jwcarlson

I have some furcatta and I've yet to see eggs. But little tiny babies show up (and eventually are eaten). But one has survived and is big enough it probably won't be eaten now. There were a few more little one swimming this AM when I fed the tank. Maybe they're laying in the mop. Yours look like they're just laying them on the bottom? Or they're falling that way at least? Or that's the breeder box?

They sure are pretty! I like the more substantial body on these than the Beckford's. Never seen them in person, but seeing your videos looks like similar behavior which is what makes Beckford's fun, IMO. Hope you can get them to breed! I'd heard they're not as hardy as the Beckford's, but who knows how true that is vs someone just having a bad experience.

Mine must be extra dumb.

Your CPDs don't get stuck in everything, @Guppysnail? I've narrowly missed losing a female when I tried using course sponge. Had a young one die in the ACO sponge in their grow out. I feel like mine would jam their heads into the beads and die. 😄 @Sammy mine are going well. I haven't spawned them again, but the babies are coloring up nicely and I can tell the sex of most of them. They are excruciatingly slow to grow, however. I suppose they are about sellable size. I think they're about the size that I bought from AquaHuna. I need to start moving some of these fry (and others). I've never tried to sell to a LFS and I'm cripplingly introverted/socially awkward. What the LFS owners don't know is that if they just stare at me long enough I'll give all my fish to them for free and leave quietly just to avoid eye contact. 😄

That's good to hear, he does look to have gained some weight. Discus can do just fine down to 82!

It's really messy and doing it in gravel is just asking for issues. It's not just parameters, it's overall bacterial load. You've got way different water than me, so you might be able to get away with a bit more. But even then, it's going to bite you eventually. You could maybe put some beef heart into the mix, say... right before you do a WC. Kind of load them up and then suck everything up. But unless you're doing WC every day, it will be a mess. I made my own beef heart, just 100% beef heart that I trimmed the fat out of and ground my own mix.

I don't think ACO does, they're too high profile it would probably be impossible to keep up. There used to be mail-order places where you could buy a cycled sponge filter, but I don't think they exist anymore. I've been on forums where seasoned hobbyists will ship seeded sponges to people, but with the cost of shipping anything anymore that's less prevalent than it was many years ago. I don't know why everyone is so allergic to changing water. 3 weeks of daily water changes for a new fish keeper is good practice and they can learn how to do things efficiently. I'm glad the hobby has moved beyond the mindset that you should buy fish to basically die in your tank to get your cycle going. But I'm a little disappointed that everything is moving towards "I don't ever want to change water!" I'm not saying that's what you're saying, Galabar, but I can assure you that's what new hobbyists hear. I also think the idea that you just sit and wait and the cycle works is a bit oversimplifying things. How many people have stalled their cycle with toxic levels of nitrites that never go down because they're inhibiting those bacteria? Or people with pH that makes it so their tank basically can't "cycle" in the traditional way most people's water does? I'm somewhat of a chronic hobbyer and honey bee keeping for the last 10 years has really opened my eyes to how incorrectly most new people to a hobby take the advice they have. And that's not to say anything about the rampant bad information available on the internet. Couple that with new people's desire to tinker with things that they're doing and I have always gone towards the side of giving people more things to do with what they're doing, but focusing it on constructive things. But I'm side tracking. There's many ways to tackle the issue of cycling an aquarium, my way is obviously right, but I suppose some other people eventually get their tanks going too. 🤣 Depends on tank size. 10 gallon tank 50% is great because who doesn't have a 5 gallon bucket? But 50% every day for someone starting with a 75 might be a lot to ask because they're unlikely to have a big water change setup like some of us do. But maybe 10 gallons a day in a 75 that's got maybe 25% of the final stocking in it. And yes, plants are great. I also use Stability and Prime with every water change so you get that "detoxifying" from Prime and seed some bacteria with Stability. But I don't always use Stability. It's gotten really expensive too. I wanted to keep snails out of my 125 so I fish-in cycled it and bought a bottle of Stability, but it might be my last because it was like $35 for a medium sized bottle!

It doesn't even need to be monitored closely. If you change enough water all the bad stuff never has a chance to build up. You don't even ever need to test, truthfully. I've found that after two weeks it's usually well on its way and you can start going every-other-day changes. But if you just did them for a month it's usually cycled by then also so you can almost just... not test. I just do more changes than normal on a newer tank and it works itself out. This might not hold if you toss 50 fish in a 10 gallon. But for most sane stocking it works fine. It does get cumbersome with bigger tanks for sure. But I did it with my 125 recently and it worked just fine with about 30% every day to every other day with one bigger one on the weekends. ~30 juvy sterbai, 2 adult bristlenose, and 3 adult rams so not a massive bioload.

