Posted by Sarah on June 20, 2008
We noticed that the discus were spawning on an overturned flower pot on Thursday night.
I’d almost given up hope since the pair of discus stopped acting like a pair in the last couple of tanks.
There are three discus in the tank - two males and one female, and all of them have been swimming around together lately.
Before that we could tell which two were a pair because they were always together, and they tried to keep the other one away from them.
So I was really surprised that we had eggs.
The discus were more skittish than ususal, so we tried to avoid going near the tank unless we had to feed them, or turn the lights on or off. We did sneak a peek at the eggs when we were near the tank though.
Things were going well last night, and then we woke up this morning - no eggs, and no fry.
Maybe we’ll have better luck next time.
Posted by Sarah on April 28, 2008
We made it back safely from the Tropical Fish Show - I still can’t believe that it snowed so much here.
Jeff is a raffle addict, and he won enough fish stuff to fill a huge bag - and I’m sure he’ll tell you about it later.
I got some purple shells for my bumblebee gobies from the show, and some moss balls from Terrequatics, a fish store in Champlin, MN.
Here’s a picture of one of my Bumblebee Gobies perching on a shell a few hours ago. I still haven’t seen any of them in the shells, but I’m hoping they’ll get in there soon.
I want some Bumbleebee Goby fry!
Jeff got a cave system from Tiffany of Salty’s Digz, a gorgeous piece of driftwood, and some Ultra Color Fish Food from Pretty Bird (the fish part of the website is still under construction).
We also saw some beautiful fish - I was really impressed with the discus!
They are a lot larger than ours are!
I was a little disappointed in the one talk we attended because I didn’t fully understand what it was supposed to be about.
Since the talk was titled “Oddball Fish for Aquaria” I thought that it would provide information about fish that aren’t commonly found in aquariums, but it mainly focused on breeding fish that are commonly found in aquariums, but aren’t commonly bred. I think we have or have had most of the oddball fish that were mentioned that aren’t commonly found in aquariums, like the Australian Desert Gobies, Bumblebee Gobies, and Dwarf Puffers, although he called them pea puffers.
Since there were weather problems (the roads that normally take to get from Moorhead to Minneapolis were closed Friday, and Saturday, but we managed to get through ok while they were open, we decided to leave early, so we missed the Plants in the Aquaria talk, which I was looking forward too.
If you made it to the show this year, I’d love to hear what you thought about it, so leave a comment and tell me.
Here’s a picture of Jeff’s driftwood in the Discus tank.
The Discus really seem to like it, and are trying to figure out who gets to live behind it.
Posted by Sarah on March 24, 2008
We noticed the discus acting funny yesterday - and realized that they were getting ready to lay eggs.
They were chasing the third discus in the tank, and the bushynose plecos in the tank away from their corner of the tank, and pecking at the filter intake tube.
After a while of pecking I noticed the female making passes across the tube, and I saw that her egg tube was out.
Since the discus are so skittish I was trying to sit close enough to see what was going on, without sitting close enough to upset them.
Finally I looked and noticed discus eggs!
I was excited, Jeff was excited.
But unfortunately the excitement didn’t last very long.
The eggs disappeared within an hour.
I’m pretty sure the parents ate their eggs, but it could have been the other discus or one of the four bushynose plecos in the tank.
After we noticed that the eggs were gone the discus were acting like they normally do - hanging out in their corner of the tank, and letting the third male come hang out with them, instead of chasing him and everyone else out of their territory and hanging out near thetube where they laid the eggs.
The discus were laying eggs every 8 days before we got them, so hopefully they will continue with that schedule, and get things right soon.
I think we are going to move the plecos just in case they were eating the eggs, or in case they are stressing the discus out enough that they ate the eggs.
I figured we might as well make things as calm as possible for them.
Posted by Jeff on March 13, 2008
People have been asking me what you need in order to keep Discus happy, and before I bought my Discus I asked the same questions.
Here is my list of things that are needed for a Discus tank.
#1 Discus are very particular about maintaining the proper PH level.
To help with this and keep my PH from jumping around I use Seachem Neutral Regulator 1 kg
.
#2 This is a product that I use in all of my aquariums during water changes.
Prime 250 ml
#3
I use the emperor bio wheel filters in all of my aquariums and have nothing but great things to say about them. This is a product you definitely want to buy online since I have seen the 400 at a local pet store for more then $100 and you can get it online for under $50
Emperor BIO-Wheel Powerfilters Emperor 400
#4
Okay to be honest things can go wrong and if you are going to ask someone for help they are going to ask you about your water so you have to have a good test kit. Of course regular testing of the water quality is always a good idea. I recommend the Tetra Deluxe Laborett Test Kit
It has about everything you need and you will find most fish keepers use Tetra as the standard.
#5
Okay now its time to get serious if you want your fish to be happy you are going to have to break down and buy an RO/DI filter. I bought one about 2 months ago and have seen better colors in my fish and had higher percentage of fry survival then ever before. I recommend getting the Pinnacle+ Series Replacement Membrane 100 gpd - mfg #3022
#6
Discus are pretty picky about temperature so I am picky about my heater. I use the Top Light Heaters 200W
This is simple to set you just set it to the temperature you want and that’s it. I believe these are on clearance right now which reminds me I should buy a couple more. One of the other great things about this heater is I use the 200W in all different size tanks but since it is so accurate it does not matter if it is a 75 gallon or a 10 it keeps perfect temperature.
#7
Well the last thing is not something to buy but it is probably the thing that will take most of your time water changes. I do a 50% water change 2 times a week so if you do not like water changes Discus may not be the fish for you.
A word about Discus in summary
Overall I love my Discus but they do take a lot of care. I have heard some people start a Discus tank as a get rich quick idea but it is a lot of work, and unless you are dedicated to giving you fish what they need to thrive you are destine to fail.
