SECOND BATCH HAND FEEDING

This is the second batch of fry now starting to hand feed on beef heart.

HAND FEEDING THE FIRST BATCH OF FRY

Well since my last post i have had nothing exciting to talk about but here are some pictures of the first batch of fry feeding from my hand. They are getting on very well growing fast now they are on beefheart and spinage. I will be picking up my new discus tomorrow stenker's which i plan to grow on and hopefully get at least 2 pairs. I am going to buy 8 or 10 depending on price will keep you up to date with that tomorrow.

FILTRATION AND UNDERSTANDING BACTERIA

After speaking to a friend of mine who told me he just cleaned his community tank out and now his fish were dieing. I asked what did you do he said i cleaned all the tank and gravel and replaced all the filter media with new. I explained that was the wrong thing to do and why. So i thought i would explain this in easy terms to anyone reading this blog who does'nt understand about filtration and bacteria in the fish tank. So this is how it works the fish in your tank even goldfish produce waist and amonia which is deadly to fish. So we add a filter internal or external they do the same job its not just there to filter debris and waist food produced by the fish. If left for a couple of weeks longer if you have the patiance a bacteria builds up that turns the amonia to nitrite. Nitrite's in high levels are also deadly to fish so another baceria builds up that turns the nitrite's to nitrates which are tolerated by fish if they don't reach to higher level. This is the main reason for water changes to dilute the nitrates. So if you decide to clean you tank never replace all the filter media just change some and leave some so the bacteria is still there to multiply. If your filter is filled with sponges then clean them gently in a bucket of tank water so you leave some bacteria on them to multipy again. This is also the reason we don't add fish to a new tank untill the filter has had time to build up the "GOOD" bactria. In the case of a discus set up the filter has to be even more mature because discus are more delicate than most tropical fish for discus about six weeks minimum longer is better. You can buy test kits for amonia, nitrite, & nitrates. So set up your new tank and watch the amonia and nitrites go through the roof after about a week you will see them slowly come down then dissapear once this has happened your tank has cycled and you can add fish but not to many at a time give the bacteria time to build up to cope with the fish waist slowly does it. keep an eye on the nitites and amonia levels they should always be zero. Hope this helps you to understand why you must have bacteria in the filter and why you should never completely clean a filter.

NEW FILTER

Today i bought a new filter its a Huey hung sponge filter 380 ltr. When it arrived i put it straight in one of my tanks. I was so impressed with it i have ordered two 500 ltr ones for the other two tanks. I am going to sell my Ehiem 2222 external filter's which will save me a lot of time on cleaning and maintenance.

HARD DICISION

Well today i decided to sell my breeding pair as i feel i need a new challenge i have sold the leopard snake skins now going to advertise the other pair. I am going to buy some young stendker discus and grow them on and hopefully get a couple of pairs from them. If anybody reading this blog fancy a very good breading pair mother red alenquer, father moonstone marlboro local to me as i will not post let me know i want £125 as they are such good parents. For now here are some pics of first lot of fry 7 weeks old and a couple of dad with the second lot 2 weeks old

DAD WITH FRY

These are pictures of dad with his fry he attacted the glass when i took these as you can see in one of the pictures. I started the fry on freshly hatched brine shrimp today they love them. This is the first time they have left the parents sides.

FIGHTING AGAIN

Well today the fighting started again over the fry one got killed in the squabble. But even though the female looked beaten up as i watched it was clear to see that the fry were on him and she wanted them. She was butting him in the side really badly. So i thought i would take her out this time the male is doing fine with the fry. It also gives her a chance to recover.

WIND UP

It turns out the young red and white i spoke about in an earlier post entitled fry 30 days old. Is not a discus more like a krib fry or something similar. Now i have to figure out if the staff were winding gordan up and he genuinely thought it was a discus fry or were they all winding me up. Of course there is a chance that nobody knew but i know the only fish that have been in that tank are catfish and discus. The proprietor is a bit of a joker likes a laugh i would'nt put it past him to put it in the sump.

