OMG WHAT DO I DO NOW!!!

[Skabooya]

I havent been on here in a while but i decided that I cannot do discus until i get a tank much bigger than 32gals which would be probably never. So I have a 32gal setup with angels, rams, etc and i bought a 29gal for a saltwater tank only to find out that the electric company went stupid and to make a long story short are now going to charge 18cents/kWh but it depends on this conservation rate line thing so my salty tank would cost me on average $128 a month to run. So that was out of the question.

Anyway heres the BIG problem. My bro in law decided to go discus (good for him) he got all these juvies free from a breeder because he sold his 90gal to them for dirt cheap. He then decides HEY! im comming up to visit in two weeks how about i bring you one discus to put in your 29gal that you cant use as a salty anymore. I told him NO! one is a bad idea. But he said that the breeders said its fine and he will prove it too me by bringing it over (8hour road trip) to put in my tank that is not set up yet. Ive been calling him and e-mailing him and telling him no. Ive been letting my sis in law know about this too and she is trying to convince him but he is stubborn. So next step is to try and find a home for it if he does bring it here. I called the lfs (the lady has a huge tank with discus) she said no but then said that she would call some of her friends who have discus or want discus to see if they want it. She called back and said all said no and to inform me that keeping one discus in a 29gal isint bad. Just keep it with some tank mates to keep it company and visit it a lot.
I told her that wont work they need to be in groups. But do people listen to me and my references (simply discus) Nooooo. She said that with such a low bioload i wont need to do such huge WC and that i should be extatic to get a free discus for my tank. It being one discus only poses one problem and that is that it needs to not feel lonely or borred which is easily fixed with tankmates. I was like ***!?
What the heck am i going to do if he brings it? Hes comming in less than 2 weeks!!!!

[Ed13]

My very first discus, was the only one in a 29gal. I did not know better. However, he did remarkably good after a tranfer to a 30 gal long barebottom with a few rams, corys, clown plecos and tetras, and got to be a decent size before a water change killed him. Only during the first few weeks did he looked miserable, but soon became outgoing and very hungry;). I'M NOT RECOMMENDING THIS THOUGH, see if you can convince him otherwise. But, if he does bring it and you can't find a home for it give him a fighting chance.

On a side note, 18 cent/kWh sounds great compared to the 28 cents/kWh we pay with possibilities to increase in the future.:angel:

[Skabooya]

Are u searious? we were paying 6 cents

[Ed13]

Are u searious? we were paying 6 cents
Yup, Septembers fare was $.2822 kWh
To make it worst is thermoelectric power so every time the price of oil increases I lose some hair:confused:. Water bill is not that far behind. My pockets hurt!:(

[Skabooya]

ouch!

Ok back to discus. Im scared :( although i saw some very beautiful pics of tanks with only one discus in it but then again there was no info involved and i really dont want to have just one discus and then watch it slowly suffer and die from being lonely. Wahhhhh!

[1Chuck9669]

Hi,

At least convince him to actually log into Simply Discus and read the thread you started. I'm sure there will be others that would advise against keeping only one Discus concerning the possible health problems due to stress (among other reasons). If worst comes to worst and he comes with the fish, maybe the LFS who carries Discus or some other Discus enthusiasts in your area would be willing to accept the fish.

Best of Luck,

[April]

tell him 4 or none. and free.

[Skabooya]

My LFS doesnt carry discus and wont because the manager there says that it causes the fish too much stress. She has 13 discus in a 77gal (her personal tank) she called around for me and no one that she knows of will take the discus either. So im trying to find out what to do should he bring one and if i have to keep it.

April thanks for replying on both of my threads on both forums :) Your so awsome.

4 in a 29 gal is a lot what would my WC schedule look like with that. 80% a week?? Would i keep it as a BB? or should i put some plants in it or both? I have 2 HOB filters i can use and a few heaters. No lights though as of yet.

