How do I get them to grow?

[Peaches]

Hey guys! I know it's been a while. The world spins too fast sometimes!

Anyway. After some heartbreak in losing three Discus, we did a bit more research and tried again.

My fiance and I introduced 3 new discus into our tank. 1 died within a week (it was a little small but it was a Blue Cobalt and he was beautiful!)

Following are the stats:

60g (227.14l)
XP3 Filter with 4 layers of different filter media
Eco-Complete substrate
~10 different types of plants
Co2 canister @ ~ 24ppm
Odyssea 48" T5 108W 12000K (a little high on the color)
AND 36 watt flouresent. Total of 2.4wpg

pH - ~7 (usually 6.9 to 7.1)
Amonia - 0ppm
Nitrites - 0ppm
Nitrates - slightly over 0ppm (due to the plants)

Water changes - 20% every other day for stability for plants and other fish.

We have one very friendly three spot Gourami, three Bala Sharks, one Sailfin Pleco, and one Angel Blue Ram.

Is there anything else we can do to help them grow. We've had them for probably a month maybe a month and a half now and they've only grown maybe an inch, if that. We're feeding a mix of Formula One and Beef Heart frozen food along with high protein beta bits (which they love) and have recently added Krill when we got our Blue Lobster (he's a whole different story!!)

I was also wondering if you had any comments about the lighting, we're thinking the lighting is wrong as we have some plants flourish and some plants die.

Any help?

thanks:)

[Peaches]

arg, forgot water temp.

it stays between 78F and 80F.

[mcloughlin2]

Sounds like your doing everything right ...

Not many newbies to discus test there water for all of that , and they usually dont even do research properly ..so good job :wink: ...


Is there anything else we can do to help them grow. We've had them for probably a month maybe a month and a half now and they've only grown maybe an inch, if that. We're feeding a mix of Formula One and Beef Heart frozen food along with high protein beta bits (which they love) and have recently added Krill when we got our Blue Lobster (he's a whole different story!!)

If they have grown a inch in a month your achieving very nice growth rates ... IM a bit concerned about your lobster though . Is he in the tank with the discus ?

Sorry i cannot help you with your lighting but im sure someone will post soon to help you in that area ...

HTH

[Peaches]

I had heard somewhere (in the vast land that is the web of some usless info) that Dicus should grow at a more substantial rate

We are far from new to the hobby, that's why we wanted to try Discus. I personally got Parrot Cichlids to breed,so I needed a challenge:)

LOL the lobster has his own 10g Set up full of places to hide. He will get NOWHERE near the 60g the fish are in:)

I guess i should put that in my sig or something...lol

[nicholas76]

Peaches can you show us picks of that lobster tank! :)


in relation to your discus tank its really hard to predict the issue considering the figures you have shown.


in relation to your tank mates... imo some are a little too aggressive to be with discus.. Can other members comment on this please

[mistakes r crucial]

I've tried Plecos with Discus twice and I should have learned the first time. It's not a disasterous situation but they drive the Discus nuts, firstly they are nocturnal so interupt the Discus's rest time and secondly, they just love slime coat and latch on at every opportunity.
MAC

[Peaches]

We haven't had a problem with our Pleco. He's almost 5 years old and doesn't do much other than destroy our log:( He's mostly into his algae waffers and the logs in the tank.

Most people say that our tank is on the aggressive side but we've never had problems. I've only ever had problems with the Parrot Cichlids that were in our original tank. They were with the Gourami and the Pleco and no one else, funny enough they didn't bother either of them. They've gone to someone that had a passion for them that I could not maintain after they ate my favorite fry:(

The Discus eat well and aggresively. They're the king and queen of their tank. I'm not too concerned at the moment, but we're keeping an eye on them. The Balas may end up in another 60 we're setting up.

I've got to get some pics of our lil'Blue...he's a bit shy:) We had a good sized Red and he met an untimely death when he escaped and got in a fight with the cat. The lid has been fixed since then. :lol: I'll post pics of the 60 and the 10 in another place I guess. We also have a 1.5 with a Beta in it:)

[Peaches]

Normal WC last night. Woke up this morning to a dead fish :shock: :shock: :shock:

Could she have been stressed by moving around the plants. Some plants weren't doing too hot in the areas they were in and I did a little tank clean up last night.

We found that the filter wasn't moving the water as much as is should and cleaned it out this morning. All the water parms are still fine.

*sigh* She was a little stunted and sketchy to begin with. Now I worry about Clouse :?

Any words of wisdom?

******cross posted to another thread*******

[samir]

i think a slightly higher temp of 86 f would be better for your discus, i dont know about the other fish though

[Peaches]

We had it up here for a while and then had a problem with the heater (it went haywire and heated the water to over 90F)

Is 86F the norm? Should we turn up the new heater? The other fish were fine with it higher before.

[samir]

most people keep their discus around that temperature. i keep adults at 84 and fry at 86. That doesn't necessarily have to be the root of your problems my fish get lethargic at 78-80 and dont eat as much.

[Peaches]

I'm willing to try it though.

They've always been pretty active...but you never know right?

The shrimp are happy though

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v380/sweetmuseofevil/bigmomma.jpg

:lol:

[nicholas76]

ammonia spike from removing plants?


I had a spike from removing about 8 plants within a 24 period once.

[Peaches]

We just moved them around, we didn't take them out. We also water tested and all the parms were fine. *shrug*

[marg]

Maybe there was some "rubbish" under the plants around the roots that you have disturbed?

Marg.

[Peaches]

That makes sense...we're doing a WC tonight so I'll be sure to vaccume up what I can.

[mistakes r crucial]

Hey Peaches,

Can you send that prawn over here? I've got a hook that's just his size lol!
MAC

[Peaches]

MAC

He's a feisty one:) I want to breed them...my fiance doesn't want to! lol :roll:

I'll post pics soon.

Has anyone heard of a Snow White Discus before? Is it a common breed? They were selling one at the LFS and it was so pretty and such a wonderful specimen of a fish that we bought it. Beautiful. They lfs guy seemed to think that the strain was sturdy like a Turq. Any info on this?