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Save the last Discus of Congo.

zanguli-ya-zamba

zanguli-ya-zamba

Seedling
Joined
6 Oct 2012
Messages
911
Location
Democratic Republic of Congo
Hi guys,

I didn't post something since a long time.
I have a small story. A friend of mine order 8 months ago 7 discus coming from China. They had a long and hard trip to Congo and they arrived in really bad shape.
Slowly they all died, leaving only one member of the group alive.
Yesterday I went to his house (it was his birthday), and saw his tank with a lot of tilipias the biggest one was 40 cm long (huuuuge). The discus was terrorize in one of the corner of the tank, skin completely dark and a belly empty, I could clearly see that the fish didn't eat for long time as he was completely terrorize.
So I decided to save that discus and give him a better life.
So I went back home turn off the CO2 of my tank, good aeration of the water, after mixing water for 1,5 hours I have put the fish in the tank. In peace with no other fishes.
Now start the journey to save him.
I have put him in my scaping tank 90x40x50 high tech, but the down side is that i don't want to ruin my new scape (going since a month and going well) so I don't want to cut on my routine that is working well (24/7 CO2, 80% WC per week, 2x EI with MgSo4 et Ca). I am afraid that if I keep it in this tank I will ruin all my scape and all the effort I have done. It took me long time to reach the level that I have now in aquascaping with the methods I use and don't want to "start from zero again".
I have a second tank at the office that is running since a year with one wood moss and some few rotalas. This tank is completely left on his own. No water change, just topping from evaporation. No filter cleaning etc. first I wanted to put the fish in this tank, but there is a small problem. The tank is quite shallow 50x40x25 cm.
do you think it will be okay for the discus 8 cm diameter, or I should keep it in my big tank ? It would be better for me to put it in my small tank like that I can continue scaping on the big one.

Second problem is food, we don't have access to artemia or tibuflex or what's so ever. I can only do home made food. Do some one have some good and EASY recipe for discus food. Two different like that I can vary his nutrition.

I hope I will have answers to where put the fish. I hope that I can put him alone in the small tank.

Thank you


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I do not think the Discus would hurt your aquascape but it may not adapt readily to CO2 unless done very slowly over day's.
If you were to back off light intensity for a few day's, then this would reduce demand from plant's and allow you to slowly increase both the light and CO2 for the Discus to adapt more slowly.
Are some recipe's for food's at SimplyDiscus.com and I would be tempted to try and mix in some anti-parasite med's such as praziquantel with the food which you could then freeze and offer only this food for next few week's.
I suspect the tilapia could carry parasites that are easily passed from one fish to another.
Hope some of this help's and good luck.
 
Hey Zanguli.
I've never kept discus so I can't give you a great advice.
I think the small tank is a no, no if you want that fish to recover, especially not if the water is old and you don't have means to do regular water changes.
I'd chance him in the bigger tank, the big water changes would help too in the long run as long as the incoming water is the same as the tank(Kh, Ph, TDS,etc.)
Do you have any idea how old he is? They need to eat a lot to grow, nice food, lots of water changes, extremely clean water.
Plus he may have a small chance surviving, being on his own without buddies of his own.... but I wouldn't add anything at all until I know the fish is free of diseases and healthy eventually. He can spook from bright lights too and I don't think he'd love the flow in a planted tank.

As for home made food for discus, google it. You'll find plenty of recipes. I wouldn't jump on the beef heart version because it will wreak havoc in a planted tank.
 
Order in some freeze dried California black worms (the new miracle discus food ;)) or Australian freeze dried black worms (send me a pm, I'll see if my local shop has any in stock that I can send on)

I agree that the shallow tank will be rather stressful (I'm reading the dimensions as 25cm H) though if you can bring that tank home & do daily water changes, it's likely better than where the fish has been (he must be a fighter!), it's possible that fish will prefer a shallow, dim tank (make sure you have a cover for jumping) over a brightly lit aquascape, especially if you add floating plants & offer some hiding areas.
I'm not sure of the discus size, 8cm diameter body? or including fins (or nose/tail)???

It's possible that fish will also do better with some small dithers (neons or cardinals etc - often ailing discus do not infect other fishes so this is not necessarily a hardship for the dither fish)

You might post on one of the Discus Forums - maybe there is even a hobbyist in your country that will have supplies/advice or even a home to offer :)
 
Hi Zanguli, I have not had much experience with Discus so all I can think of is email whoever you can in the expertise of this,. you have to use whatever options available to you but my understanding of the care of Discus is they need good water quality correct temperature,I understand tank bred are more tolerant of higher ph.In any event I think partial darkness and in time as mentioned some gentle dither fish may help.Its commendable what you doing to save a single fish.Africa is a huge place so you may get quick advice from Europe email Tony at Chens Discus or the team at Practical Fishkeeping plenty of expertise they may answer quick in the circumstances.Good luck
 
Hi guys
Thank you very much for all your advices.
So I decided to follow you advices and I keep the discus in the big tank.
Logically I have raise the light and turn off two bulbs on 4. I have put back CO2 on Sunday so I am at home and can monitor what happened with the fish. Everything is ok. Yesterday I had full CO2 cycle without problems. I think on Thursday I will a slightly the CO2. I have a needle valve on my CO2Art reg.
I have decided to take de challenge of CO2 + fishes that I was scare of since a year.
A member of UKAPS living in Kinshasa contacted me yesterday because he was ordering some Amano shrimps, and he kindly ask me if I wanted something. So I ordered 45 Ember Tetras and 15 Amano.
So the challenge is ON !!
I hope that this adventure will go well for me.

