New to baby discus

[Sabrina]

Hello all,
I am not new to discus but I am new to having baby discus. I have feeding schedule questions, I am not sure if I am feeding them enough or if I am feeding them the correct foods either.
I currently have 2 babies (picking up 3 more from the same batch in the next few days), they are housed in a 4 foot 224 liter (59 gallon) grow out tank, I have had them 2 weeks now. I am currently feeding them 3 times a day. The foods include, Hikari bio-gold beefheart pellets, Aqua One Discus bits and Australian black worms with Spinach freeze dried cubes. Are these foods good or if not can you please suggest better options for me. These babies attached to the parents on the 10th December 2017, so that makes them 3 months old now.. Any help or advice would be great thank you

[RogueDiscus]

Hi Sabrina,
I think your foods and schedule sound good. Just be sure to clean up frequently. You didn't say how big the are, but if they're big enough to eat what you're feeding, then I think you're fine.

[Sabrina]

Hi Rogue,

Thank you for your response, I'm glad it seems to be the right foods and feedings per day. I would say the babies are around 2.5 inches from tip of tail to nose at the moment, its very hard to measure them though. Here is 2 pics of them taken just now.

114509

114511

[RogueDiscus]

Yes, that sounds about right for the size. I encourage you to read up in the beginners and general section. I don't use gravel, but it has a reputation for building up waste and eventually causing water quality problems for young discus.

[Sabrina]

That is actually sand, in all the above photos. I know in the top photos it looks like gravel, but I can assure you it is sand, perhaps because it is brand new sand it looks like that?

[bluelagoon]

I would get rid of that much substrate.A fine layer to subdue their reflections might be ok but that is not a good start for baby discus.It might look nicer but BB is much better for maintenance and better growth.

[Sabrina]

Hi Blue,

Thank you for your comment, I'm going to try with the sand for a few weeks, if I start having trouble I will take the tank down and remove all the sand. I am picking up the other 3 baby discus this afternoon, so that will be 5 babies I will have in the grow out tank. They are 3 months old, all from the same batch of babies. :)

[geo57]

Your not gonna get too many folks here liking your sand esp for babies lol. I use sand also, a very good sand, i use the National geogrphic sand from pet smart and I lay down a heavy bed, 5 inches at the least and more in some areas. I have a 450 gal tank with 7 discus and about 100 tetras with a few corys and 3 orange seam plecos. I do 1 major water clean per week and 2 or 3 times per week I vacuum out the area where most of the waste gathers. I have malaysian driftwood mixed with a large manzanete stump. The discus go from 6" to 3" with an F1 in the mix. I use two cannister filters and my ammonia is 0 and my nitrates go from about 5 to 10ppm. The tank is brand new as are the pumps and its been cycled about two months with the tertras and co. before i put the discus in last week. You sound experienced in the care of discus so you know to keep your sand clean, my tank is four foot deep so I've invented tools to do the job. Just to ask sabrina, where are you located, are you in Australia? I'm in California and the best Black worms come from Dan's California Black worms, healthy fresh live food for discus, heck I feed them to all my fish 90% of the time.

[Sabrina]

Hi George :)

Yes I know no one would like the fact I have sand in my grow out tank. The sand wont kill them, it just means extra work for me cleaning it all the time. I dislike bear bottom tanks, they are not a natural environment for discus.
I wouldn't say I am experienced with Discus yet, I had them 18 months ago for a year, but they were juvies, but not as young as the babies I have now. I also have 5 adult discus now too, so with the babies and adults I have little experience. I have been keeping fish for 2 and a half years all together now, so I know the basics of fish keeping. I had a difficult time with my first lot of discus 18 months ago, they got sick with all types of illnesses and my inexperience didn't help, I rushed into it at the time, something I would not recommend to anyone else. I have learnt a lot from my early mistakes and I am trying not to make as many this time around.
I am located in Victoria, Australia, 2 hours north of Melbourne.
With the live black worms you are feeding your fish, I have read on a number of occasions that blood/black worms are not a stable diet for discus, and that those black worms can carry parasites. I have always been told to feed discus blood/black worms as a treat once a day or less, and to feed them more of the pellets and flake foods. Ive also heard negative reports about beefheart foods, and that they should be fed sparingly too if at all. Might be something you want to research. I personally feed mine a little bit of everything, I try to keep it mixed up so they get a variety of foods. I know I would hate eating the same thing day in day out, so I mix it up for all my pets :)
Are you able to upload a photo of your huge tank George? Id love to see it!

