How Exciting...!

[Del]

Hello! I bought my first discuss on saturday (2 baby checkerboards). They are having a great time playing hide and seek with me as I have a few driftwoods, plants, etc on a gravel floor. I am hoping they will love me soon and come out to play...!?

Specs - 150lt tank with a EHIME (?) canister filter, water at 7PH, temp at 28, peat for softness (floating on the side in a stocking - very technical, I know).

I have previously kept community fish (last 2 years) so the tank is fairly established. I have kept my dwarf gourami, one corydora and 8 cardinal tetras to accompany my two discuss.

I have devoured the forum for the last 3 days and have a learnt a few things I didn't know (funny that) but I still have a few questions (pardon my obvious ignorance as you read them please)...

WATER... I should be doing a 20% WC twice a week with aged water of the same temperature. (really did not know I had to do this...)
Questions 1. "will filling a large bucket with water the night before and dangling in a heater be the way to go - or can I get away with no heater and add boiling water to get it to the right temperature at time of change?" 2. "my tap water PH is about 7.8 so do I add PH-Down at each change?" 3. "how often do I use the gravel vacuum tube? Does the gravel need to be cleaned as well at each change or just the water?"

FEEDING... I should vary their diet.
Questions 1. "one cube of frozen Fish Dinner in the morning and one cube of frozen Blood Worm at night be sufficient?" 2. "should I include dry food as well?" 3. "is a treat of frozen Brine Shrimp once a fortnight be enough?" 4. "have any of you guys thought of selling your BH?????"

FILTER CLEANING... I should rinse the canister filter in a bucket of water taken from the tank every 6-8 weeks.
Questions 1. "if I get another 2 discuss will it then need to be rinsed every month?"

TANKMATES...
Questions 1. "Should I get another 5 or so corydoras to help clean the gravel in the tank?" 2. " What other fish can I get to make it look like there is actually some life in my tank (the old hide and seek is not that exciting really but I know it is early days yet)"

Apologies for all the above, but any help would be of great help and then I can pretend to know what I am doing... !

PS am totally addicted to this forum...

[flukes]

Wow, that was a long one....
ok ill have a stab at helping you..


Water.
1. 2x 20% water changes in my books would be a bare minimum. If you want your fish too grow fast and healthy try changing a bit more or more times.. It is enough but personally i would do more..

2. If you use a heater it would be alot easier, also try too aerate the water if possible. This might in turn bring you ph down.. Always let it sit overnight aerating and always add dechloranator, especially now as Australia's water is at its worst..

3. Try too gravel vac atleast once a week if not twice, depending on your feeding. You will see how much gunk comes through the vac and you can determine how many times a week you will need too vac..

Feeding.

1. Also add some dry food to your daily feeding's, also doesnt have too be the same stuff every day. better if you mix it around a bit. A varied diet is important for young fish.

2. Included above.

3. Mix it around a bit so you use a bit more than that, you can use live brine or black worms for a treat. (Black worms can cause problems)

4. Thought about it a bit but not worth it... :wink:

Filter Cleaning.
6-8 weeks is a good start but if you get more fish, it should be reducing your cleaning time. You need too work out how much filtration you need for the fish. eg. Say you cannister filter holds 60% of the bacteria needed too add 2 more fish, cleaning it wont increase bacteria, if anything you will loose it. The bacteria that is in filters converts ammonia to nitrite and then nitrate. So if your getting ammonia or nitrite readings with 2 fish then another 2 will be a big no no. Easiest way is too tell us what ehiem it is and we can work out if it is doing a good enough job on the tank.

I know the smallest ehiem is the 2213 and that pumps 440lites an hour.
But you can add spoge filter or h.o.b's too help out the cannister..

Tankmates.
Cories do a great job of cleaning up left over food, but you might want some bristlenose too help clean the algea.

Hope that helps.

Cheers
Scott

[Merrilyn]

Hi Del, great to have you join us. Hope you enjoy your time here. Scott has done a pretty spiffy job of answering all your questions. The only thing I would like to add is - stay away from pH Down if at all possible.

Your pH of 7.8 will probably drop a bit with ageing, and the peat in your high tech ( :wink: ) bag in the tank will gently drop it even further. Your discus will be happier with a stable pH more than trying to get a so called 'perfect' pH.

I'm a great believer in the K.I.S.S. method. Keep it simple son. It has worked for me for thirty years or so, keeping and breeding discus.

[goldenpigeon]

put your peat in the stocking in a spare space in your canister filter if youve got any space

[Del]

Thanks Scott - my filter is an Ehiem 2213.

I have a bubblewall that I am no longer using in my tank, can I use this to aerate the water when I am ageing it overnight? Is the same as using an airstone?

I bought some colourbits to feed them but they don't seem to like them much. I am feeding them in the morning when they are starving - hopefully they will not be too fussy. They are getting a "FishDinner" for lunch and a Bloodworm for dinner - which they love.

I also bought some 6 Rummynose Tetras and 2 Blue Rams over the weekend and am waiting for some corys from SLS.

I don't want to keep using PH Down so thanks for confirming that for me Merrilyn. Hopefully ageing the water will help with the PH, so I'll give that a go this time.

I do have space in my filter so thanks David, I did that yesterday - much better than my stocking hanging on the side!

[leanne31]

dont worry to much if they dont eat colour bits it doesnt mean that they are gonna be fussy I have 8 discus and 4 eat it and 4 dont but they eat everything else they are fed its just the colour bits they dont eat. Variety is the best way to go feed frozen bs also and some flake and occassionly maybe some live food and they'll be happy.

Leanne

[Annie]

As the new Discus get more of a feeling for the new home, they will loosen up a bit and their eating habits will get better. As already mentioned, just keep feeding them the bits, but also add in flakes and frozen foods like bloodworms, beefheart, daphania, they will love you for it, even if they do not take to it right away, they will!