Getting some new discus from SLS.. Questions...

[mtchye]

Hi guys,

Well we've gone ahead and ordered some discus from SLS. I have a fully cycled bare 4x2x2 ready for them. As these are our first discus I have a few questions, hopefully someone from SLS can chime in and help out too...

One is alot of articles recommend treating new discus with Flagyl and prazi for prophylaxis during the quarantine period. Do SLS do this already at the store during quarantine after importation? If so this would save me repeating the treatment again.

Another question is on this 4x2x2 tank I have one Aquaclear 500 hang on back filter running. Do you guys think this will be adequate for 1 or 2 large pairs of discus?

Lastly when I get the fish what is the best way to acclimate them to my water conditions. I was thinking of doing the usual open up the bags and slowly trickle tank water into the bags way. Just wondering if thats the way most of you guys do it when you receive discus.

Thanks in advance,

Vincent

[kevkoi]

Vincent,
It is always good practice to quarantine your fish, especially discus..... Make it a habit. Quarantine just means putting them in a tank and observing. No need to treat unnecessarily.

Discus that get sent to us get treated for Hex and tape worm prior to them being sent. On the 2nd week in quarantine, we repeat that and treat for Hex and tape worm.... just to be doubly sure. We are quite confident of our fish, but one can never be to cautious.

Acclimatising discus is as you said. I use an airline to trickle water into a bucket. It's only a couple hours to Perth... fish will be fine.

Kev

[Merrilyn]

Well Vincent, exciting times ahead for you. First, your tank. One aquaclear hang on filter might struggle with 4 large discus. They eat a lot of protein food and poop a lot. Perhaps you might like to add one or two sponge filters to keep the water crystal clear.
I usually slowly add water from the tank to the travelling bags, over a period of 1 hour till they are in 2/3 tank water and 1/3 travel water. Then net the fish out and put into tank with the lights out for a couple of hours. Depending on how far they have travelled, I might leave the lights out for a couple of hours or a couple of days. Seems to help them settle in.
I don't immediately treat for gill flukes and worms but observe them in the quarantine tank first. If I feel they need to be treated I would wait a week first before doing anything. The stress of travelling and then chemicals in the water is just a bit too much.

[Lu]

Does SLS has a website?
I am new to discus too and I am plan to have some soon. I got a 4 ft tank with a canister filter, a 300w heater, under gravel filter and few artificial plants in it. Apart from PH test kit, is there are anything else I need before I start?
PS: I only had kept gouramis and neons before. Is Discus REALLY hard to keep compare to those fish?

[kevkoi]

SLS website is under major revamp atm.... We are working with Yahoo to link up in-store and in-tank cameras so u will be able to see the fishes in the store online and in real-time!!

:oops: ... oops, i let the cat out of the bag... :lol:

[skoom]

I used to have an undergravel filter but it was really difficult to keep the tank clean and using it at the same time.

I regret using it because it caused me a lot of casualties.

I must say the health of the fish at SLS are tops.

[Merrilyn]

Lu, welcome to the forum. Discus fish are as tough as old boots, but you need to start with good quality stock. They are pretty particular about their water quality. It needs to be very clean and very warm. Very clean means NO ammonia or nitrites and a nitrate reading under 10. They love water changes, so plan on doing 30% every second day. Sounds like a lot, but stop and think - they are swimming in their own toilet!
We suggest starting out with a bare bottom tank with perhaps some driftwood with real or artificial plants tied to the wood with fishing line. This makes it so much easier to see if you are over-feeding or if the tank needs cleaning. But the choice is yours. If you prefer to have gravel you will need to be extra careful with feeding and syphoning the gravel every time you do a water change.
Discus are FUN. Start with some half grown fish as they adapt more easily to new surroundings. And dont get just one or two. They are a schooling fish and prefer to be in a group of at least six.

[sunshinediscus]

Hi Vincent,

I wouldn't bother going to all the hassle of a bucket and airline to slowly trickle the water in and acclimitize them, discus are way tougher than that and definately do not require to be treated with kid gloves. Besides the discus stress more useing that method compared to the one desribed below.
The only concern should be ph and temp. Check with SLS what ph they are keeping the fish at and adjust your ph to match. now the ph in the shipping bag will go down during the flight slightly from the discus expelling co2 but that is no problems at all. Discus can easily tolerate moving from a lower ph to a high ph, but they don't like going the other way, that is from a high ph to a low ph all in one jump.
As for tempreture, simply floating the bag with the fish for 15/20 minutes will adjust the temp close enough to what is in the tank.
To remove the fish from the bag, you can either cut a large slit in the bag or untie the rubber bands, then pour the discus into a premoistened net over a bucket and place the fish into your tank. Do not add the shipping water as it will contain ammonium.
Aquaclear 500 is a great filter, i would add a large airpowered sponge filter as well because the outflow of the ac filter does not adequately agitate the water surface imo, otherwise they are brilliant and will easily handle the load of 4 discus, actually you could easily double or even triple the amount of discus. There sure will be some fighting in your tank with only 2 pairs of discus, you should consider adding more adults when the fighting becomes to bad.

Rod

[mtchye]

Hi guys,

Thanks for the tips, as usual you get more useful info at forums with experienced ppl participating in a few minutes compared to googling for a few hours.

The 4x2x2 is a quarantine tank just for the discus. It used to be a fry raising tank but I cleared it in anticipation of the discus. My normal quarantine tanks will probably be too small lol. The discus I am receiving will all go into that tank, and once quarantined will be going into various tanks, some are my friend's which will go into his planted tank, and the white swan pair will be mine which will go into a 6x2x2...

