Good deal on discus?

[firestorm]

Today I was at the LFS, and they had some really nice wild caught discus. I am not sure of the type they are, but they are like 7 inches in diameter. The store owner told me that they want $60 each, but they won't be ready until next week. Is this a good deal or what? Does anyone else have any experience with wild caught discus? I am just afraid to buy them and then they die on me because of the difference's in water. But it is a really good deal and I was contemplating on getting a couple. They will be going into my 90 gallon of course with my other discus and other SA/CA cichlids.

[geleen]

Today I was at the LFS, and they had some really nice wild caught discus. I am not sure of the type they are, but they are like 7 inches in diameter. The store owner told me that they want $60 each, but they won't be ready until next week. Is this a good deal or what? Does anyone else have any experience with wild caught discus? I am just afraid to buy them and then they die on me because of the difference's in water. But it is a really good deal and I was contemplating on getting a couple. They will be going into my 90 gallon of course with my other discus and other SA/CA cichlids.

If they are nice sounds like a steal.

I would do some reading at www.simplydiscus.com From what I have read it seems they only do well very soft water and need PH 6 -6.5. Where domestics easily tolerate Alberta water conditions. Mine certainly do well in ph 7.6

I would keep them separate for at least 3 months then introduce one of yours for a month. You want to rule out diseases that could wipe out all of your discus.

J

[firestorm]

I know. They do prefer a lower water hardness and a lower pH. We do have discus already, and I know exactly what they prefer. I am just worried that keeping them in alberta water might kill them. I will probably invest in an RO unit if I did buy them, and the tank mates they will be going in with prefer the same sort of conditions. So they will all benefit from RO. If I were to get a couple, how long do you think I should wait to treat with RO water? If I buy them then I will have to wait a month to get enough money for the RO unit. The guy from the store said that they don't put any different water in their tanks, and I do trust him as we are regular customers and he has been of great help in the past.

Edit: I forgot to say this, the store we will be buying from keeps their fish in quarantine for 2 weeks before selling to the public, can I rely on this or do you still suggest I quarantine them myself for 3 months?

Edited March 27, 2008 by firestorm

[geleen]

I know. They do prefer a lower water hardness and a lower pH. We do have discus already, and I know exactly what they prefer. I am just worried that keeping them in alberta water might kill them. I will probably invest in an RO unit if I did buy them, and the tank mates they will be going in with prefer the same sort of conditions. So they will all benefit from RO. If I were to get a couple, how long do you think I should wait to treat with RO water? If I buy them then I will have to wait a month to get enough money for the RO unit. The guy from the store said that they don't put any different water in their tanks, and I do trust him as we are regular customers and he has been of great help in the past.

Edit: I forgot to say this, the store we will be buying from keeps their fish in quarantine for 2 weeks before selling to the public, can I rely on this or do you still suggest I quarantine them myself for 3 months?

No offence meant. If they have conditioned them to local water in the 2 weeks quarantine, then it would mean an additional switch to R/O mixture would cause more stress. I don't think the Alberta water will kill them once conditioned, but they may not thrive or breed.

IMO R/O is expensive for such large quantities ( replacing filters and membranes) and unless you want to breed probably not required. I use one for drinking water, etc and for small tanks where I am breeding fish,)

I have seen them (the wilds) kept with peat packs in the water storage barrel, worked fine, but the water was yellow

As you know.....the advise on simplydiscus has 2 main points over and over: water changes and quarantine. These folks are very experienced. Where I am not.

J

[firestorm]

No I wasn't offended, thanks for your advice though. It's just that I don't have any extra tanks at this time to quarantine them. Lol I don't think any of my spare tanks would even fit them to quarantine them. So I will probably just leave the RO then for now, and maybe in the future if I plan to breed them I will invest in one. The only reason I want to get them is for mates for my single discus that is left, and because they are such a great price. They always have better deals on discus at this store than any I have been to.

[firestorm]

I actually went in on friday with my boyfriend, so that he could look at them as well. We ended up putting 2 on hold because the guy from the store told us they are hardier than domestic discus. Apparently since they are in the wild they are more immune to disease and such, and are not inbred or anything, therefore healthier. He has had them and won't sell them until he knows for sure if they are ready to be sold yet. This store amazingly quarantines tanks for quite some time to ensure they don't sell poor products. All our fish we have ever got from them are more rare to find, and have never died right after getting them. We have mostly only had problems with other stock. So I am quite confident that the fish will be fine without further quarantine. I guess I will just have to wait and see what happens. I don't have any other tanks large enough for them to be quarantined, and I have not received my sponge filters yet(just in case I could use a large tote to quarantine them). I hope that they will be fine, and all my other fish too.

