I am looking at Discus's as my next step up in fish keeping [Archive]

Starfish

07-23-2012, 01:03 AM

Doing the research that I can.. And I have a bid on a good quality cheap tank and from what I can see and the research I have done.. It's big enough for some discus's.. Not sure how many.. I know they love to be in a shoal and when i am used to looking after them look at breeding them.

this tank i want to go big and colourful..

First i understand about water quality, their personalities and more.. Just ready to put research into practice now..

The tank is 300ltrs measurements is 140cm long,120cm wide and 50cm's tall.. Now from what i have read anything shorter than 50cms is not reccomended.. If i was wanting to look at breeding could i with this set up

And also read on various sites about the colours some are more hardier than others. what else is there to know.. Yes the food quality must be of good standard too.

So far i like the turquoise blues,pigeon bloods, and malbro reds..

And what tank mates could i look at. I am thinking of black ghost knifefish,pictus catfishes, Angels(unsure now as i am reading this is a no go). Barbs not sure which species and wanting to start of with baby discus.. and also if i am looking at making it a community tank who should i add first and who should i add last.

Trier20

07-23-2012, 04:12 AM

Ok so looks like with the tank size you have you could fit about 8 discus in there. A group of six would be good since you would like some tank mates. As far as the ones you have chose I'm sorry to say they will most likely not work(excluding the angels). Use the search and type tank mates and your question will be solved. Your thought of buying baby discus is most likely not a good one. I advise you to buy adult or sub adult discus. They will be hardier and easier to care for and in the long run will cost you less money than buying fry. There are a lot of great sponsors on here. They are on here for a reason. Sure it's good for business but they actually care about their customers. They aren't just some Internet site that push fish out the door. Hit one of them up! Good luck and keep us informed!

strungout

07-23-2012, 04:25 AM

Definitely don't go barbs, knifefish I think would be harmless, not sure about the others. Definitely don't go juvies, I would personally buy a confirmed pair and do lots of reading and try to raise them. I dislike any other fish with discus myself but who am I to tell you what to do.

Starfish

07-23-2012, 06:07 AM

Thankyou to you both for responding.. Confirmed pair??... so would this tank i am looking at be able to have enough room for breeding then once i get used to looking after them... and also is it against advice if i say looked at 6 sub adult to breeding adults and they all came from different breeders.. would they learn to get on or is it best to try and get a shoal from the same breeder but the breeder gives me more than a few unrelated pairs..

will do the search in tank mates...

The tank where I have my angels in has platties,mollies,golden bristlenoses,2 gold gourami and 1 moonlight gourami... Out of those to put in with the discus if i was to per chance... be the platties if i think along those lines should it be ok for tank mates.

They will prolly do what my fishes i have kept in the past has done just go ahead and breed anyway... And when I see that happening i think i must be doing something right they wouldnt be breeding if it wasnt lol...

strawberryblonde

07-23-2012, 11:52 AM

Hi there,

I actually think your best, and easiest bet, is to purchase 6 sub-adult discus. Maybe 7 of them if you can tone down a bit on the additional tankmates. =)

A sub-adult would be 3.5" - 4". Hmmm, if you need that in cm it's 9-10cm.

It's also going to be a lot easier on you if you purchase colorful strains from just one breeder rather than several. The problem with several is that you'd have to put them into separate QT tanks for 2 months before you could get them into your display tank, and that would suck. If you purchase from one breeder and they are the first fish you buy (no tankmates yet) then they go straight to the display tank and you're ready to enjoy the new job of raising them. =)

If you want to add tankmates, start by raising the discus on their own for awhile just to be sure that you've got the hang of the water changes and feedings. Once you're comfortable with the routine, you could add any of a variety of compatible fish.

Some compatible strains are:
Corydoras Sterbai (great little bottom cleaners and fun to watch)
Cardinal Tetras
German Blue Rams
Bushynose Pleco

Out of a group of 6 discus, you are highly likely to get at least one pair. A note of caution though, some strains shouldn't be bred together and you can't predict which discus will pair up, so choose strains carefully if you are intending to breed them once they are grown out. Pigeon based discus are best with pigeon based. Breeding them to a non pigeon based discus will result in high numbers of fry with heavy peppering.

