New Discus, Need answers!

[Shawnts106]

Hey, I have had a planted with driftwood 29Gallon thank run on a regent (55gallon) filter for some time now, so I decided to set it back up, well Actually I have a 75gallon saltwater aquarium, reef... anyway, and I decided to set my freshwater up again, that way I could have the best of both worlds again!

So I decided to set it up as a freshwater amazonian or just basically an acidic tank so I could house and breed Rams... well, after getting a few Cardinal Tetras with fish TB that all went down the drain... so I decided to just forget breeding Rams, mainly because there were no more rams to breed and stick with some Cardinal/Neon tetras and more acid water loving fish, so I did, just recently I did a nice waterchange on the tank and took out 5 rasboras, a lemon tetra and 4 gold/blue zebra danios... now I have 5 cardinals and 5 neons living quite happily in the tank, So I work at a LFS and we got some baby (2in) discus in that came in being called NEON PURPLES... they are GEORGOUS!!! so I picked one up, I love it, its loving life in its new environment and eatting hole-heartedly!... but its only eatting flakes and brineshrimp, I purchased some Discus Pellets called Color Bits, he wont touch them!... then I bought some white Mosquitto larvae, he takes a test bite, then spits it out every time, so He is now eatting flakes and Brine.... well, I rearraged the tank and did a 50% waterchange (of course making sure the pH was good, about 6.4, which is the tanks pH) and then got things back to order and he is of course just as good! so I decided to buy another discus because of their schooling habits... so I purchased a Pigenblood, nice redish with some blue and red on the fins too!

now the neon purple is almost twice its size and its occationally making rude tail fanning gestures and nipping at the new discus, which to my knowledge is perfectly normal!... My question is how many of these 2 inch discus can I put in my 29gallon planted?

I would like to get 4, a neon purple, a pigenblood, a snakeskin and a lemon yellow... is this possible, or am I just asking for trouble?

here are my tanks specs.

29gallon
regent (55gallon) filter
planted with Java Moss, Anub, Cripts, brazillian sword, tiger lotus, and 2 other species that I do not know of... one is tall and has super neon purple leaves and the other is a native plant that forms red leaves when given enough light... mine dont have enough LOL!
some natural aquarium gravel mixed with the Black Plant gravel.. forget the name!
a large peice of driftwood and 2 small rocks

fish:
2 discus, neon purple and a pigenblood
3 otocinclus
2 corycats
10 neon/cardinal tetras (5each)
5 ghost shrimp
3 freshwater clams
2 freshwater gobies, not sure of species name, they came in the ghost shrimp shipment... so I took them home, they seem to love to scanvage and hop around the bottom
and a few small corkscrew snails (which means thousands! LOL!)

pH stays around 6.4 to 6.8
Nitrites 0
Nitrate... I am in the process of adding Biozyme, so Ill test them this tuesday, should be low, done waterchanges, before I added Biozyme and did waterchanges they were at 20 or 40 ppm... so they should be low now!
ammonia 0

Lighting is 2 - 20watt bulbs... dont remember the exact brand or K... they are whites, one I think is a 50/50... and the other may be as well!

no CO2 reactor, I did have the yeast method going on, but got tired of the refill thing.. so I am going to put compacts (2 65watt, 6700 K's) on tank with a CO2 reactor... a good one, but the yeast method!

I am feeding the fish brine shrimp and tetra flakes they seem to enjoy this!

temp stays around 82*F

If you need anything else let me know!

[Shawnts106]

some pictures

[Shawnts106]

more

[Shawnts106]

another

[Shawnts106]

and another, of my first neon purple, I think its a Pigenblood mix... its got red eyes

[goldenpigeon]

hi :D nice pics,

yes you could house 4 discus and all those fish in your 29 gal :D the only way to do this is to keep a good w/c reigeme thoagh. around 30% every 3 days would be the minimum.

HTH

[Merrilyn]

Hi Shawn, welcome to the forum. Beautiful looking tank you have there. The rule of thumb with discus, is one adult per 10 gallons of water. Now you could start out with more than that, but as they grow, be prepared to either sell the others, or move them to another tank.

Discus do prefer to be in a group, so some more friends for your existing two discus will help them to settle in better and stop the agression.

Just a word of caution on those fresh water mussels. They are very interesting, but the trouble is that they look the same alive as they do dead, and sometimes it is hard to tell the difference. A dead mussle will pollute your tank very quickly.

With regard to food, flake and brine shrimp is good. Try to add some other things to the diet, like beefheart and frozen bloodworms. Keep offering the tetra bits, or any other new food, they will eventually come to like it.

[Shawnts106]

Thanks for the comments! Ok, dont mind doing those WC's... but I do worry about disrupting the tanks balance with all those WC's... does this not hurt the Biological filter?... I remember when I was told only do a 10% WC everyother week!... which I did not pay any mind too, I did a 25 to 30% every other week!... anyway!