BRINE SHRIMP HATCHING

Today i started my brine shrimp hatching again as the fry are a week old. I was going to buy a hatcher but found them a bit expensive so i made my own. This is how, I got a large coffee jar made 3 holes in the top one for the air line and 2 to let the pressure out one might do but better safe than sorry. Then i put a plastic airline connector through the middle hole and put a piece of airline on the inside of the lid with an airstone on the end this needs to be about an inch of the bottom of the jar. Then i put the airline from the pump on the top of the jar with a regulator on it. I use about half a litre of water to this i add sea salt about 10 to 15 ml thats two and a half teaspoones let the salt dissolve before you add the eggs if not you will find the eggs will all float and its a job to get them to sink. After about 48 hours the brine shrimp will start to hatch this time scale depends on temp. I start a second one after 24 hours so i have a constant supply when they are ready to harvest turn of the air and leave for about 5 mins so the shells come to the top and you see all the pink shrimp on the bottom. I use a syringe to suck up the shrimp but a turkey baster is good put them in a container and what you don't use place in the fridge it slows the metabolism down and they last a couple or more days.

THE WATER BUTT

This is my water butt in the spear bedroom i run a pipe under the bath through the wall to the butt. The butt has a float valve so i don't flood the bedroom. This is were i add my discus pro mineral and hma water there is a heater and a small pump in the butt the pump mixes the mineral. When i do water changes i syphon the water out of the living room window onto the grass. Then i simply put a hose on the tap of the water butt and let gravity fill the tanks its easy it takes me about an hour a day to do all 3 tanks. Excuse the wallpaper it used to be my daughters bedroom. I told ya my wife puts up with a lot from me bless her.

MY R/O's

Here are some pictures of my r/o's the one with the single membrane is a 3 stage 75 GPD the double is 2 x 75 GPD thats gallons per day. As my water pressure is so low i found that as i got more tanks i could not produce enough water. It started with a 50 GPD 3 stage r/o now i have what you see in the pictures. But even now i can only produce about 70 to 80 gallons a day. Also as the water pressure is so low my tds still comes out at 12ppm it would be zero if i had more pressure. On one of the pictures you can see how i have put a tee joint with a tap straight after the first 2 filter's but before the membrane this is to give me HMA water thats water with clorine and heavy metals removed but still has high PH. This is used to mix with r/o water to get the desired PH.

SECOND BATCH OF FRY

Here are some pictures i took today of the second lot of fry about 1 week old now doing well. I done my usual water changes today plus a bit of cleaning of the tanks ie: Getting the algae of the back and sides generally giving the 3 tanks a spring clean. Its never ending always something to do tomorrow i have to clean the filter pipes as the filtes are slowing down. I find getting the slime out of the pipes makes a would of difference.

JUST A FEW LINES ABOUT MY SETUPS

I have 2 juwel rio 400's when i bought them the first thing i did was get rid of the hideous filter that is stuck in the corner. On both tanks i use eheim 2327 wet and dry termo filters in combination with eheim 2222's. Also i have 150 watt heater thermostats in each in case either fails but touch wood i have always used wet'n dry's and never had any trouble with them. As discus don't like bright light i use aquaglow tubes no reflectors the lights are only on from 2pm till 10pm 8 hours a day. Both the tanks are bear bottom the only things in them are heater, filter pipes, a divider, and a cone, i do have background pictures. Oh and lets not forget water and fish LOL. I also have a tank made by eheim 120tlr this also has a eheim filter a 2213 classic. I use this for the fry when they first leave the parents at about 2 weeks old. This is also a bear tank much easier to maintain and keep clean. Thats about it then there's the R/O's and water treatments that is all done in my spear bedroom i will post about that another day. In the pictures the tank with the planted background is tank 1, The other has rock background is tank 2, The smallest is obviously tank 3, I have to name them as i keep records on water changes etc. Also there are pictures of my filters.

PICTURES OF THE JOINED SPRAY BARS PLUS MY METERS

This is how i join the spray bars to slow the flow there are 2 joined in the picture this is my 120 ltr tank i joined 3 in the bigger tanks. I use eheim filters in all my tanks. Also a picture of my meters.

