Discus size , feeding and dechloride water

[Francis]

Hi,I am new in discus keeping. I am full time working and maxmium I can feed discus is 3 times a day 8am, 6pm and 10pm. What is the minimum fish size for me to grow discus without the risk of stunt? With this feeding regime, is it possible to grow two and half inches dicus to 5-6 inch adult?
Also I do 25% wc twice a week. The water is hard and comes staight from mixed tap(82F) without noticing any abnormal behaviour from fish. Nearly everyone tell me I should at least use aged tap water. So I just bought a water tank and plan to buy a garden pump to pump the aged water. Is it realy that important to use dechloride water if you do not change much each time?


Tank 48x18x15" Heavily planted tank with good growth of the plants 2x 3 inch discus (and few guppy and cory) this moment but plan to have 4 more juvenil discus

Cheers
Francis

[Graham]

Hi Francis you should always use a de-chlorinator made for either chlorine or chloramine depending on what's in your water. Chloramine is very stable and will last well over a week.

Water companies also vary the amounts of each they use depending on the time of the year and the weather. So what chlorine might have dissapated/gassed off last week may last much longer this week.

Better safe that sorry

General stocking rule 1 fish per 10 gallons...so you've got a 55 so 5.5 fish :)

[Chad Hughes]

Hi,I am new in discus keeping. I am full time working and maxmium I can feed discus is 3 times a day 8am, 6pm and 10pm. What is the minimum fish size for me to grow discus without the risk of stunt? With this feeding regime, is it possible to grow two and half inches dicus to 5-6 inch adult?
Also I do 25% wc twice a week. The water is hard and comes staight from mixed tap(82F) without noticing any abnormal behaviour from fish. Nearly everyone tell me I should at least use aged tap water. So I just bought a water tank and plan to buy a garden pump to pump the aged water. Is it realy that important to use dechloride water if you do not change much each time?


Tank 48x18x15" Heavily planted tank with good growth of the plants 2x 3 inch discus (and few guppy and cory) this moment but plan to have 4 more juvenil discus

Cheers
Francis

To answer your feeding question, first how big are your discus now? In my experience in planted tanks, you can feed three times daily and do very well. My last discus tank was heavily planted, 150 gallons and housed 16 2" discus. I was getting nearly 1" per month on these fish. Their diet consisted of bloodworm, home made beefheart recipie, discus gold pellets (in an outo feeder.. I work too!) and they love an evening treat of spurlina pellets. So far, great growth and zero disease with 50% water changes on Saturday. I might also mention that I have a massive amount of filtration on this system. Hope this helps!

[Patr1ck]

Since you are going to have a water storage barrel. You can use the pump to circulate the water in the barrel. You can add a heater to match the temps too. Check into your water company to see if they use chloramine or just chlorine. You can probably get an email adress for customer questions on their website. I found one on my water companys website. Anyways, if they are just using chlorine you can age it for 24 hrs in your barrel with the pump on churning up the water. The more noise it makes churning, the better. Aerating the water like that will release the chlorine gas. This is the way I dechlorinate my water. Im one of the lucky ones who just has chlorine in their water.
If you have chloramine then you have to buy a dechlor like prime.
Also if you e mail them, check if they change their methods of water treatment depending on rain or time of year. Some companys do some dont.:)
hth,
P

[Francis]

Thanks Pat
I am going to buy a pump and pump the water to the tank when wc. Do you know what is the lift power to lift the water to 1.6m? I tried a pump which theoreticaly can lift max 2.2m high but actually only lift 1 metre due to the distance from Garage to living room? How to fix this? big pump or other solusion?
Thanks
Francis

[Francis]

Thanks Avionics
Currently I have 2 three inch ones and plan to get 4 more two or two and half inches discus.
So you think my 3 times a day 8am, 6pm and 10pm. feeding regime will work?. When feeding you 2"s. You feed 3 times or more plus your auto feeder? What time do you feed them? Any planted tank photos?
Cheers

[Francis]

Thanks Graham
I will contact the water company.

[Chad Hughes]

Thanks Avionics
Currently I have 2 three inch ones and plan to get 4 more two or two and half inches discus.
So you think my 3 times a day 8am, 6pm and 10pm. feeding regime will work?. When feeding you 2"s. You feed 3 times or more plus your auto feeder? What time do you feed them? Any planted tank photos?
Cheers

My feeding regime is as follows:

5am: Beefheart (before the lights come on)
Noon: Discus Gold Pellets (dosed by the auto feeder)
5pm: Beefheart (sometimes bloodworm)
Between 8 to 10 PM: On ocassion I like to give them some algae wafers.

This has served me well. On the weekends when I am home all day, I like to feed them when they look hungry. If I walk past and they follow me like they are starving, I put some food in and they usually devour it.

This has served me well. Good luck!

[Chad Hughes]

I have some pictures, but none small enough to fit on this forum. Sorry!

[Francis]

avionics
Many thanks. I will follow that.

[Eddie]

Francis,

You can always get an Eheim autofeeder that will feed up 4 times a day as for as long as the batteries run out. These things are super efficient. I've had mine for almost 5 years and they are still ticking. This would increase your feeding to 6 times a day which I find to be a minimum for young fish. That is just my opinion.

Another thing to consider is the food to put in the autofeeder. Ocean Nutrition makes some superior quality flake food and it will truly benefit your fish to add this to their diet.

Eddie