Paul
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Posts posted by Paul
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2 hours ago, Fish Folk said:
Yes. Yes, yes, yes. 100% agreed.
@Fish Folkgood job!
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1 hour ago, Siett88 said:
Since you guys seem intent on busting discus myths, and I've been interested (but scared) in keeping them, I'm going to throw some (dumb) questions out there that might get my head bitten off elsewhere:
-Can you keep a single discus as a centerpiece in a (hot) planted community?
Well I guess thats all I got today, lol.
The long and short answer is no. A Discus kept as a specimen will find a hiding place and live a very miserable life. They like to have other Discus around. As I said earlier if you’re not breeding them the fewest Discus I would keep in a tank is 5-6.
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2 hours ago, KaitieG said:
I have a feeling that part of it may also be the cost of the fish. I wanted to try neons even though I have super hard water. Okay, so I went and got 12 neons for 25 bucks, added them to my community tank, and am seeing how they do (everyone's been doing great for a couple weeks anyway). If they don't do well, that's a $25 lesson learned.
If I decide to go buy a few very beautiful discus at $80-$150 each, that seems like a much more intimidating experiment...and if I were to make a YouTube video telling people to go out and give discus a shot without qualifying that with lots of "warnings", and they all made that kind of investment and things didn't work out...well....
@KaitieG as I said Discus aren’t for beginners but you can easily find 2.5” Discus for $25 which is in line with numerous other fish species. I don’t know what you mean by warnings. Literally the only thing I do differently in my Discus tank is the temperature is higher. Everything else is the same.
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58 minutes ago, gardenman said:
If they were retailing for $10 each, they'd sell like crazy. I'd fill a tank with them at $10 each. At $100 each, not so much.
@gardenmanI know of several places where you can get high quality 2.5” discus for about $25. $100 will get you a much bigger fish. Having somebody else growing out any fish does come with extra costs. So that’s really not out of line. Most Rainbowfish start at about $20 each there’s even Pencilfish that sell for that amount. Yes you’re not going to get a Discus for the price of a mutt guppy but as I just demonstrated that the price of entry into Discus keeping isn’t out of line with other non entry level fish.
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I've had the time over the last couple of days to watch some Youtube vids on Discus. What I found somewhat annoying was the perpetuation of the myth by the presenters that these fish need coddling and are difficult to keep. Yes Discus and probably 99.9% of the other cichlids in the hobby shouldn't be kept by beginners.With that being said Discus are cichlids, which many people seem to forget, and if you can successfully keep other cichlids you can keep Discus. Unless you plan on breeding them they should be kept in groups of no less than 5 or 6 (just like most other cichlids it helps reduce aggression and they like the company) in at least a 75 gallon tank add clean warm water (84F+) with consistent parameters and a varied high quality diet and you get happy fish. Unless you're growing out fry they don't need massive daily water changes. 20% a week works just fine. They don't need to be kept in a bare bottom tank. They do really well in planted tank with gravel and wood.Discus don't need to be kept in a species only tank. I currently have Bosemani Rainbows, Rummy Nose & Cardinal Tetras, Pencil Fish,Corys, Ottos & a single male Krib in the tank with them. I've also successfully kept Angelfish, Apistos & Rams in the tank as well. All these fish species like warm water. Finally if your water is basically liquid rock you definitely want to stay away from wild caught Discus but that doesn't mean you can't keep Discus. The Germans have been producing beautiful tank bred Discus for years in hard high pH water that are available in this country. Rant over. Happy New Year!🥂🍾🎉
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@DarthRevanthe only tank I don't have two filters in is a 5 gallon which has a sponge in it. All my other tanks have two filters.All the tanks up to the 40 breeder have a sponge filter & a HOB the 120 has two canisters. One of the reasons I run two filters in my tanks is redundancy but it also insures there's enough flow to eliminate dead spots. In the smaller tanks the different filter types are used to take advantage of their strengths. Sponge filters are really good at biological filtration but not so much with mechanical filtration so the HOBs are setup to do primarily mechanical filtration.
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@DarthRevan you're new to the hobby, you need to learn to walk before you start running. If you don't know what you're doing filterless aquariums will be nothing but a headache. I have a planted 20L stocked with 5 Apistogramma nijsseni, 5 Bronze Corys, some tetras and a couple of Otto's. That's considerably less bio load than you're thinking about putting in your tank and I filter the tank with a sponge filter & a Penguin Pro 175 HOB placed at either end of the tank.
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@DarthRevan just a suggestion before you do anything hit Youtube & watch videos from the CO-OP, Prime Time Aquatics and KG Tropicals just to name a few.They cover the how & why of testing water parameters, cycling a tank properly, filtration and stocking options. there's a lot of info in those videos to help you avoid some expensive mistakes. Good luck.