I just don't think (for new fishkeepers) that it's setting them up for success. Most problems seem to be cycling for new keepers and it sure feels like the majority of the time it's someone who has fishless cycled or thought they did I'm not sure what's more stressful. I wish it was more common for people to suggest that they go beg, borrow, or steal a cycled sponge from a LFS or a local hobbyist. Squeeze that baby in and *bam*. Is any established hobbyist fishless cycling for new tanks? I've always got extra media or sponges to move to a new setup. The bottom line is that they both work if they're done right. But a new fishkeeper doesn't have a great shot at doing it right the first time without a knowledgebase that even more experienced people don't have. Put fish in, 50% water change every day, test it in two or three weeks... it doesn't get easier. You can change 50% of water on a 10 gallon tank in... two or three minutes with the right siphon and a bucket.

Not necessarily white poop. I only had that with hex. It doesn't have to be a full blown infestation to cause lower level issues. Parasites are always present at some level and any stress or something like that could cause it to come to the forefront. You don't need to feed beef heart, there are plenty of people who do not. But they sure do love it and it packs on size really well. Again, I would not suggest it with your setup. It would be a timebomb. Impossible to keep substrate clean.

Feeling like they should be bigger than they are based on how much they eat is a decent indication that there might be something robbing that nutrition in the gut. It can be tough to get a handle on parasites in a tank with substrate, but you could move them into something bare bottomed if you have that available. The red covers look a stunted. But not wildly so. Nature is strange. *shrug*

I have exactly zero experience with dry seeding an aquarium. But when dealing with soil fungus on indoor started garden plants, I have had decent luck dusting cinnamon on top of the soil as it's anti-fungal. I have no idea if that would be a good idea for you or not. It looks extremely wet so any seeds that don't almost immediately germinate are likely to mold. Maybe you need to keep it really wet to dry start. But most of the time the surface of soil shouldn't remain wet. The moldy seeds are probably already goners and usually seeds that germinate at a drastically different time than their cohort are not viable anyway. A lot of times it is a race between germination and mold for some seeds, especially ones that take awhile to germinate (like peppers). Fast ones aren't typically an issue. In short, it's probably too late to "save" any of the seeds that aren't already sprouted. I would add water whenever the guide you are following said to add it. Again, this is vegetable related information from me... not dry starting an aquarium. So I might not be correct at all.

They shouldn't hit maturity until a year or so, but I know that does vary a bit depending on their sex (males are later than females) and strains as well, I think Blue Diamonds are late bloomers. Perhaps red covers are early spawners, but a 3" discus should be about 3 months old and shouldn't be spawning and a well cared for discus should be at least 5" at that age (around a year). But with the hormones they hammer some discus with anymore, anything is possible. Do you still have the red covers? How big did they end up or how big are they now? Pretty much everyone includes the tail in measurements anymore, I know a some time ago they didn't include it, but it gets a little confusing now. So, your fish are closer to 5" total length, I'd guess. Which isn't really particularly small for their age, probably. Like I said, they look healthy but maybe a tad thin. I would do a course (three treatments) of levamisole personally. Especially if you have a feeling that they're not as big as the amount of food they're consuming should be making them which is sounds like might be the case. They'll probably have a bit of a growth spurt/fattening up after you worm them. The smallest one I had kind of piddled along not doing as well as the others. I wormed them and he just ballooned up and know he's probably the thickest fish and one of the biggest overall.

@spokanejared I've had mine for a bit more than two years. I don't know how old they were when I got them, but I'm guessing 3 months or so at 2.5". So overall they're probably 2.5 years or so. The picture above is from December 2022. So they'd have been about a year at that point. They were roughly 5" at that point. They're all 6"+ now except the sick one. I haven't measured any in months though. They might be 6.5" at this point. If you bought them just at a local store, it's a total guess as to how old they actually were. If they're spawning now, though, it's likely that they're way older than what they normally would have been at that size. So maybe a little stunting. But the fact that they're growing is a good sign. I found that their growth was very much linked to the amount of food and the amount of water changes. You could almost see them grow for the first several months even though it does slow down quite a bit eventually.

