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Hey Everyone -
Hard to believe that it has been almost a year since the start of the Challenge. Since this is the last post, I thought I would start off with a bit of a recap of my "method."
I received eight (8) challenge fish from Al in mid-December of 2007. They were housed for the entire contest in a 55 gallon display tank in my living room. The tank has a gravel bottom and a few plastic plants and bits of drift wood. They had the place to themselves with the exception of a mid-sized pleco that never seemed terribly interested in anything except the bonanza of food that the arrival of the discus brought.
As for my water.... it hardly varied throughout the Challenge
pH 7.4
GH 125 ppm
NO3 was typically less than 10 ppm.
I changed 75% of my water weekly and re-filled (with a Python) directly from the tap. I treated the tank with Prime as the tank filled back up.
Early on in the Challenge, I fed four times a day - mostly a frozen beef heart mix. I also fed Tetra Color Bits. As the fish grew up, I cut back to three feedings a day and fed more Tetra and less beef heart.
Of the eight Challenge fish, six have survived. I lost one early on after he jumped out of the tank and landed in an (empty!) bucket. It was a bummer, but I made sure to plug the gaps in all of my tanks as a result. I lost a second fish to Popeye (the disease, not the sailor) about two months ago. Only two of the group were infected and I lost one and saved one with a course of erythromycin.
The remaining six are, frankly, the pride of my admittedly small discus collection. Partly because of how I came to acquire them and partly because of how great they have grown up! These fish are truly a testament to the caliber of fish that Al raises.
Well, I think that's about it.... Here are some pics of the little guys all growed up.
Hard to believe that it has been almost a year since the start of the Challenge. Since this is the last post, I thought I would start off with a bit of a recap of my "method."
I received eight (8) challenge fish from Al in mid-December of 2007. They were housed for the entire contest in a 55 gallon display tank in my living room. The tank has a gravel bottom and a few plastic plants and bits of drift wood. They had the place to themselves with the exception of a mid-sized pleco that never seemed terribly interested in anything except the bonanza of food that the arrival of the discus brought.
As for my water.... it hardly varied throughout the Challenge
pH 7.4
GH 125 ppm
NO3 was typically less than 10 ppm.
I changed 75% of my water weekly and re-filled (with a Python) directly from the tap. I treated the tank with Prime as the tank filled back up.
Early on in the Challenge, I fed four times a day - mostly a frozen beef heart mix. I also fed Tetra Color Bits. As the fish grew up, I cut back to three feedings a day and fed more Tetra and less beef heart.
Of the eight Challenge fish, six have survived. I lost one early on after he jumped out of the tank and landed in an (empty!) bucket. It was a bummer, but I made sure to plug the gaps in all of my tanks as a result. I lost a second fish to Popeye (the disease, not the sailor) about two months ago. Only two of the group were infected and I lost one and saved one with a course of erythromycin.
The remaining six are, frankly, the pride of my admittedly small discus collection. Partly because of how I came to acquire them and partly because of how great they have grown up! These fish are truly a testament to the caliber of fish that Al raises.
Well, I think that's about it.... Here are some pics of the little guys all growed up.
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