firestorm

I would agree. A 20 gallon would be much better for a colony, and I would try getting 5 to start with and weed them out as you go along.

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 You can never replicate what any fish eat in the wild, unless you spend a fortune raising their foods or ordering from a different country. I mainly feed the flakes to the tank for the cardinals I have, since the other foods are 1mm pellets, but it is a light afternoon snack for my discus as well. I just don't think feeding them one thing and only one thing is such a great idea for any fish, even juveniles. I hate the fact that most breeders feed beef heart, but at least I know their diet will be much better than in their first stages of life. My discus get 3-4 feedings a day, one larger feeding of pellets in the morning, a small sprinkle of flake when I am home from work then usually a nice frozen food for dinner along with a spirulina wafer mainly for the plecos. They typically get 4 feedings on the weekends and I change 30% every 2 days. Haven't had any problems in a while now. I have 6 sub adult discus in a 90 gallon tank along with 20 cardinals and 2 BN plecos, I don't think I am heavily stocked enough and don't overfeed to require daily water changes.

Problem with cardinals are that they can be harder to keep than ones like the neon. I also say try and restock with about a dozen rummy nose, they are awesome in large groups and aren't very difficult to keep if you keep the water quality good. Do you notice your rainbows or kribs acting aggressive towards the smaller fish? Rainbows might be the ones killing your schooling fish.

What size of tank were you considering? This would be the ideal thing to know before recommending any starter fish since they all have different requirements. Goldfish tend to be the best fish for busy areas with dumb people who like to bang on glass. They are not the brightest fish in the world which makes them a good candidate for children (no offense to those goldy lovers). Other good starter fish are zebra danios (which will require at least 20 gallons), I find angels to also be pretty good fish for public places, tetras are also a favorite of mine, but not ones like cardinals or rummy nose which are better for the more experienced fish keepers. Some barbs are also good beginner fish like cherry barbs, or rosy barbs. Guppies are deifnitely a good starter fish, although I recommend going for a tank with all males if planning to do this, since I don't think you want them breeding out of control in your work place tank.

Unfamiliar things or fast moving things will definitely do that. I found that with my 55 mbuna tank in my fish room, compared with my 90 malawi tank in my dining room, the fish in the 55 seem more skittish and shy compared to them all coming up to the tank every time I walk by in my 90. I think it all has to do with the activity in a room and how much time is spent seeing people. Some cynotilapia fry I have I moved from a 5 gallon in a less busy room, to a 25 gallon in my hallway freaked out for the first couple of weeks and were always hiding. Now after about 3-4 weeks they seem to be getting better when people walk by. I think it will just take time and I 100% agree to spend more time in that area to allow them to get used to the activity.

I agree 100% on genetics too. Food will also play a big part in it, as well as water quality, ratio of males and females, heirarchy, type of lighting used, color of background, color of substrate. Many fish will turn darker in color if placed with a dark background or dark substrate, although I have also found darker can bring out brighter colors as well. I use mainly a diet of new life spectrum, and supplement with other things sometimes as well like frozen foods or live foods.

I am not very familiar with vic cichlids, but from the 2 I used to own they were too aggressive to be kept with my tanganyikans. Calvus are a very peaceful fish, and I would not recommend putting them in with any mbuna or lake victorian cichlids. They only become aggressive when spawning from my experiences with them. For a grow out tank, I prefer to use anywhere from 20-40 gallon tanks. I find anything smaller and they grow slower. Do a 25% water change daily or every 2 days, and feed them 3-4 times a day if you can. These things will help them grow much faster than if you were treating them like adult fish. As for size, the vics can probably go in the tank when around 2" in size, the calvus would absolutely need to be larger than that at probably around 4". Calvus are really slow growers so unless you bought them larger already, it will take juveniles a very long time to reach a size that would be safe enough for them. Like I said I would be worried to keep calvus with mbuna.

I agree, a species only tank would be best. Provide 2-3 shells per fish, using shells like the ones sold for hermit crabs or similar to those of an apple snail. Some shells don't have the right shape for them to really use, you want to look into ones that will have space inside of them for the fish to hide in. Just look at your shells and see if they are similar. I would boil the shells first to make sure there isn't anything in or on them that will harm the fish. For decor in my ocellatus tank I use sand (which is the preferred substrate), and then I have the shells placed in the sand with the bottom half burried in the sand. If the multies are anything like the ocellatus, they will bury the entrances of their shells with sand. If you provide a few larger shells that 2 mutlies can fit in at a time, they will spawn in them. That is all they really need for their tank, if you want to add plants or rocks as well it is fine to do so just as long as you keep alot of space left over on the bottom of the tank, floor space is very important for them.

