A Newb with tons of questions .............

[CAGE-RATTLER]

Well i sure am glad i found this forum :D

I've been searching around the net for all the info i can get and this definately looks like the place!

As the thread title states ............ Im a newb .......... and not just a newb at discus but also a newb taking care of fish in general!

Hopefully i wont ramble on to much .........lol .......... and jump around to much cause i really need some questions answered and some info .... ...... but i'll give you some insight on my situation.

The wife has been into fish and did all the work while i just enjoyed watching them. We had 3 small tanks of freshwater fish (1 in the living room and 2 in the kids room) and we decided to get a large tank and combine them all.

We originally started looking for a cheap used 55 setup with stand so i started watching ebay for a week or 2 to see what kind of prices they were going for and looking for something to pop up locally.

Well i looked in the paper and a guy about 30 minutes from us had a 100 gallon setup with stand, 2 discus he paid $70 a piece for, 3 rummy nose, a fluval 304 canister, an emporer 400 with bio-wheels, 2 heaters and everything else you could emagine too. And when i say everything else you could imagine .... i mean it!! He is a retiring city police officer thats moving out of state and is getting rid of everything. He said he used to do some breeding a while back and was into it big time.

The deal included about 5 boxes of stuff that i have no idea what some of it is .... lol. Im talking about 6 heaters, 5 or 6 gravel vacs of all sizes, an entire box of filter media of all kinds, 8 different filters, hoses and air stones, a couple water pumps, another whole box of decorations including large driftwood and corals, a brine shrimp hatchery and tons of food, chemicals and testing equiptment and even some books on discus breeding. And thats just some of what i remember .... lol.

All this for $300 ............... needless to say i snatched it up and this huge tank is now dwarfing my 14 x 10 living room ..... lol.

Well so much for not rambling on ..... lol ......... but im very excited about haveing this tank and making the most of it.

Now on to some questions .....lol.....I knew i would get here eventually.

I transported the fish in a large trash can with some of his aquarium water and the gravel in another can. We floated the bio wheels in with the fish also so i could get a good start when i set it up.

Well after getting everything home and finally figuring where to put the tank (after numerous furniture rearangings...lol) we got everything in place and DANG is that tank heavy .... lol. Luckily i found a neibor taking a smoke break on his porch to give me a hand moving it ..... lol. I was about to do something stupid like trying to put it on a hand truck to get it in. :confused:

Ok .... still havent asked a question yet have I?

OK jumping ahead ...........I got everything setup and got the fish in and acclamated the other fish and put them in and got the filters running. I was worried about all the new fish and the others from the other tanks all being the same one and how they would get along. Theres probably some fish that shouldnt be together in there so i figured i would keep a close eye on all them cause i certainly dont want to loose the 2 discus (had to promise the guys daughter i would take good care of them).

Well the assortment of fish in my new community tank is:

2 - discus (not sure what kind) 1-3inch(kind gold with white trim) & 1 4 inch(all redish orange with black fins) pics to come

1 - 7 year old angel fish thats huge and blind in one eye (surprised he made it thru ick, hole in the head & pop eye)

2 - small cats (kinda rainbow colored and looks great in the new tank & loving it in there too.......they've been haveing ablast and are extremely active zipping across the front of the tank)

1 - medium sized tetra (last one from a school & he actually died last night)

1 - small puffer (the wifes favorite)

1 - 4 inch long Dinosaur eel (was real worried about him and more on that later)

1 - 4 inch Blue Gourami (or Gor-a-mya as the wife calls him....lol)

Well they all seemed to get along fine even know the Angel is definately territorial and keeps everyone in check. He doesnt hurt anyone but lets them know when they are invading his area ..... lol.

