Hammy's New Discus

[hamfist]

I visited Aquajardin yesterday after work, where Sam told me about the power failure... The remaining Discus are still sulking!

I forgot to ask him, but reading the "blurb" by their tank suggests that they are now living in Southampton tap water, rather than RO.

Are they settled in yet and are the tankmates chiilled out about the "invasion?"

I didn't realise they had a power failure. Their discus certainly seemed a bit off colour when I went in their yesterday for sure. maybe that was the cause.
All my discus are in my 300 litre on their own (apart from two juvie BN's) so no-one to be disturbed by them.

Mine are generally settling in OK. THere is an ongoing power struggle between my two bigger turks, Buster and Eric, as to who will be the boss. Eric is proving to be a bit of a sulker if he can't get his own way. I am hoping the two of them can sort it out.
My smaller blue Diamond, Sasha, did a humongous sized poo yesterday, about 4-5mm in diameter. She was quite distressed doing it, but has seemed fine since, and is eating fine. The poo was a good colour and consistency, so I'm not too worried just at the moment. I'm not surprised she was distressed, as I have never seen any fish pass such a huge poo, in comparison to its size. The equivalent of you or I passing something the size of a coconut I expect !

I actually bought one more discus from MA in Fair Oak yesterday. She was born and raised in soft, acidic water (as all of theirs are), but I wanted to see how their fish would adapt to our water.
After an hour and a half acclimating to our water in a bucket, she settled into the tank in about 10 seconds flat and was swimming happily with the others instantly, and is feeding very well too. In fact, she seems by far the best adjusted (psychologically and socially) of all of them.

I am laso having success at ginving them a varied diet. So far they have enjoyed frozen brine shrimp and New life spectrum pellets as well as the, always enjoyed, frozen bloodworm. I intend to try them out with a bit of prima and maybe a bit of flake from Plymouth Discus later today.

I just wish they would sort out the power struggle. It's a bit unsettling for all of them at times I think.

 

[walkers101]

give them chance mate the best word to use with discus is patience

 

[hamfist]

give them chance mate the best word to use with discus is patience

Now that is something that I am learning !

 

[ajs2294]

I do 50% minimum daily on my Discus and they love it. The majority on "Simply" do even more. But definately use age water, straight tap water is a pain. Having the ability to drain to my yard and fill with a pump wakes WC's a breeze

As I said, there is a LOT of discussion and disagreement on this issue. Many people do seem to have a lot of success with a very moderate WC schedule. I intend to be one of those ! If not, I can't see the discus bug continuing, to be honest.

General consensus is just do as many water changes of how ever much you can manage. I understand you may not have a setup capable of doing 50% daily but just try to do as much as you can don't settle for the minimum. You'll have success either way just water changes make for even happier fish.

I take it that you have a system in place to resuse all that water?

I suppose it waters the grass in my backyard but I don't recollect any.

 

[snowflake311]

I agree do as many wc as you can. I plan on doing 30-40% every 3 days no less then that I will try and do more when I have time. The more you feed the more you need to do wc IMO this goes for any fish.

Gosh there is so many funny little things about discus I'm now starting to learn. Like breeder them for smaller eyes. Or breeding deformitys like the "bulldog" face on discus. It's like the show dog world. I do not agree with a lot of it. So I do not think I will become a crazy discus freak. I just like them and think they are great fishy pets.

Do you have any more photos?

 

[markandhisfish]

have you tried hand feeding them yet? it can take a bit of patience but once they do it the 1st time they will automaticly swim towards your hand any time you dip it in the tank. mine will actually come up and let me stroke them now. its really cool when you get em, that confident.

 

[hamfist]

have you tried hand feeding them yet? it can take a bit of patience but once they do it the 1st time they will automaticly swim towards your hand any time you dip it in the tank. mine will actually come up and let me stroke them now. its really cool when you get em, that confident.

It's definately on my "things to do" list. I'm sure they will in time. They are actually very un-spookable and steady fish, in terms of human contact and movement.
At the moment I'm trying to teach them to eat flake though. It's quite funny actually. They are clearly interested, but have never experienced anthing quite like it before. Instinctively they like sinking things best.

 

[walkers101]

i had the yellow pb which i got off a member here he didnt eat flake at the time but is now taking it from hand also all 4 are feeding from the hand and strokable its awesome

 

[ajs2294]

i had the yellow pb which i got off a member here he didnt eat flake at the time but is now taking it from hand also all 4 are feeding from the hand and strokable its awesome

I'd advise you keep the stroking to a minimum as they secret the "milk" from their skin and its best not to touch them to often.

 

[walkers101]

i had the yellow pb which i got off a member here he didnt eat flake at the time but is now taking it from hand also all 4 are feeding from the hand and strokable its awesome

I'd advise you keep the stroking to a minimum as they secret the "milk" from their skin and its best not to touch them to often.

lol thanks for the advice i knew that anyway and its not like im perverse doing it to them 24/7 lol it was only a few times to get them used to my hand being in the tank

 

[hamfist]

i had the yellow pb which i got off a member here he didnt eat flake at the time but is now taking it from hand also all 4 are feeding from the hand and strokable its awesome

SOunds great. My uaru are like that with me, and my sev loves feeding from my hand too.
I hope to get these discus just as tame.

 

[snowflake311]

Oh they will. Most of mine already eat from my hand. A few are still shy but they come close.

 

[ajs2294]

i had the yellow pb which i got off a member here he didnt eat flake at the time but is now taking it from hand also all 4 are feeding from the hand and strokable its awesome

I'd advise you keep the stroking to a minimum as they secret the "milk" from their skin and its best not to touch them to often.

lol thanks for the advice i knew that anyway and its not like im perverse doing it to them 24/7 lol it was only a few times to get them used to my hand being in the tank

That's good as long as you know they are fish and not dogs I've read on other websites of people picking them up daily Crazy peoples.