New Member with Questions!

[DLock3d]

Hi All,

My name is Dan and I live in Dallas, Texas. I'm 25, well my 25th birthday is tomorrow and this is my first post! YAY! I've recently purchased 6 Discus for my 55 gallon tank from Al at RockyMountainDiscus.com. Of course, as many of you have noted on different threads the Discus I received from Al are gorgeous. Although I've raised fish for most of my life, for all intensive purposes this is my first time having Discus. I had a few 10 years ago but I was too young and distracted to really know what was going on.

I've done, what I'd consider, enough reading to raise them successfully but I still have questions that I haven't exactly been able to find answers to. Feel free to make this a sticky for other beginners if any of you admins see fit. My tank consists of 12 Columbian tetra, 2 regular plecos, 6 corys, 3 Hi-form Brilliant Blues and 3 Royal Turq's. The tank has two Emperor 500's, about an inch of gravel on the bottom, 4-5 plants and several small pieces of driftwood that give them hiding space in the center of the tank.

I feed the tank a combination of hikari blood worms and Omega One flakes.

My tank water is great with a PH of 6.0 - 6.2 temp at 84, nitrate , nitrite, ammonia all within acceptable ranges (extremely close to 0) and soft water. I purchased RO water from the LFS.

Now for the questions...

1.) What is the purpose of changing water daily/weekly if my water conditions do not change and everything remains in safe ranges?

2.) I've heard mixed things on cory cats being tank mates for Discus. Al strongly spoke against them and I feel guilty for even asking this again but so far they haven't seemed to affect the Discus. Will my fish NOT pair off with cory tank mates? What are the advantages and disadvantages of corys with Discus short of food stealing...

2.1) What fish DO make good tank mates for Discus if I want them to end up pairing off and breeding in the community tank? I can move them to a separate tank, that's no problem, but I think it would be beautiful to have two Discus raising fry in a fairly normal tank.

3.) At what age/size will my Discus reach sexual maturity? This is something I'm very unclear on. Do they essentially have to be full grown?

4.) How do I know when two Discus pair off? I'm not an idiot, I know they'll swim together and everything but is it blatantly obvious or do you have to pay extremely close attention?

5.) Once my fish pair off I plan on purchasing a 29 gallon and using a sponge on a bare bottom to get them to breed. Will moving them to the new tank compromise their pairing off? I know this contradicts question two but I'm trying to cover all ends.

6.) If indeed I am successful in breeding them how many should I expect to survive in that first batch if any? Short of taking them to the local pet shops I can think of 3 or 4 in the area. How can I sell off or give away 30 - 40 fish?!?!

7.) If in fact my Discus do have fry in the 55, will my emperor 500's suck up the fry?!?!

I had about 50 questions when I started this post but alas I have the memory of... Well, now I can't remember. :D

Thanks in advance Simply Discus members!

[Roxanne]

Happy Birthday Dan from Dallas:balloon:

OK I will answer a couple for you, the rest I will leave to others because my responses would be of the personal opinion type such as having tank mates for discus. I am personally not for it, but many people do it. There are some fish who probably make better tank mates than others, and I think there is a sticky/thread about it somewhere.....

According to Discus Hans, the females mature faster than males, as do humans:D, so getting a pair the same age doesn't always work.....then again they are all individuals like that...

as for (4), blind Freddie can see when the wild thing is going on, you WILL know when you see it & you will be posting under the breeding section I'm sure...;)...they don't just pair off they act 'strange'. shimmy, side swimming, and awesome and fast colour changes...and slam kissing the vertical surface they have chosen, mine like the filter...

Water changes, keeps PH stable, replenishes minerals, but Graham is the water guru and he can tell you more than I can.....young ones need them more than the older ones, but, you are going to need to consider your "method' before they start having fries...cos if you don't like doing water changes, hmm, you ain't gonna like the amount you will need to be doing for fries......

You said your amm, trates & trites were in "acceptable levels" can you say what they are? It is quite important for the experts to know so they can evaluate your tank..if you have ammonia that could be because your PH is too low to allow the bio filter to process it, even though at that PH it is ammonium and harmless, water changes will also keep it from dropping too far and then not being able to process the ammonia.And if you are showing nitrites, water changes will be important too.

Air driven sponge filters are really good cos the fries can't get sucked in by them...

regards

Roxanne from Sydney:)

[hasitha]

Hey DLock3d , Happy Birthday ! I'm new to this too.

