Some really important questions!

[cool_kid525]

Dear Disus Finatics,
It has been a while since my road runner has been working so here is an update on my three 3.5-3 inch Red tourqouise discus. The fish are eating and doing really well and they are now begging for food (how funny and cute!) and eating blood worms and tetra-bits. I know I should have a more varied diet but I think that I would like them to get used to these foods before I try any more new foods on them. The fish are so beautiful and are showing hints of metallic blue on thier fins. My mom was such a pooper when I was buying the fish because she thought that $100.00 for three fish was to much, but at the lfs she gave the okay(with a sigh of course) and the fish were mine. I really want everyone here at simply discus to know that I love to hear your replies so keep them coming. There is a sort of peking order and when there is food it is rare that the bigest fish will be greedy but it has happend once or twice. About my tank, it is a 30 gallon grow out tank that was cycled for three days and the ammonia and nitrate was at 0, ph was at 7.0, GH=3 drops and is a bare bottom with only three young Red tourqouse. I have three questions though. Why does one of my discus have a red nose? It it a disease or from the blood worms or even the tetra-bits. The red on its nose could also be the fishes color coming in right? One of my fish is the only one who has it. The other question, is it o kay if I do straight tapwater changes if the water is conditioned with aquasafe(I think that is it, the conditioneris made by tetra) the tap water parameters match my tankwater parameters? My fish have already gotten used to the ph of 7.5, and they dont seem to mind the tap they really love the new clean water. The third question is why are thier lines on my discus body? I see them on the blue discus on the tetra-bits bottle and i just wanna know if It is heradatary? Thans foe all your help I REALLY appriciate it and I will keepthe long forums and questions coming, lol.
*Michael

[aloosh]

Hey Michael,

Glad to see that you have your ISP connection sorted out mate :)

If the red on the nose looks a like bleeding then your discus as some burst blood vessels. Nothing to panick about though :) From my experience and knowledge this can be caused by two things:

1) The discus banged its nose somewhere.
2) You are feeding them frozen food straight from the freezer. If you are
feeding your discus frozen blood worms, you need to wahs off any
excess ice off the food and leave it out for about 5 mins. Then feed
it to your discuss.

With regards to the water changes, yep you can do them that way as long as you condition the water first before adding it to the tank. I see no problems with your current method. By the way how much water are you changing and how often?

The lines you are referring to, what colour are they and are ther vertical, horizontal, scribbly etc?

Let me know how you get along :)

Cheers
Ali

[Ryan]

Hi Michael,

It is important that your tap water is the same coming out of the tap as it is once it has aged. Test your water straight from the tap and record your readings. Then let a cup of tap water sit out all night long, uncovered, and check the water again the next day. Are the readings different? Similar? Identical?

Some tap water changes drastically after the CO2 has off-gassed. This can cause pH swings that may stress your fish. I used to have well water in my old house that was the same aged or fresh from the tap and I could do direct water changes, but in my new house the parameters shift quite a bit after aerating awhile. Now I age my water overnight (and condition it for chlorine, as well) before changing it. I've tried direct water changes but my fish didn't appreciate it -- I was seeing lots of red noses and deep red areas around their pectoral fins (behind the gills). I am not sure if this came from chlorine or what, but it seems to not happen when I age my water.

Some people who have matching parameters have success going straight from the tap to the tank, and adding a dechlorinating product during the actual water change. Others prefer aging their water separately before using it. That's really something that you have to test out and see which works best for you.

Ryan

[aloosh]

Hey Ryan,

Good advice mate, completely slipped my mind that tap water parameters change, I should know better than that :-[

I age my water and have been for a little while now. Shows how easy it is to forget about the dangers of using tap water.

Thanks for that, much appreciated.

Cheers
Ali

[Ryan]

No problem, Ali. It is the same situation here. I have to age now. At one time I didn't have to. Things are not nearly as convenient as they used to be! And to think I never even knew what "parameters" were when I used to keep livebearers :)

Ryan