Well the tank looked empty and after a few days ........... i wanted to add some fish and was hoping to pick up a few more discus and maybe a nice size school of decent sized tetras or something. We we go to Exotic Aquatics and of course the kids wanted to choose some fish too ...... lol. Long story short ........... i didnt get any discus (or the cool looking Elephant fish i wanted) and we came home with 2 five inch plecos (to keep the tank clean), a 6 inch long African knife, 6 Serpae tetras, 1 gold gourami (nice looking fish ..... can you have a few together of these?), 3 very tiny tetras that have since been eaten along with the 3 rummy nose ....im assuming cause they just disapeared?? Not all at once but like one a night till something finished them off last night with a 3 for one deal.

I believe the eel was the culprit and wanted to remove him to see if anything else disapeared so i would be sure it was him ....... but the wife didnt want to remove him .............. till he got the last 3 little ones ............. and now she pulled PUFFY out cause by size ... he was next inline ... and he's her favorite. So now i guess im gonna have to get some small fish and remove the eel to see if its him .............. or just leave him and hope he doesnt go after the serpae tetras?

Geez ......... this must be getting real long and hopefully you all will read thru this cause i havent even gotten to my REAL questions!

Well after doing a ton of reading and only haveing these 2 discus for about a week ................... i guess im getting the bug and would love to get more and possibly try to do some breeding. If doing it in the community tank doesnt wortk .............. i'll pick up some 29's for breeding and a 55 for grow out. Wow .......... that actually sounded like i know what im talking about huh? ............ lol. Like i said ........... ive been doing a ton of reading and the more i read ............ the more i scare myself ... lol. Speaking of that ......... i figured with this new tank.......... this could become a hobby for the whole family but the wife thinks im nuts when i talk about weekly water changes and keeping track of the ammonia, nitrites & nitrate levels. According to her ....... she has never done any of that thru all her years of haveing aquariums so its not necessary ............ and actually gets pissed when i talk about it ... ..... lol. So much for family bonding with the new aquarium .... lol.

Right now im worried about the 2 discus. I didnt really pay much attention to them when i 1st got them but they seem to me like the fins are getting blacker. Ive looked thru tons of discus pics and havent seen 1 single discus that looked liked this .............. especially at the tail fin where the black is real blotchy looking like it shouldnt be this way. And also the large red one's face is also real dark and the smaller one looks like its getting that way now too. I havent noticed any other signs at all and they eat good and are active ............ but they do stay behind the driftwood or in the corner alot. They come out to the front a bit when im in the room ........... but if get to close or put my hand up to the glass ........... they will retreat back into hiding.

OK ............. i guess this whole long thread was mainly cause of this worry about the black fins and hopefully i can get some insight on it and if it is a problem ..... how to treat it?

Once again after doing some reading i picked up a new test kit and some aquarium salt and plan on doing a 50% water change tomorrow and then add the salt.

Its only been a week since this was setup and i have a Magnum 200 canister filter running, the Emperor 400 with bio wheels running and 2 small in tank filters hooked to air lines in each of the back 2 corners. I want hook up the fluval 304 too and then use the magnum for polishing but i broke the locking handle and need to order one. Anyone know where to get fluval parts cheap?? Ive been doing 3 feedings a day with a smorasborg of frozen Bloodworms, frozen brine shrimp, flakes and some pellets or granules.

I took readings with my test kit tonight and they are as follows:

PH - about 7.2 (i figured for a community tank 7.0 would be good ..... is that OK?)
Water Temp - 85 degrees
Ammonia - 1.0 ppm
Nitrites - 0
Nitrates - 0

Unfortunately no water hardness test kit yet.

Here is the pics of the 2 discus. Anyone have a clue as to what kind they are?

http://home.comcast.net/~cagerattler3/images/Image1.gif
Whats up with blotchy black on the tail?? and the seperated fins at the front of each top and bottom fins??

http://home.comcast.net/~cagerattler3/images/Image2.gif

These were taken last night and i actually noticed that the gold one has started to get dark stripes on it now ............. and hopefully thats just its markings coming in.