Glad to hear SLS have treated already for the common stuff in quarantine. Flagyl is expensive here! ;)

Adding a sponge filter is a good idea, I'll do that if only to circulate the water for now.

I had also planned if they breed to use the 4x2x2 as a breeding tank. Are discus typically successful self raising the fry to a decent size?

Thanks again for the help..
Vincent

p.s. Kev do you know what the pH and other water parameters typically are at SLS?

pp.s. Cant wait for the webcam lol

[kevkoi]

pH-- 6.5-6.8
kH-- out of tap in sydney is about 2degrees.

We do not add any ph or kH altering chemicals into the water.

Water is aged up to 48hours in barrels and 30% water change is done daily to the discus system to maintain the quality of fish (but then again, we have about 300+ fish on that system!!).

[Lu]

I am located in Melbourne, so is the water KH etc same as in Syd?

[D.J]

Flukes and Lady Red should be able to help you with Melbourne's water quality as they live there.

Or you can check this http://www.discusforums.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=303

Donald.

[ml29]

Vincent

Discus from SLS are great. The batch I just got from them are doing great even after 12 hours in the bag. I would post pics but I don't have a digital camera yet.

What type are you getting?

Regards

Marvin

[flukes]

Lu,

Melbourne's water is similar to Sydney's but not the same. Melbourne will have a low kh infact the highest ive seen mine is at 3kh.

Also depends what water company your with, iam with south east water but most are with yarra valley water.

First thing you need too do is fill a cup of water, let it sit over night and aerate if you can, not essential though. Then test after 24hours of aging.

This will be your true ph, when i started out my ph would drop from 7.6 to 6.8 in 24hours, not as bad now but still a worry. This is the main reason i and many other age water.

Aging water also gives you time too get the temperature right, adding colder water too the tank can create all kinds of problems, the one i found was the desease ICH, or white spot. Nothing more than 3degrees different and even thats being generous.

Too start off you will want too work out the following -
* What is your ph, gh, kh before and after aging? (if you dont have a test kit a LFS can do it)
* What size tank are you using, and how many discus will be kept in the tank. (average 10gal per Adult discus)
* How are you going to do your water changes? Its better to prepare before hand because the buckets gets old fast.
* Is the tank going to be planted or bare bottom? To start i would recommend bare bottom but the choice is yours, one big NO,NO is an undergravel filter. Makes nitrates sky rocket and you will need to do water changes twice a day!!
* Another thing is how much time will you be able to spend on them? If time is a factor maybe you would be better off getting larger fish to start with.

Anyway if you like start a new thread and we can walk you through the setup and help you along the way.

[mtchye]

Hi guys,

Got this pair yesterday... They looked a little stressed in the bag, but perked up once they got into the tank. Was a little alarmed when I looked into the bag and saw one of them on their side, luckily they're none the worse for wear :)

They didnt take long to settle in!

Kev, can you tell me what they were fed in store?

[mtchye]

Well they ate a few bloodworms.. They seem to want to clean stuff, so maybe they are looking to spawn. When you guys get the ceramic pots can you just give them a quick wash and pop them into the tank?

[Merrilyn]

Nice pick up mtchye. I understand SLS feed bloodworms, discus dinner (a beefheart mix) brine shrimp and tetra bits. Discus often travel on their sides in travelling bags, so don't worry about that. Yes, whenever I get a breeding cone I just give it a good scrub with salt and warm water and place in the tank without any further preparation.

[weird]

beautiful fish, I knew I missing a color in my tank ... white ... the mix of all colors !... I like em.

SLS got me onto discus dinner, for those not into meat grinding and making their own beef heart, this is a very good alternative ... my very fussy discus love it ... took them about a week to all fully convert but no starving techniques were needed ... now they go ape for it.

[Lu]

flukes
Thanks a lot dude.

[mtchye]

Thanks everyone for their help. Is this 'discus dinner' any particular brand, as I know there are a lot of different frozen beefheart mixes on the market.

They are still settling in I guess... They seem a little lost in that big tank, and only eat the bloodworm when it drifts right by them! Hopefully they settle in soon.. How long does it usually take before they get their full appetite back? :)

[kevkoi]

It can generally take up to 3days after a move, but usually large fish can be a bit laxed at feeding time.

Discus Dinner is made by Fish Fuel Co.

[mtchye]

Well, they've finally started to eat some Sera Flora flakes. Also the female seems to be pecking at the glass sides, the big pot I put in, everything smooth lol.. So hopefully that is spawning behaviour?

This pair are pretty strange. They don't go for brine shrimp or mysis, love bloodworm, don't even look at pellets, but eat flake if I don't sit in front of the tank. Almost like they don't want me to know that they will eat dry foods lol...

Got a few better pics today... Hopefully will get some more discus very very soon from SLS... waiting for the call hehe :)

The pair, male at rear, the male started out with a lot more blue in the fins, but now the female is catchin up...

http://members.iinet.net.au/~chye/white%20swan%20discus%204.jpg

The pair again, male at rear... THe male is really clumsy at eating.. Is that common?

http://members.iinet.net.au/~chye/white%20swan%20discus%205.jpg

Female cleaning the pot?? Pre spawning??

http://members.iinet.net.au/~chye/white%20swan%20discus%206.jpg

[ml29]

Glad to hear that your discus are finally eating dry foods. I find that my discus don't like mysis shrimp either, I guess it takes a while before they get use to it.

[Merrilyn]

Mysis are an excellent food but it can take a while for discus to get used to them. Keep offering a little bit each day. They will soon be greedily eating it. A varied diet is the key to good health.