WATER FOR GENERAL DISCUS KEEPING

This is how i keep my discus healthy and happy. First is PH i have read many books they all say different things. Going on my own experience i say keep your ph below neutral which is 7 the books will say its ok to keep discus above this but in my experience they will live but they never look happy. They will breed in water with high ph but i would rather know they feel happy. Personally i like to keep my fish in a ph of 6.5 or lower. Under 7 being acid and above 7 being alkaline. When you first decide to keep discus it stands to reason that your ammonia must be zero and your nitrite, your nitrates should be as low as possible hence the frequent water changes. I don't use ph test kits i use a meter also i use a tds meter instead of gh & kh kits. These meters are not expensive my ph meter was £20, tds was £25, by the time you buy 4 or 5 kits you might as well buy meters which only need batteries changed . I change about 40% of my water every other day in the 400 ltr tanks and 75% daily in the 120 ltr fry tank this works for me. My adult fish spawn about every 7 days unless they have fry then they stop till i take the young away and give them the cone back. When i just kept discus and did'nt breed them i kept the water slightly harder about 6 to 7 gh and 3 to 4 kh. But now they have started to breed regular i keep the TDS below 100ppm. You should have a well mature filter or sump before you think about getting any discus also they hate water turbulence what i do is join 3 spray bars together and drill the holes a bit bigger then put them along the back of the tanks this gives a gentle flow.

FRY FROM THE FIRST BATCH 30 DAYS OLD

These are the fry from the first batch 1 month old and growing fast. I went to my local tropical fish shop today hellesdon barn aquatics gordan one of the staff had a baby red and white discus about 5 or 6 days old he found in the sump in the shop. He gave it to me so i put it in with my pair thinking they would accept it but they did'nt they tried to eat it. I have put it in with my young its ok at the minuite but i will try to put it back in with the pair again when their fry are a bit bigger.

AFTER ONE DAY FREE SWIMMING

This is the fry today after the first day of free swimming. As i was taking these pictures the father was trying to attack me he is quite aggressive.

PICTURES OF FRY THE DAY THEY STARTED FREE SWIMMING

Here are some pictures of the fry on the day they started to free swim quite a lot more on the other side but she refused to turn round. Note the mucus on her top fin.

ANXIOUS

More anxious times just when you think its all over today the wrigglers started free swimming the mother who is alone remember was trying to keep them all together but it got to much for her. They were all over the tank which is 400LTR so i thought well i am going to loose them so i will chance putting the male back see what he does. Well i still don't beleive it he got over the shock of the net and being moved. Then he started going round the tank and picking up the babies at first i thought he was eating them. But after a while i looked and he was putting them back on the cone. At this point mother was waiting for them to go to her unbelievable. Will try get some pictures tomorrow as they are still gathering them up.

WATER PARAMETERS

I can remember when i started with discus in 1985 there was no internet so i had to rely on books and word of mouth. I used 6.5 ph buffer or rain water the fish were ok but not happy and never breed. So i thought i would make life easier for anyone reading this. What i do now is use R/O water and HMA water. I have a 30 gallon water butt that i add 15 LTR'S of HMA water to this gives me PH=6.5 GH=4 KH=2 then its heated and used for water changes this is just to keep discus. When i want them to breed i use pure R/O water which in my case is PH=5.7 TDS=12 to this i add 3 scoops of tropic marin pro-discus mineral which you can buy from any good tropical fish shop this does not effect the PH but gives me a TDS of 100ppm remember this is all done in a 30 gallon water butt with heater my tanks all run at 30C 86F Incase anyone is wondering what HMA is its water through a filter thats had all or most of the heavy metals removed and TDS means total desolved minerals. The reason i mention this is because i did'nt know myself and it took me ages to find out. This works for me not saying all fish are the same i change a 3rd of the water every other day in the 400 LTR tanks. In the young fishes tank which is 120LTR i change 75% every day. Hope this helps people starting out with discus if you have any questions or comments feel free to ask. Regards. Colin

AGGRESSIVE MALE

I don't know why but today my male has started to be very aggressive with the female. So as they have babies due to free swim tomorrow i decided to take him out. The mother is good she will look after them on her own.

SECOND BATCH

Here are a couple of pictures of the wrigglers they will be a day old at 6pm hard to see as the cone is at the back but it gives you an idea.

NEW R/O

Well as things have progressed i found that my r/o was not producing enough water so i have changed the set up. This is what it looks like now minus the water butt in the bathroom i ran a pipe under the bath into the spear bedroom and put the butt in there out of sight.