Ok, I think that's it for now. =)

bogia99

07-23-2012, 02:34 PM

since you are setting up a brand new tank ... look into a wet/dry with overflow system for filtering and a circulating pump. It does cost a bit more at the beginning but then you don't have to vacuum the food out every time after feeding (lazy me). The overflow will get every bits of stuff (food and poo) out of your tank (get the one that you can extend the pipe all the way down to the bottom of the tank). The circulating pump will push the BIG POO from one end of the tank toward the inlet pipe on the other end. One small variation you need to add to the W/D is a piece of pre-filter (or sock filter) on top to catch all junks before it goes down to the bio-ball. You can buy this pre-filter material at Walmart for $5/yard, as fine as you want. You can change this filter out every day or other day, hose it down and reuse it again and again. You can even double up the material to catch the microscopic pieces .... but make sure it doesn't work too well to clog up the filter and water over flow your W/D ...... Bad thing will come if it does happened :)

Cheaper alternative is external filtering box. <- get two of them and alternate the cleaning.

good luck

Starfish

07-23-2012, 04:30 PM

Thankyou Bogia the tank i am purchasing has the pump/filter vaccum,gravel and everything with it.. I will reasearch on the type of filter you are talking about..

And with current tank i do water changes 3times a week,vaccum the gravel once every month, change the filter a week after i vaccum the tank... What difference's here would i need to do with the discus tank.. and this one is a 180ltr tank with 5angels,5platties,2golden bristlenose,2mollies,2 golden gourami's and 1 moonlight gourami...

And also i am a fan of heavily planted tank and from what i am reading discus's require minimal plants and rocks and driftwood. but still require plants for hiding in and seperating territory.. Are the discus the same as the angles they prefer tall plants as they are a slim type of fish..

Orange Crush

07-23-2012, 04:49 PM

And also i am a fan of heavily planted tank and from what i am reading discus's require minimal plants and rocks and driftwood. but still require plants for hiding in and seperating territory.. Are the discus the same as the angles they prefer tall plants as they are a slim type of fish..
If you give discus places to hide they will. They do not need places to hide though, many people here have BB tanks for their discus. Since they are schooling fish they do not need seperate territories.

Starfish

07-23-2012, 06:18 PM

So Rocks and driftwood for decoration on a gravel bottom be just fine.. The rocks and driftwood would be for the cories.

Now with colours of discus's with the potential of breeding what colours are the best to start of with as someone said pigeon blood with non pigeon blood can lead to peppering which is an undesired trait.. And also which tends to be the easiest colours to start off with..

And with what I have said I so far like the bright malbro reds,turquoise,Cobalt blues, there is one on a site where i frequent that has a breeder selling a red map... Yellows and the stripes which i have read is the wild strain and leopards..

bogia99

07-23-2012, 06:41 PM

have you seen angels fighting ? wow ... they are mean little fishes .. took the scale off each others ... they pair off and claim a certain territory. If you have lots of plants then their territory tend to stay smaller I notice. don't know how discus behave themselves with plants but with food, there is always a bully in the tank. :)

Starfish

07-23-2012, 10:03 PM

tbh bogia i have never seen my angels fight in the year i have had them.. and at the moment there is no plants in the tank as they have munched it and waiting for guy that i talk nicely to to get back from his holiday for the deal he does on the plants for me 40 for 20 and yes i get that much because between the mollies,gouramis and angels they after awhile munch them..

I also had a problem with water quality after adding immature driftwood to the tank and that killed my plants but not my fish.. and the water quality is finally clear so i will be retrying more plants and adding some more fishes...

Oh with the discus set up and tank mates... Silver dollars??

Orange Crush

07-23-2012, 10:14 PM

I also had a problem with water quality after adding immature driftwood to the tank and that killed my plants but not my fish.. and the water quality is finally clear so i will be retrying more plants and adding some more fishes...

