Malta Aquarist Society

hi martin

great fish. do you have any breeding pairs yet, they seem to me to be reaching the breeding stage. It is strange that you say due to space, because i believe you are keeping them in a 4 foot fish tank right, so plenty of space to grow i guess. I guess a lot depends on how much they eat and how often. It is amazing to me how breeders can grow them to a big 4 inch size in a few months. ANd i know they are crowded together. WOuld love to own some red mellon or red discus. What about you, interested?

 frank

 Hii Frank..... Long time no see. Hope you are well and your fishkeeping is doing fine. As you know I am not in discus and mine have not grown as I do not concentrate on them as I should. They are housed in a 3 foot tank. However, in a couple of months time, they will be shifted to a new home in a 5 foot aquarium. I will also add some more in a different colours. I will keep you informed. Take care for now friend and good luck with you project for breeding discus.

 

 

martin

 I would like to have your professional comments on the following decision making. I am re doing my 5 foot living room tank hopefully with discus/geophagus/clownloaches. The fish species are not yet decided though. My difficulty is regarding the gravel i will be using. Will it be fine gravel and will I go to light whitish or creamy type of gravel ???   Shall I opt for black gravel. ???  What colour will suit the fish most so they are kept in a calm and relaxed environment ???? What colour of gravel will put the colour of the discus at its best ??? Thanks in advance for your remarks and opinion. Shall I opt for discus only in my tank or mix the species I have mentioned above.

 

martin

Go for a SA setup & keep the Clowns in another tank. Rummynose Tetra are mostly kept with Discus & that shouldn't be a problem, as I think that you're going for a lower ph setup.  Are you going with "live" plants?. If yes, think of a good planted substrate, so the plants can grow well without much hassel.

Personally I don't like "white" gravel & from "cream" coloured to light "brown" would be ideal.

 Hi Martin as Jason told you I would go for a South American setup with Discus, a group of bigger tetras like bleeding Hearts and other smaller species such as Emperor tetras, Cardinal tetras ( which shouldn't be small to fit the Discus's mouth) and then a trio of Rams or Apistogramma species. The latter will stay at the bottom with some corydoras. As regards corydoras I would go for natural looking colours, so in my opinion I will not include Albinos.

When it comes to the backround I would go for a black one if you're not interested in these 3d backrounds which will give the tank that special effect. 

I would go for dark gravel to, maybe not black but find a natural looking one. Discus will be comfortable with htese colours and then you can also add a nice piece of bogwood with attached plants. Your Discus will love it and feel at home.

 If you have other questions just let us know, even if you want me to come at your home for some advise.

 Thanks for your replies friends. Yes I will opt for a 3D background for this tank. I will go for low light low maintenance plants as if I opt for other delicate plants be rest assured they will not last long with me. I would like to keep the clown loaches as they go use to this tank now and because the tank will be in the living room we can all enjoy them. Ok then, I was going for a cream/brown colour gravel. I will keep you informed.

 

martin

hi i guess it is time to revive this section a bit and talk about discus. I was very impressed when we saw the dvd at the club during the last meeting. I guess maybe because i am a discus fan and it is always important to learn what other people are.

 Well i have finally set up my new tank, i have written in the planted section as well. It is mainly a discus tank. with a few tetras as well. I also have three clown loaches. I know and read that there is the risk that these might run after the discus because of the mucus they have on their side. But so far i have had no trouble.  A friend of mine gave me a couple of big clown loaches, One of them is really huge and after i put them in i thought i had made a big mistake. But the big one rarely comes out. it is about 7 inches i would say. But when it comes out the discus are not scared of it. but seem to have gotten used to them. SO will see what happens next. I am a person who does like to bend the rules when it comes to fish and like to see what happens.

 I also have had the opportunity to buy some really nice discus from one of our members. I was lucky to have obtained a breeding pair which i have put in a smaller tank. But that is another story.:)  But hopefully there will be a lot to tell .

These couple of weeks have been a great learning experience when it comes to these beautiful fish. They are really special and for me really the queen of tropcial fish.

I know there are oher members who keep discus,would love to hear their experiences too.

 

 hey guys i have a problem with my discus.I have bought a new one and it sims that my biges one is piking on it at feedind time and it sims that the new fish isnt eating,is it normal that they fight?

a few weeks ago i had a parasite problem and i had to alivet the tempricer and i left it 31c for fir that it will came back.

My fir is that the new one isn t eating so it will die hungry and some of the other discus are fighting

please help.

Hi Edmond, I do not consider myself a professional however in the last few months with my new discus I had the same problems. Your 'old' discus are showing territorial behaviour, common in cichlids. Some sources suggest you let them sort the hierarchy (sometimes called pecking order) on their own; most discus solve this within a week. They show each other who's the master by bullying during feeding time. I did not want to risk killing my new discus in the process so what I did was remove the 'old' discus to a small-ish hospital tank and let it there for two days. I then re-arranged the main aquarium by moving around my bogwood and changing the position of some plants. This will make the territory unrecognisable by the territorial discus once re-introduced and thus will show more respect to your new discus. To help with changing the territory make a 30% water change just before re-introduction. With my discus, aggression did not just vanish, you will see slight bullying (due to size) for about a week but the process described earlier should make a difference. Hope this works for you.

Hi  there Edmund

 I was wondering if your discus have settled down now or are they still fighting. If yes what you can do is insert a piece of plastic wind breaker so as to divide the tank for some time. I have never tried it myself, but i know somebody who has. He had one big solitary discus and bought a couple of small ones. So he split up the tank, and after a week or soe he removed it to see what happens. ANd it worked, so  if you still have that problem try it out. My way of dealing with this problem is crowding them, so nobody is king.:) But that goes against all the rules,

 

 Hi guys, they ve stoped fighting and they seem to be triving see for your self.The problem is finding the type of dicus that they are,i found some thing but i don't know if its the right one.

the 1 photo is a purple discus,the 2 is a snakskin discus,the 3 is a red turquoise discus,the 4 is a red mariboro and the last i think its a blue turquoise. correct me if i am wrong?Thanks guys.

 

 Sorry Edmond I cannot help in identifying the discus names as I am not an expert in this field. There are so many cross bred discus nowadays that the names are cropping from everywhere. But good to hear that your discus have settled down and eating normally. Good luck.

 

martin

 HI there Edmund

 Glad that your discus are settling down now. well when you buy one there is always that problem. It is called the pecking order, when one bullies the other and the other bullies the other one. The only time i have found that they do not do it is when the tank is small and the fish are a bit over crowded, ( not that you are supposed to do that) But still discus is like a bad habit, you buy one and you are hooked.

 As regards the species you have, i would say the first one is a blue discus, still a bit small, the others probably are as you described, though to say the truth i am not too sure about the 4 one, malboro. Well you will have to wait and see till they grow a bit more. The important thing is that they are healthy.

 Always make sure the water parameters are good, and that you do water changes. I have found that out at my expense when i do not do water changes , something happens and the fish suffer. The good thing is that if you do water change the chances are the fish recover.

 

 Frank

Hi  i was having a look at your photos again and i thinking that the third one could be a melon.

 hi sorry i do not think it is a melon. sorry once again.:))