[geo57]

Sure Sabrina I can and will load a few pics, but I usually post at work and our company computers are so restricted i can't capture the photos off my phone to the computers so I have to do it at my home computer as also my cell is way to complicated when it comes to loading pics to this website. The black worms i feed are probably the best food you can purchase. Dan's Calif Black worms are clean and safe, you can read about them on Simply Discus and you can ask anyone here about them. They are NOT tubifex garbage, and they will not pollute your tank as they stay alive and your fish can hunt them down which they love. yes other worms I'd be careful with but Dan's black worms have no parasites or diseases and are always fresh upon delivery. I do mix a few other foods such as Northfin Pellets and Krill, but my fish are getting spoiled and prefer the worms sometimes just looking at the pellets as they sink lol. My tank is a blackwater tank and i use Fluval peat moss and the driftwood to blacken, so I have white sand and dark wood. I designed the tank specifically for Discus as they love deep water and I gave them four feet of it. I believe the beefheart's only drawback is the filth it produces, but the fish love it. I would think that logically live food would be the best. Anything processed, according to MY way of thinking cannot be that good for you or any animal...but thats just me.

[Sabrina]

Hi George,
Well if you can load a photo that would be awesome, but no matter if you cant.
I am glad to hear the worms you use are parasite free, I actually hadn't heard of those here in Australia, though I'm sure we have something similar.
I have to agree about the processed foods though without them it leaves us little variety to feed our fish.
All up though, if your fish are happy and healthy you must be doing something right :)

[Sabrina]

Hello all,
My babies are good but I'm a bit worried, they seem to be fighting a lot, I was just watching them and they almost locked mouths in a fight. Is this normal for such young discus? 3 of them are really mean to each other, head butting and chasing?

[Second Hand Pat]

Hi Sabrina, aggression with young discus is normal. The smaller the group for more aggression you might see. Adding three more young discus will help but we generally recommend group of 6 or more. I will second the removal of the sand. Once you add three more to the tank you may be surprised at the waste these guys can create. Being BB will only be temporary and your babies will be so much more healthy and happy.
Pat

[Sabrina]

Hey Pat,
Thank you for taking time to respond, I thought 5 was a good number, and for my tank size 224 liter (59 gallons) I also thought 5 was enough so they had plenty of room to grow out. I will think about the chance of getting 1 or 2 more in the next 2 weeks, and removing the sand at this stage will stress not only me out but the babies too, but I will start making plans to do so in the coming weeks. Thanks again :)

[bluelagoon]

Hi,I changed out a 6 ft.tank of substrate form gravel to sand a few weeks ago for my Geophagus Proximus.I found the best way is to siphon it out with a hose along with the WC's.

[Sabrina]

Cheers Blue, That's a good idea, I will do it in the coming weeks when everything else settles down a bit :)

[Sabrina]

Just did a 80 liter water change on the babies tank, waited 1.5 hours and then did test readings:
PH 7.6
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 20
KH 71.6
GH 143.2
I'm happy with those readings for now, I have asked the local pet store to hold another canister filter aside for me for the grow out tank, its a 224 liter (59 gallon) tank, so the extra filtration will be good for it as I only have a jumbo sponge filter and a 500 liter an hour HOB filter running on it at the moment, which seems to be enough but the fish are only small right now. The babies seem very happy today :)
114604
114605
114606

[Sabrina]

Look at this aggression from my babies, it shocks me that being so small they would carry on like this..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=reapYOapaVU

[Filip]

Fighting for food and aggressive behaviour during feedings is normal for many fish species , especially for Cichlids.
Constant chasing and bulling a specific discus on the other hand , can be a problem to worry about.

