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My new discus adventure

Jayefc1

Member
Joined
2 Sep 2017
Messages
2,251
Location
Swadlincote
Hi all and welcome
First off thank you for taking the time to have a look at my new adventure
So after doing a lot of reading and researching last week I took down my planted evolution aqua 1200 that had been planted and ticking along nicely for the last 8 months (had been dreading rescape day ) but having a week of and the time to remove fish and a colony of about 400 yellow cherry shrimp and a massive plant mass I decided to go for it as the norm for me I don't stop to take pictures and go full steam ahead

Tank cleaned and rescaped to a degree a lot more basic than two.sides of the river 😅 some drift wood rocks and plants that will take the much higher temp the discus will require anubias trident fern some buces im expecting them to melt but couldn't and didn't want to not at least try them java fern bolbitis gave the filters a good clean out and away we go
Started the search for the discus I had been in touch with a couple of people and ended out going to just discus in Birmingham and collecting 8 3.5inch discus
4 scorpion snakes skin blues
4 pigeon snake skin yellows
They have been in the tank a week now and are settling they where very skittish to start with any little sound they would scatter across the tank and hide had trouble getting them to feed the first couple of days but now I can't keep up with them been feeding a muscle mix and some frozen dafina and one lot of blood worms they really are a beautiful fish and I can't wait to see them grow to ther full potential so here are a few pics thanks for reading and il try to keep you up to date although I don't think there will be much to see
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Knew you were up to something, you’ve been too quiet lately 😂

Loving the change up Jay. Beautiful fish and that driftwood is superb 😎
Needed to cut back on the plant maintenance mate been too busy with work
The discus have been on the cards for a long time just had to take time to research take the plunge when there older il plant up properly its just a grow out tank so it not to stressful for them
 
Great job! I think I'll be using more open sand substrate for my next discus scape.

What's your temperature and water change routine?

Looking forward to following along!
Thanks @George Farmer they really love the sand and play in it blowing it around the tank much to my dismay lol
Temp is 28 constantly
Water changes I've been doing 50% every day as the woods realising tannins and I'm probably over feeding a little and am a lil paranoid about the cleanliness of the water

Love your scape by the way how are you find the discus mine have been very skittish and jump at the slightest movement or noise think that's another reason I've been doing the water changes to get them used to things
 
Very nice! I have one heavily planted discus tank and I am planning on setting up another. You didn't mention your filtration, I would highly recommend running two canister filters. Nice selection of discus, enjoy!
 
Very nice! I have one heavily planted discus tank and I am planning on setting up another. You didn't mention your filtration, I would highly recommend running two canister filters. Nice selection of discus, enjoy!
@Driftless I'm running a jbl1502e and a oase 350 thermo on the tank close to 2000ltr an hour should be plenty do you think also a inline heater on the jbl1502e
 
@Driftless I'm running a jbl1502e and a oase 350 thermo on the tank close to 2000ltr an hour should be plenty do you think also a inline heater on the jbl1502e
I run two heaters on my discus tank as well. I like the duplication as discus do not do well if there is an equipment failure, my tanks are at my office which because of the pandemic is lightly occupied and I am afraid that equipment might fail and not be immediately noticed. I believe that two heaters keeps the tank more uniformly heated as well.
 
Yeah my thoughts where if one fails at least there is back up with the water temp as I had read how important a constant temperature is for them
They are the most settled tonight I have seen them it has only been 5 days though
 
Thanks @George Farmer they really love the sand and play in it blowing it around the tank much to my dismay lol
Temp is 28 constantly
Water changes I've been doing 50% every day as the woods realising tannins and I'm probably over feeding a little and am a lil paranoid about the cleanliness of the water

Love your scape by the way how are you find the discus mine have been very skittish and jump at the slightest movement or noise think that's another reason I've been doing the water changes to get them used to things
Speaking of skittish fish, one of my employees does a lot of the maintenance on that tank and when he approaches the tank, the fish hide. He doesn't look to see where the fish are before putting his hands, etc., in the tank. :rolleyes: When I am near the tank they swarm expecting their freeze-dried blackworms, I find it fascinating that the fish are so aware of what is happening outside of their tank and can identify people.
 
