Sandip
10-01-2008, 12:36 PM
When i was studying the books on discus keeping, some devil inside me said that i need to raise a few babies to see if i can. Experimenting with live fishes is bad, but the devil inside me won. I started keeping discus around a fortnight back. It was not a moments decision. I studied a lot about discus keeping and then bought these babies. My aim was to grow babies in to giants! I had a approx 22 gallon very very old tank lying vacant at our lobby for years. I decided to grow discus in that tank. With all the bookish and “internet” knowledge i started to look for discus babies. To my surprise most of the retailers were selling only grown up discus in kolkata. Very few were actually selling juveniles!
There is a big time fish seller in kolkata named LALA. He is famous for selling costly fishes. And this man is famous for selling discus.
So i went to the Sunday Morning Fish market in kolkata and asked for juvenile discus from LALA. He showed me few 1 inch discus. After seeing them i asked him if i can see his actual stocking tank(after all thats what all the books and knowledgeable people advices). So he gave me his address. After i went there he showed me a 3.5 feet tank, where there were more than 100 discus babies of average 1inch size. All of them very pale in colour. Fins clamped. Few dead fishes were floating too! I was asked to select from among these. Initially i thought i will not buy, but later someone inside me reminded “this is the storage tank of one of the most famous retailers in kolkata, u will find the same condition if not worse at others places too”.
So i decided to buy four.
After bringing them home i kept them in the 22 gallon tank, which has been kept running with just a sponge filter for the last 15 days. Only thing i used is a little bit of aged water from goldfish tank. Yes, the tank is not fully cycled. But couldn’t wait any longer for the cycling to complete. Actually gave in to my temptation.
Since i used to keep goldfish only, i never used a thermostat. So i bought a cheap thermostat. It was day time, water temp was already high. So i just floated the bag in the tank water. After half an hour i released the fishes.
In the evening i noticed that temperature was falling. So i put on the thermostat and went to a friends place.
When i came back, disaster had struck. The thermostat did not stop heating at the specified temperature. The water was extremely hot, enough to cause irritation when i dipped my fingers! But miraculously all the discus babies were still alive! I slowly reduced the water temperature by adding a little cold water from the freezer. And then letting the temp come down on its own.
After all these, i felt very guilty about keeping discus babies in an un-cycled tank. I thought they will be stunted and will probably die in a few days time. On top of this they have been boiled!
But i cared for them religiously. Changed 60% water every 12 hours! I used aged water only. I use two large buckets to age water for 24 hours.
By the way feeding is another story. Will tell that later.
Finally after 16days i have taken some pictures.
Experts kindly look at the pictures and tell me how are these fishes doing. Do they look good health wise. I am posting the pictures because from the last 3 days colour have started appearing! And my family members think they have grown in size too! What do u think about them?
The pictures are hazy because the tank glass is very very old(20 years). The glass is full of scratch marks.
There is a big time fish seller in kolkata named LALA. He is famous for selling costly fishes. And this man is famous for selling discus.
So i went to the Sunday Morning Fish market in kolkata and asked for juvenile discus from LALA. He showed me few 1 inch discus. After seeing them i asked him if i can see his actual stocking tank(after all thats what all the books and knowledgeable people advices). So he gave me his address. After i went there he showed me a 3.5 feet tank, where there were more than 100 discus babies of average 1inch size. All of them very pale in colour. Fins clamped. Few dead fishes were floating too! I was asked to select from among these. Initially i thought i will not buy, but later someone inside me reminded “this is the storage tank of one of the most famous retailers in kolkata, u will find the same condition if not worse at others places too”.
So i decided to buy four.
After bringing them home i kept them in the 22 gallon tank, which has been kept running with just a sponge filter for the last 15 days. Only thing i used is a little bit of aged water from goldfish tank. Yes, the tank is not fully cycled. But couldn’t wait any longer for the cycling to complete. Actually gave in to my temptation.
Since i used to keep goldfish only, i never used a thermostat. So i bought a cheap thermostat. It was day time, water temp was already high. So i just floated the bag in the tank water. After half an hour i released the fishes.
In the evening i noticed that temperature was falling. So i put on the thermostat and went to a friends place.
When i came back, disaster had struck. The thermostat did not stop heating at the specified temperature. The water was extremely hot, enough to cause irritation when i dipped my fingers! But miraculously all the discus babies were still alive! I slowly reduced the water temperature by adding a little cold water from the freezer. And then letting the temp come down on its own.
After all these, i felt very guilty about keeping discus babies in an un-cycled tank. I thought they will be stunted and will probably die in a few days time. On top of this they have been boiled!
But i cared for them religiously. Changed 60% water every 12 hours! I used aged water only. I use two large buckets to age water for 24 hours.
By the way feeding is another story. Will tell that later.
Finally after 16days i have taken some pictures.
Experts kindly look at the pictures and tell me how are these fishes doing. Do they look good health wise. I am posting the pictures because from the last 3 days colour have started appearing! And my family members think they have grown in size too! What do u think about them?
The pictures are hazy because the tank glass is very very old(20 years). The glass is full of scratch marks.