Spawning and only 4" seems a little strange. If they're growing that much that's good though. Hope it continues. Mine were doing about 1/2" per month, maybe a bit more at peak growth. But that doesn't last too long. Are you including the tail in the measurement?

How are things going, @PluckyD?

They don't look unhealthy. I wouldn't suggest beef heart as your setup will most likely just end up killing them because of the substrate and it is very messy. When I was growing mine out it was 4-8 cubes of beef heart per day and 85% water change every night. Can't tell much from the side. The one of yours looks thinner than mine do, but I haven't fed them beefheart in a year probably. I'd just feed more of what they already like if I were you. Or maybe more frequently if you can. Have you wormed them? Here's a frontal shot of a few of mine. I think mine are healthy weight. This was also awhile ago, but they don't seem any thinner to me now, other than the red melon which his some sort of chronic issue that he'll eventually die from. It's been in a QT tank for a month. Not sure what's going on there.

It's probably mold. It might affect the moldy seeds, but the ones that have germinated *should* be OK. It could also be the initial root on a seedling which can be very fuzzy, but it is tough to tell from the pics. Fuzzy root:

If it's planted, the shrimp should be fine. If it's not it might be more difficult for them to feed properly as they kind of graze constantly. A bit different than fish. But there's biofilm and micro algae in your tank either way if it's mature enough. How many CPDs... 5-10, probably. I have 10 adults in a 10 gallon and that seems about right.

I've never had white clouds, so take this for what it's worth. I'd imagine they will spawn for you as I think they spawn readily? So you might end up with some fry in there. Maybe I'm wrong about that. CPDs are a pretty good fish for a small tank and they are compatible with WCMM temperature range, I believe. I keep my CPDs at 75, but I think they can go quite a bit cooler than that. My suggestion for small tanks is always SHRIMP, though. I'd suggest shrimp above anything else.

Beef heart for growing, I don't think there's a better option when you couple it with daily water huge water changes. Mine are grown now and I feed them freeze dried Australian black worms primarily. They're expensive, but for one tank of discus it's not too bad. Mine never liked tubifex, brine shrimp, and most pellets. They do like Cobalt flakes and I feed that occasionally as well as Hikari frozen blood worms. They do pick at pellets sometimes, but never consistently and never at an amount that feels like they're getting enough food.

I've fish-in cycled almost everything with daily water changes and stability. It's so much easier than the mostly silly fishless cycles that still seem to need to cycle at least somewhat after fish are added. Takes out all the guess work and you don't need to worry about testing water all the time. Do a check after a week and see where you're at. If it's promising, wait a day and recheck... if bad - change water. If good - wait another day and check again. One of the most perplexing moves in the hobby is the move away from doing any/all water changes. I understand not wasting water, but for a temporary period of time doing changes frequently isn't a big deal.

Forgot to mention that. The point is to make water changes as easy as possible so that you actually do them. It takes me less actual active time to change water in my 75 and 125s than it does in any of my other tanks. I've got it "down to a science". I don't know how people deal with bucket brigading their water changes or doing things like microwaving water. I mean no offence by this, of course. But all of that would drive me nuts and I would quit keeping fish. The next step for me would be an on-demand heater and some sort of degassing tower so that I could do automatic water changes. But we're starting to get pretty serious about moving out of the city, which has always been our goal. Whenever that happens I'm probably done keeping fish more/less permanently just because of other priorities. 🙂 This system is working for now as it's grown over the last years.

I've had mine over two years (started with 2.5"ers, so they were young). And they have never spawned. But they did show some interest a couple of months ago. Maybe when I finally get them to the bigger tank they'll try. But the eggs won't ever hatch in my water.

Barrel with aeration and heater is what I do, but my water needs to be aged because it shifts 1.2-1.3 pH higher after it is aged. But I'm doing big water changes typically and have about 450 gallons of water between all of my tanks. I have two 63 gallon barrels with heat controllers and can customize the temps and mixes from there (some tanks cut with RO). You also need a pump to get water back out effectively, unless you like standing around watching water siphon into a bucket. I almost never use a bucket during water changes unless I'm cleaning an overflow box, or a sump, or a smaller tank (10 gallon) as it's faster with a bucket. The above advice is probably only valid if you're going to scale up at some point in the future. Otherwise you can get a 32 gallon garbage can from Home Depot or some other smaller storage.