Oh with the discus set up and tank mates... Silver dollars??
If you are having problems with maintaining water quality then you should be aware that discus are A LOT more finicky with water quality than other fish. Many of us do large daily water changes (at least 50%) to keep the water to their standards. If you buy fry/juvies then it would be best to do at least 2 50% water changes per day. If not then discus are probably not for you.
Silver dollars are way too aggressive for discus. If you want to keep discus this is what I would recommend:
1) Buying 5-6 discus that are at least 4" each from a high quality breeder (like a SD sponser)
2) keeping them in the tank without any other tankmates
3) have the tank be at least 60 gallons with no substrate/plants/decorations
4) do at least 50% water change every day
do this for one month, get a feel for it, continue doing research on here and then decide if you want to deal with the added complications of tankmates and substrate/plants/decorations.

Starfish

07-23-2012, 11:52 PM

Yes orange crush this was the first time since owning tropicals 5years ago i had a problem with water quality was when i made that mistake other than that i always have the nitrates and ammonia to 0. And prior I had goldfishes since i was a teenager..

And thanks O.c that sounds like a good way to go, going to be weird having a tank with no gravel but as you say after a month if i feel confident enough then i can look into all that... after all this is my next step up in my 5years of having tropicals i have had glass blood fins,bettas,bristlenoses,bronze cories,Guppies,Minnows both cold and tropical and successfully breeding way too many lol and no help from me,Black neons,Neons,serpae tetra's to now which is platties,mollies,angels(2 which has bred once for me but didnt know what to do with the eggs lol now wiser i will know what to do) and gourami's...

Well here's where i really fell in love with the discus and i of course swore off it as i thought no way would i look after them too complicated but then i thought the same before i got my first tropical's in one of the houses i lived at I had 4 fish tanks all mine and everyday i would be darting from fish tank to fish tank doing this and that checking the health and so on. But the pet shop has a display tank with 6 of them and I looked at them and they all came up and looked at me and followed me and i was like what cool awesome cheeky colourful fishes..

then this 300ltr tank came up for sale which i am still hoping to win lol.. otherwise there is another one i am looking at. Its started this whole research to make sure i do everything right.

But in thier tank they have Kribensis,ghostfish,cories and driftwood,plants and gravel..

I would like to have on hand partitions just in case which is reccomended..

Starfish

07-24-2012, 05:19 AM

I won the tank so when i get it here I will post up some pics of it...

Orange Crush

07-24-2012, 06:03 AM

If you are only keeping discus (I recommend no tankmates) then you should not have partitions. I dont know where you got the info but it is not something we do with discus because they are schooling fish and want to be together.

Starfish

07-24-2012, 06:17 AM

I thought that its a good idea to keep partitions just incase... but upon that and further research soon put it to rest..... So next tuesday i should get the tank into the house and this is where the real fun will begin well... Thursday as i am taking current tank from its old spot to new spot which is in my room ready for the discus tank to be put where it is... And I will make sure i put photo's up of it and so on :)

I am looking forward to putting the research into practice... Going to be like a nervous first time mom lol

Orange Crush

07-24-2012, 06:24 AM

I thought that its a good idea to keep partitions just incase... but upon that and further research soon put it to rest..... So next tuesdayl i should get the tank into the house and this is where the real fun will begin well... Thursday as i am taking current tank from its old spot to new spot which is in my room ready for the discus tank to be put where it is... And I will make sure i put photo's up of it and so on :)

I am looking forward to putting the research into practice... Going to be like a nervous first time mom lol
We are here to help you. Do lots of reading in the beginners section -especially the "stickies" and ask questions when you run into problems. Discus are more finicky and take more time because of the water changes but they are not complicated to care for unless you make it complicated (i.e. plants, substrate, not enough water changes, buying poor quality discus, etc.)

Starfish

07-24-2012, 08:40 PM

Thanks upon more reading i tend to have more questions lol..

With the tank being much bigger than my 180ltr and my 90ltr which i am used to, when i come to cycle will it be needing to be cycled longer fishless than what i would of done when i first set the other two tanks up or is it the same thing.

And also with me getting sub-adults i was looking at foods.. to help them get the best foods they need there is i see on my market in nz a sub-adult discus commercial food would this be the best thing i can get them or just go straight on discus foods i will of course get frozen discus tucker,bloodworms,brine shrimps and other sorts of food for the discus and ones to help thier colour to come out..

