Hi from S Africa

[jedigenie]

Hi all

Its been a dream of mine to keep discus for as long as I have been involved in fishkeeping (which has been a while now). I've never had the confidence to keep them before but I have slowly built up my experience. I've made friends with a breeder and we've communicated for weeks already about what I do and dont like wrt discus.

I have decided that I like wild looking discus above all and when the stars and planets align I will be the proud keeper of 5 domestic Rio Madeira blues. I plan on having them in a 400l (approx 100gallon) tank with 50g sump. Decor wise I want the discus to be the main feature so I want to tile the bottom (in essence bare bottom) and back with a light sandy coloured slate and using drift wood . Subdued lighting as the plants will be undemanding like anubia/java fern.

All that's left now is to turn dream into reality :)
Thanks for offering a great forum with such a wealth of knowledge and experience to learn from.

Will keep you folks updated on progress but be warned, I am not rushing this coz I wanna doo eet rite k ;)

[3dees]

welcome. I was in the same boat. many years of fishkeeping. salt and fresh but never discus because they were so "hard" to keep. then I found this site and realized that they are not that much different. I went with wilds and more than a year later my 8 original fish are still with me. good luck with your tank and ask any questions you have. there is an amazing amount of knowledge from some of the people here.

[Skip]

Welcome to SD!!

[DLock3d]

Welcome!

[Melissa]

Excellent way to start your discus venture :) :) you will do well because you have cared enough to do your homework :) Welcome to SD!

[jedigenie]

Hi all, thanks for the welcome and well wishes :)

Things didn't exactly go according to plan and as of last Friday I am the proud keeper of 7 beautiful discus :D
At the moment I have them in a 55g tank and doing 20% water changes daily. I will be adding another 20g volume (sump) later this week. Water temp is at 32deg C to help them settle and I am feeding 5 times a day

I have quite a mix bunch
1 red Alenquer
2 White faced red melon
1 Turquoise
2 Virgin Red
1 Blue Diamond

They all seem to have settled well, eating non stop and come to the glass whenever I come near the tank :)

Will post pics asap!

[SeaDragon]

Welcome to Simply Discus!
Discus are very challenging fish, but they're great to have. I'm currently 17yrs old and set up my firstl Discus 90gal tank when I was 15, so if you really want to go for having Discus good luck and hopefully you enjoy them!

[jedigenie]

Ok, so very much unlike me, things have changed yet again.

After keeping the 7 discus for a while and having them grow astonishingly quick I was offered a sum for them that I just couldn't refuse. With the profit of the sale I built a +/- 600l system (1.5m x 0.65m x 0.60m tank + sump) for the juvies that I purchased from the breeder I mentioned in the original post. I got 4 Snakeskin and 4 Royal Blues flown in today and these little buggers are eating like crazy! I'm feeding Benker's Royal discus food (crab base) every hour for the 1st day but will scale it down to 6 - 8 times / day from tomorrow. Luckily the breeder threw in a sponge filter for me to seed my sump with. I know juvies are risky but I feel my chances are so much better with the help of the breeder offering me almost constant input.

One day when I hit the magical 10 post mark I will post pics.

Thanks for being such a supreme resource, this is a "must read" site for anyone even slightly interested in discus.
Wish me luck :)

[TNT77]

Keep bumping your post..4...5..6..so on till you hit the magical 10

[jedigenie]

Hi all, it's about time I posted some pics of my crew. So this thread of mine if gonna bump like a froggy's butt on a race track :)

[jedigenie]

'nuther 1

[jedigenie]

ugh, 5 more to go

[jedigenie]

4

[jedigenie]

3

[jedigenie]

Amazing how long 30seconds can seem

[jedigenie]

Sooo close

[jedigenie]

http://i573.photobucket.com/albums/ss177/jedigenie/Discusandrandom171.jpg

http://i573.photobucket.com/albums/ss177/jedigenie/Discusandrandom169.jpg

http://i573.photobucket.com/albums/ss177/jedigenie/Discusandrandom167.jpg

http://i573.photobucket.com/albums/ss177/jedigenie/Discusandrandom172.jpg

Pics taken last night just before tank maintenance so please excuse the mess.

Thanks for looking

[ZX10R]

I really like the one in the last pictures nice and round

[roundfishross]

yep good shape on those snakes :)

[bibsun]

hi welcome..

[shoveltrash]

hullo & welcome!
lovely Discus.

if you sandwich your photobucket link between codes, your photos will appear in your post :)
like this
[img]http://i573.photobucket.com/albums/ss177/jedigenie/Discusandrandom172.jpg

(easiest to click on photobucket's img code & copy/paste)

[jedigenie]

Thanks for the kind words and thanks for the tip :)

The fish highlighted by Shoveltrash is the boss of the group. First to the food and "protects" the group from the evil suction vacuum :D

I'm lucky to be able to feed them 7 - 10 times a day but I still find it hard to believe they only 5 - 6 months old. Their growth has been astonishing, I have to give kudos to the breeder (Mr. Marco Du Toit) for going above and beyond to ensure that I have the best possible experience with my fishes. Honestly not a day goes past without hearing from him. This guy has boundless enthusiasm for all things discus.



Will keep the updates a little more regular from now on.

Would just like to add again that this forum has been instrumental in my discus keeping success so far. Thanks to everyone for making it so.

Stay frosty
Eugene

[DeMarco]

Hi @Jedigenie

I am really glad you are having such a good time with these guys! They are looking excellent and you have done a really good job.
Those interested, these fish are my first completely Parasite free fry. I must say in the beginning I was a tad apprehensive about the whole idea, but after doing it and seeing the remarkable difference in fry development, Im real happy

Kind regards

Marco