My discus diary (660 l planted tank and related projects)

[Johanna]

Ok, I'm going to try and document my discus hobby on this thread. It might not be strictly a tank journal but rather a place to organize all my experiences neatly in one place and an easy-to-follow timeline. I do only have the one and only main tank still, so I think it qualifies

STARTED 12/08/2023, upgrading from my previous 450 l tank with 2 angels, a few old tetras and plecos. Added the first 7 discus on 03/09/2023. No quarantine and had some problems...

THE CURRENT SETUP

Tank and equipment:

660 litres (200cm x 55cm x 60 cm height)
filtration: Fluval FX6 (2130 l/h with media) + Eheim classic 2217 (1000l/h without media) + Eheim Powerline 2252 (1200l/h)
heater: Eheim 250W + timer (on/off regular intervals for safety: never trust the thermostat and on this heater it's not even working)
lights: 2 x Leddy Slim Marin day&night 32W (10 000K)

water parameters: NO2 0, NO3 12,5 - sometimes closer to 25 after starting to feed beefheart (needs wc), GH 2, KH 1-2, pH 7,1. temperature 28C

hardscape and decor: natural 0,5-1mm sand substrate 2-5cm thick, front corner of white gravel and pebbles, driftwood (mangrove and mopani), rocks from nature.
,
plants: Echinodorus bleheri, E. amazonicus, Cryptocoryne wendtii, C. pontederiifolia (these crypts are over 20 year old!) Cryptocoryne crispatula, Anubias barteri var. nana, Anubias gracilis, Ceraophyllum demersum, Ludwigia repens, Hydrocotyle tripartita, Staurogyne repens, Lilaeopsis brasiliensis and Nymphea lotus.

fishes 21/06/2024:

10 Discus
L200 Hemiancistrus subviridis (green phantom pleco)
2 x L134 Peckoltia compta (leopard frog pleco)
2 x L104 Panaqolus maccus (clown pleco)
Albino long fin bristlenose pleco
Farlowella acus
4 VERY old colombian tetras, Hybressobrycon columbianus

in quarantine

2 new Discus
- in 125 l bare bottom with a log of mangrove

2 Panda dwarf cichlids (Apistogramma nijsseni)
2 Checkerboard cichlids (Dicrossus filamentosus)
- in 40 l bare bottom with driftwood

I should upload some new videos, these are a couple of weeks old. The new discus keep taking turns laying eggs every week, first one, the next day the other follows


I will link the major issues I've had over the past year / related threads here in a following post when I have the time - just to be easily accessible for me later if needed. And I will post all updates on this thread unless it's a specific issue that goes under a different forum topic - in that case I will just add the links here.

[brewmaster15]

Re: My discus diary (660 l planted tank and related projects)

This a great idea Johanna. I look forward to following along.

[Phillydubs]

Re: My discus diary (660 l planted tank and related projects)

Beautiful! Those ones in QT are stunners!

[fishy_jim]

Re: My discus diary (660 l planted tank and related projects)

That is one sweet DT !!! Love it.

[Johanna]

Re: My discus diary (660 l planted tank and related projects)

So, here is the history post with links to the past events...

As mentioned, I bought the first 7 discus from a hobby breeder in early September last year. They were not my first discus ever, but for the sake of clarity in this thread these seven will be referred to as the first batch. (I'd had some discus a decade or more ago, but didn't have the proper setup or proper knowledge to keep them healthy for long. Eventually I gave up and rehomed the discus I had left when I moved house.)

I did read a lot before deciding to try discus again, but in hindsight, I was very unprepared. Thanks to the breeder and some other discus people I met online I got my problems sorted eventually and avoided any losses. Unfortunately I hadn't found my way here yet.

So, I will start this list from the arrival of my secod batch of discus in december -23. That's when I had made the decision to quarantine any and all fish I might add, and came here for help with the quarantine procedure.

https://forum.simplydiscus.com/showthread.php?140519-Quarantine-questions

Unfortunately, one of these four developed some unidentified problem that eventually killed it. The 2+ month battle to save it can be found here: https://forum.simplydiscus.com/showt...osing-appetite

I ended up dissecting the euthanized fish (found nothing particularly interesting) and sterilized all the equipment and the hospital and quaratine tanks.

Introducing the second batch (the remaining three) into the main tank went well, but it did not particularly help with aggressions. On the contrary, I think.

Some happier moments include the spontaneous formation of two breeding pairs:



And the flowering of my red tiger lotus! It did grow two flowers, each one lasted about three days. Unfortunately flowering seems to have sapped all the energy from the plant, all the big submerged leaves have melted away and it's sending out runners with small new plants.

https://forum.simplydiscus.com/showthread.php?140874-Lotus-flower!

Then in May -24 I decided to add some new small fish... ended up with a pair of Panda dwarf cichlids and Checkerboard cichlids: https://forum.simplydiscus.com/showt...cus-tank-mates

.....and, unexpectedly, two more discus! https://forum.simplydiscus.com/showt...1039-I-am-weak

This is it for now - the beginning of my discus journey.