The fish would prob only get to be 5 inches max in a 29gal (36" long by 15" high i dont remember the depth i need to measure)

And yes i will get him to check this thread out. maybe that will help convince him.

[1Chuck9669]

Good Luck,

Wish you could keep them, but you are very conscientious about the health of the fish:). You are a remarkable person for declining his offer!

May Our Threads Cross Again...

[katt-ja]

are you sure you didn't sign a contract with a retailer? 18cent/perkwh sounds like something they would charge. it;s usually double what your regular hydro would charge you. i would call your hydro company and ask them if you have any contracts under your account. retailers are crooks and usually bother elderly women until they finally sign the contract just to make them go away. then they don't realize why there bill has doubled.

[Skabooya]

Katt-ja Im positive that i didnt sign anything. Weve lived in this house for 3 years now. The cost used to be 6 cents.kWh and now they are introducing this conservation rate. Its an incentive to get people to conserve energy and to do that they are going to charge us money on top of our regular rate but it will depend on how much you use. If its under 1350kwh then you pay 5.? cents/kwh but if your over then you pay 7.? cents/kwh and this is for step 1 in their conservation rate plan. There is a step 2 that they charge you as well and im not sure about how they charge you for that. I tried calling and the chick couldnt explain it either she just kept telling me to wait until the November reading. Now those costs are going to stay that way until April 1 when everything is going to go up in cost by 1c. This incentive is going to effect anyone associated with this power company. I dont know if im allowed to mention names so i wont unless someone says its okay or asks through PM.

and what do you mean elderly im only a 26 year old girlie pop ;P


Ok so Im asking questions about this on another forum and they are giving me tons of information. The discus experts there are great. But to sum it up and make sure im getting it right i want to post a list for people to review and to make sure noobs can see whats wrong with certain numbers of fish.

1 Discus = bad. discus gets lonely and in discus world that can mean stress which will cause diseases down the road. Some lucky ones suggest that if you give them a few weeks they come around and can be kept happy and alert but that is very rare.

2 Discus= bad. A PROVEN pair is okay. Proven is different from 2 discus although some people get lucky and can keep 2 discus in a tank it is not always advisible.

3 Discus= ALWAYS BAD. Two will gang up on the third and kill it. Then your left with the 2 discus thing.

4 Discus= doable. Athough not ideal by any means this is possible, however in a 29gal like mine they are not able to grow to adult size 8"+ They may only get to be 5" and stay alive with a lot of WC.



How does that sound people.
Ive been told that I can keep 1 discus in the 29 and it would be just fine. Ive been told getting 2 would be better but they may fight. 3 NO! and ive been told 4 is the best and thats what i should do.
However as i asked before If i was to get 4 total in this tank to keep them all happy they would need to spend their lives in there. Reaching a total size of maybe 5-6"

Seariously now what would my WC schedule look like with 4 discus that size in a 29gal tank? People have 13 in a 77 and do WC once a month (horrible i know but its been done and they have large-ish discus 7+") Or 10 in a 55 ive also seen. Its not uncommon for people to go over the 1 discus per 10gal rule in larger tanks. I know it means WC need to be increased but by HOW MUCH
would i need to do 80% a week?
What would my tank look like except by fish that can bairly move around. Would it need to be BB or would i eventually be able to go planted? (Im leaning more towards BB with floating plants for a middle ground)

Im setting up this tank today as a just in case. I already have plants and have had them for a good long time so they should be safe as well.

