newb needs help

[amandalyne]

Hey everyone. This is my first time owing discus. I have a 95 gallon long tank. Flauval 305 canister filter. Recently got a bunch of discus they dont seem to ever get rid of the stress stripes water is normal feeding bloodworms 2 times a day 80 % changes every 2 days with prime. The 2 fullgrown blue diamond dont get stress stripes seem great the small rubey red no stress either seems to just be the wild greens , snakeskins? Tank mates are various angelfish 1 bristlenose baby plecco and 4 flowershrimp

http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e202/kissedbylove/P1000155.jpg

http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e202/kissedbylove/P1000097.jpg


http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e202/kissedbylove/P1000021.jpg

http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e202/kissedbylove/P1000061.jpg

[kenhappen2u]

this is just my .02 Cents , first of all i would take down the background you have on the back of the tank .....discus do better with light/ bright colors like a solid powder blue , light green, etc . also you may want to consider taking out the dark colored gravel , and either go with a bare bottom tank or something like white sand . if gravel is a must then go with a white or natural river rock /pea gravel . also the more hiding places you give them they will take advantage of it and seem to be more skidish or shy when you walk up to the tank.....most of us here go with a bare bottom tank with little decorations with juvi's in the tank . ......take out the large rocks and put a peice of driftwwod in the tank insted ....the pleco will love you for this , (driftwood also helps soften water ) ...
hopefully other will chime in soon and will let you know what worked for them as well , this is just what i would do .... your tank looks nice , fish look healthy and your filtration / wc' s are fine . hope this helped ,

Ken

[amandalyne]

I had barebottom and was told to use mixed gravel also was told to use rocks so they can lay eggs if need be lol everyone seems to have a different appraach lol

[discusluvr818]

I had barebottom and was told to use mixed gravel also was told to use rocks so they can lay eggs if need be lol everyone seems to have a different appraach lol


First off, welcome to Discus keeping!! I have only been keeping discus a little over a year but Ken is right. The background change will definitely liven things up. Also, Discus don't lay eggs on the gravel, not that I know of anyway. Most people will buy flower pots or breeding devices for them to lay on.

They usually like to lay them on a somewhat vertical surface, like my filter intake for example :)...These are just 4-5 inch juvies. Also the lighter color gravel or sand bottom will make a huge difference. Take a look at a couple threads showing different substrates.

Beautiful fish and tank though. Thanks for sharing!!

[kenhappen2u]

i would also like to add ....you may want to think about feeding them more than 2 times a day if you can but most importantly you will need to feed them something other than just bloodworms .... you should give them a mixed diet of a good flake food , like ON's prime reef , or discus flakes ( all your fish can eat this ) also you can give them frozen beefheart , ...one food i like to use for a color enhancer is tetra color bits , ..the key here is to feed them a varied diet ,and feed often 3-7 times a day for juvi's as adult discus need/ require less food then growing juvi's. ....

how old is your tank ? meaning is it a established tank & cycled filter ?

if you are only running just the one 305 filter you will run into problems with your filter loosing much if not all of its good bacteria when you open and clean the filter / change media , ie carbon , floss ..... thats one of the main reasons a lot of us here use a sponge filter in the tank or a HOB . hang on the back for a secondary filter , and only clean one at a time or alternating months so each filter can handle the extra load from the filter you just cleaned ...... so each time you clean your filter you will prolly get big spikes in ammonia and nitrites . ( puts a lot of stress on your discus) . but whatever you do ....DO NOT USE A UNDERGRAVEL FILTER .



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[amandalyne]

Yeah my tank is fairly old. I use sponge in my canister and dont wash change all them at the same time. Ill remove the background and te gravel next week iv also gone online and got a few breeing cones.

[Eddie]

Yeah my tank is fairly old. I use sponge in my canister and dont wash change all them at the same time. Ill remove the background and te gravel next week iv also gone online and got a few breeing cones.

Do you have a reason to believe that you have a pair? Some of your fish don't look of age. :o

Eddie

[amandalyne]

No idea if i have a pair. I just wanted to be safe:D I am very new to them and have no idea what im doing i admit it lol Learning as i go. Is no background okay for the time being?? Also the driftwood i cant seem to find anyhere that does not change the water color. We have a few outside but i dont know if they are safe to add to the tank. Also i have ordered some java moss i was told that it will halp them calm down once its established. Im also getting new gravel once i can find some i like. I may even do the sand again. Did sand once before and found it very hard to clean. LOL i was thinking maybe river riock?? How many discus should i have in the tank. I was told it was a 90gallon but then told it was a 55 so i have no idea the background was for a 79 gallon:confused: I have 2 fullgrown blue diamonds 4 or 5 juvie green wild snakeskins 1 red passoion juvie about 8 small angel fish 1 bristle nose plecco then a bunch of amanio and flower shrimp. My bluediamonds seem to pick on the smaller onces iv noticed a few bite markes.