Speaking of skittish fish, one of my employees does a lot of the maintenance on that tank and when he approaches the tank, the fish hide. He doesn't look to see where the fish are before putting his hands, etc., in the tank. :rolleyes: When I am near the tank they swarm expecting their freeze-dried blackworms, I find it fascinating that the fish are so aware of what is happening outside of their tank and can identify people.
They have been.like this with me.today as there.getting.used to.me there coming to.the.glass every time I get close they expect food I've been.feeding 4 times a day at the moment and they demolish every bit they can definatly recognise me now
 
So did the normal water change today and found the temp had dropped looked at the heaters and found this inside the oase thermo second time this has happened when it happened last ime I brought two heaters in case so glad I did
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So I have had a rough time with this tank there was a tremendous amount of aggression in the tank and not a pleasure to watch at all tried every thing changed the tank up gave more hiding places to the discus but didn't seem to work i kept trying to do research and hoped it was just them sorting the pecking order out a couple stopped eating set up another tank and separated them but that couldn't do as a long term solution but didn't make any difference in any case as I couldn't get them to feed and eventuall lost the 2 but even when I moved the 2 weaker ones out the aggression just moved to others in the tank
So moved the two most aggressive to the other tank and they just fought all the time and the main tank that now only had four left in there kept up with a strict cleaning and water change regime returned the two aggressive ones to the where I had purchased them originally he was very good and tried to help out as much as possible and told me he would swap the two but suggested I waited and reintroduced some smaller juveniles when the other had settled in the mean time I lost two more for no explained reason so now had two left out of the 8 originally brought ones and the experience had become not the most pleasant to say the least but a couple of weeks I introduced 3 juveniles from the original supplier and they seem to have settled well with the 2 original ones apparently they seem to like to clean the bigger ones and all seems to be quiet settled at the moment but I guess only time will tell
 
Must be a bit frustrating if not upsetting Jayfc1 . I did notice the discus fish house chap l know had some alone in large cube tanks . Yet his group guessing 10 ish of Wild Discus were real placid although there was a pecking order at feeding if observed. Hopefully things will improve
 
So I have had a rough time with this tank there was a tremendous amount of aggression in the tank and not a pleasure to watch at all tried every thing changed the tank up gave more hiding places to the discus but didn't seem to work i kept trying to do research and hoped it was just them sorting the pecking order out a couple stopped eating set up another tank and separated them but that couldn't do as a long term solution but didn't make any difference in any case as I couldn't get them to feed and eventuall lost the 2 but even when I moved the 2 weaker ones out the aggression just moved to others in the tank
So moved the two most aggressive to the other tank and they just fought all the time and the main tank that now only had four left in there kept up with a strict cleaning and water change regime returned the two aggressive ones to the where I had purchased them originally he was very good and tried to help out as much as possible and told me he would swap the two but suggested I waited and reintroduced some smaller juveniles when the other had settled in the mean time I lost two more for no explained reason so now had two left out of the 8 originally brought ones and the experience had become not the most pleasant to say the least but a couple of weeks I introduced 3 juveniles from the original supplier and they seem to have settled well with the 2 original ones apparently they seem to like to clean the bigger ones and all seems to be quiet settled at the moment but I guess only time will tell

Sounds rough @Jayefc1 and hats off to you for doing everything you can. Glad things have eventually settled.
 
I am sorry to read this. I would not introduce smaller fish, they may not grow out. Even if you start with the same size fish some are likely to become stunted which is why many only purchase larger discus or purchase more than they anticipate keeping and rehoming some of them.

Post-Script: discus are a shoaling fish and do better in a group. Generally the way to combat cichlid aggression is to add more fish not less. YMMV.
 
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