Here is a quick shot of the tank and one of the Discus. Tank is 90x45x50 cm

10796d4f7cd6d449de8a36bec75b8e62.jpg

c3c77f5a9655a94dbc45f5f2aa346dba.jpg


Cheers




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He was almost black when I took it out of my friend tank.
He eats well, but I need to feed him with some thing else that I give him. Now he have a mix of. Fish, spinach, peas, carrots, banana.
I will have some beef heart today. So I will have to mix everything today for him.
I have read that I can also give him a piece of papaya or a piece of banana.
What other easy thing I can give him


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I've no idea, always wanted to keep discus but never got round to it...but his diet sounds like it's already more varied than that of most people;)
 
Fish looks great - he obviously appreciates your aquascape-in-the-making :D
Don't worry about the beefheart - I'll be slayed by the discus crew but this is not a great food for them ... first evidence of ornamental fish with "fat clogged arteries" & fatty deposits on liver & heart muscle was in beefheart fed discus.
(there are technical/biochemical issues with the type of fats found in beef)

A contributor in the notes for this profile at Seriously Fish has got it right
The unprocessed food was analised by Crampton, and the result is, that at the wet season 77% of the food was detrytus and plant matter, 5% were decapods, 10% Chironimidae larvae, 8% were composed of wood matter, bugs and Crustacea. In the dry season, the balance drifts towards bugs and crustacea (only 55% were composed ef the detrytus/plant matter).
If you search through scientific papers, stomach analysis to determine diet is common.
 
alto said:
not a great food for them
Click to expand...
I agree, i prefer all kinds of insects/larvae, if you want to feed a meat kind of source use salt water fish. Any chance of finding insectlarvae in the wild? Grubs or garden worms
 
I too would not get too wild about offering the beefheart and would try and get the fish interested in pellet food's along with good quality flake straight away..
I raised a group of eight young Discus a few year's back, and offered them Ocean nutrition flake,Tetra color bit's.New life Spectrum,and Spirulina laced Brine shrimp (freeze dried).
The young fish at first,would rise to the surface at feeding time but showed no interest in foraging along the bottom and the beef heart fouled the water fairly quickly, and that which they did not eat straight away,had to be removed via syphon and water change.
The young fish were fed three times a day,(blasphemy to purist's) and water changes of 50% three times a week were performed for nearly eight month's in which time,, the young fish grew from silver dollar size ,to nearly14 cm or six inches .
At this size,they did not need the three feeding's a day to reach growth potential, and I reduced their food to once a day, and once weekly 50% water change which was welcome break.(was still using bucket's):rolleyes:
As they got larger,,I offered meal worm's,wax worm's,red worm's,freeze dried cricket's crumpled up,and dried alage sheet's hung from the wall's with veggie clip.
Tank I raised them in was 55 U.S. gallons with very thin layer of sand substrate (another ding from the purist's),and some fake bamboo grass floating on the surface to dim lighting and could easily be removed for feeding /vaccuming the sand.
Your Discus does not look that bad to me shape wise and other than maybe slightly pinched forehead,,It could still be quite handsome fish with good care.
Would not be in a hurry to add other fishes, and would quarantine all new fish before placing them in the tank.
 
Hi guys

Thanks for your help for my fish !!
So the beef heart will be a no no for me.
Yesterday I discovered that a big supermarket here is doing a fish store, they are not operational for now, but as I know the CEO of the place he allow me to buy some things that were f**king expensive haha.
I have buy some freeze and dry Arthemia, and some dry food for discus. I will take a picture of it tonight and post it. I have tried yesterday but he doesn't want to eat it. He was keeping coming back to the fish mixture I gave him at noon. So I siphon it and leave only Arthemia and the dry food. But until this morning he didn't eat it. As soon as I have put the fresh fish mixture he went on it to eat everything.
Can I give him some fruit ?

Ok now a question that is very important for me.
How do you all proceed with water change when you have fish.
Before having fish I was just siphoning, and than put back water directly from the tap on full power. The water we have here for the tape is super soft less than 1 kh or Gh. No No3 no Po4 no MgSo4 no Ca. Water is directly pump from Congo river than goes to main storage, and they add Chlorine and sulphate to treat the water. I know it because we transport the chemicals for the national water company.

Now that I have a fish (and it s a discus) should I still do 50% on one shot ?
When I put back water should I go very slowly ? Instead of 3 minutes to fill the 50% should I do 20 minutes ?
Yesterday I both also some water conditioner. So I put the amount of product for the amount of water I took out from the tank, dose it in the tank and than put the water from the tap ?
I just don't want to kill the fish of course! But I don't want to go back with buckets sitting in my living room with 100 L of water that sit for the chlorine to escape etc... ?

