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'The Full Monty' Has Left The Building last photos

Just a few photos as an update since the partial rescape of The Full Monty. The Discus are out and about as well. I have been feeding them on Piscine Energetics Mysis shrimp and they absolutely love it..

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Hi All,

Just got back after two weeks holiday in Cyprus...god it was hot out there...couldn't wait to get back to good old England till I saw how much rain we were having...

My neighbour has been looking after things while we have been away. As usual with true military precision I measured out 12 portions of various dry foods and sealed them in the little plastic pots, the ones you get with lids from the Indian and Chinese takeaway food shops. Labelled up all the liquid fertilisers, daily routine, a list of do's and dont's, what to look out for, how many discus there are in the tank, check each day there are no floaters etc etc...

Glad to say I got back and all fish doing well. The only negatives are that the Hygrophilia XL has melted completely and doesn't look like it is going to recover, the Altanthera Reineckii Mini is struggling, the Staurgyren Repens is making a very slow comeback and I think the dicsus must have eaten what I had left of the Untricualria Graminifolia because there is not a scrap of it left.

So all in all the tank is gradually becoming devoid of plants, which means it is morphing more into a sort of natural discus biotope as time goes by. I might give up altogether with the Hi Tech plants, the tank is 60cm deep and even the 4 x 54 watt T5's are not up to the job. Its getting expensive and more and more time consuming so taking the enjoyment away slightly. So its either go Low Tech or invest in some higher quality lighting system.

On the plus side recently I have got hold of some PISCINE Mysis Shrimp from Andy's Aquatics in Rock Ferry and the Discus eat it like there is no tomorrow, all of them with huge full bellies after feeding.



http://www.mysis.com/

Bit of a water change and some tidying up needed then I will try and take some decent photographs to add as an update.

Cheers,

Steve.
 
Your discus are looking great. I've had, in recent months, 2 discus jump out of the tank, 5 of them falling sick to some fungus from newly introduced fish where 4 recovered and 1 looks like its not gonna recover. So stressful!
 
Your discus are looking great. I've had, in recent months, 2 discus jump out of the tank, 5 of them falling sick to some fungus from newly introduced fish where 4 recovered and 1 looks like its not gonna recover. So stressful!

Hi Flygia,

To be honest those photos don't really do them full justice, in real life close up they look the absolute business.

Discus jumping out of the tank is not a good thing at all. This is the main reason I have been looking for an LED lighting system that I can fit in under the smoked black glass lids. On a gamble I have ordered the US Current Satellite Plant + Pro 48 inch LED off eBay. It took a while for the e-cheques to clear via PayPal but I am expecting delivery between now and the 10th of September....

Is the discus that you think is not going to recover still alive? Have you got any pictures that you can PM me just in case I can think of something you could try to help?

Cheers,

Steve
 
Thanks for the offer Steve, but unfortunately the discus is no longer with me. That particular fella hasn't eaten much for some weeks now, as it was being chased away from the food but one of the other discus. I was distracting the rest and dropping some food in front of it and it was eating a bit, but still a lot lower than normal intake. Then the fungus struck and it wasn't strong enough to recover. Forehead so sunken in due to starvation and sickness. Last Friday I couldn't bear the sight of it suffering as it was being pushed around by other discus, so I decided to euthanise it by means of ice cold water.

Sorry for the sob story.
 
Hi All,

After a large water change on Wednesday and added minerals I noticed one of my large Blue Diamond Discus was acting strangely...sort of swimming about aimlessley as if it didn't know exactly where it was going...last night after seeing it by itself in the top corner I went to bed with a strong suspicion it was not going to make it through the night.

Guess what, this morning it was dead at the surface with a really bloated stomach, so I am guessing and intestinal disorder and digestive problems, loads of gas in the stomach killed it I reckon. It could be something to do with over feeding all the discus on lots of high protein food trying to get them into breeding condition.

