Discus tank up & running woohoo!

Hi 5 days ago I desperately needed help with my discus tank, thank you to all for the much needed help & tips. Altum kindly gave of his time & helped to sort out the problem of high PH & other problems. My LPS kindly gave me credit on the decor items & the other 20+ fish, I was able to purchase another tank 60L for emergencies. Here are some pics of happy fish, they came home today. Still a few more things to do to tank & more discus to get, but all in good time.:amuse:

 

Sorry here are pics...

 

Nice fishies!! I love discus. These kinds of threads make me want to keep them again.

 

Thanks Sean, I'm happy they all survived my PH problem last week,

 

Feed them. Feed them well. And you will have amazing fish. Some of those will be beautiful adults! Just remember to keep the tank clean.

 

Will do so on both points, I've spent the last 5 days reading everything I can get my paws on re discus, luckily I'm on leave at present!

 

So now I've had my discus babies for +a week, they have been treated with para guard, had two clean ups per day with small water changes with each clean, did a third of the tank water change this morning and all are very happy & healthy. I have been pestering @Altum every day re their care, he's been very patient with me. So here are some pics...

 

Some more pics..

 

Some nice looking discus u got there! Those fish are so beautiful,I would love to keep them but they are so expensive and high maintanence. If one dies you must almost feel your wallet cry

 

Beautiful specimens ~!

 

some beauties you got there, Hope you don't mind me asking but how do you sort out ph problems? if it's too high or too low? with just water changes?

 

Some beautiful fish you have there @Macmish. What size is the tank they are in and how many discus do you have in total there?

 

Those are some nice fish!

 

:love: stunning colors

 

Hi @Rey, welcome to TASA, my PH was too high around 8 to 8.5, my LPS where I had bought all 5 discus and other fish from, kept giving me PH buffer and acid to bring it down, didn't help. I requested help from the forum, my discus were in a tank with ornaments and gravel and other fish (4 angels, 6 corys, 6 bristlenose, 4 clown loaches and 4 widows. After 6 weeks of this the discus started going black so I took all fish back to the LPS and put them in a tank there. See my post under species forum "Help urgently needed on Discus Tank". TASA members were very helpful and @Altum said he would pop around to see what's potting. Fortunately with the fish at the LPS I was able to clean out the whole tank, gravel and all. It was then suggested I do a bare bottom tank with 2 sponge filters, (Boyu tank, 250L with it's own filtration system). The LPS kindly gave me a credit on all fish, except Discus which I brought home once tank done. I will attach a pic for you to see now what it looks like. I quarantined the Discus when I got them back with @Altums help. I bought a few more discus over the past two months from him which are stunning, I now have 18 Discus in my tank, various sizes, (although the ones bought from the LPS are smaller and stunted) and around 3 and a half months later all is well. I feed them 9 times a day (fortunately I work from home), clean the tank of poop 3 times a day, and do 45% water change 2 X a week, wiping the tank down each time . I bought an 85L drum which I fill with filtered water, buffer and stability which I use for water changes and cleaning. One of the members on TASA also suggested a power head which is brilliant for the water changes, makes it very quick and easy with tubing from tank to garden and drum to tank.

 

Hi @veegal, the tank is 250L and 18 Discus, various sizes. ( 6 of them are in the process of being sold). I have a planted tank 250L, which I shall be moving the Discus over to as they get bigger, in the next 3 weeks about 5 - 6 will move over. I have a 60L tank standing empty which I want to use should I find they get frisky, if the juveniles have not moved over yet. Other wise the present 250L (once empty, I want to use for breeding them). At present my planted tank contains 33 cardinals, 7 pencil fish, 1 starlight ancistrus, 1 brown spotted ancistrus and a breeding pair of apistogramma agassizi fire reds. Still waiting for them to spawn. I think they have laid eggs about 3 - 4 times but when I clean the tank I have disturbed them and they have eaten the eggs. She goes into the cave for a day or two, comes out thinner then the male then follows. I have noticed she gets fat again then back into the cave and so on..... The starlight ancistrus also seems to sit on the cave she's in every now and then also all the other fish hang around the cave during this time.

 

Nice pics of your Apisto's.

 

Thanks guys! they are my babies.:love: Thanks @Hawk, trying to get them to breed, @TankMaster has given me some great advice!!!

 

Good luck. The only fish I have succeeded in deliberately breeding are guppies! Hoping to breed my GBR's, Dwarf & Sunset Gouramis and Corydoras so always great to read how others are doing things. I wish you many fry!