new member with questions

[luvmydiscus]

Hi, I just got my new discus yesterday. What an eager and happy fish I must add, I am so happy :lol:

What I would like to know is the color, this is a young discus measuring "approx" 3inches wide. The color on the lower fin below the belly is red and turquoise the same color is on the top fin as well. The body is a yellow/brown with bars. Is this what the young ones look like at this stage and will the color showing on the top and bottom fins be wha the fish is going to be?

Are young discus drab in color and then as they age get their proper color? Very eager little one just going around the tank picking at all sorts of things in the gravel, I vacumed the daylights out of that stuff a week ago to make sure the water was perfect before I bought this fish.

This morning when I gave the tank some frozen bloodworms the discus was very eager and eating very well. This afternoon I have them a very small bit of flake food and I am sure that is what it is picking up right now.

But I am just eager to know about the color of the small ones.

Thanks..... :)

[weird]

Yes colour becomes more distinguished as they get older ... except I believe when they get very old ... might dull very slightly.

Congrats on your first purchase and introduction to a wonderful hobby ! Cute little buggers !

[luvmydiscus]

Oh that is good to know. Yes they are cute, unfortunatley they are very hard to get here where I live. They are classified as "specialty fish" and you have to order them in from the petstores. No breeders in the area and to bring them in is very expensive. Most breeders want to fly then in and for a community tank display they can get very expensive.

My little one I paid $35.00 CDN the only reason, they were having a 2 for 1 sale. They don't often carry discus and I was lucky, I had to go to another town 30 min away to get this fish. They had some bigger and older ones there but not very nice in color or body, this one was just a beauty and there were two smaller ones that were not looking to well.

I am so glad to have one at least. It is in my 25 gal community tank with my angel fish. They are getting along very well indeed. My angel is a female. I bought two angels last year to even thinking the odds of a pair were viable. Well that was not the case, one turned out to be a male and what an aggressive buggar he was. Would not let this poor female rest for a minute. Since I did not want to breed and just hate to see fish get picked on I sold him to the pet store. I have bred angels in my time and just don't want to do that anymore.

I also dont' want to breed discus, I just love my community tank even though it does not quite have the fish I want in there. My discus and angel are fine but the white clouds, cherry barbs whom do not bother the discus or angel at all are not my favorite. When they expire I want some cardinal tetras. I also have 3 lepoard danio, very pretty fish and it is such a nice peaceful tank to sit and watch.

So with a few more live plants in there all should be just fine. I am so so happy with this discus to just have one is something else and it is eating very well and gets along with all the other tank mates I am so happy :lol:

The other fish are handling the high temps quite well as I did it slowly before I got this fish so they would not get stressed to much. All seem to be just fine at the 84 degrees.

Well enough of my talking .......luvmydiscus :D

[weird]

I hope he does well. I would recommend you get him some more buddies. Most people keep atleast 4-6, and usually don't mix them with angels, because angels are such ferocious eaters. Discus generally do better with their own kind ... bare bottom is recommended when first starting out ...

[luvmydiscus]

Hi, I now I should have another one or two. I am very pleased to just get one :lol: There were others at the time in the tank but at 155.00 CDN I would be sleeping in the dog house. Hubby just about choked on the 35.00.

I will keep watching though to see if any appear out of some miracle in our pet stores but they are not really wanted here due to their nature of special requirements.

Alot of our stores here are now going away from all African Cichlids even, they are mean buggars :twisted: But alot of people like them and when they get them and they multiply & the stores will not take them because no one wants to buy them.

Angels are huge here, we have lots of breeders of them but not discus. But my little buddy is doing just great this morning, sure likes to pick alot at the bottom. When I fed this morning it was right up there with the angel eating away. So I guess I am lucky to have these two get along.

As for the bare bottom, I like my gravel as my plants are anchored in there. I don't want to breed discus so I am going to keep my gravel bottom. I do my twice a week water changes and vacum the gravel also.

Hey, what other plants besides Java Fern will do well in my tank? I am not using any fancy type of light only a regular flouresent.

:lol:

[weird]

Sounds like you have a mature setup. I saw the picture of him in the other post ... what a cutey. Anubia attached to driftwood should do fine I think.