Orange Crush

07-24-2012, 10:07 PM

http://www.simplydiscus.com/library/water_chemistry/general/pre_cycling.shtml
http://forum.simplydiscus.com/showthread.php?40119-cycling-my-tank

http://forum.simplydiscus.com/showthread.php?24193-Food-Recipes...
http://forum.simplydiscus.com/showthread.php?40813-Everything-you-might-want-to-know-about-fish-food.
http://forum.simplydiscus.com/showthread.php?34961-Carol-s-beefheart-will-not-disolve-in-tank!
I recommend against feeding bloodworms on a regular basis, it is hard to get the discus to eat anything else once they have them and discus need to eat a variety of things for a completely balanced diet.

discuspaul

07-24-2012, 10:25 PM

If you are having problems with maintaining water quality then you should be aware that discus are A LOT more finicky with water quality than other fish. Many of us do large daily water changes (at least 50%) to keep the water to their standards. If you buy fry/juvies then it would be best to do at least 2 50% water changes per day. If not then discus are probably not for you.
Silver dollars are way too aggressive for discus. If you want to keep discus this is what I would recommend:
1) Buying 5-6 discus that are at least 4" each from a high quality breeder (like a SD sponser)
2) keeping them in the tank without any other tankmates
3) have the tank be at least 60 gallons with no substrate/plants/decorations
4) do at least 50% water change every day
do this for one month, get a feel for it, continue doing research on here and then decide if you want to deal with the added complications of tankmates and substrate/plants/decorations.

Starfish - the above comments from Orange Crush provide the best advice I have seen so far on this thread, which appears to have wandered all over the map, which I feel is confusing and muddies the waters.

You'd do best to just slow down a little, do some more research before launching yourself pell-mell into discus, without having a clear idea of what you should be doing, or not doing.

You say you have researched, but it doesn't seem to be enough, or you have not taken it all in properly yet.

You have spoken here of a large tank you can get, or are thinking of, tankmates you now have and want to keep with discus, and in a planted, decorated set-up no less.

This is not a good approach to getting started with discus, and would likely lead to disappointment, if not failure.

Please do yourself a favor, take a deep breath, and slowly go over and carefully digest Orange Crush's 4 points above, and give some more thought to how you want to get started with discus, and then proceed to make it work !

Others' comments that are very worthy of re-reading and taken careful note of are Trier20's and Strawberry Blondes's.

Apologies if this sounds a little harsh, but I sincerely believe it will pay off for you in the long run.
If I can be of any help in assisting you to get started, please don't hesitate to PM me with any questions you may have.

Starfish

07-24-2012, 10:36 PM

Yes paul it may seem i havent reasearched enough or taken in.. what i am doing is taking a bit in and when questions come up i ask them and as orange crush has helped with immensely has been wonderful.. and when the link is provided i look at them and so on..

And also i am looking on other sites as well as this one too.

And Paul the tankmates I am not going to put any in until I have the hang of the discus's but who know by then i may once i get the hang of them keep it as purely discus's and just have cories on the bottom, going bare bottom,and also by the time i am ready i will have the hang of running the pump/filter that is coming with the tank and also looking at what strains of discus's is available in nz, daily water changes at least 3 times a day and with these ones being sub-adults to start off with small feeding 4 times a day and cleaning any leftovers. I am looking at taking almost up to a month or two before i end up getting the actual fishes..

Will read now on the cycling wether its the same time frame as when i first set up my smaller tanks. And also the foods for when i get the hang of it and wants to breed them i want them to be of healthy,good quality and happy discus's..

Orange Crush

07-24-2012, 10:42 PM

There are a lot of great fish forums out there but a word of caution....sites that do not focus specifically on discus tend to have a fair amount of bunk on them about discus care. While learning I would stick with this forum, NADA and BIDKA.

discuspaul

07-24-2012, 10:46 PM

Sounds good - please do what you are intending to do now, as you have stated above.
btw, no need to do 3 wcs a day, one a day would suffice. LOL

Starfish

07-24-2012, 10:49 PM

Ok thanks... to help with some of the cycling process as my current fish tank has no diseases in it what so ever tested the water today its 7.5, nitrate 0 ammonia 0 and its always like that when i test it, even when the immature driftwood killed the plants it never changed...