[Parachromis1]

I actually went in on friday with my boyfriend, so that he could look at them as well. We ended up putting 2 on hold because the guy from the store told us they are hardier than domestic discus. Apparently since they are in the wild they are more immune to disease and such, and are not inbred or anything, therefore healthier. He has had them and won't sell them until he knows for sure if they are ready to be sold yet. This store amazingly quarantines tanks for quite some time to ensure they don't sell poor products. All our fish we have ever got from them are more rare to find, and have never died right after getting them. We have mostly only had problems with other stock. So I am quite confident that the fish will be fine without further quarantine. I guess I will just have to wait and see what happens. I don't have any other tanks large enough for them to be quarantined, and I have not received my sponge filters yet(just in case I could use a large tote to quarantine them). I hope that they will be fine, and all my other fish too.

wild fish are usually stronger but not in the case of discus.

[firestorm]

Really? Well our dealer has told us the wild caught discus are hardier than domestic raised discus. They always have really nice healthy looking discus there, better than other stores we have seen. I know that discus are not as hardy as other kinds of fish, so I will still take extra special care of them.

[Blue Ram]

I agree with PIMPDOCTA. I strongly recommend quarantining them from the store. I quarantanied two in a 15 gal for a full six weeks. You also want to make sure that they will eat prepared foods. I strongly suspect that they have parasites but are healthy enough that they are not showing any symptoms. I have had wild and domestic and don't believe that the wilds are stronger. If you add them to your tank right away, it may be months before you see any signs of illness or parasites that they have brought into your tank.

[Kevin]

I must also agree that it is harder to acclimitize a wild discus to your tank. They do tend to carry more parasites and you should run at least one course of Prazipro (proaziquantel) on them to drop worms and flukes. Most people who specialize in wilds recommend 2 courses. This will run you about $40.

I also believe that you are talking about getting the fish from Gold's. I won't turn this into a review (as it is not allowed), but Denis is good a picking out strong fish. He is not a discus specialist but he won't ever sell you a fish on its last legs. I was much happier with the couple of domestic strains that I received from him, then the wild that I bought. I would like to raise wilds again one day, but not until I am even more experienced with discus.

If you are really keen on discus, take a look on Simply Discus. I recently (2 months ago) bought a batch of fish from one of the sponsers (Kenny's Discus) and I am very happy with them. Discus live for a very long time and they are too much work to invest in poor stock.

Other tips - don't screw with RO water. Calgary water is very stable and as long as you do lots of water changes with temperature the same as what you are raising the fish, then you should be fine.

Assuming your last fish is an adult, be careful about introducing your fish. Right now that tank is his territory, unless you move the tank around or put him in with the others in a tank they have already been in, he will make life tough on them. He is still a cichlid.

Quarenteen - If I only had one discus left I would be more tempted to sell him and find some small discus that you really want to grow out. Save your money and order some good fish. If you don't want to sell the discus, then introduce all of the fish together right away. Unless you have totally seperate water change equipment and you are very careful, then you are going to transfer bugs around. If your fish do have something they transmit, then you only have one more fish die.

Good luck with your discus. I happen to know that there is a good chance that one of the Alberta Aquatica sponsors may be bringing in some grade A asian discus soon. If you are interested in knowing more you can PM me.

Be careful with the other discus you see in the LFS right now, some of them are glowing with colors that are unnatural at their very small sizes. The methods used to make them show these amazing colors may affect future growth, lifespan, and fertility.

Kevin

[firestorm]

Thanks guys for the helpful info. The only tank I can see putting them in to quarantine would be my 25 gallon which is currently being used for a breeding tank of kenyis. But I guess I can stick them back into the 90 african tank, and use this for at least a few weeks for the discus. I was planning on breeding discus and rams in the future, maybe a year or so. So I figured by doing a ratio of RO to tap, will help in breeding them. I especially want to get in on breeding wild discus, because I don't want them to be from some awful imbred strain. Right now we have 2 discus which are domestic, but I want to try and get the rest all wild. Our 2 discus we have now I wouldn't consider adults. They are only about 4" in diameter right now, and the wild caught are quite a bit larger than them, maybe about 7". So I will do my best before getting them to set up the other tank for them. I just don't want to risk the chance of losing a bunch of fish again, which some are not cheap to buy. So I will take your guy's advice and quarantine them a little longer. So how would I use the prazipro? And can I find it at any pet store? I will check with golds when we pick up the fish, and I will see if they have some. Yes and I like denis, because they do alot of their breeding themselves, and we have found many good deals from them compared to others.