I personally don't think that they will live very long by eating cows, it is not a natural diet for them and I don't think it's absolutely healthy for them. I can see someone using it as "part" of their diet as a juvenile to help them grow faster, but as the main food source I wouldn't. Not only that, some of the members on SD have to do almost daily water changes because of how badly beef heart affects water quality. I would much prefer to use something that didn't make me have to do daily water changes and I don't. My Jeffrey Yang discus both took the foods I feed them right away, although one took a couple of days before he did start eating which is normal. They even eat the hikari and NLS pellets like crazy. I am very happy with the quality of these fish from Alex Han, and I believe they must feed these discus more than just beefheart if they took all other foods so well. I have had problems with other discus in the past eating certain foods, so it is definitely a plus to buy discus bred by a breeder who doesn't fous solely on getting them to grow as fast as they can, rather a specimen of excellent quality that isn't only going to live 4-5 years.

I would not risk adding any other fish with him. One really good way to at least keep their numbers at bay is to place some lettuce or spinach (tied to a rock) or cucumber in a jar and place it in the aquarium. In the morning the jar should have snails in it. Remove the jar, and discard of all the snails and rinse the jar well and keep doing this until you are satisfied. If you want to make sure there are none left, you can then try using copper in the tank to rid of them all. Copper should not harm your pirhana, only any inverts.

My oscars when they were only 4" in size ate 2 of my 5" crayfish I had in the same tank. Just because a fish is gentle doesn't mean they won't eat certain fish

The heckelii can sometimes be aggressive, so just watch them with your more peaceful fish. I would go with 4-5 angels, a trio of the heckelii (1M/2F), and then a school of 6-18 of something larger and fast like large bodied tetras.

Feeding any kind of fish beefheart is probably not the best thing for them. I mean if you think about it, do fish eat cows in the wild? Most of the time no, with the acception of maybe pirhana's feeding off a sick or dead cow that falls in the water lol. I stopped feeding any of my fish beefheart when they stopped making the frozen cubes (or at least don't sell in Canada anymore). I see so many people only feeding their discus homemade beefheart with things added to it. In my opinion that still doesn't make up a healthy diet for them. Once a week I will feed my discus the san fransisco bay brand frozen cichlid delight which contains some turkey heart, but it isn't their constant diet and it doesn't only consist of that one ingredient. I personally think most discus should be on a main staple diet of dried foods for example I give mine NLS discus pellets and hikari discus pellets along with tetramin, and some NLS flakes (mainly for cardinals), then they get only 1 feeding of frozen a night or every other night. I also think it is a good idea to mix the type of frozen foods up, I feed brine shrimp, mysis shrimp, ocean nutrition jack wattley discus formula, bloodworms, cichlid delight, and the odd time daphnia. My discus also pick at the spirulina wafers I throw in the tank for my BN plecos. Thanks for bringing this whole thing up. I honestly don't think a large diet of beefheart is healthy for them either, and they need to have variety. I don't think discus eat the exact same foods all day every day, and certain things just don't contain the certain nutrients to help them to stay healthy. Fish too can develop nutrient deficiencies and it can affect their life span. I am glad to hear I don't feed my discus beef heart anymore after hearing the life span it can give them.

I have seen goldfish kept with java ferns, and they didn't devour the plant. I say try a little bit of java fern and anubias out and see how it works, but don't go overboard and buy a ton until you know.

I would definitely QT them first to be sure any parasites or bugs are no longer in them. I say give it a try in a separate tank for them for a while

They know exactly how to ship them so they won't get seized- by including proper customs documentation and phytosanitary certification. But most people won't pay the extra $$$ for that. With the low price comes the risk of loss/seizure. Yeah I know, I would rather not pay the big bucks for all of that though unless the plant was really worth it. I have heard some companies don't label them as live plants, but rather something else instead like glass or aquarium products etc. I guess sometimes that way the go through customs smoothly and sometimes they get busted because customs decides to check the package.

I haven't but I have had zebra danios breed. Here is some info for you on breeding giant danios (definitely not similar to zebras) http://animal-world.com/encyclo/fresh/cypr.../GiantDanio.php, http://www.centralpets.com/animals/fish/fr...sh/fwf4531.html, http://www.aquaticcommunity.com/fish/giantdanio.php. I assume that they would hit sexual maturity at around 1.5" or so. Usually many fish will hit maturity between 3-6 months old.

