DiscusKeeper403

IMO (In my opinion) and IMHO (In my honest opinion) are ones I see commonly on forums too.

Brackish fish will probably need marine salt, not aquarium salt. To be honest, I would say it's probably okay, how much do you put in? Depending on the amount, it may buffer the pH slightly, as long as it's slightly it's not a problem. That being said, I will agree with the others and say aquarium salt is not really needed, better to just skip the salt IMO.

Not hard to keep, just requires lots of work I do 5 feedings a day and normally a 100% water change daily, but I have been slacking a little since summer has started My water change/feeding regime is a lot and people can get away with doing less water changes and feeds.

The Cobalt I got from Alex Han is the 4th picture. My home grown Cobalt is number 5 and 6.

Here are a few new shots, with my most recent addition a Cobalt Blue from Alex Han. http://img140.imageshack.us/gal.php?g=p1010192k.jpg Take care, DL

Yes you are right, but is flake a natural part of their diet? How about the spirulina and wheat flour and soy meal in it? To be honest I don't think much of what we feed our Discus is what they eat in the wild, if anything. I could possibly see daphnia and mosquito larve, but even then I am not sure. Beef heart can foul the water but the more you feed the more you need to do water changes anyways to be honest. Feeding 6-8 feeds of anything would require a daily water change

There was a heated debate on Beefheart on another forum and someone was saying Stendker reported his Discus living on average 10-15 years, where another Discus enthusiast (can't remember then name, might have been Heiko Bleher) reported his specimens living on average 20-30. Don't really have anything to back it up I am sure if someone went digging they might be able to turn something up.

Fair enough but if they told you when you asked they can't be that worried about letting the cat out of the bag. At least what I would think anyways...

Hmmm, then why say it in the first place? Primarily blood worms isn't too bad, as long as the breeder is still giving other varieties of food. Primary isn't really specific enough to say if it a good or bad thing, primarily could be very many numbers... I know that Kenny/Forrest Discus are fed a large vairety of foods, having talked to them personally and having bought some of their fish. They readily excepted everything I threw in the tank (flakes, pellets, blood worms, brine shrimp, mysis shrimp, glass worms.) Same thing with the Jeffery Yang fish I bought. Really the only mentioning of breeders in the group orders lately. I know with Stendker his beefheart mix is chocked full of all sorts of stuff, vegetable material and fish material along with different vitamins and minerals. Lean beefheart mix is definitley better then the straight fatty beefheart you buy at the pet store, but still, Discus fed heavily on beefheart normally last 10-15 years where as there are some reports of Discus fed on a varied diet and living between 20-30!

I wouldn't be so sure about that. Not only do other well known reputable breeders (some are mentioned in the recent discus group buy thread) feed primarily beefheart, at least one of them also uses a synthetic color enhancing agent (carophyll pink ) in his beefheart mix. Another one of those reputable breeders feeds primarily frozen blood worms, which again isn't exactly what I would consider a well rounded diet, even if these primary ingredients are supplemented with vitamins etc. Which breeders are these?

The pirahnas are being moved to the 75 as they like the surface area and now that they have grown a little bigger, they need it even more. They are really starting to :boxer: for space. The discus will then go in the 72 tall and hopefully it will be semi-planted for them soon after. They are still pretty little well at least the 5 new ones and look good in the 20 gallon, they are gonna think they are in the amazon river -roll- Sure sounds like you got a lot of tanks on your hands! Good luck getting those africans out of the tank, I hate netting africans, so fast!!

I agree, and feed very little beef heart, only as a treat strictly once a month. Great article I have been telling people for ages Discus need more vegetation in their diet. Hard to get it in though in some cases. I'll also add that I believe Stendker is on the only breeder now days that feeds only beef heart, most asian stock breeders feed a well rounded diet, at least reputable breeders.

As the above said, use a divider or plexiglas in his case to herd them into a corner. I would use a big koi pond net along with a smaller net to use to herd them into the big net. I would also put those 7 Discus in the going to be empty 75g in your sig. :thumbs: :P

I have to agree too, really like the eruption leopard! You took the gravel out too huh. Like the new look and the Discus will probably respond pretty well to the change. You should see some really good growth on those fish.

This may be a bit of help, haven't really looked at it yet but I plan on bringing fish back from the US this summer. http://www.inspection.gc.ca/english/anima/...ort/petse.shtml

\ Damn.. im using Delta. So as long as a lfs packs the box im good to go? and dont have live fish stamped on it? Last time I checked for Air Canada, they said I was fine to bring fish on the plane. I called their hotline to double check. I guess rules have changed though and it would vary from airline to airline, and as others said, better call to be safe.

from what I have been reading, you need a minimum of 10 gallons for each full grown discus with a minimum tank size of 29 gal. 50 gallon minimum is normally recommended. You can get away with a 40 or 40g breeder for growing them out, but they will need to be moved over to a bigger tank around 4". 3 Discus in a 29 gallon is asking for trouble.

Do you mean specimen size? It can vary slightly depending on strain, and fish and sex, but normally anywhere from 5-8inches full grown.

Thanks Hemi, I really hope so!

Thanks guys!!! The smaller one still hasn't got his full colors yet, but hopefully they will keep developing. Once I get him grown out I will switch the food up a little more to see if I can enhance the colors :thumbs:

Hello all, Here are a few pictures of the Checkerboard Pigeons in my tank. One is from the LFS a while back, and the smaller one is from a discus importer April in Vancouver. I purchased the smaller one a few months back at around 3 inches. It is growing like a weed. His color hasn't fully come in yet but is coming along quite nicely. He has grown quite a bit though almost as big as the 5" LFS one. Anyways, just thought I'd share. http://img43.imageshack.us/gal.php?g=p1010134.jpg enjoy, DL

Yep, hopefully I can get his shape back to normal. I am pretty sure he has parasites, although I saw him pass a bowl movement a few minutes ago and it looked fine, this is a fish from April and it came to me with that shape, so if it's not parasites then it must just be a bad fish. I got some flake and pellets soaking in garlic puree and water. Going to pick up some garlic guard in a few days, and like I said have purchased a junk load of really good angel de-worming flake (7 oz of it.) I plan on de-worming routinely from now on. LOL

No that pigeon blood is just the stunted runt. He is just low quality, which is the reason for the peppering. I am talking about the Leopard Snakeskin that seems to have problems. He eats well, and his stool is fine, but he is starting to get a pinched forehead and odd shape, and with 5 feedings a day (and he eats really well) he should be really fat. Think he has some sort of nematode that is sucking all the nutrients out of him.

Thank you! One of them looks mostly white, with very subtle red going through it. It is a checkerboard, but his colors have not come in yet. The other is the Leopard Snakeskin, which after having him for a while, I have come to the conclusion it must have some sort of internal parasite, so I have order some really good deworming flake through the internet. It is still eating and his bowl movements look healthy, but he is not growing properly, with black eyes and starting to get a pinches forehead (with 5 feedings a day) should be impossible.

How often are you doing water changes? Gravel vac each time? I agree with RD., in that as long as the tank is established and you are siphoning out 20+% water each week, ammonia and nitrites should be at zero. Does all the food put in the tank get eaten? I think the high water params may be stressing the fish out. As Firestorm said, you can add salt, but make sure you do a large water change too, it is the best way to get toxins out of the water. What size tank is the fish in? What exactly are you feeding, and how often? Another thing. I believe Rid Ich has formaldehyde in it, which may impact your biological filter. This may have caused a mini cycle in the tank, the malachite in it shouldn't dye anything.