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  1. #1
    Just an Egg
    Join Date
    Nov 2004
    Location
    Adelaide, Australia
    Posts
    85

    Discus questions from a newbie 'old hand'

    Hi Folks, I have been off this forum for years and it is nice to see some regulars back then still around (Lady Red). I used to have discus (breeding setup) and decided to sell them all and breed tropheus and frontosas instead - well, it was fun but now I am trying my hand at discus after 5 years or more. So, you would think that i wouldn't make so many mistakes.
    I had a 6 ft tank with a pair of large oscars - I put these in a larger tank and changed filters, most of the water and lowered the pH - and then... put 6 smallish 5-8 cm blue turqs and snakeskins in the tank - about 2 days after taking the oscars out. - The discus didn't like it at all - went dark and looked very stressed. I checked the pH and it was back up to pH7.8 - I forgot I had crushed marble as a substrate. -
    I have now replaced all the substrate with small pebbles - replaced 60% of the water (all the water is from puratap - and still have very shy discus. There was a funny smell in the tank and I thought ammonia for sure - my canister filter was the culprit as I forgot to turn in on for a few days and for some reason turn it back on without thinking - doh!
    I have now treated the tank with ' Ammolock ' and hoping for the best. I did lose one fish which is pretty unforgivable -
    Reading the posts here, I wont worry about lowering the pH and let 1/4 water change every second day do that to about pH of 7.3
    I am assuming the the hardness would be still pretty high - and Adelaide water is very hard.
    The fish are not eating well and have been providing them with brine shrimp which they have started to eat - only if they practically swim into the discus' mouth.

    current specs:
    7 discus for one week
    Temp is 29.5, pH is 7.4
    internal power filter (not too strong)
    2 air stones
    Eheim canister filter
    (not too much water movement)
    Lots of large river rocks and a few logs for hiding


    Any suggestions?
    What is the current thought on feeding live black worm?
    I want to get the discus onto NLS discus food.
    Is beef heart OK once a week?
    PuraTap - there doesn't seem to be a consensus here - is it better than aged with water conditioner?

    While I am asking a thousand questions - I have a turtle pond outside and there are a zillion mosquito larvae - is it too dangerous to feed these live to the discus - tropheus and other fish loved them with never any problems.

    Any comments suggestions much appreciated.

    Sean

  2. #2
    Medium Discus Mr Wild's Avatar
    Join Date
    Apr 2009
    Location
    NSW Mid North Coast, Australia
    Posts
    702
    Hi Sean I will try to help - I would raise the temp to 32C and yes live food is fine I have fed mine only don't over do it.
    Freeze fried black worms are great.
    Beefheart is fine although I think unecessary but I might get howled down here! lol
    But if Jack Wattley can raise his without beefheart so can I!

    Stability is key, don't worry about your PH, I prefer aged, heated and degassed water for my wc you just can't go wrong if you are replacing like with like.
    Cheers Kath

  3. #3
    Free Swimmer Nev's Avatar
    Join Date
    Aug 2011
    Posts
    420
    Any live food that'll fit in their mouths good.
    Mine love sweetheart and is the main food
    Think about a clean up crew in the tank - cories and bn.
    Don't all houses in Adelaide have tank water? Am told the tap water is a meal in a glass. No idea regards purrawater.

  4. #4
    Just an Egg
    Join Date
    Nov 2004
    Location
    Adelaide, Australia
    Posts
    85
    Thanks for the replies.
    From the comments above I fed the discus some wrigglers - it was unbelievable they went crazy for them - the colours of the red melons came up beautifully and so vivid. They are still breathing fast but seemed a lot more settled in and I am still doing the water changes. Is 'sweetheart' beef heart? The problem with BH is that i do not have bare bottom tank and it is planted etc - good comment about bristle nose (bn?) for cleaning up. My KH is still 6 drops, so I am hoping this will change gradually with the water changes every 2 days.

    So far, so good - no more casualties touch wood.

    Very impressed with the reaction to the mosquito larvae

    Cheers


    Sean

  5. #5
    Free Swimmer
    Join Date
    Mar 2011
    Posts
    488
    A planted tank is ok for b/h,Cory's and bn will eat what the discus can't get .