Could i take some of that water out and put it in the intended discus tank as well as the tap water as part of the cycling process or is it that essential that i get some ammonia into the tank..

Orange Crush

07-24-2012, 11:01 PM

to help with some of the cycling process as my current fish tank has no diseases in it what so ever......Could i take some of that water out and put it in the intended discus tank as well as the tap water as part of the cycling process.
NO, very bad idea. Even if the fish do not look sick, all fish have bacteria that their immune systems keep in check as long as there is not too much stress (aggressive tank mates, poor water quality, poor nutrition, etc.). If you expose other fish to these fish's bacteria in their water/filters they may not have the immunity (tolerence) for it and get sick.
This is why fishless cycling is best.

discuspaul

07-24-2012, 11:01 PM

Starfish - taking some water out of your existing tank to cycle the other one will not really help at all.
And yes, if you're doing a fishless cycle, it's essential that you begin adding ammonia.

I believe it would help you a great deal to have a read of my "Beginner's Guide to Getting Started with Discus", located here as a Sticky in the 'Discus Basics...' section - see the section on 'Cycling your Aquarium'.
Here's the link:
www.forum.simplydiscus.com/showthread.php?86009-Beginner-s-Guide-to-Getting-Started-with-Discus

Starfish

07-24-2012, 11:35 PM

NO, very bad idea. Even if the fish do not look sick, all fish have bacteria that their immune systems keep in check as long as there is not too much stress (aggressive tank mates, poor water quality, poor nutrition, etc.). If you expose other fish to these fish's bacteria in their water/filters they may not have the immunity (tolerence) for it and get sick.
This is why fishless cycling is best.

this is why i am glad i am doing all the reasearch i can before the tank gets here and i get the fishes..

And also whilist reading the cycling thread I also now know where to go to get pure ammonia should be in our pharmacy here too...

Orange Crush

07-24-2012, 11:47 PM

this is why i am glad i am doing all the reasearch i can before the tank gets here and i get the fishes..

And also whilist reading the cycling thread I also now know where to go to get pure ammonia should be in our pharmacy here too...
ACE Hardware

Teshi

07-25-2012, 12:24 AM

Maybe if you order fish from a SD sponsor you could ask them to send a cycled sponge filter or to along with. I know my supplier did.

Starfish

07-25-2012, 12:26 AM

Are there any on this website that are breeders in new zealand... I will find that out too... I have asked at a place is an experienced and long term place of the fishkeeping hobbie so they are good too..

Ok reading the part on the link that Paul put up and reading about cycling.. If i was to get pure ammonia and the tank is 300ltrs not sure how to convert that into gallons I will see if i can find where to convert it.. and it saids if pure ammonia 6-8drops, and if store brought ammonia is one teaspoon for every 55gallons and how many teaspoons would that be.

Teshi

07-25-2012, 12:29 AM

Oh wow I didn't realize you were from new zealand! BTW welcome to SD!

Orange Crush

07-25-2012, 12:48 AM

Are there any on this website that are breeders in new zealand... I will find that out too...
Start a new thread asking about this because I have no idea who is a good breeder down there

Starfish

07-25-2012, 01:25 AM

Lol I will be when i am ready to purchase the fishes.. and thankyou I am prolly one of the fair few but i went onto this website hollywood fishfarm this is one of those fish stores in this country that all the fishkeepers beginners,novices and experienced go to and there is a few breeders that sell to this store and so on. they have two stores... and they have as strains turquoise,blue diamond,pigeonblod,snakeskin,red map,yellow crystal and malbro reds..

and thinking about 2 turquoises,2blue diamonds,1yellow crystal and 1 malbro red.

Now black markings on some of the discus's I have seen pics where they have black marking around the tail and fins i thought black was an undesirable marking on discus's because of the peppering effect on them which indicates they are stressed.