Any and all help or comments would be appreciated and please remember im definately a newb so be specific on the details. Im curious if im doing the right thing with the salt (1 tablespoon per 5 gallons ............ and if should mix it up and desolve it in something before pouring it in??? The salt granules are pretty big!

Thanx in advance for any help!

And this is a fantastic site that i will frequent daily as ive gotten the DISCUS BUG now!!

And i promise to not be so long winded again ...... lol.

[Kindredspirit]

Hey Cage-Rattler!

Welcome to Simply! http://smileys.smileycentral.com/cat/18/18_1_35.gif There are some great people here who will know oodles more than me. But Im thinking that your ammonia should be 0 and i was wondering did you bring the gravel home from this guys house and put it back in the tank? Or is it new gravel? Either way, your gravel should go. Unless you would like to clean it more than you will be doing water changes. A lot of problems arise from gravel. Start scoopin! lol.. really tho, it is a personal preference, but some will tell you that things go much smoother in a BB tank.... Also, when you went to the LFS , and brought home new fish, did you quarintine? That is really important. You have a very large tank there, well, i only have a 30gal, so to me it is large! What a pain that could be to keep clean and free of problems, so you may want to get a small QT tank for when you get that urge to pop over to the LFS! If i had a 100gal tank , i would be wanting to add a lot to it all the time! But it look likes you have some problems that you should clear up first. How old are those discus? Did that guy tell you how long he had them? Did you put fish from other tanks in the 100gal tank along with some other fish? Cuz that is prolly a no no! Ya gotta quarantine quarantine quarantine....You will hate that word , much like water changes water changes ! But do it.


I would start that soon.... You seem very excited! Hang in there, as there are others that will advise you bettter!



hth~


Marie~http://smileys.smileycentral.com/cat/36/36_7_9.gif

[flofish05]

I think you have to make a decision soon! either keeping discus and a few plecos and cardinal tetras and get rid the rest of your fish. Your main focus is Discus or a community tank? If you want community tank with discus and all kinds of others, then you will have a hard time with discus, they will get sick not eating and others diseases and is hard to treat because you have others fish in the tank that might pass the disease to your discus...so you have to make a decisions.

[RyanH]

Hi Cage-Rattler,

I agree with the post above. You need to figure out what kind of tank you want to have. If it's Discus, you should just keep Discus and learn how to care for them properly. If you want a community tank, you may want to get rid of your Discus and pursue that.

Here are some threads that should answer your questions and address your conerns. If you have other questions feel free to post anytime.:)

http://forum.simplydiscus.com//showthread.php?t=28937

http://forum.simplydiscus.com//showthread.php?t=27180

http://forum.simplydiscus.com//showthread.php?t=35043

hth!
-Ryan

[cowboy steve]

Your Discus have a lot of growing to do, it is doubtful you will be able to maximize their growth potential in your current set-up.

Puffers and Knives, the Puffers are fin-nippers, Knives can be downright nasty depending on species, I had a knife that was peaceful up until the day he decided the tank was his and he proceeded to slaughter the cichlids and shovelnose catfish that were with him.Both will compete with your discus for food.

If you want to keep the Discus, seperate them, get a smaller tank for now, a 29 perhaps aggressively feed them with daily large water changes.

Read the disease section, you'll need it.

If you want to keep Discus, I would suggest clearing out the other residents, drain the tank, sterilize everthing, buy 6-7 adults, leave your current Discus in the smaller tank and follow regular quarentine guidelines.

[ronrca]

The deal included about 5 boxes of stuff that i have no idea what some of it is .... lol. Im talking about 6 heaters, 5 or 6 gravel vacs of all sizes, an entire box of filter media of all kinds, 8 different filters, hoses and air stones, a couple water pumps, another whole box of decorations including large driftwood and corals, a brine shrimp hatchery and tons of food, chemicals and testing equiptment and even some books on discus breeding.
Wow! That is a sweet deal! Congrats and welcome to Simplydiscus.