  6. #6
    Eternal Moderator Merrilyn's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jul 2004
    Location
    Melbourne Vic.
    Posts
    8,692
    Mosquito larvae is a wonderful, natural food for your discus. The only reservation I have is that they will mature very quickly in our heated discus water, and if you feed too many at a time, and some get missed, then you and the family are going to be doing a lot of swatting. At that stage, your only consolation is knowing that only the females bite :P

    As far as beef heart goes, so long as the diet is varied and nutritious, you can feed just about anything. Beef heart is not absolutely necessary.

    NSL is a good food. I had trouble getting my fish onto it. Seemed to take them about two weeks to really get used to it. Live blackworms - hmmm no. I'd give the live ones a miss because you can't be absolutely sure how the retailer has held them before you purchase. If you buy them direct from the supplier, Mal, then that's different. I know his worms are delivered absolutely fresh. I prefer the freeze dried worms. Same nutritional value, and discus love them. Also no worries about freshness.
    Thirty-five years keeping and breeding discus, and I'm still learning :P

    Merrilyn has passed, but will not be forgotten - Goodbye dear friend

  7. #7
    Blue Diamond Discus BigDaddyAdo's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2008
    Location
    Baulkham Hills, Sydney
    Posts
    1,047
    Get a white worm culture going. They are a great.

    I feed:

    Live white worms
    Live shrimp
    NLS (3 different type)
    Mals freeze dried black worms
    Good quality flake
    Frozen discus dinner
    Peas. spinach and bok choy.
    I don't get drunk I get AWESOME!!!

  8. #8
    Just an Egg
    Join Date
    Nov 2004
    Location
    Adelaide, Australia
    Posts
    85
    Cheers for your replies. Nice to see this site hasn't changed for years and is still giving great advice to fishy ppl and their favourite fish
    My fish now look healthy and happy - I think I just panicked and made the classic mistake of not checking all the water parameters BEFORE putting the fish in the tank!
    I am hooked on NLS food - I used to hate promoting a commercial feed but for tropheus, NLS was fantastic for years - so I am glad to see others using it for discus - I suppose variety is best.
    Just to add, I am very glad that mosquito wrigglers get the nod - it is so cool to just walk out the back and get some live food. I also have raided the worm farm and fed some small worms to the discus - they loved them.
    Now, to try bok choy and other greens - do you soften it in boiling water before feeding it to the fishes?
    Thanks

    Sean

  9. #9
    Wrigglers
    Join Date
    Jul 2011
    Location
    Perth, Australia
    Posts
    239
    Hi,

    I'm keen to know about the "greens" prep also and how often?

    Cheers

  10. #10
    Just an Egg
    Join Date
    Nov 2004
    Location
    Adelaide, Australia
    Posts
    85

    To treat or not to treat?

    Quote Originally Posted by Mr Wild
    Hi Sean I will try to help - I would raise the temp to 32C and yes live food is fine I have fed mine only don't over do it.
    Freeze fried black worms are great.
    Beefheart is fine although I think unecessary but I might get howled down here! lol
    But if Jack Wattley can raise his without beefheart so can I!

    Stability is key, don't worry about your PH, I prefer aged, heated and degassed water for my wc you just can't go wrong if you are replacing like with like.
    Thanks for the reply - I think maybe I should have taken your advice about the water changes - I do not heat the water - it is straight out of the 'pura tap' tap. I add about a 1/4 of recommended water conditioner. Well, yesterday I changed about 1/3rd to a 1/2 of the water and the tank dropped from 29.1 degrees to 27.9 - not much I thought - about 2h after the change - the 2 smallest discus had a bad case of white spot. and the red mellons and snake skins also had a sprinkle of white spots on them - the temp was 28.5 in the 6ft tank. Arrrgh, the little guys were almost black they were so dark. I didn't check them too much this morning but increased the temp to 31 degrees o/night with the addition of another heater. Just checking them now 24h after the water change - the smallest one has just a tiny sprinkle of white spot and it is not evident on any other fish at all. All are eating fine and temp is 32.3 degrees. At lunch time I rushed out and bought 'Rapid White Spot' remedy - formaldehyde and malachite green mix - what to do - the fish have responded so nicely to the increase in temp? I though I would keep the temp up around 33-34 for 5 days or so - I am sure I am going to lose the plants.
    I suppose this is the reason that you heat the wc water beforehand - seems like a big hassle but maybe worth it.
    If I had only changed 20% maybe this would not have happened. - I would rather not treat if I didn't need to. What do you reckon - feel a bit silly on this one.


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