I did offer some White mosquitto larvae but they did not eat it, they would just spit it out... maybe its too big? maybe I shold wait till' they grow up a bit that way its not so big? I did also offer some Color Bits from Tetra, our LFS owner said they LOVE them, mine wont touch them... but she and her husband raised discus for YEARS... they had something like 30 pairs or something! and A huge fish room outside there house...

OH I DO HAVE SOME QUESTIONS!... how long does it take for a discus to grow up? mine ar about the size of a silver dollar... I think 2 inch discus.. something around that, so how old are they?
I have not tried BeefHeart because I have read where if you leave it in there and they dont eat it it will rot and foul your water, so I just thought I would stay away from that all together.. I have also read where people who keep discus do a 50% WC daily!... this is just OUTRAGEOUS! you would have to do some kind of SERIOUS biological filter damage with that method!

As I am learning more and more about freshwater again I relize why I went to saltwater reef keeping LOL!!!!!!!!!!
NO, JK! I love my freshwater tank just as much as I do my SW tank.. in fact woke up this moring and an Aptasia anemone had found its way to one of my super green zoathids... I grabed that sucker off the zoos in a heartbeat, and I hadnt even had my cup of tea yet! LOL!

well thanks for your adivse, it is much appreciated!

[Merrilyn]

Okay Shawn, let's start with getting a few water changing myths out of the way.

The beneficial bacteria live in your filter, and on the walls of your tank, and on your plants and gravel. They do not live in the water. You can safely change the water in your tank without disturbing any of the bacteria that complete your bio cycle. As you know, the waste from the fish and any uneaten food form into ammonia, which is then converted into nitrite and finally into nitrate. This nitrate can be toxic to discus even at fairly low levels, so we try to keep it under 20 by frequent water changes.

If you want to breed discus, you will need to keep it under 10 and preferably closer to 5. High nitrate levels also have a detrimental effect on the growth rate of discus. The Asian breeders will change 100% of their water once or sometimes twice a day to promote growth of young discus.

Beef heart is an excellent food, as part of a varied diet. It's a high protein food that promotes growth. All fish are reluctant to try something new for the first time, so just keep offering it, and after half an hour or so, syphon up any leftovers.

Discus mature at around 12 - 18 months, so my guess is that at about 2 inches, your fish are probably about 3 - 4 months old, but it's very difficult to guess from a photo.

Good luck with your discus. I think you will find they will be a lot less trouble than a reef tank. :P

[Shawnts106]

Less trouble than a reef tank?... HA!... lol, IMO reef tanks are MUCH MUCH MUCH easier to maintain than FW tanks.... I feed my reef and feed my fish and thats about it... no waterchanges because I have a refugium... BTW: can you put a refugium on a freshwater tank? and my levels in my RT are all at 0000000000000000000000000000000000 :)


but thats just my opinion

BTW: Im getting a RODI unit but Im confused about which brand or stage system to purchase?... can someone help me on that?... what is the best what works good? I am getting it tomorow hopefully!

Lowes has all kinds... I live in the US so dont worry about Prices Ausie dollars are different if im not mistaken... anyway!

help me on this topic... thanks!

[Shawnts106]

BTW: my discus are still going at each other... makeing me realllllllllllllllly mad!!! the older larger one is still chaseing and nipping and fanning at the PB... but they are BOTH eatting well just makes me mad to see Mr Neon Purple attaching my PB! Should I take the Neon out for a few hours and then put him back in? anyway to try to discourage this???

[Shawnts106]

ok, chopped up some white mosquitto larvae and they love it! they wouldnt eat it unless its chopped!... hum? anyway they are both eatting well now, the smaller one has a bit of a problem eatting though... but she/he eventually gets the tasty snack!

also, the nipping and pushing has gone down some (10% maybe!) but they are still at it, or should I say my largest is still at it! this is realllly agrivating, the PB is still eatting and swimming and not acting at all stressed but It scares me to see my other doing this, im afraid hes going to kill the otherone!


*(sighs)*

[Shawnts106]

OK so I redid the tank a bit, I moved a few plants and I cant move the driftwood, but it didnt help, well maybe for the first few minutes but thats all!

here is a new pic of the front of the tank tell me what you guys think! :)

[Shawnts106]

the right side

[Shawnts106]

the left side

[Shawnts106]

ok, reverse the previous pictures LOL!!!!

here is a group shot of my 2... an acctuallllyyyyyy deeecennntt shot of my PB!

[Shawnts106]

some of my darting neon and cardinal tetras!

[Shawnts106]

the neon learns to scavange from the filter intake!

[Shawnts106]

my PB

[Shawnts106]

well ... sooner or later your bound to get mooned by your fish...... my first mooning!