First, lets start with water quality. As mentioned, ammonia needs to be 0, not only for discus but for all the fish. Some fish may tolerate it but others are more sensitive. If you have ammonia, your filters are not cycled. For the time being, use prime and daily water changes to keep the ammonia lvls down. Also cut back on your feedings per day to only once to help reduce ammonia. Dont add any chemicals to adjust ph. Temperature is a problem in community tanks as some fish such as discus prefer higher temps (86F) while other such as certain tetras like a tad cooler (80F). When doing wc's, age your water by preheating/aerating it unless your tap matches your tank water parameters.

Second, discus! Discus are school fish therefore you need to start with 6+ discus. When starting with discus, barebottomed tanks are the best for growing them out. Once they are adults, placing them in a community is fine. Id recommend growing out some discus before getting excited about breeding. I know its hard but believe me, its worth and less pita. Therefore, if your venturing into discus, get the 55G setup and cycled. Id recommend cycling from scratch just to ensure no transfer of any 'bad' bugs. There are some excellant ppl on simplydiscus that will get you some quality discus to growout.

Third, your 100G. Continue with prime and wc's until the nitrogen cycle is established. Check out some of the profiles of the fish you have and see if they are compatible. You may want to lower the temp also to 80F. As mentioned, if you decide to have a discus only tank, leave it as a barebottom. Believe me, much easy to maintain plus if your discus are happy, so are you.

Fourth, your current discus. They seem to have/had fin rot or other tank mates nipping. To be honest, they look small due to the eye/body ratio. If you buy more discus, I would not recommend mixing them together.

Fifth, good luck and have fun. Like yourself, I and many others were exactly in the same shoes. Once you get a few basics sorted out, discus are actually very easy to keep. Sometimes the learning curve is steep however well worth it. ;)

[Giniel]

Hi Cage-Rattler , the fins at the front of the discus that are seperated are suposed to be that way. The black on the firstone is called peppering . Some fish have it some do not.It will not hurt it. If it gets more then something is wrong in your tank. The amonia should be 0. What size are the discus?
Debbie

[CAGE-RATTLER]

Thanx for the tips all.

Unfortunately i have no choice but to keep the tank a community tank.
That was the whole point of a larger tank ...... to combine the 3 smaller ones.

The Discus seem to eat fine to me although ive thought about using a devider so they could possibly eat better.

The knife doesnt seem to bother anyone at all and the puffer is anything but a trouble maker and is out of the tank now anyway. The wife was worried he would go next.

As for the black on the large one..........I was more concearned about the black on the tail fin and face. The specaled black i figured was peppering.

Ive definately been thinking of moving the 2 discus to a new tank just so i could feed them more to grow out better. Im not sure of they're ages and im currently waiting for a call back from the original owner. The large one is about 4.5 inches and the smaller yellow one is about 3.5 inches.

I'll start doing frequent water changes as i just picked up a python last night.

Should i add the aquarium salt??

I also had thought that they had some fin rot in the past but have noticed the front fins like that on others ive seen in pics as well.

They seem happy in there but i will keep an eye on them and care for them the best i can. I just cant afford another tank at the moment.

Maybe down the road i will be able to start a discus only tank and get a group to grow out and possibly get some breeders out of them to try my hand at that.

As for the ammonia level ............. I thought that was kinda odd that ammonia was at 1 ppm and the nitrite and nitrate was at 0. I have some filter media that is supposed to remove ammonia and will add that to the magnum this time around after my water change. I'll also look into the PRIME or whatever that is.

keep the tips coming and i'll keep you informed of any changes.

[CAGE-RATTLER]

Any suggestions for any meds to add right now to insure any problems that may pop up?

Maybe since they are all together now and i didnt quarratine at all ............ i could use the whole tank as a QT tank now.

[flofish05]

You need Prime or something similar to it to condition your water before doing water change + you should age and warm heat your water before doing water change. keeping discus is costly and alot of work compare to other fresh water fish.

