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Kevin

Calgary & Area Member
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    Invermere

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  1. I have not heard of it either. It will not surprise me if the dominant female eats all of the eggs - if she raised them it would not be smart from an evolution perspective. Lets see some more pictures of your discus Tammy! Kevin
  2. Connie, They are beautiful. All of the fish pictures look very healthy and happy. I would like to see a better picture of the white faced/blue faced melon. She looks like she has the makings of a real stunner. Kevin
  3. Slow it down girl. Let them get settled down for one more week before you get frustrated. Get them used to you and looking for your feeding cues. Then pick their most voracious feeding time and try just a little of the new food before you feed them anything else. If they don't even look at it yet, then give them the food they will eat and then give them 1 day where they miss their regular feedings, then try the little bit of food again. Good luck, Kevin
  4. I sugest an xp3 to go with your xp2 as a good start. I have had good service from my Rena canister filters and absolutely no issues with them. That's what I would add J I disagree - although I now run an FX5 on my big (120 gallon) discus tank, I am a much bigger fan of using HOBs (AC110s) with 2 foam pads. Every week you can clean the lower pad (where the food sits) and shift down the top pad - thus maintaining good bacteria population levels. This is a 3 minute job and keeps the accumulated waste levels low in the filter. I find it a real pain to rip down my cannister filter once a month to clean it out. Putting clean water through a dirty filter - gives you dirty water - just a thought. Kevin
  5. Tonka Bear good luck, you are getting very good advice. I just wanted to say that I am very impressed by the feedback that you are getting. It is nice to see that the people that I tried to help with discus advice are now succesful and able to help others. Once you get discus requirements down, they become as easy to keep as any other fish, only much more rewarding. Kevin
  6. I found that 55 gallon water barrells (for storing rain water) from the hardware store to be ideal. They are hard and will not fold like a garbage can. They also have drains near the bottom of them so if you can raise them up in a stand, you can gravity feed out of the water barrel. I have been running 75% water changes straight from the tap for 2 months (with prime) and seeing no negatives. But I am in Invermere and the water seems to be slightly more stable (.2 change in PH vs .4 in Calgary). My opinion is that do whatever you can to change the water. What is imperitive is that the water termperatures stay the same (within 1 degree F). I would take out the sand and the plants until everyone is healthy. Healthy discus in a bare bottom tank look much better then unhealthy discus in a planted tank. Master discus in a barebottom before you try 1 pair in a 90 gallon planted. Please feel free to PM me with questions, or PM me your number and I will call you to help you through this difficult time. I have been where you are and I know how much it sucks, hopefully we can turn it around. Kevin
  7. I hate to be a jerk, but go back to our original posts about discus from 4 months ago: - you have kept discus with other tank mates - you have kept them in overstocked tanks - you have kept them in planted tanks with gravel which is notoriously difficult - you only do one water change a week (I do 4-6) - you have not quarantined new fish I don't know how many of these are still true, but they all add stress to the fish. What has happened is that your discus are showing a general breakdown from being kept in a less than ideal environment for too long. As they are stressed for longer periods of time, they become susceptible to more diseases. The dark color and lower appetite is a reaction to stress. Even if you have not seen clear string poop, internal parasites are still doing their work. The twitching is a result of stress and likely external flukes. The only thing you can do to try and save your fish is give them an ideal environment and let them try and heal on their own. Give them an adequately sized bare bottom tank. Crank the temperature over a week to 88-90 F. Change 75% of their water daily with treated water at the same temperature (no there is no ph issue with Calgary water unless you are messing with the PH, but I did have better luck in Calgary ageing my water for 24 hours). With luck you can save half of your discus. People can diss experienced discus keepers for being anal about these things, and you can probably do some of these things and not have problems, but if want to be succesful with discus there is one proven way and many ways that can be less succesful. With my first discus I thought - this is overkill I don't need to do all this, but it ends in heartbreak and I feel very bad for you. If you want to see the results of stressed fish - look at the fish in Dalray's photos for sale. The discus being kept with African cichlids are showing many signs of stress and early disease. So it is not unusual to make these kind of errors keeping discus. Kevin
  8. Firestorm, the pair is probably worth about $250 to $300. I would love to see the baby's that Dalray is growing out, show us some pictures. Kevin
  9. I just saw this - definitely ammonia burn. Look for whatever dead thing is causing the ammonia spike as well or it will happen again. Kevin
  10. Leave them be. Discus pairs can take a number of times to learn. They are poor parent's compared to other cichlids. Nice fish, the female has a very striking background color. Good luck
  11. Yeh, my fish came from Kenny's Discus and my experience has been incredibly positive so far.
  12. There are a few out there - at least one in Calgary (I have seen his fry at auction). Lots of people try to breed discus, few are succesful or last. I eventually would like to breed - as a natural extension of the hobby, but not to make money. To give you an idea of the experience and time it takes, one of my mentors "Spidey Steve" on the forum took 3 years straight to raise, pair, breed and have a viable school of juvies. Are you an experienced breeder? What are you hoping to achieve? Where did you get the nice cobalts that were for sale? Kevin
  13. Look like healthy fish with a good start. Let me know how they do and if you need anything. Kevin
  14. Kevin

    Discus

    Thanks Quinn, they still have a long way to go, but there is some potential there. Shouldn't you be in bed? It is a school night. Good night.
  15. After all of the discus discussion I wanted to share my current little projects with you. Here is a sampling of the fish that I am raising. They are now 3-4 inches and I have had them for just over 2 months now. Kevin
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