So how should I proceed for water change.
Today I will go back to my normal EI dosing but I will change the amount of MgSo4 and Ca. I was doing 1/3 of EI for these two, I think I will go for 1/5 now.

Thanks for your help guys I hope we find a good solution because already a week without WC (but a week without dosing also) so water should be ok

Cheers


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Go ahead & water change, nothing seems to suit discus more than very "clean" water.
Use dim lighting during the water change.
If you are unsure, you can always just do a smaller daily (or every other day) water change, eg, 25% today, 35% another day, then 50%
Same with putting water back, start with a few minutes for the 25% ...
(I always leave the filter running during water changes but this is just my personal preference)

Recently a friend shipped in some discus, they arrived in poor condition, dark & lying down in the tank, gasping
They went into a clean tank with clean sponge (no cycled filter), daily 90% water change, on some the fins were "melting" (fish were delayed in shipping & ammonia built up in bags, this can cause "melting" of delicate fin tissue, 3 or 4 were DOA), they huddled together in one corner of the large tank ... every day they looked a little better, began to swim a little more ... a month later they are mostly recovered (still breathing a bit heavily as ammonia damages the lung tissue).
Surprisingly even the darkest, sickest fish recovered.
Tap water is similar to your own, tank is drained (often fish will lie down) to 10%, start refilling direct from tap, add dechlor (Prime) ... my friend just blasts the water in, just making certain that temperature is correct & fish can retreat to opposite end of tank from incoming water. Fish are immediately up & swimming after water change.
Tank only received room lighting for the first 2 weeks or so.
 
I would use tap to fill the tank, and try and keep temp of new water close to tank temp.
I would /do, add enough dechlorinator to treat how much tank hold's, and I add this right before I start the new water entering the tank.
Can try mixing a little garlic with food's that the fish won't readily take, and some times this work's well, and is said to encourage evacuation of some internal parasite's.
I agree,water changes are often best medicine .
 
My experience with discus is... feed them whatever they like to eat. Some like pellets (Tetrabits), some only take live tubifex, some take frozen bloodworms. I've never tried beefheart/porkheart before because I can't find them ready made and I don't wanna go through the trouble of making my own. Personally I feel that beefheart is popular because its relatively cheap and its got loads of protein that will really bulk up discus or get them into spawning condition. If you talk to purists, they'll tell you the discus' eyes are too large for their body so you aren't feeding them enough, you'll never win competitions, you'll fail at breeding them, etc. But their objectives are different from some of ours ;)

I have to say though... shame on your friend for keeping discus with tilapia! Tilapia are so rowdy and messy!

I have not had any discus that were badly affected by CO2. I have run my CO2 in the lime green for extended period, discus still look and behave ok. I have a lotta surface movement to improve O2 gas exchange though.

Nice tank by the way, I recognise the style :D
 
alto said:
Go ahead & water change, nothing seems to suit discus more than very "clean" water.
Use dim lighting during the water change.
If you are unsure, you can always just do a smaller daily (or every other day) water change, eg, 25% today, 35% another day, then 50%
Same with putting water back, start with a few minutes for the 25% ...
(I always leave the filter running during water changes but this is just my personal preference)

Recently a friend shipped in some discus, they arrived in poor condition, dark & lying down in the tank, gasping
They went into a clean tank with clean sponge (no cycled filter), daily 90% water change, on some the fins were "melting" (fish were delayed in shipping & ammonia built up in bags, this can cause "melting" of delicate fin tissue, 3 or 4 were DOA), they huddled together in one corner of the large tank ... every day they looked a little better, began to swim a little more ... a month later they are mostly recovered (still breathing a bit heavily as ammonia damages the lung tissue).
Surprisingly even the darkest, sickest fish recovered.
Tap water is similar to your own, tank is drained (often fish will lie down) to 10%, start refilling direct from tap, add dechlor (Prime) ... my friend just blasts the water in, just making certain that temperature is correct & fish can retreat to opposite end of tank from incoming water. Fish are immediately up & swimming after water change.
Tank only received room lighting for the first 2 weeks or so.
Click to expand...


Hi Alto,

thanks for your advices.
Yesterday I did a 30% WC, I replaced the water very slowly, I putted dechlorinator. fish seems happy after the WC (more active).
I will do an other 30% on Friday.

cheers
 
roadmaster said:
I would use tap to fill the tank, and try and keep temp of new water close to tank temp.
I would /do, add enough dechlorinator to treat how much tank hold's, and I add this right before I start the new water entering the tank.
Can try mixing a little garlic with food's that the fish won't readily take, and some times this work's well, and is said to encourage evacuation of some internal parasite's.
I agree,water changes are often best medicine .
Click to expand...

Hello Road master,

water temp, should b the same or maybe a little cooler than the tank water but not a lot, like 1 or 2 C°, as water was putted back very slowly it shouldn't affect the fish. I followed your advice by putting dechlorinator for the whole tank quantity. This will kill my budget as it is very expensive. I will try to order a box of dechlorinator and ship it by container (sea).
I have already done the mixe for food and forgot to put garlic inside. I will have to find another way to deparasite it.

bye
 
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