Orange Crush

07-25-2012, 01:40 AM

I think it is best to buy direct from a breeder not a fish store. Fish stores buy from breeders, then mark up the price even more. On top of that they do not take good care of the discus so their quality and health go downhill as soon as they are at a fish store. They usually have them in the same cycled water system as many other tanks (spreads diseases), they do not do enough water changes (poor water quality), and do not give them the high quality, varied diet and as frequent of feedings as needed. This is not true of 100% of LFS but is is true of about 99.9% of them. Even if they do take care of them right you are still paying more than if you buy them direct from a breeder.
Here are what discus you should not buy look like....
http://forum.simplydiscus.com/showthread.php?46982-What-not-to-buy
http://forum.simplydiscus.com/showthread.php?33300-Selecting-Discus
http://forum.simplydiscus.com/showthread.php?86009-Beginner-s-Guide-to-Getting-Started-with-Discus

Starfish

07-25-2012, 01:52 AM

Orange Crush

07-25-2012, 02:06 AM

I have had a look at those threads already so no lfs just breeders to start off with I will get there... Now with the ammonia and the fishes with black tails and fins etc...
Stress bars and peppering are signs of stress. Peppering only happens in PB strains, the lower quality of PB you buy the more peppering you are likely to get.
Hmmmm, I think you are still spending too much time asking questions rather than using the search tool for answers. ;)
What also works well is google your topic with the words "simply discus" as part of the topic, I find it works better than the search bar on this site....

Starfish

07-25-2012, 03:18 AM

Stress bars and peppering are signs of stress. Peppering only happens in PB strains, the lower quality of PB you buy the more peppering you are likely to get.
Hmmmm, I think you are still spending too much time asking questions rather than using the search tool for answers. ;)
What also works well is google your topic with the words "simply discus" as part of the topic, I find it works better than the search bar on this site....

Oh ok then well the questions I ask are after I have read and there are times there where I am reading over things twice and then I have questions, I have used google.

And when I was going on about the types of strains I was merely meaning that those are the colors I am going to get or would like to get. And the Lfs would me my last option breeder first.

after the set up and so on

Orange Crush

07-25-2012, 03:20 AM

No worries mate. :)

shoveltrash

07-25-2012, 08:31 AM

hi & welcome!

Are there any on this website that are breeders in new zealand... I will find that out too...
I did a search using the 'advanced search' option, with new zealand as my subject (searched titles), and came up with lots of posts....
here are a few links:
http://forum.simplydiscus.com/showthread.php?42856-Discus-in-New-Zealand&highlight=new+zealand

http://forum.simplydiscus.com/showthread.php?61278-breeders-in-new-zealand&highlight=new+zealand

http://forum.simplydiscus.com/showthread.php?68244-Discus-in-New-Zealand&highlight=new+zealand

there were lots more. take the time to search here, you can find out the answer to just about any question :)

discuspaul

07-25-2012, 12:16 PM

Starfish

07-25-2012, 04:52 PM

:) thankyou.

Right the lessons i have learnt this week and in the past month alone with discus's and i now can see why a fishless cycle is essential with these guys as compare with the other fish species. Yes all fishes have a protective coat, but it seems like to me the discus's coat in the wrong conditions is more suspectable to diseases,stress and abnormal changes esp the youngsters much like a human baby their immune system is that strong and all it takes is one thing out before it breaks down...

So where as in the past tank i would of gotten away with putting tester fishes such as tetra's,bristlenoses to see if my water is fine and not a problem.

Not so with the discus's. And because of the slime that the discus's have is the reason for starting off with a bb tank until you get used to the idea. and also them being sub-adults which i am getting to start off with eats more freq and of course poops more..

And with the measurements of the ammonia for the tank 80gall i worked out to be 2tspoon of ammonia, and if pure 7drops and test. The tank is needing to be cycled for at least 3-4wks to get the bacteria in the water going and the usual and the parameters just right.

When come to buying discus's go straight to the breeders and get one shoal from the same breeder and in this tank i am able to have 6discus with the hope of a pair.

And its needs to do water changes 50% once a week and siphon any left over foods the discus may leave.

Peppering is as a result of pigeonblood crosses or signs of stress. The type of discus's not to buy are ones that are dull,having a thin or pinched forehead,an egg,stunted or extremly large eyes..

Now the foods I am going to get them will be a selection beef heart i will cut up fine and freeze as these will be sub-adults,brine shrimp,frozen tucker,blood worms. And flaked foods specific for discus's also checking with the breeder what they are used to as well.

Hows that guys... sorry for a long reply.

