Maybe some Discus

[farm41]

I'm thinking about getting some discus for my 75g display tank, of course I will keep my lovely little M. ramirezi pair.

What kind of care do these fish take? More water changes than once a week? or not. Is the food any different than apisto's?

 

[aspen]

farm, it is possible to raise them in a planted tank, with minimal water changes, but when you see pics of others' discus, that are raised in super clean bb conditions with w/c's every day, you will want some that look like that. once you try them, you will like them. they are the 'king of the aquarium'.

jeff doty is from oregon and he has fish for sale, why not try and hook up with him, and see what they are all about. please do NOT buy from an lfs. buy from a breeder. you will be much more pleased with your new fish. if you need a list of other breeders, i can give you a few other top- notch names for mail order. but jeff is close to you, and i would rather see what i was buying.

rick

 

[farm41]

I got to see a tankfull of dime size discus today, they sure are nice, still with the parents and in a planted tank. A friend near me raises them.

It's going to be awhile before anything happens with this, I haven't even built the hood for this tank, and I have plenty of aquascaping to do before they go in. Right now it's just a hodgepodge of plants, until my busy season is over, I just won't have the time to do what I want.

I'm thinking of starting with 8-10 juveniles and then selecting the pair or 2 pairs I want to keep. Does that sound reasonable?

 

[aspen]

sounds great. i would grow them out in a bb tank. then put them in the planted tank when they get older. you will have much less trouble that way. a sponge filter and an aquaclear or similar would be fine.

great that you found someone close to get your fish from. most lfs fish have gone through so many tanks, they have been thrown off their growth cycle. a lot of them are not healthy, and few lfs's know how to take proper care of them.

clean conditions, lots of water changed and good food are the basics. i feed my beefheart mix, tetra colour bits, frozen bloodworms and formula 1 flake. for small fish, hikari frozen tubifex is really good. (triple sterilised) discus have short stomachs, and the more that you feed them, that faster they will grow. small fish can eat 6 or more times daily but you know when you are overfeeding when they are leaving food around for more than an hour.

and never any nitrite or ammonia. pre-cycle your filtration fishless so that you are sure it is clean, and you should do fine. they are really sensitive to uncycled water.

what strain are the discus?

rick

 

[farm41]

I really don't know which species they are, I may not even get the ones I saw, the ones I saw will be moved to Jeff's and grown out there, I might get to go there and pick out my fish when I'm ready. The breeder I know raises fish with Jeff. So I do have some very good sources, I'm so lucky.

 

[farm41]

What size of bb do I need for a growout tank?