I think they are still a little young to pair off, it could just be a familiarity thing for them. Usually when discus pair off they follow each other around, and they will chase the others around. I would wait a few months and see how they act around each other then since it has been such a short time you have had the new discus. Garlic works great for picky eaters, but I find it strange he didn't take bloodworms off the bat, most of them do. Often times I try to ask the seller what they have been feeding the discus, just so I know what to be prepared for. I would definitely try feeding them at least 3-4 times a day with the size that they are. Discus have small stomachs, and in the wild they eat small frequent meals. I would still suggest trying to get at least a couple more discus in the next little while. They prefer being in larger groups, and I find are more skittish and hide more when there is less of them. I always try to get at least 2 at a time to spread out the aggression from the older discus. Usually within a few days to a week I find they settle down on picking on the new ones. I am glad to hear they are doing better

I would really love to see pics. I would be terrified to use a soil type substrate in my tank unless it's peat I keep in a bag in my filter lol. Just the idea of it floating around and dirtying up the water. How do you do water changes? You must not be able to vacuum a whole lot with soil.

I didn't end up receiveing anything at all, so I assume customs took them. I spoke to them and they are going to reship all the plants. I hope this time it doesn't take so long, I wanted to set them up in the tank before I got my shrimp that are going into that tank, but if worse comes to worse I will have to set it up with the inhabitants. What kind of feedback should I leave for them? I am a little irritated about it, I know it's probably not their fault but if they ship here often enough they should know how to ship them so that they won't be seized.

It also depends on the set up of your sump. Tank set ups that have the overflow box leading to the sump will have more CO2 loss than a sump with the intake at the bottom of the tank. You can also add stuff to an overflow box to help the water not flow down like a water fall. You will also want the compartments set up in a way so that there isn't alot of surface movement going on. But you will definitely see more CO2 loss with a sump system than with a canister filter.

I cut my long leaves at an angle like werner said to prevent it looking like a hack job. With any new plants and runners I trim them and either give them away or toss them.

No you are not doing anything wrong, and I feel your pain. I had many problems with discus when I first started keeping them, and still do every now and then. I have 5 altogether in my 90 and my red turquoise is the dominant of the tank, he does similar things. My first word of advice is to stock it with at least 5-6 discus, this will help spread out the aggression. They recommend keeping no more than 1 discus for every 10 gallons of water, a 50 gallon should be the smallest tank size other than a QT. So you could get away with having 9 of them in a 90, and I would try to increase up to that. I always try to add at least 2 new discus at once, that way not just the one is being picked on. Discus are cichlids you have to remember, and no cichlid is always nice to their own kind. How big are your 2 original dicus? Maybe they have paired off or something and that's why he is being so aggressive. I would try setting up a separate holding tank, 10-20 gallons should be fine depending on the size of your leopard. Remove the dominant discus into another tank for a few weeks then try adding him back. Some people have said that this worked with aggressive fish and some it didn't, but I say give it a try. Remember though there will always be a dominant one in the tank, so once you remove him another one will step up to the plate and become dominant over the others. As for the getting thin in the head, it really sounds like he developed Hexamita to me. Have you spotted any white feces in the tank? Best thing to do when you start to see a discus getting thin or white poop, is to start raising the temp gradually to 90 degrees, and treat the tank with metronidazole. Usually they still eat but start looking thin. It is better to start treatment before it gets to the stage of them not eating at all. Metro is not a very strong medication so it will not harm your biological culture nor your fish. It works best when temps are at 90 at least. Stress can sometimes be a factor to this, and I would also QT any new discus for 4-6 weeks before adding to the main tank to ensure they are healthy and eating pellet or flake food. Metro also works best when added to food, but if you have to adding it to the water will also work, just not as effectively. Treat the metro every 8 hours doing a 50% wc in between doses, dosing for at least a week. I know it doesn't say any of this on the container, I have gotten this advice from some great discus experts and it truly works great. For feeding juvenile discus it is recommended to feed 4-5 times a day, not a huge amount either. For adults 2-3 times a day should be sufficient. I always feed mine pellets first thing in the morning, then either flake or another type of pellet when I get home from work (or afternoon), sometimes I fit another pellet or flake feeding in before their last feeding, but as their last food of the day I give them frozen. Either bloodworms, cichlid delight, ocean nutrition discus formula, mysis shrimp, and brine shrimp, are what I feed mine. Beefheart also works if you either make your own or can find it in the frozen form. Hope this helps you out and good luck to you

With the pH that close together, I would suggest just putting the fish in a bucket with some of his tank water, then pouring a couple of cups of the other tank water into that bucket and let him sit for about 15 minutes. Alot of the shock also has to do with temperature differences. With that small of a difference though I imagine they should be fine.

I completely disagree with what that company was doing. The only time we get a client new fish or switch fish out is if 1. they no longer want that specific fish, 2. fish die, 3.OR if that specific fish does actually get too large for the tank. I have a client that bought their own fish, it's only a small maybe 30 gallons at most. They have a fish that will grow to about a foot long, but he is still a baby and we have warned them once he gets too big he will have to be moved. I have never heard of a company actually switching the fish all the time for that reason. That is pretty pathetic.