Orange Crush

07-25-2012, 05:15 PM

So very, very close!
50% water changes DAILY not weekly but even more if the discus are less than 4" (juvies)
Bloodworms = candy (I feed them about once every 1-2 weeks as a treat)

Glad to see you are not an askhole. lol

Starfish

07-25-2012, 06:25 PM

Ahhhh daily.. When i do the water changes for the discus's I guess i would need to mix a bit of hot water with the cold as not to shock....

Current trops i just put straight cold water and they are fine.... its interesting i can tell you everything i thought you do with trops such as angels,platties and so on is different to with the discus's so I will be doing two different types of care with fishkeeping :D... Just wondering if i have enough room in my house for a siamese fighter tank....

with the fishes i have i even give them defrosted mixed vege's lol its fun to watch them pick a bit thrash it about, cucumber when the bristlenoses are done the gouramies and angels have a go...

Teshi

07-25-2012, 06:26 PM

When your ready to get your fish something you could do if you can only get from a LFS is ask who their supplier is.... and order fish to be shipped to them.. Then when they arrive at the LFS make sure you are there to pick them up the same day before they go into tanks at the LFS. Its always kind of nice to know where are fish are coming from, not just "the LFS".

Orange Crush

07-25-2012, 06:29 PM

Ahhhh daily.. When i do the water changes for the discus's I guess i would need to mix a bit of hot water with the cold as not to shock....
How are you doing water changes now? Bucket? Python? Aging barrel?

Starfish

07-25-2012, 07:28 PM

Bucket.... Good work out if you ask me and when i do a near on complete change this is gravel cleaning included put the hose in from the outside tap to refill and yell out stop when its near the right level...

Thanks Teshi thats something to keep in mind I am sure with the info i am taking in if my brain was spongebob it would be obese with information by about now XD

Orange Crush

07-25-2012, 07:52 PM

Bucket....
I would hold a thermometer under the tap water until it matches the temp in the tank exactly and stays at that for a minute or so. This way you are putting the same temp of water into the tank as what is in the tank. Aging water is best though. Read some threads about aging water: how to and why.

Starfish

07-25-2012, 08:28 PM

I will be planning to age some water, going to get about 4extra buckets.. so in total i will have 6 buckets specifically for fishes.. And thats a good way about it with the thermometer..

Starfish

07-27-2012, 07:12 AM

when talking to a fellow breeder of discus's what are the questions to ask..

so far the one i have sighted close to home i have asked..

what colour strain, what do you feed the youngsters.. they have given me an invitation to view i presume that is a good sign right..

Orange Crush

07-27-2012, 07:30 PM

I saw on the other thread that you were concerned about the pH of your tap being alkaline and were considering trying to lower it. Don't. Discus do much better in stable, consistant alkaline pH water than in tanks where the pH goes up and down from trying to make it acidic with each water change.

Starfish

07-28-2012, 12:58 AM

Oh thanks thats good to know...

Starfish

07-29-2012, 06:21 PM

Ok tommorow i should be on target to pick the tank up I will thursday take some pics of it and then learn how to deal with it lol.... I can say to add the discus's into it will be about sep/october...

I tested my ph from my tap yesterday its 7.6... will be in between things test the nitrates and ammonia now the question i have if when i test my tap water there is no ammonia will i still need to go through the process??

Orange Crush

07-29-2012, 06:27 PM

Starfish

07-29-2012, 07:52 PM

What process? Do you mean cycling the tank? If so, the YES. Fish create ammonia (poop, pee and food in tank that rots) this will kill your fish if there are no BB in the filters to eat the ammonia created by this process. Read about the Nitrogen Cycle....http://www.thetropicaltank.co.uk/cycling2.htm

Thankyou... I thought i would end up still needing to do the cycling just wanted to double check as with reading up on the sites and that... I moved the other tank to my room its good to have a tank in my room again lol...

Starfish

07-31-2012, 12:23 AM

I have the tank :) will take pictures tommorow of it and going to learn how to set up the filter shouldnt be too hard to do. and thankfully the brand is one that is well known so shouldnt be too hard to get replacement parts to it...

I am needing to get 2x 200w heaters am i right in saying that i need to set them both at the same temp to get the same temp both sides??

Also I have touched base with a discus breeder so that is awesome...