[Skabooya]

UPDATE:
An awsome member on another forum said that they would take the discus after he moves. Isint that great!!!! I just got the PM not too long ago. YAY! It made me scream Whoo Hooo!!!!!
I am still going to hope and pray that he wont bring the poor fishie. And now i have more ammo for him not to bring it.
I aparently did my math wrong last day for my salty tank. instead of multiplying by 0.18 i was multiplying by 18. So the cost was going to be
$100+ for maintaining the cost of the salty tank (electricity wise) but now that i did the math right my 29 will cost me $22.94 a month. MUCH more managable. So im gonna tell my bro in law that the salty tank is back on and unless he wants the fish to live in a bag until he goes back to PG then he better keep it because i have no room for it here.
That should work right? I hope so. I will keep everyone posted. :)

[Ed13]

You are either doing wrong the calculations or using horribly inefficient equipment I can maintain a 75g-125g full blown reef under $100 a month for electric consumption at $.2822 kWh

I'm planning an SPS tank so here it is my monthly electrical cost breakdown:

216 watt of T5 x 10hrs- $18.54
216 watt T5 x 12hrs- $22.75
Eheim 1262 pump 24/7 80watts- $16.48
skimmer pump (not decided) approx 50 watts 24/7-$10.03
powerheads 24/7 25watts- $5.15
chiller 6 hrs a day 12 months a year 350watts- $18.03

TOTAL- $90.70 a month add $10 extra dollars for calcium reactor pumps, UV etc that I may add in the future. I could even lower the monthly cost with some adjustments like less time of light cycles and running powerheads during lights on only or replace with even more efficient equipment. I don't see how you get $100 @ 18 cents kWh for a 29g.

BTW, we are of similar age so don't let Katt call you an old lady, lol:angel:

[Skabooya]

I know thats why i re did the math. I think i was multiplying 18 instead of 0.18. So my cost would actually be about $22 a month for my 29gal and not $100+.
I would have in my salty tank a 100watt heater
Hydor K1 and 2 and a Tunze 9002 skimmer 10watts. The lights would be 156watts (4x39 t5) I rounded up to 160watts for the math. I did the math at everything running at 24hrs except the lights which would be at 8 hours then multiplied days 31.
The formula i used was kW x hr x kWh cost x 31

So you need to convert watts to kilowatts first by dividing by 1000
then you take your kW and multiply the hours they will be running to give you kWh. The multiply your cost (0.18 in my case) then multiply the days in the month 31.

[Ed13]

LOL, sorry I did not notice you redid the math. Guess I am getting old:p

[Harriett]

Call me thick in the head but beyond all the details it sounds like you know better than to keep one discus alone. So how about you stop allowing any more bully conversations in you are being 'outpowered' about your decisions regarding your own hobby....just tell this guy you don't want the fish, period, and if he brings it you are immediately going to give it away. End of story.
I don't get it. What's with all this pushing around and fuss?
Harriett

[Skabooya]

Oh, he knows now that my salty tank is back on the menu and that if he does bring the fish its gonna be sent away. I no longer even have a bad home for it there is NO home. So he has no options now. If he brings the fish hes a friggin idiot (excuese my lingo). Im prob gonna talk to him tonight to see what hes thinking of doing.
In any case his options are to keep it with his others that hes getting OR to bring it here and it dies in the bag because i have nowhere to put it. I dont think hes stupid enough to bring it here now so im pretty sure im discus free. YAY.
And just for more info about my bro in law, hes the kind of guy that really wants to give to people no matter what. Even if you dont want it he will give it because in his mind he thinks it will make you feel better or that you will appreciate it. For example if someone with a phobia of hugging or touching was around and he wanted to give this person a hug there would be no stopping him he would just do it regardless of the consequences because he thinks its no harm to the person it will make them feel better because hugs make everyone feel better.
Or in the case of this fish, the breeder that hes getting them from said keeping one is okay so now he thinks that by giving me the fish i can keep it alone in a tank and it will be fine. It didnt matter what i said or what other people said after showing him this thread and another on another forum. He knew I loved discus and the breeder said it was okay and thats all he needed to hear.
Thats why i told him its keep it or dead fish at my place. I think it will work now :)

[Skabooya]

Okay so I spoke to him again and hes not going to bring the fish since i have no where to put it :p YAY! hopefully the discus will live a happy life at his place.