[Second Hand Pat]

Cut the cube in half Sabrina and stick each half cube on either side of the tank. This way one fish can not dominant the cube.

Sort of like this. Please excuse the music.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oVVqxlv2vu4

Pat

[Sabrina]

Hi Filip, Its really just during the feeding times that this happens yes, I will try cutting the cube like Pat suggests. Thanks guys :)

[Sabrina]

Hi, I'm having better results with feeding cutting the cubes in half with the babies, though now they seem to be mean to one another even when there is no food in the tank. Cranky little fish lol
One of the babies is half the size of all the other babies, would this be classed as the runt? It does not seem to be growing at all.. Where as the other 4 are getting bigger by the day!
Just finished another 2 hour water change on both tanks, cant wait to get the trolley for my new pump/bin set up next week, water changes will be a breeze after that :D

[LJSmith]

That is awesome music Pat. How many cubes per day were you feeding that batch of fry?

[Second Hand Pat]

Hi, I'm having better results with feeding cutting the cubes in half with the babies, though now they seem to be mean to one another even when there is no food in the tank. Cranky little fish lol
One of the babies is half the size of all the other babies, would this be classed as the runt? It does not seem to be growing at all.. Where as the other 4 are getting bigger by the day!
Just finished another 2 hour water change on both tanks, cant wait to get the trolley for my new pump/bin set up next week, water changes will be a breeze after that :D

Good to hear cutting the cube is working Sabrina. Sometimes one does not grow. If it falls too far behind sometimes it is best to cull the runt as often they can become sickly and a health risk to the rest of the batch.


That is awesome music Pat. How many cubes per day were you feeding that batch of fry?

Most likely three so every one got to eat Lucus. There were about 40 fry in that batch.

[Sabrina]

Cull it Pat? How and what exactly do you mean? Put it to sleep with cloves oil? How could I do that to my baby :(

[Sabrina]

Hi all,
Just an update on the babies growth, they are now very close to being 4 months old, I have just tried to measure them, they are 3 inches from nose to end of tail, except the runt who is a bit smaller, they are also just about as high as they are long. Is this a good size for their age? I'm still not seeing any real colour coming out, there is still 2 with orange through their body with black top and bottom fins, the other 3 are white through the body and black and blue through the top and bottom fins.. How much longer do you think before I see some real colours come out? I'm so anxious to see colour!

[Filip]

Hi all,
Just an update on the babies growth, they are now very close to being 4 months old, I have just tried to measure them, they are 3 inches from nose to end of tail, except the runt who is a bit smaller, they are also just about as high as they are long. Is this a good size for their age? I'm still not seeing any real colour coming out, there is still 2 with orange through their body with black top and bottom fins, the other 3 are white through the body and black and blue through the top and bottom fins.. How much longer do you think before I see some real colours come out? I'm so anxious to see colour!

Are you certain of their age Sabrina and did you hand measured them ?
3 inch size for a 4 month discus is a reasonable growth rate .
Colouring is very dependant and variable with the discus strain type and its parents genetics .
Very aproximately taken , at 6 months of age they should start showing their colours IMO .

[Sabrina]

Hi Filip,
Yes they attached to their parents on the 10th December 2017, so that makes them almost 4 months old now. I did measure them by looking at their size and comparing it to my measure tape, I cant be 100% sure but they are very close to 3 inches at my guess.
Their parents were a PB and Melon, so I expect red or orange colours with a pattern maybe. If its 6 months I only have 2 months to wait :)
Thank you for your help!