For newbies like us I think the best way keeping a bare bottom tank with Discus only.

Also whatever the reason it seems discus grow faster when you do daily water changes 30%-40%


.

[korbi_doc]

Hi & happy birthday.....just a word 'bout cories.....I had 6 Juliis in my discus tank & they did fine...never bothered the discus...after my move I lost'm but I will have more in the future, most cories do well with discus...I also have bristlenose plecos, sev'l albinos & some brown, they are also good mates....then for ridding snails I now have sev'l botia striatas in each tank & they also do well with discus....JMO,

Dottie;)

[rickztahone]

i currently have 7 corydoras. 4 julies, 2 albinos and 1 that i do not know what he/she is called. they have never given any type of reason to remove them from my tank with my discus. they mind themselves and clean up the mess which to me is a bonus. any uneaten food gets eaten by them. i use a feeder cone for my worm feeding so the discus never lose food to them that way. they mainly eat flakes and they LOVE algae wafers. i also have 5 longfin albino bushy nose plecos and 1 ram. all do fine along side my discus. also, i have like 20 shrimp, 4 ghost and 16 RCS. these are all tank mates that i think can be placed along side them with no problem, at least with me though. this is completely through my experience only mind you

[Hattawi]

I have a new tank. 6 discus and 4 leopard corydoras. The corydoras do no interfere at all with the discus and the dicus do not bother them the least bit aswell. They eat the extra food.

I have read somewhere that plecs can eat the discus eggs at night time in darkness. I am not sure how correct is that. Maybe more experienced members can shed some light on this matter.

[Roxanne]

...plecs can eat the discus eggs at night time in darkness. ......

lolol...Yeah, the boogie plecs come at nite to raid the eggs while the discus are sleeping....:D:D...cos discus can't see in the dark like other fish.....:D:D:D:D

[MSD]

Rox, you are so bad. So, when are YOU going back to the sea?

[Roxanne]

Eventually mate..Eventually...we'll all be sleepin with the fishes..:D

...you makin fun of my quote??:D I thought it very appropriate myself...;)

[Moon]

Cory's do well with discus. The only caution is that some type of corys cannot tolerate the high temps discus require. I tried panda corys with my altums and all died within a month.

[DLock3d]

Happy Birthday Dan from Dallas:balloon:

You said your amm, trates & trites were in "acceptable levels" can you say what they are? It is quite important for the experts to know so they can evaluate your tank..if you have ammonia that could be because your PH is too low to allow the bio filter to process it, even though at that PH it is ammonium and harmless, water changes will also keep it from dropping too far and then not being able to process the ammonia.And if you are showing nitrites, water changes will be important too.



Ammonia .25ppm or below
Nitrites 0ppm
Nitrates 0ppm or less then 5.0 ppm
pH 6.0

[Roxanne]

Ammonia .25ppm or below
Nitrites 0ppm
Nitrates 0ppm or less then 5.0 ppm
pH 6.0

.. is that the PH of your RO water or do you buffer up/down?

Rox

[DLock3d]

That is the pH of my RO water and my tank, they are the same. The water conditions I have given are all from my tank.

[DLock3d]

Water changes, keeps PH stable, replenishes minerals, but Graham is the water guru and he can tell you more than I can.


Graham, can you please answer this for me?

1.) What is the purpose of changing water daily/weekly if my water conditions do not change and everything remains in safe ranges?

[DLock3d]

Thanks for the responses guys but I was hoping to get a few more. Particularly on the importance of water chances even when the water tests out great.

[Roxanne]

Hey Dlock, I think sometimes posts get "lost in the mix" so to speak...Graham may not have seen this thread...when you start a post and you put "help Graham" he will find it quicker.....he may yet pick this up so you don't have to start again!

Also, some of the questions are probably already answered if you check out some older threads. Try under Breeding and Water Works.

As far as I know moving a pair won't compromise their "love" cos people move fish & eggs all the time out of Community Tanks, but you should make sure the parameters are closely matched and you take time to acclimate them. You can find more under the Breeding section, and the kind of filtration that suits them best.. I read from the library on this site for months before I found the forum. Then Hours of reading the old posts and questions.....then bugging the crap out of Graham & Larry ever since;)...

Rox

[DLock3d]

Thanks for the ideas Roxy! I too have read a great deal of the old posts and found very valuable information. I'm so excited to have found these forums!