mention the possibility of deployments again. In this case I won't really have any choice but to put my discus, and probably my entire aquarium hobby, on the back burner. Until then though if it looks like I can keep them then I can't see getting rid of them.

[Jason F]

Here is a quick pic of the tank right now.
http://i1281.photobucket.com/albums/a505/fontainejr/13240527_10204638432879867_5276432674178493307_n_z psem8powdt.jpg (http://s1281.photobucket.com/user/fontainejr/media/13240527_10204638432879867_5276432674178493307_n_z psem8powdt.jpg.html)

And here's another one of my favorite discus.
http://i1281.photobucket.com/albums/a505/fontainejr/13232996_10204638433079872_8984352656092833618_n_z psgzpjbfbl.jpg (http://s1281.photobucket.com/user/fontainejr/media/13232996_10204638433079872_8984352656092833618_n_z psgzpjbfbl.jpg.html)

[LizStreithorst]

I'm glad that your wife decided to help you out. Best of luck with the new job, and the interview, and the fish, and your future. You seem to me to be a good man.

[Jason F]

Well it's been a little while since starting my new job that has me away from home during most of the work week and I thought I would do a quick update. The first couple weeks I did loose quite a few fish, however, they were not my discus. I had one angel about 20 or so neons, rummynose, and bloodfin tetras along with one bushynose pleco who all checked out for some reason or another. After that second week I shut down the two tanks in my office and moved the rest of the fish that were in those tanks to my kids' tank downstairs and I haven't lost a single one since. As for my discus tank, and also my oscar ect... tank which is also in the living room, both seem to be doing well. They both get heavy feedings and w/c on the weekends and my wife has been doing very light feedings with about 30-50% w/c about once a week while I'm gone. It's quite funny because when I get home my dog, one of the cats, and the fish in the living room tanks go nuts and my wife just shakes her head and says they never do that when I'm gone. lol

[Pices]

Nice looking tank Jason and some happy looking fish! I have no advice, I'm a novice here, but love your fish and tank! After seeing your fish I can see your dilemma and why you want to keep them. Nice job on those!