[ronrca]

Dont add meds just because. Meds are expensive and may do more harm then good. Once you see sympthoms, then diagnosis is next to ensure the proper treatment.

[Audrey]

Hi, CAGE-RATTLER!
Congrats on getting all that stuff for so cheap...wow! You don't find deals like that very often. And you have definitely come to the right place for help with discus! This is where I have learned most all of what I know about these beautiful fish, and am still learning new things everyday.

I just wanted to add that I have had my discus for 8 months now, they are growing and thriving like crazy, and I use tap water for my daily water changes. It is possible to do with tap water. Dechlorinated, of course.

Good luck with your new fish!

Audrey

[cobaltblue]

Like Audrey, i too am one of the lucky ones that has ph 7.0 water coming out of the tap. I use my python and do my wc straight into the tank, once the temp is the same that is. Add prime and good to go. Ph settles in around 6.8 .

[CAGE-RATTLER]

My tap PH is about 7.2 and last night i did a 50% water change and i had a container filled with water that i had a heater in but it was only about 25 gallons so i used tap for the other half and then added some stress coat to it to condition it.

My PH did however go up to about 7.5 and i have some PH plus & PH minus for my swimming pool and was wondering if i could use that to adjust the PH instead of buying some for aquariums??

I know the hardness needs to be at a certain point to be able to adjust the PH properly so i will get me a harness tester tonight.

Im trying to talk the wife into just haveing the tank bare bottom cause with the gravel and decorations (driftwood, fake plants, shells, lava rocks, pieces of slate & a barrel&sunken ship with air stones) definately make it a PITA to clean. Took me a long time to clean and fill last night.

I have been using some TETRA COLOR BITS tropical granules along with frozen bloddwaorms, frozen brine shrimp & flakes when feeding. Well when cleaning last night there were tons of the color bits food in the gravel and when cleaning they were floating all over the place with white fuzz growing from them. I guess these could be where my high ammonia level is coming from.

They are supposed to be slow sinking but they go straight to the bottom.

Needless to say ........... ive stopped using them now.

Ive been wanting to get some beef hearts to feed along with blodd worms and shrimp. Can you reccomend a good brand??

[Audrey]

Hi, CAGE-RATTLER
In my research and learning of discus, I believe it is best to never screw with the pH in your tank. Usually does more harm than good. I never mess with my pH and my discus are fine.

Feed the colorbits sparingly first thing in the morning when they are the hungriest.

You can do a search here for beefheart recipes. I use Carol's idea of feeding straight up beef heart, nothing added. Much cleaner. Get a beef heart (trimmed and cubed) from your grocery store, freeze, then shred it up into worm size pieces with a salad shooter. Works really good and they love it, and helps their growth.

A great place to get flake food is AngelsPlus.com. They have earthworm flake food, high in protein, and it is reasonably priced, too.

Audrey

[Kindredspirit]

Thanks Audrey!


...and she adds nothing?? I remember reading her receipe, but after a while so many of them blend together! LOL....I will do that as well~




Marie!http://smileys.smileycentral.com/cat/36/36_1_24.gif

[candyl70]

Marie,
How do you usually make your beaf heart? I haven't done it yet as i really hate touching dead flesh... but if its good for the fishies, i guess i will have to invest in some plastic gloves.


Candy

[Audrey]

I thought it would gag me out, too, but it wasn't that bad.
Looks and smells just like steak. The meat dept where I get it doesn't charge me extra for trimming, cleaning, and cubing it either.

Yep, I add nothing to the beef heart. I also feed them a vitamin flake food, and so many other goodies, that I am pretty sure they are getting everything they need, nutritionally. Frozen blood worms, frozen mysis shrimp, frozen brine shrimp, and a lot of variety of good flake foods.