[Johanna]

Re: My discus diary (660 l planted tank and related projects)

And so it happens that the first real update in this thread has to be problem-related: one of my discus in the main tank suddenly stopped eating and looks a bit off today. I'm not starting a thread in the disease section yet, as it doesn't look really sick. But something's definitely amiss. Opinions are welcome.

The fish has been completely normal and healthy until now. Yesterday I fed them several times, and saw it eating frozen beef heart, mysis and flakes. However the last feeding late at night was water-soaked granules and the fish ignored them. I thought, probably just not hungry because they'd had several meals that day. Some of my fish aren't always keen on dry food, this one included. But, he is still not eating today and has gone dull-coloured. Not really hiding, but staying in the corner out of the way when I feed them.

Nothing out of the ordinary in maintenance, last water change was 2 day ago. I'm going to start with a 50% water change and see if anything changes. Unfortunately I'm out of tank space if it looks like a hospital tank is needed.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/gUHatnJJuxA

[Johanna]

Re: My discus diary (660 l planted tank and related projects)

Oh, and Thank You for the nice comments! Much appreciated :-)

[brewmaster15]

Re: My discus diary (660 l planted tank and related projects)

Johanna I agree the fish looks off.. stressed. Perhaps its just having some issues digesting the mysis meal. Epsom salt may help amd should not hurt anything in that tank.
al

[Johanna]

Re: My discus diary (660 l planted tank and related projects)

Thanks, Al - I think you are right! I did the water change and went looking for the dosage of epsom salt (it took a while and I had things to do in between). When I came back to see the fish I found this one pooping and overall looking better (clearer colour and moving about) so I didn't immediately put in the epsom salt but tried giving them some food first. And it eats! Spits out some of it, bigger chunks come back out fast - but it eats smaller bits of beef heart and flakes and comes up begging for more. So I'm holding back the epsom salt for now, unless you think I should still add it? And will do another larger water change tomorrow.

[Johanna]

Re: My discus diary (660 l planted tank and related projects)

I'm happy to report that the fish with the digestive problem is now completely back to normal and eating well Discus are so good at scaring me, lol

let's hope another issue isn't in the making... There's been quite a bit of fighting again lately and now one of the smaller fish has a nasty scrape on his back/base of the dorsal fin. I can see white bones where the skin is broken. For now I'm just trying to keep the water clean to avoid infection.

[Johanna]

Re: My discus diary (660 l planted tank and related projects)

Today the tank has been in a state of pandemonium... two pairs decided to breed at once and the unpaired white pigeon is frustrated and trying his moves on everyone. Even the two smallest ones are squabbling. The injury on the one pictured above is starting to heal without any problems but now there are scrapes on two others as well.

The blue&red pair decided to lay their eggs on a leaf right in front of the tank so I got a nice video clip of them doing the deed...

[fishy_jim]

Re: My discus diary (660 l planted tank and related projects)

Your tank looks great!! Must be "something in the water" both my pairs need to get a room also. I even have some free swimming fry darting all around. Love your tank !

[brewmaster15]

Re: My discus diary (660 l planted tank and related projects)

Today the tank has been in a state of pandemonium... two pairs decided to breed at once and the unpaired white pigeon is frustrated and trying his moves on everyone. Even the two smallest ones are squabbling. The injury on the one pictured above is starting to heal without any problems but now there are scrapes on two others as well.

The blue&red pair decided to lay their eggs on a leaf right in front of the tank so I got a nice video clip of them doing the deed...

There are times Discus remind us that despite being beautiful, graceful, and dignified..they are infact still cichlids.

[Johanna]

Re: My discus diary (660 l planted tank and related projects)

Blue&red pair are still guarding their eggs... none of my fish have ever had wigglers before but it looks like this batch might go that far. There are dark spots clearly visible in the eggs and the parents are taking very good care of them. The pigeons lost theirs to a triangle drama and the male is looking a bit scruffy, his slime coat's been scraped off on almost all of his left side. They're not deep scratches though, they'll heal in a day or two.

And... now there are three of them:

I really hope I managed to pick a male this time. They are from the same breeder, same shop and same tank, so I believe they're safe to quarantine together despite having arrived 5 weeks apart.

If they pair up I might try to raise a batch of fry but I'd still need to read a lot before trying... I want to get it right from the start.

Also 13 discus is quite a lot for my display tank. We'll see how it goes but I'm thinking of the option of relocating some of the smaller ones to one of my empty tanks if needed. I think I'm going to clean them up anyway and see if they can be restored with reasonable efforts.

[Johanna]

Re: My discus diary (660 l planted tank and related projects)

Your tank looks great!! Must be "something in the water" both my pairs need to get a room also. I even have some free swimming fry darting all around. Love your tank !

Thank you! The single free swimming fry was adorable, what a tough little guy!