New to Discus Forums

[gfindura]

Hello everyone! I'm new to Discus Forums as I am a new discus keeper. This section seemed to be the best place to make an introduction. A little background about me:

--I am currently 31 years old and a licensed chiropractor in NJ.
--I have been involved in the aquarium hobby since age 6.
--I started working at LFS's at age 14 (because I was--and still am--very tall, I could pass for legal working age) and quickly spent all of the money I earned on all sorts of fish and equipment.
--I almost went the career path of an ichthyologist, but decided to become a chiropractor instead--a decision I definitely do not regret.
--I used to own and operate an aquarium maintenence business in northern NJ. Heck, some of my ex-clients might even be in this forum. I know one of them, Alfred T., had a brother--Roland T.--who bred discus in NJ.
--I have been keeping and breeding Uaru a.'s and Tropheus moorii's for the past four years with some loricarids, tetras, rainbowfish, arowanas, datnoids, black shark, thrown in with the Uaru's.
--I recently traded a group of juvenile Uaru a.'s for a group of juvenile discus with a friend of mine who happens to be a fish importer. These particular discus were raised in a fish farm in Vietnam.

Okay, hoping to share my experience with other members of the forum here and learn a thing or three myself. I am also pretty active at uaru-forums.com and I tend to share my Uaru knowledge there. While I have never owned discus myself, I've kept them in shops--but that was over 15 years ago. Yes, I have heard horror stories. But, I've heard horror stories about Uaru's and Tropheus moorii's and I have been breeding those species successfully for a few years now. So, how hard can these discus be?

When I get the chance, I'll put up some current pics of my tanks in the photo section (if there is one). Mahalo!


-Greg Findura
Bloomfield, NJ

[Hail2Pitt02]

Nice to meet you Greg. Like you I have been keeping fish for a while now and have decided I am looking for a new challenge with discus. Being on the same side of the world and even fairly close regionally I'd bet we will share alot of similar experiences as we progree with this magnificent fish. I look forward to hearing of your progress.

Where are you considering buying your initial stock. I am not yet aware of any really good breeders in SW PA so I am looking of going online. I am considering getting my stock from one or maybe a combo of the below sites.

1. Gwynnbrook Farm which is in Baltimore. If I go with them I will probably head down there myself to buy the fish. One way or another I will probably take a drive down there to visit their hatchery and pick up any tips they may offer:

http://www.discushatchery.com/

2. Rocky Mountain Discus. I have heard from several people they are reputible and their discus arrive as described

http://www.rockymountaindiscus.com/

3. Discus World- The man, the myth, the legend. Bing Seto's site...nuff' said.

http://discusworld.com/

[gfindura]

Hello Hail2Pitt02,

As I stated in my post, I have already acquired my discus. I happen to be close friends with a local fish importer in northern NJ. He gets all of his discus from one of his facilities in Vietnam.

I had a tank full of juvenile Uaru a.'s that I was trying to move. I found no takers on uaru-forum.com nor through friends and I didn't even feel like trying to sell the to LFS's--too much hassle for my time. Anyway, my friend was over my house a few weeks ago and saw the juveniles I was desparately trying to move and he suggested we do a trade. Was there any fish I was looking to get? Besides discus, I think I rattled off "Synodontis angelicus" and "Distochodus sexfaciatus"--both of which he didn't have in. But, he gets huge quantities of discus in once a week. So, I stopped by his facility on Monday and basically got first pick on a shipment he got in on Sunday night. Considering they flew all the way from Vietnam, they've settled in quite nicely.

Anyway, from what I hear, the Vietnamese and Chinese are doing the most impressive stuff with discus breeding these days. And, why not? When you can keep your stock outdoors 365 days a year (in the case of Vietnam and southern China) and when you have over 1 billion people in your country (as in China), it opens up a lot of possibilities.


-Greg

[Robdog]

It also helps having the Great Wall of China to help keep the rabbits out.
Welcome aboard mate 8-)

[Merrilyn]

Great to have you here Greg. Hope you enjoy your time here.

I see you've already met Robdog. Takes a while to get used to him, but his bark is worse than his bite, I promise. :lol:

BTW the Great Wall of China and the rabbits relates to a very funny add on Australian television at the moment. :wink:

[Robdog]

Woof!

[gfindura]

Arf! Sniff! Thanks!

[gfindura]

Discus and me don't seem to work. I am down to one after starting with 8 discus.

I finally got a KH/GH test kit. My tap water is 8.0 pH, ~35 ppm KH and ~53 ppm GH. The tank's pH is 6.5, no ammonia nor nitrites, varying between 0-30ppm nitrates depending on how close to the last water change when testing. ~18ppm KH and over 200ppm GH! I don't understand how the GH is so high.

Whenever I do a water change on any of my tanks, I add stress coat and a small amount of Instant Ocean salt (1-2 tablespoons per gallon--I "eyeball" it).

I had put some small coral pieces in one of the power filters as the pH has a habit of plunging in that tank with all the driftwood and Panaque sp. plecos. And, there are two rocks in the tank. One is one of those orange & white rocks they put holes in with a 0-tip on a power-washer.

I'm wondering if that is a "softer" rock and is slowly leaching into the water. Or perhaps the salt that I'm using has too many trace minerals in it. I don't think the coral is causing it or the KH would be high too.

I just checked all of my other tanks. The GH is very high in all of them. I use that salt mix with all of my tanks. It's probably great for the African rift lake cichlids--but I'm thinking this is why it's high in every tank but not the tap water.

Any thoughts?

[Robdog]

Considering discus are soft "fresh" water fish I'd say you're using too much salt. I'd only use it for medication purposes

[FishLover]

Discus actully like soft water and lower pH. I would take out the rocks and coral pieces. These will increase your ph and GH for sure. Sea Salt will do the same. No salt is needed for discus tank.

Frequent large water chnages (daily if possible, if not 2 times a week at least), high water temp (86F if possible) and lower pH (leass than 7) are the major factors to watch if you want your discus happy.

BTW, how big is your discus?

[Merrilyn]

Discus and me don't seem to work. I am down to one after starting with 8 discus.

Whenever I do a water change on any of my tanks, I add stress coat and a small amount of Instant Ocean salt (1-2 tablespoons per gallon--I "eyeball" it.

Any thoughts?

Oh dear, that's an awful lot of salt to put in a discus tank. One to two tablespoons per gallon (per 4 litres) that must be close to the concentration of a marine tank!

That will most definately kill your fish.

I wouldn't be worried about the high pH, but stop putting salt of any kind in the water. Whilst your cichlids may like a little salt (even that concentration is too high for them) we never use it in discus tanks except as a medication, and then it's for a short term only.

[dntx5b9]

Usually, marine tank calls for a cup of salt for a gallon of water. I have a marine tank. :) I thought I read somewhere here to put 1 tablespoon of salt to treat the fish. May be it was a teaspoon for gallon?

[Erk]

dntx5b9....I think the recommend doses I found on here for salt is 1 teaspoon per 10 gallons

Here is a link to a thread of mine, and it says 1 teaspoon per 10 gallons
http://www.discusforums.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=12094

Good Luck with it all! :D
Eric