I have noticed more growth in my discus, too, and I have only been feeding beef heart to them for a little over a month. It is a little messy, so I always save it for the night time feeding, before a water change.

Audrey

[candyl70]

lol! Thanks Audrey! I will go to the supermarket and see about getting some of that. I don't have a salad shooter, any other suggestions on how to cut it up? I have seen a little growth in my new discus (the other 2 i think were stunted when i got them. both have big eyes) but i would like to see more. especially since they were sick, i want to make sure they don't get stunted too. I also feed flake, frozen BW, MS, BS and sometimes sinking wafers, but they fight too much over that and i don't like to put too many in there. lol.. funny things.



Candy

[Audrey]

Hey, Candy
Out of my 9 discus, I ended up with one that was a little runty, a little gold diamond. He was ill for awhile and was in a hospital tank for a while getting medication. Not sure if that is why it is stunted or not, but... since feeding the b.h. I have noticed he has grown more.:) His eyes do not look large, though, so . . I am holding out hope that it continues to grow.

For cutting up the b.h. I tried using an electric grater the first time, called a Gizmo. Didn't work well at all!! Then I tried a food processor, which worked okay, but a lot of the pieces were too tiny, and thus messier in the tank. I was lucky and got a salad shooter from a garage sale for only $7. Salad shooters can still be found in stores, but I didn't have any luck in the stores here in Minnesota. People say you can get them on E-Bay, though.

Sounds like you are feeding your discus all the good stuff, though. A lot of people say b.h. isn't necessary, but after seeing the growth in mine, I believe in it.

Your discus fight over the sinking wafers? What are those? Who makes them? I don't have any of them, probably the only food that I don't have in my fishfood cupboard! LOL!

Audrey

[candyl70]

Hey Audrey,
I guess there is usually one that is a little runty right? It's good he's growing though, maybe you won't have any runts :) The sinking wafers are made by Hikari. They are for bottom feeders like my cory's etc, but the discus always fight the cory's for them, so i guess its a hit :)
I do have a food processor, maybe i will try that, and just turn it on real quick and try not to get too tiny of parts? lol... i know its going to be a huge mess! Ick!



Candy

[Audrey]

Yeah, you could try that. I shredded it into a bowl, then I would quick dump the contents of the bowl into a freezer bag, and then put it into the freezer quickly. Shred more into the bowl, then dump into your freezer bag again, etc.etc.etc. Because the stuff seems to thaw out pretty quickly once it is shredded. Yeah, it made a mess when I used it, too. Kinda yucky. Even if you waste some of the cubes of beef heart, not a big deal since it is pretty inexpensive. At least I thought so. I think I paid $4.60 for like 2.5 lbs of heart.

[Kindredspirit]

Hey Ladies!! ( got your pms)


You hate to touch dead flesh?? Candy, you are a trip, girl!! Well, I dont make my beefheart..http://smileys.smileycentral.com/cat/23/23_29_13.gif i buy it frozen! Don't smack me! I i heard that is okay....! Since i got them on Sept 4th lol...they have been eating it... they didnt like it at first but now they do...I have to make it small pieces cuz if i dont, they spit it out! I want them to tear it up, like i have heard, dayum it!! LOL...and they are getting soooooo big too...five months now!

Do you think they should be tearing bigger pieces?? Perhaps i shall make some... as long as it doesnt get too technical! I do not wanna add anything i so do not have time to do all that!! LOL



Marie!

[candyl70]

I guess Carol doesn't add anything right? Just the beefheart? lol i am not trippin' its just nasty touching a heart!! I just bid on a salad shooter on ebay for 99 cents lol... that way i wont have to touch it.


Candy:)

[AADiscus]

Beefheart is easy to make just ime consuming!!!!!!!

Ours consist of beefheart, shrimp, fish, flakes, citamins, calcium, paprika, gelatin and anything else we want to add at the time. :D

Sometimes i wonder if our fish are eating better than we are.

