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To water change or not to water change

Spidy

Member
Messages
33
Hi all.

I have free swimming fry in my two foot tank with both parents and three pencil fish. Mama is keeping everybody at bay so I have no concerns there. My question is, the tank is due for a water change, but do I bother, or am I risking spooking mama and she eats her fry?

Any advice welcome.
 

pastry

New Member
5 Year Member
Messages
20
Solely coming from my discus keeping roots... the more, the better. Although I'm a risk taker, I don't see any risk with 60% WC at least once a week.

While changing water more frequently with discus and a tank that also has other fish, I see higher growth in other fish tremendously when changing the water often. Discus keepers are WC extremists and I am not an extremist (70% twice a week... whereas many are 90% daily). Still, I easily see a huge (positive) difference with other species in my tank when doing so. Adults, juveniles, and fry.
 

Mike Wise

Moderator
Staff member
5 Year Member
Messages
11,202
Location
Denver, Colorado, U.S.A.
Discus & apistos live in different biotopes in the wild. Depending on the species, frequent large water changes for apisto fry can lead to losses - unless the change water values are similar to those of the tank's.
 

Spidy

Member
Messages
33
pasty, I also keep discus and do the large frequent water changes but I'm asking about very young apisto fry.

Mike, did a 20% WC on Thursday, reluctantly, and seems I was gentle enough not to stress any member of the tank. Fry are coming along nicely.
 

pastry

New Member
5 Year Member
Messages
20
Gotcha. Yeah it's still very young then I could see how I would be nervous to do large changes. Do you start to do larger water changes after 4-8 weeks of free swimming? Just curious.

Next week I am putting 4 of the little ones from my first spawn of ap. Eunotus in my son's 28 gallon tank upstairs. They are only how about 2 months old. I don't change the water in that tank nearly as often as I do 150 gallon discus tank that I have them in right now. Curious to see how those four grow in comparison to the ones I leave in the big tank.
 

Spidy

Member
Messages
33
pastry I was thinking of going to larger weekly water changes when they're large enough to take food on their own and don't look around for mama any more. I reckon that's close enough to 8 weeks or so. But larger doesn't mean 50% in this case as I believe these fish will do better with 30% WC.

Keep in mind however that I've only raised discus and German blue rams and this is a first for me, so I'll be grateful for advice from people like Mike who have been down this path before.
 

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