bubba questions

hello all, my name is sharn, i am not new to fish keeping (over 50 fish in my room) but i am new to discus.

after reading up about what conditions etc they prefer i found i have a acceptable tank as the water around here is relativly soft and my tank is at 6.5 (ph). all my other parameters are in check (its been running for about a year)- ammonia 0, nitrite 0 and not sure about nitrates (tests ran out)

recently aquired (around 3 months ago) 3 babies around 3cm long, one died the other day for unknown reasons and today i got two more bringing me up to 4 babies.

i have them in my community tank along with angels, cories and tetras (the tanks 230L). now my question is... will they be happier in the 60L BB(2 foot) tank until they get a bit bigger (the are now around 5cm). i have it set up now awaiting your responses.

i have noticed the new ones i got today (all siblings) are alot bigger and more colourful than mine and thats making me think im doing something wrong... the temp is 27C steady but upon reading around here i will up their tank to 29-30 because they are young. i feed them bloodworms, JBL flakes, frozen discus tucker and will be getting some discus bits soon. i change 20% of their water every third day... if i move them into the smaller tank i will up it to around 20% every other day. im thinking they (the ones i got first) were a bit more timid at feeding time and as a result slowed down because of less food. i am running a HOB filter turned down significantly (probably around 200lph) but i will soon be getting a canister filter as i know discus hate excessive water flow.


i also have a question regarding dominance. now the bigger of the two that were in there has been picking on the new two, hes pushing and pecking the new ones but also does this to the smallest one resulting in him becoming a very dark grey (the are red turks) and he sits in the corner, fins clamped. i know enough about fish to know this is a bad sign so i have the bully in a floater in the main tank now until the new ones have a chance to settle in and maybe assert a bit of dominance.

thankyou all very much in advance, if you have any suggestions for me please let me know, im always looking to learn something new!

sharn

Welcome to the forum.

This is my suggestion but it would be good to hear about others:

I would keep all the discus in the 230 litre tank, raising the temp to 29.c would be good as 27 is a little bit cool and their growth will be a bit slower.

There is always a dominant fish; most times they will not bash up another discus to the extent of damaging it like some other cichlids.

As long as they all get their share of food.

When keeping discus i am a strong believer in lots of good water changes, so increasing water changes to every second day would be ideal, %50 is great!

Other than that every things seems in order.

Please keep us posted and if possible a picture would be great!

Cheers
Ben

but thats the problem, they dont all get their share of food... and the two i got before the siblings are significantly less developed- im guessing because of temp.

can a angel, cories, pleco, and two khulis handle 29?

i feel sorry for all the other discus as he is really nasty- he wont let the smallest one eat at dinner time!

thankyou ben for your response- much appreciated :D

I would remove the Angel and pleco, khulis out of the tank. Angles will out compet the discus for food for sure. Some people also attribute HITH and other nasty things to angles.

Other people may have different views.

I would try to give the discus a tank solely for themselves.

You may have a tough time getting the proper food and temperature to all fish in that setup.

G

after reading a bit more i moved them into the spare tank yesterday, caught them all eating a bit today- starting to get used to the tank now :) they will stay in that tank (im doing 50% water changes everyday and theyre at 30C) until they get around 7-10 cm, i will move them out before if i feel they dont have enough growing room.

the pleco hides all day, he really is a woose, thats why i moved him in there as he was getting bullied in the oscar tank, i sneak peeks at him at night and he just slowly cruises around the tank, however he will most likely be moved back to the O tank once i cure the driftwood for some more hiding spots.
the khulis are no problem at all, they only come out during the night and being only 7cm long they dont do anything, they have never bothered a fish, its like they dont even notice they have companions haha. once the discus are bigger i feel they could 'compete' with the angel better, hes pretty placid anyway and takes his time.

thanks for the replies guys! :D

Hello Sharn and a big welcome to the forum.

At 5cm your fish are just too small to compete for food in the community tank. Discus are shy feeders, and take their time. Your tetras and the angel fish will be getting all the food from the top of the tank, and the cories and loaches cleaning up anything that falls to the bottom of the tank, not to mention the plec.

That doesn't leave a lot of food for your timid little discus. Moving them into the 2 foot tank was an excellent move. Try to feed them 4 times a day, and as much as they will consume in half an hour. Remember that discus are browsers, and like to forage for their food from the bottom of the tank too.

The extra warmth, increased feedings and daily water changes will soon see a marked improvement in their growth.

Your bare bottom tank will be fine, but give them a plastic plant or two to hide behind for security.

Keeping the bully in the main tank on his own for a while will indeed give the others a chance to recover, and form their own pecking order. This will take around 2 weeks, at which time you can return the bully to the 2 foot tank, and he will be the new guy, and will be on the bottom of the pecking order.

Keep us posted on the progress of your fish. I'd like you to wait till your discus are around 10cm in length before you attempt to return them to the community tank. :P

thanks ladyred! im feeding them approx 4 times a day already, and by the time i go back in half an hour its all gone, so maybe i will up it a bit. i already placed a piece of slate with java furn attached and a piece of driftwood with the java attached so no probs there with the hidy places :) they are already much perkier and have even started to come up to the glass when they see me with their flakes (and boy do they love those bloodworms!!)

suprisingly the bully has backed off a fair bit now, maybe the change in decor did it, because it was exactly the same time as the new ones were added so they had a chance as well.

do you think the 2 footer will suffice for all four of them to reach 10cm? if not i can do a complete tank swap, only leaving the cories and loaches in, moving the angel and tetras to the 2 footer and the pleco back to the 5 foot?

thanks again