Back to cage-rattler........what are you going to do with your other tanks that you are not using now since you combined all three?

[CAGE-RATTLER]

As for the tanks ............. it was 2 - 10 gallons and an old 20 gallon with chrome trim. Theres a lizard in one now and a frog in the other that the little one had to get for a school project.

We pulled the puffer out of the tank and he is in a 1 gallon goldfish bowl at the moment.

Im trying the get the wife to allow me to use the 20 gallon for either a QT tank or i would like to maybe get 4 small discus to grow out to add to the 100 gallon showtank and give the 2 in there some buddies to school up with.

Anyone on here (or preferably near baltimore) have 4 small ones they want to get rid of FREE? :D Ive heard talk of some of you culling some and feeding them to other fish???? Not sure what you do with them by culling .......... but im willing to give some a good home if your disposing of them! 2 each of 2 different strains would be nice so i could have a bit of a variety. Or am i crazy for even asking??

Im real tight on money at the moment so it would be awhile before i could afford anything unfortunately.

I like the beefheart idea and i have an old steel four sided grater that may work. You know the kind that our parents use to use before all the electronic gadgets :o . I know my mom use to use it for making her famous cole slaw when shredding cabbage. Do you just freeze the beefhearts and the just use it like frozen bloodworms?


Just got the call back tonight from the guy that i purchased these from and was real surprised at how old he said these were. He said the large red was 2 years old (only about maybe 5 inches) and the gold was 1 year 3 months and is about 4 inches). Kinda hard to figure they're size while they are in the tank ..... lol ..... so that is just an estimate and may be a generous one at that. But i think its safe to say they are stunted .......... but that doesnt bother me since they are just pets anyway and ive already become attached to them.

Send me all your runts too............. they'll get love here!

And for the advice on leaving the PH alone ........... I'll do just that and see how it goes.
The less additives i put in the tank the better i figure.

[April]

did you win the salad shooter? i bid on a cordless..but lost the bid. : )
i might just get one..sounds easy enough..
i burned out two food processors now..making bh..

[April]

heh kindredspirit...where do you get the emoticons? i like em.

[candyl70]

No, i bid on one and lost like the last 10 min by 50 cents, so i am bidding on another now :) I'll just keep bidding on one till i get it, or go garage sale hunting. Good luck on finding one though. :)

[Kindredspirit]

heh kindredspirit...where do you get the emoticons? i like em.



Hey April!

Go to smileycentral.com... i would post that link but they dont work for me here for some reason! download and enjoy!


Let me know if you need help posting them... Kathy over at DAAH helped me and it wasnt easy...I juss wasnt getting her instructions..it was hella complicated! And annoying.....but i kept at it...you will prolly figure it out!


Mariehttp://smileys.smileycentral.com/cat/36/36_11_10.gif


Marie

[Kindredspirit]

now my name is duplicating....what am i doing? Long night at work




m~

[candyl70]

lol Marie,
I still haven't figured them out yet...:p

[Kindredspirit]

Are you up??? Cal me and we can go over it on the phone if you want....you will get it on a dime!



Marie~


call soon C, cuz i am really tired okay?

[candyl70]

http://smileys.smileycentral.com/cat/36/36_9_1.gif


Candy

[April]

oooh i most likely wont figure it out. lol. i had enough trouble with a pic..
ill have a look. think ive been there before..but didnt figure it out. lol.
best way to win on ebay is..either www.esnipe.com and they bid to what you want the last 6 seconds..and no one knows you are bidding..so no battle at the end..or....post as high as your willing to pay..and time runs out while they are trying to pass your bid by a few dollars at a time.
oh..i spend most my day on ebay selling.

[candyl70]

Thanks for the info April... i'll go and look at the link you posted... that way i won't get out bid for a 8.50 salad shooter... lol http://smileys.smileycentral.com/cat/4/4_6_11.gif


Candy

[CAGE-RATTLER]

Did my thread turn into a chat room? ;)


Guess i better post my last post so it can be read ...... lol.


