George's Journal

[zig]

Haha..........just nipping out for a paper darling

Fantastic looking fish, probably one of the best discus i have seen.

 

[jimbooo]

oops. i hate it when that happens. bigger tank on the way by any chance?? what starts at one ends up at 6 (he'll need friends dear.....)


cracking looking fish george, good spot there.

 

[nodding_dino]

looks fantastic! Really pleased for you!

 

[George Farmer]

(he'll need friends dear.....)

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Ta mate. I'll be looking for mate for him sooner rather than later!

Nodding Dino - Thanks.

 

[houndour]

cute fish, makes your ram look tiny...never realised he was so small...even though he's not that much bigger than the cardinals. oh I'll shut up now. Just out of interest, do you buy your RO water? Or do you have a thingy to convert tap water?

 

[Jen]

A real beaut there George. Stunning colour. Can't wait to see him once he gets his adult colourings.

I'll be going through the exact same senario when my lfs gets some angels in... they've been out of them for almost a month now

 

[George Farmer]

cute fish, makes your ram look tiny...never realised he was so small...even though he's not that much bigger than the cardinals.  oh I'll shut up now.  Just out of interest, do you buy your RO water?  Or do you have a thingy to convert tap water?

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We have a massive de-mineralising unit at work - it produces 1000s Gallons per day. I work on Harrier "Jump Jets" and they need very pure water for cooling their engines whilst hovering - any minerals would cause damage. I would imagine the water it produces is purer than most shops or that can be produced by standard RO units. It is tested regularly at <3 microsiemens (very pure). I just help myself (with permission of course) to 30 litres a week for my water changes. The military has its benefits sometimes!

 

[houndour]

Wow that's cool. Lucky bloke. Also very cool that you work on harrier jump jets. It's interesting finding stuff out about people. When we getting that general chat board?!

 

[jimbooo]

harrier jump jet engineer by day, fish tank gardner by night

what an awesome job. i went to a firepower demo in salisbury a few years ago. £8 million of ammo used in 20 mins...., tanks, rockets, grenades, paras falling from the sky etc.. the highlight was a flyby with 2 tornadoes and 2 harriers blowing the crap out of a convoy of old tanks and trucks.

awesome and very scary.

what a job i'm so jealous.

 

[George Farmer]

harrier jump jet engineer by day, fish tank gardner by night

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It is a bit of a contrast - especially if you knew what area I actually work in (sorry can't really say on a public forum - I'd have to kill you ).

Updates on Digweed. He's seems really happy, I was a bit worried about keeping him alone but I've done a bit of research (contacted UK Discus Association) and it appears that it can be done. I was hoping for a mate but apparently it is very likely that Digweed would bully the newcomer or vice-versa. It is highly unlikely that I'll get a pair - not worth the risk.

Unfortunately he doesn't seem too keen on dry foods. I have tried Aquarian Tropical Flake, Nutrafin Micro Granules and Tetra Pro Colour (colour enhancing crisps - I highly recommend these if you keep colourful fish i.e. Cardinals, Rams etc.) He is feeding well on bloodworm but this isn't very nutritional. I'll be buying some Diskusin (supposed to be the best dry food for discus) this weekend and some more frozen foods, brineshrimp and possibly daphnia. I've heard of garlic supplement that you can add to the food to tempt eating, I may try that.

 

[George Farmer]

Latest photo. I still can't believe I'm a Discus keeper, I haven't felt this excited since Florence (my baby daughter) was born - is that really sad?

He's been in there well over 48 hours now, looking good still. Just need to get him on dry foods and I'll relax a little more.

 

[Nix]

Latest photo. I still can't believe I'm a Discus keeper, I haven't felt this excited since Florence (my baby daughter) was born - is that really sad?

Bluntly put; Yes, that is very sad.

lol only kidding


Looks like digweed is settling in nicly, and very fast for a discus I might add, most probably would be squeezed in behind that Java Fern.

Speaking of which, that Java fern is getting HUGE.

 

[George Farmer]

Latest photo. I still can't believe I'm a Discus keeper, I haven't felt this excited since Florence (my baby daughter) was born - is that really sad?

Bluntly put; Yes, that is very sad.

lol only kidding


Looks like digweed is settling in nicly, and very fast for a discus I might add, most probably would be squeezed in behind that Java Fern.

Speaking of which, that Java fern is getting HUGE.

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Thanks Nix. I was very surprised at how quickly Digweed settled in. I've heard of them taking up to 6 weeks to feed and be active.

The fern is 18 months old now - a result of good light and nutrients.

 

[dartos]

He's been in there well over 48 hours now, looking good still. Just need to get him on dry foods and I'll relax a little more.

I have only been keeping discus for 3 weeks now, but I was having trouble after two days getting mine to eat dry foods also. What I ended up doing was feeding some flakes that would first of all slowly fall (my brand is Omega One: Formula One), but I was also feeding four times a day because they are all juvies ranging from 1.5" to 3.5". I limited the amount of times that I would feed bloodworms and basically gave them a flakes or nothing diet. They began to eat the flakes within 24 hours and I haven't had problems since.

I apologize if this does not help you because I realize that you have some good competition in there amongst the rams and cardinals for the flakes. My flakes eventually fell to the bottom of the tank and they had to blow them up to eat them and I realize that might not be an option for your tank.

One tip that I did recieve was to try and feed only flake to them in the morning because your discus are supposedly most hungry then. This tip was disputed amongst others that felt that feeding in the afternoon was the best time. However, many did agree that giving a strict diet of only what you want them to eat would solve the problem even if your fish does not eat for a few days.

After all of this rambling I can only say with a guarantee that you should keep encouraging flakes and that in due time your discus will learn to like them. You have a beautiful tank (that goes without saying) but ever since I joined this forum and saw your tank I have always thought that the only thing that could make your tank better would be the addition of a discus (says the discus obsessed keeper) so bravo!

 

[George Farmer]

Thank you very much for that excellent post Dartos, very kind of you to share that useful info.

The Rams have been re-housed so there will be less competition for food - although the Cardinals are quite feisty at feeding time. I may try to distract them to one end of the tank whilst feeding Digweed.

I've heard of Omega One: Formula One, I may give that a try too. Have you heard of Diskusin? Also have you heard of adding garlic supplements?

Great tips on morning feeding - unfortunately I go to work at 0730 and I'm not in until 1700 usually. May have to train the wife!