The good news is the other five are all doing really well and there is a lot of pairing activity going on and the genitalia are all prominent, I have even seen one or two of them shimmying in front of leaves and hornwood even cleaning the glass, so I suspect something is imminent. Once two of these pair off for definite and have had a few attempts at spawning I will be selling the other three to allow the spawning pair to have the tank to themselves.

Cheers,

Steve.
 
Hi All,

At the moment it is looking like I might have two pairs from the remaining five discus. One of the Blue Diamonds looks like it is in the process of pairing off with the smallest of the Red Curipeau discus. The other two larger red Curipeau are going through the same process. Which leaves one Blue Diamond looking like 'billy no mates' without a partner.

Although I have got a good idea, I have not managed to confirm 100% which sex is which from each potential pair, but if any of them start spawning I will know for sure, as long as I can observe the process when it is happening.

Getting excited now also because I am expecting delivery of my US Current Satellite Pro Plus LED tomorrow. I will take some photos and update once I have installed it.

Cheers,

Steve
 
Well I'll be damned...I had no sooner finished writing up this post and went to see what the discus were up to and the two Red Curipeau have finished spawning on a large leaf on an Amazon Sword Plant in the right hand side of the tank. Now that they have finished I can't identify which one did the laying and which one did the fertilising...doh!

Never mind I am not expecting many of these eggs to be fertilised properly as it is their first time. I expect most if not all of them to go white within 24 hours and the pair will start picking them off ready to start again in a few days. Any that do survive to the hatching stage will probably get lost and eaten by the other fish or sucked up into the inlet pipe on the filter. Now I just need to wait and see what the other pair get up to.

Its going to be difficult getting a photograph as the leaf with the eggs on is at an angle and high up at the back of the tank.

Updates to follow.

Cheers,

Steve.
 
Hi All,

Well just as expected by the time I checked the tank again this morning, the eggs were not just white, they were invisible, gone completely. So I am guessing the newly formed pair ate them, or at least that's what I think. It could be that in their inexperience they took their eye off them long enough for another fish to eat them, but hey ho that's nature for you.

The good news is that the pair don't seem overly distressed. So all being well they will have a nother go in a few days. I have put a large piece of slate in the tank near to where they laid and hopefully they will use this instead.

Thanks,

Steve.
 
Hi All,

Well the Current US Satellite Plant Plus Pro LED Light is now installed and I have removed one set of 2 x Eheim 54 watt T5 tubes. For the moment I have left the other set still in place until I know what the outcome is of the new LED.

My first thoughts are that it is a much crisper cleaner looking white than the T5 tubes, very high quality, although it is not as bright as I thought it would be, and if I am going to just have this light running I am not sure how the plants will react to it, but I am going to try and be patient and give it a few weeks before deciding whether to combine it with the other two 54 watt Guiesemann Aqua Flora tubes.

I am still playing around with some of the settings, it has got so many functions with six different dynamic settings like cloud cover, sunset, half moon, full moon etc. It also has a lightning storm sequence which is a bit freaky.... It also has two different memory settings to play about with so you can choose alternative day time settings by pressing the memory button of your choosing.

Overall I am impressed with it, it is light weight, ultra thin and fits perfect under the glass covers and still gives me the room to get my hands in for routine maintenance. The cost wasn't too bad for a light of this quality, just the import taxes and extra postage paid bumped the price up a bit. It also took longer than expected to arrive because it came via eBay's Global Shipping service.

I have posted some photographs below, please accept my apologies for the poor quality, but at least you get an idea of some of the colours from the light.

There are also some nice close up pictures of the Discus laying their eggs on a piece of driftwood a day after I put a spawning cone in especially for them!
A full tank shot...

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Dark Moon Light...

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Full Moon Light...

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Sorry about the flash I am crap at photography..:(

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This pair of Discus laying eggs for the first time....

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As with the other pair the eggs were gone by the morning, not sure which one ate them or even if it was this pair, but after a few more goes I expect one of the two pairs to get the hang of it..

Bit of a re-scape and some big tidying up gone on over the weekend with some new plants added. Updates to follow...

Cheers,

Steve
 
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