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@Denise it's usually one of two things.First it's takes them some time to figure the whole parenting thing. Or what I think is happening in your case since you say they've been doing this for awhile is that you either have an infertile male or two females laying eggs. The eggs are infertile so they don't hatch and after a few days they get eaten.
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I still have the original formula tabs. I don't care what tank of fish I put one in it's like that fish never ate before. It's my secret weapon for catching fish in planted tanks. They're so interested in the tab they don't notice the net.
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@parker What size tank did you have your Discus in? In my experience Discus behave better in larger groups. So unless you have a breeding pair 5/6 would be the minimum I would keep in a tank and I wouldn't house them in anything smaller than a 55.
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@MikeoIt's all about availability. If the wholesalers the LFS buy from don't have access/stock a certain species you won't see it locally. Where I live you can't find any Apistos for love or money. Yet I have Apisto nijsseni. I found them on AquaBid. Generally Apistos like their water clean, warm 82F+, soft and slightly acidic. Put plants, driftwood, & rock work/caves in the tank and you'll have happy fish.You can put a trio in a 10 gallon.
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@WillMcKThey do essentially the same thing Crushed Coral is a coarser material with pieces of coral & shell. Aragonite tends to be finer. They will both make your water harder and increase your pH. It's your choice on which one you want to use.
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@WillMcKit's 6 of one a !/2 dozen of the other. They'll both do the buffering you need.
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2 hours ago, Dawn T said:
Several years back, when I set up the tanks I still have up and running right now, I used EcoComplete with natural river gravel and play sand on top. That's worked out great for my planted tanks. However, I've noticed that the GH has gone up a LOT since I set up the tanks. Meanwhile, the KH has been dropping through the floor. I've been removing some of that with extra water changes, but man! Makes me think maybe the EcoComplete wasn't the best option for my water and needs.
I'm thinking about setting up one of my currently empty 10g (if I can free a place for it) for cherry shrimp. It boggles my mind how many substrates are available out there, and some say they affect pH, or hardness, or KH. Of course, they run the range of prices that's even more boggling, from very cheap to sell your first born to afford to use it. LOL I'd like an inert, or nearly so, substrate that won't affect my pH or GH while bolstering KH over time (which I know gets depleted by planted tanks).
So gravel and sand alone? Some commercial product other than EcoComplete? I understand that crushed coral can help with the KH depletion issue, but would it affect pH and GH as well? I've read numerous articles online, and they don't seem to agree. Ack!
Any help would be great.
Oh, btw, our water from the tap is 7.6 pH, 10 (180 ppm) dGH, 10 (180 ppm) dKH, 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite, varies between 0 and 5 nitrate. I want to keep that pH and DH, or at close to them, and hopefully maintain the KH better. In both of my tanks, when I finally tested the water recently, the KH had dropped to 2 in one tank and 3 in the other. Even with 20% water changes once a week recently, they've pretty much stay there. That 20% change can bring up the KH by 2, but it's back down within a week. I've been thinking about adding a bit of crushed coral to the HOB filter on each tank, but see previous comments about inconsistencies in information about the effect that could have on the pH and GH.
@Dawn T All my tanks are planted and have gravel bottoms. Aquarium gravels are inert so they should have no effect on your parameters. The exception to that is crushed coral and aragonite which do effect your parameters if you have soft acidic water.
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20L, 29 & the 37 all have the same footprint. I think the type of fish you want to keep will help you decide.For example dwarf cichlids are more horizontal swimmers so they tend to stay close to the bottom. A 20L would be a great home for them.
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As a retired UPS driver ifrom northern NJ I’ve experienced more than my share of ice & snow. As I now live in SE NC I don’t miss cleaning up, walking or driving in ice or snow.
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@DeniseThis is pair started spawning within a week of the male being put into the tank which was about 6 weeks ago. This is the first time they got to the wriggler stage.
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12 hours ago, Fish Folk said:
Amazing! Are you hoping to see them raise the fry on their own? Or just coin toss and see how they do?
I don't have any free tanks right now so I may leave them where they are until I can clear something out.
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I was watching KG Tropicals stream tonight and looked over at the Discus tank and noticed my breeding pair chasing fish away from the front corner of the tank. They’re guarding about 15 wrigglers.
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@Karen B. it's absolutely normal. Don't worry about it.
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Today while cleaning the filter for my Discus tank I got 5 surprises. Sterbai Cory fry. This happened to me the last time I cleaned it out so I was cautious when I lifted out each tray I found 4 in the trays and while pulling the last tray I felt another one so I drained out the canister through a net. The moral of the story is you never know what you're going to find when you clean out your filters!
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A demystifying Discus rant
in General Discussion
Posted
Just an FYI all my tanks are filled with water that comes straight out of my tap. I just dose the tanks with some Prime. If you still want Discus check out Discus Hans those fish were raised in harder water. Good luck whichever way you choose to go.