AGAIN:

As for the tanks ............. it was 2 - 10 gallons and an old 20 gallon with chrome trim. Theres a lizard in one now and a frog in the other that the little one had to get for a school project.

We pulled the puffer out of the tank and he is in a 1 gallon goldfish bowl at the moment.

Im trying the get the wife to allow me to use the 20 gallon for either a QT tank or i would like to maybe get 4 small discus to grow out to add to the 100 gallon showtank and give the 2 in there some buddies to school up with.

Anyone on here (or preferably near baltimore) have 4 small ones they want to get rid of FREE? Ive heard talk of some of you culling some and feeding them to other fish???? Not sure what you do with them by culling .......... but im willing to give some a good home if your disposing of them! 2 each of 2 different strains would be nice so i could have a bit of a variety. Or am i crazy for even asking??

Im real tight on money at the moment so it would be awhile before i could afford anything unfortunately.

I like the beefheart idea and i have an old steel four sided grater that may work. You know the kind that our parents use to use before all the electronic gadgets . I know my mom use to use it for making her famous cole slaw when shredding cabbage. Do you just freeze the beefhearts and the just use it like frozen bloodworms?


Just got the call back tonight from the guy that i purchased these from and was real surprised at how old he said these were. He said the large red was 2 years old (only about maybe 5 inches) and the gold was 1 year 3 months and is about 4 inches). Kinda hard to figure they're size while they are in the tank ..... lol ..... so that is just an estimate and may be a generous one at that. But i think its safe to say they are stunted .......... but that doesnt bother me since they are just pets anyway and ive already become attached to them.

Send me all your runts too............. they'll get love here!

And for the advice on leaving the PH alone ........... I'll do just that and see how it goes.
The less additives i put in the tank the better i figure.

[CAGE-RATTLER]

Anyone on here (or preferably near baltimore) have 4 small ones they want to get rid of FREE? Ive heard talk of some of you culling some and feeding them to other fish???? Not sure what you do with them by culling .......... but im willing to give some a good home if your disposing of them! 2 each of 2 different strains would be nice so i could have a bit of a variety. Or am i crazy for even asking??


I guess i was .... lol ........ Oh well ..... didnt think it would hurt to ask?

I'd love to get some culls to see if i have what it takes to grow them out before making a big investment.

[Greg Richardson]

That's not a bad idea at all. Better to go through the worse part of the learning curve in a less expensive way.
Bet there is a lot on here who wish they had.

It's the drugs[discus] that do it to us though that makes us want the best we can get from the start!

[CAGE-RATTLER]

I guess asking for some culls or runts didnt go over to well huh? ...... lol

I was curious if you guys knew exactly what kind of strains my discus are?

As of now when someone asks .......... I just say the larger is a RED and the smaller one a GOLD or YELLOW .... lol. Thats pretty much what the guy i got them from said they were too .... lol.

Also i was wondering if any of the experts here could tell what sex they are by the pics??

pics are on the 1st page of post

I can definately see they are stunted (im assuming) and i know they arent the best specimens around .... lol................ But i was wondering if one was a female and one a male ........... if i maybe put them in a smaller breeding tank and tried a few things ive read on here to encourage breeding ........... that i might be able to get some eggs to try and hatch. Who knows ...... i might get lucky .... lol.

It would definately be good experience for me.

So what do ya think??

[dixiedog]

All this for $300 ............... needless to say i snatched it up and this huge tank is now dwarfing my 14 x 10 living room ..... lol.



DAAAyum. He got any more of those deals? :bandana:

Gene

[CAGE-RATTLER]

I wished cause i would love to try some breeding and would need more tanks.

About a month ago ........... around the corner of my house a guy had about 20 tanks of all different sizes setting out front. Either he was selling them or giving them away or trashing them .......... but i wasnt looking then and probably missed out on a golden oppertunity.