Discus newbie

[electric molecular]

Hi all,

I thought I would introduce myself as I have just signed up to this forum. It's a great resource for people like me, by the way!

Obviously I am new to keeping fish. People warned me off starting with discus but as soon as I saw a blue diamond in the local aquarium, I knew they were the fish for me. I have really enjoyed their company so far, and everything seems to be well in the tank, touch wood. I made the last additions to my tank about two weeks ago, and already these two fish have paired up and spawned!! Unfortunately they ate their eggs, but they did seem to be fertilised. I find them fascinating and find myself watching them instead of watching the TV. The way they keep shimmying at each other and cleaning a site is cute.

The other fish seem used to me now too. They remind me of dogs the way they immediately get excited when they see me pull out the yellow canister of Sera flakes. They also like to be handfed, and I find it funny the way the peck at my fingers. I was wondering how often everyone gives their discus' bloodworms? Does anyone have problems with fussy discus? Mine are pigs, but someone told me that if you give them bloodworms too often they will turn off their other food.

I have posted a pic of my favourite fish in the tank. He is probably the second or third prettiest of them, but he has a lot of personality and is definately the boss.

[Darth_discus]

in my experience they can turn off food, e.g i fed them a variety for a while and introduced something new (mysis shrimp) and they kind of felt like they shouldn't eat it or something.

I rarely feed bloodworms mainly because if their is a parasite in the bloodworms it can cause a lot of damage because it would be a freshwater parasite because bloodworms are freshwater, but if you feed artemia (brine) been saltwater the parasite if there was one would not be able to thrive in freshwater.

HTH

timothy...

[axelfaz]

Welcome electric molecular
We feed ours a variety of food everything from beef heart, brine shrimp, blood worm, tetra colour bits, daphina. We have never had any problem with blood worm but only use frozen. We stay clear of black worm though as this has more chance of baddies.

Cameron :)

[Ben]

Welcome to the forum electric molecular!

Great to see you are from Melbourne!

I feed a variety of foods to my discus, including frozen blood worms. Never had a problem with them and they all eat well.
thier favourite is live adult brine shrimp!
when i fed that to them then they eat like little piggies!

Cheers,
Ben

[electric molecular]

hehe cool Ben!

I have also tried mine on the colour bits and brine shrimp, but I have to say they were very ambivalent towards the former and didn't mind the brine shrimp, but seem far more excited about the frozen blood worm and flakes.

Yay for Melbourne too! I'm in Maidstone. So my favourite aquariums to visit are Aquatic Escape (near Highpoint) which is just around the corner from me (handy! I think I'm fast becoming their best customer), and Finland Aquarium in Moonee Ponds which seems to be exclusively Angels and Discus (imported from Thailand apparently).

Cheers,

Claire.

[Merrilyn]

Hello Claire and welcome to the forum. Lovely to have another member from Melbourne.

Your fish sound like they are doing well, and you are obviously doing things right for them to want to spawn already. :P

Discus are not as difficult to keep as some may think, but they do have a few demands that must be met. The first is clean water. These fish come from some of the cleanest waters in the world, with a very low bacteria count. At a minimum we need to change around 30% of their water twice a week, and preferably every second day.

The second need is warmth. A temperature of 28 to 30 degrees is ideal. Adults can manage at 28 degrees while juvenile fish do better at the higher temperature.

And last is a variety of good quality, high protein food fed several times a day.

Read thru the forums here. There's a wealth of information to be had, and if you're not sure about something, don't hesitate to ask.

Again welcome, to one of the friendliest forums on the net.

:wave

[electric molecular]

Thanks Ladyred!

Well I've pretty much just been doing my own thing with the discus, and it seems to be working so far. Initially I was trepedatious about doing such frequent and large water changes, as I didn't want to stress them out. One of the workers in the aquarium I bought some of them from advised me to do a water change once every second to third week and take out 40 L (its a 240L tank), and to only feed them once a day! I've developed my own routine in the time I've had them though, as I found such directions were not going to work for me at all!

Generally I do a water change every day, because I find the discus make a LOT of mess. I like to use the gravel vac after their morning feed. Sometimes I change as much as 50%, depending on the nitrite and ammonia readings. I think this is what made them want to spawn last week! I was not expecting them to get 'jiggy' with it so soon!

I keep the temp at 29-30 C.

And I've been feeding them three times a day, sometimes 4 if I cave into their demands! They are always at the front of the tank asking for more food, even if they have just eaten. But truly, watching them at feeding time is one of the best things about having them. The boss of the tank doesn't mind if I stroke him with my finger at this time. I thought he would feel icky, but actually he was quite soft! Does anyone else have fish they can touch??

Claire.

[nicholas76]

welcome once again claire

its refreshing to have a new member on board


look fwd to fry pics soon hey!

[sammigold]

Hi Claire,

Welcome to the forum.

You've peaked my interest. Where is Finland? I haven't been able to find it in the telephone book.
Am in melbourne too and love to do Aquarium crawls and admire discus wherever I can.

[Rossco]

welcome electric molecular,woot another melbournite :wink:

[electric molecular]

Hey Sammigold and all,

"DISCUS SALE . Importer selling direct to public Blue Turquoise $ 16.50, Blue Diamonds $18, Large Discus Red Stones, Checkerboard,San merah, Solid Red, Red Diamonds, White Swans and many other colour strains all at melbournes best prices . Finland Aquarium, 123 Pascoevale Rd, Moonee Ponds. Ph:(03)9326-0775 "


I found Finland Aquarium on the trading post initially, as my usual Aquarium doesn't have many discus in stock or what I was after, at any rate. Finland are definately worth a visit as they have a lot of discus stock of many different colours-turqs, marlboro reds etc, and ranging in price. Some really huge fish in there too!! I thought their prices were reasonable, and the guy told me he treats his fish for worms etc. I bought two for $150 (incl. the one in pic on this page). These are the two lovebirds in my tank!!

By the way, they have spawned again!! One of them is being v. aggressive to the other fish, even chasing the widdle cardinal tetras out of their territory. I'm a bit sad though, as I think these eggs will get eaten like last time. I will have to get them a breeding tank. I just haven't had the time yet.

I was wondering whether water changes bother the discus when they have eggs?

The other thing I noticed is that one of the parents seems to be asserting his authority over egg-watching duties from the other parent. This is what happened last time just before the other parent decided to eat the eggs. Is it common for discus to squabble over who will be the primary care giver?

I will try to take some pics of them tonight.

Claire.