[Eddie]

No idea if i have a pair. I just wanted to be safe:D I am very new to them and have no idea what im doing i admit it lol Learning as i go. Is no background okay for the time being?? Also the driftwood i cant seem to find anyhere that does not change the water color. We have a few outside but i dont know if they are safe to add to the tank. Also i have ordered some java moss i was told that it will halp them calm down once its established. Im also getting new gravel once i can find some i like. I may even do the sand again. Did sand once before and found it very hard to clean. LOL i was thinking maybe river riock?? How many discus should i have in the tank. I was told it was a 90gallon but then told it was a 55 so i have no idea the background was for a 79 gallon:confused: I have 2 fullgrown blue diamonds 4 or 5 juvie green wild snakeskins 1 red passoion juvie about 8 small angel fish 1 bristle nose plecco then a bunch of amanio and flower shrimp. My bluediamonds seem to pick on the smaller onces iv noticed a few bite markes.

You don't need a background. I do like having a light color on the back though and you will find that your fish will too. The most important thing is the bottom. A bright/light bottom will make your fish colors stand out more. As you can probably see others have changed over to sand bottom and the fish really changed alot.

At the moment, you are pretty stocked for a 55 gallon. It would be best to maintain good water quality and tank cleanliness to avoid disease.

IME, Blue Diamonds are very aggressive. I have kept 2 inch BDs with 5 inch fish and still the BDs would fight them off. If you notice that the other fish are getting wounded or are overly stressed, you may need to make some changes. Discus that are stressed constantly fall ill to disease, its the facts of discus life.

Also, check your fish to see if they are getting sucked on by the pleco. Its been known to happen. You will get hundreds of posts saying how people have kept them for years and they have never bothered their discus. Well their BN pleco is not yours and it happens, period. Just keep an eye out and keep him fed.


Eddie

[fishkeeper59]

hello amandalyne,i'm glad to see that there are new hobbyist falling in love with these magnificent fish, i myself is relatively new to keeping these fish, i have kept aquariums before including regular salt and reef tanks and freshwater tanks. What i find different in housing these fish are that the fish itself is what makes the aquarium and not all the decorations and gravels and different type of rocks. in my opinion the discus is the center piece and everything else that are to accompany it is for it's benefit. everything is simple in a discus tank, what matters the most is the water it's kept in. again that's just my opinion. good luck and hope your discus's thrive and not just survive.

[Eddie]

what matters the most is the water it's kept in. again that's just my opinion. good luck and hope your discus's thrive and not just survive.

Nope fishkeeper, that not just your opinion, thats a fact! ;)

Eddie

[chemjab]

Welcome amandalyne.

You have some beautiful discus there. I really like the patterns of the browns with the bright colors of the others. I had :( some wild caught browns that were beautiful. Someone with more knowledge can correct me if I'm wrong, but they seemed to have the vertical bars when they were happiest. The smaller of the two was ofter chased around by the larger. He would chase the smaller one away from the food causing the little guy to be stressed out most of the time. The little guy rarely showed his strips and was always muted (faded). It's a sad story how I lost these guys back in my not so distant newb days.

Since you asked for help, I will tell you what I noticed in your pictures. You have a groumi and an angel with them. I don't think either of those are good tank mates for discus. The groumi is small but agressive, they dart and have been known to pester and chase much bigger fish. That can stress them out. IMO it is just not worth it for a $3 groumi to mess with your discus. About the Angel, I was at a talk given by Dick Au ( a famous discus breeder) and this is what he had to say about keeping angels with discus. It can be done, but is not the best for the discus and the angel should be kept smaller than all the discus. Once the angle grows too large it should be removed for these reasons. The angel is a much more aggressive eater than discus are. Angels :angel: dart and gooble food. Discus tend to be relatively slow eaters (maybe not with BW). They like to bite their food and spit it out before eating it. If a more aggressive eater is present they may not get enough nutrition to "thrive".

You will get a lot of opinions and good advice from people who have already invented the wheel so to speak. Read through the old post and you will learn a lot.

Welcome again and happy discus keeping. May your waters always be soft. :D
James

[mmorris]

Stress bars can mean a lot of things, but something you might want to look at is that the eyes on some of them appear cloudy and the fins appear folded. It may be just the pic and they may be in high- speed motion at the moment, of course. But you might want to take a close look at that. You say your water is `normal' but everyone has a different `normal.' What is the temp, ammonia, nitrites, nitrates? Are you doing wc's with aged, heated water? What are the dimensions of the tank? The Fluval 305 isn't big enough to handle a 90 gal. tank and so you might want to think about supplementing it with additional filtration if it is that large. I recommend bare bottom with juvies until they grow into adults. I always steralize and soak wood for eons before putting it in the tank and I get it from the lfs. Others collect their own. HTH
Martha