tailz
Wed Jan 14, 2009, 01:23 AM
Hello everyone...
I thought I might sign up since I am starting to get back into keeping Discus. I've had Discus for a good couple of years now (9+), but I've not really done much with them for about 2 years apart from letting a few paddle in a tank in my lounge room.
I had a go at breeding Discus a few years ago when I moved from Brisbane to Sydney the only reason I had a go in the first place was because two of my Discus (a brown female and a large Tangerine Dragon male) surprised me as they started to spawn on the glass of the new tank only a few hours after being taken out of the plastic bags they were shipped from Brisbane to Sydney in!!
So I ended up getting a second tank just for those two, and they set about tormenting me with all the learning lessons of breeding Discus in the end I ended up with an octagonal tank as the breeding tank with a jerry rigged undergravel filtration system (which I have learned most Discus keepers are horrified by, but well, it worked).
But right when things were going fine, I ended up having to move. I ended up sharing an apartment. And once again the move didn't seem to bother the discus as they were back at it as soon as they were setup.
Unfortunatly I ended up sharing with a self centered witch of a woman. After I had moved in I was schedualed to fly to Brisbane for a gathering of the clan, and the Discus were in full swing with a brood of about 100 or more young ones, who were free swimming about a week before my flight. I wanted to stay home to keep an eye on the Discus, but my Mother was having none of that and the care of the Discus was simple enough besides, I was only going to be away for a week and my flatmate had promised to look after everything and call me if there was a change.
So you can imagin the amount of foul french words I said when I came home to discover the door to my room closed, and a foul stink inside! Turns out my flatmate had switched everything off in my room, yes, everything was switched off!! No power to the canister filter, no dim lighting, no power to the heater, nothing! I don't know what she had done, but when I came home the water was as dark as coffee, and there was a brown sludge about a centermeter deep on the top of the water.
When confrunted about what I had discovered, her explination was, They were fine when I checked on them yesterday?
Only the Brown female and a few young survived, I found the Tangerine Dragon floating in the brown sludge. After about a week all the young that had survived were dead, and I was only left with the Brown Female. The other tank, which was in the lounge was perfectly fine, my flatmate seemed to have no problems looking after it.
So I quickly moved out of there - in the end I moved about 4 times in the course of 2 years. I am happly settled down now in another apartment where I have been for about 5-6 years now. Unfortunalty since that episode I lost the will to give breeding Discus another go and just kept one tank in the lounge with a few odd Discus (includeing the Brown Female who ruled the roost until 2 years ago).
But now my intrest has been peeked again and I'm thinking of giving it another go. I'm not as fanatical as some who keep Discus, I don't do water changes every day or even once a week. And I fly interstate quite a bit so I need to have a system that can function without much tinkering. It has quite offten gone unchecked for months, and the Dicus don't even seem to be bothered. I am quite certain some may think me a terrible lazy Discus keeper... but the Fish are fine, and thats all that matters...
Recently I picked up two Blue Turkoise who seem to have paired up, given a few more months to grow up they might turn into a breeding pair so I will have to wait and see.
So here I am...
I thought I might sign up since I am starting to get back into keeping Discus. I've had Discus for a good couple of years now (9+), but I've not really done much with them for about 2 years apart from letting a few paddle in a tank in my lounge room.
I had a go at breeding Discus a few years ago when I moved from Brisbane to Sydney the only reason I had a go in the first place was because two of my Discus (a brown female and a large Tangerine Dragon male) surprised me as they started to spawn on the glass of the new tank only a few hours after being taken out of the plastic bags they were shipped from Brisbane to Sydney in!!
So I ended up getting a second tank just for those two, and they set about tormenting me with all the learning lessons of breeding Discus in the end I ended up with an octagonal tank as the breeding tank with a jerry rigged undergravel filtration system (which I have learned most Discus keepers are horrified by, but well, it worked).
But right when things were going fine, I ended up having to move. I ended up sharing an apartment. And once again the move didn't seem to bother the discus as they were back at it as soon as they were setup.
Unfortunatly I ended up sharing with a self centered witch of a woman. After I had moved in I was schedualed to fly to Brisbane for a gathering of the clan, and the Discus were in full swing with a brood of about 100 or more young ones, who were free swimming about a week before my flight. I wanted to stay home to keep an eye on the Discus, but my Mother was having none of that and the care of the Discus was simple enough besides, I was only going to be away for a week and my flatmate had promised to look after everything and call me if there was a change.
So you can imagin the amount of foul french words I said when I came home to discover the door to my room closed, and a foul stink inside! Turns out my flatmate had switched everything off in my room, yes, everything was switched off!! No power to the canister filter, no dim lighting, no power to the heater, nothing! I don't know what she had done, but when I came home the water was as dark as coffee, and there was a brown sludge about a centermeter deep on the top of the water.
When confrunted about what I had discovered, her explination was, They were fine when I checked on them yesterday?
Only the Brown female and a few young survived, I found the Tangerine Dragon floating in the brown sludge. After about a week all the young that had survived were dead, and I was only left with the Brown Female. The other tank, which was in the lounge was perfectly fine, my flatmate seemed to have no problems looking after it.
So I quickly moved out of there - in the end I moved about 4 times in the course of 2 years. I am happly settled down now in another apartment where I have been for about 5-6 years now. Unfortunalty since that episode I lost the will to give breeding Discus another go and just kept one tank in the lounge with a few odd Discus (includeing the Brown Female who ruled the roost until 2 years ago).
But now my intrest has been peeked again and I'm thinking of giving it another go. I'm not as fanatical as some who keep Discus, I don't do water changes every day or even once a week. And I fly interstate quite a bit so I need to have a system that can function without much tinkering. It has quite offten gone unchecked for months, and the Dicus don't even seem to be bothered. I am quite certain some may think me a terrible lazy Discus keeper... but the Fish are fine, and thats all that matters...
Recently I picked up two Blue Turkoise who seem to have paired up, given a few more months to grow up they might turn into a breeding pair so I will have to wait and see.
So here I am...