Finally have Discus :-)

[spookypora]

After being a reef aquarist for 20+ years, I finally decided to go back to freshwater and try to keep the fish that got me into the aquarium hobby in the first place 35 years ago. I have always wanted to keep discus and finally converted one of my 60G cube tank into a freshwater Discus tank.

The tank set up for almost 6 months, with a school of cardinals, 4 german blue rams, 4 sterbai cory, and 2 albino bristlenose plecos. Three weeks ago, I added 4 discus, that have been doing well as far as I can tell. I set the tank up with a drip systems to continuously run 20-25 gallons throughout the day so as to avoid having to do manual water changes.
The discus were purchased from Wet Pets and Friends in Pittsburgh.

Here is a picture of the tank as currently set up.

http://reeflightinginfo.arvixe.com/Discus/DSC_2346.jpg

The discus that I have were sold as Red Ferrari Discus (not sure what other names the same discus go by) and Red Ring Leopard. They are are around 3-3.5". Here are a couple of pics.

http://reeflightinginfo.arvixe.com/Discus/DSC_2326.jpg

http://reeflightinginfo.arvixe.com/Discus/DSC_2328.jpg

They were already eating frozen blood worms with gusto, but its taken a few days to get them used to also eat freeze dried black worms, that I got from Al here.

I would like to add 2 more discus. I hope with the continuous water change, I am able to add 2 more to the 60G tank. Have not decided on which 2 to add. There are just so many varieties and different names for very similar fish.

For now, just enjoying the experience, and looking to learn from the experiences of folks here.

sanjay.

[a volar]

Nice and neat setup, congrats!! and welcome to Simply!

[Poco]

Welcome to SD Sanjay! Enjoy your fish.

[DiscusLoverJeff]

Beautiful pictures Sanjay.

Welcome to SD. How you find everything you need here on raising, breeding and any other discus related question.

What type of camera and lens did you use to get such great photos?

[derekhayes1]

Welcome to SD. I also have purchased all my discus from Wet Pets. If u ever have a chance to talk to Brian the owner he has been breeding discus for many years and knows is stuff. Congrates on the tank.

P.S. i have one of the red ferraris from the same group. Beautiful colors

[timmy82]

The discus that I have were sold as Red Ferrari Discus (not sure what other names the same discus go by) and Red Ring Leopard. They are are around 3-3.5". Here are a couple of pics. Nice starting stock lots of water changes and good food and you will have them up to 5" in no time.



Nice setup and great pictures. The more common name for Red Ferrari Discus looks like they are Raffelesia.

[Sandy Clay]

Wow those are really nice! Love the tank setup too~

[spookypora]

Welcome to SD. I also have purchased all my discus from Wet Pets. If u ever have a chance to talk to Brian the owner he has been breeding discus for many years and knows is stuff. Congrates on the tank.

P.S. i have one of the red ferraris from the same group. Beautiful colors

Yes, I have talked to Brain a few times. Really nice guy. I knew he was breeding discus and hence got a lot of input from him before getting the discus. I do not live in Pittsburgh, so I do not go there all the time. Was driving through there, stopped to talk to him and ended up buying the discus.

[spookypora]

Beautiful pictures Sanjay.

Welcome to SD. How you find everything you need here on raising, breeding and any other discus related question.

What type of camera and lens did you use to get such great photos?

I have a Nikon DSLR and used the 60mm macro lens.

[spookypora]

I have a couple of questions:

1) I would like to get them eating pellet and flake foods. Which brand and make of pellet and flake fish do discus tend to take easily. ? Right now they wont even look at it and do not even seem to recognize it as food.

2) What is the best strategy to transition them to taking pellet food ? Starve them for a while ? Not sure if that is a good strategy for growing fish. Feed them only pellet and flake food for a few days and hope that eventually they start to recognize it as food ?

[discuspaul]

Hi and welcome to SD.
I love your tank and discus - Good Job - very nice start.
You've obviously done your research and have a real good grasp on what you're doing with discus, incuding tankmates for them - your selection is spot on. And yes, it certainly looks like you can accommodate a couple more, and that would help with the sociability/compatability.
As for foods - You're right - they don't yet recognize it as food.
I've found that my discus really go for Discus Bio-Gold Pellets, and Omega One Flakes.

No need to starve them - just add a bit of the 'new' foods in with what you usually feed them, and that they like, and for an added enticement, add a little fresh minced/grated garlic to the overall melange of foods, and I think you'll find they'll give it a go. Then you can gradually increase he amount of the pellets or flakes you want them to take a liking to.
Hope this helps you.

[tnguyen9]

love the simple look and man what a really good looking red on your discus

[Bud Smith]

Really like the tank - the wood is fantastic - discus look good and nice color contrast

[spookypora]

After a visit to Hans, and some nice conversations with him I decided to add 4 more discus to my tank. Hans' place is awesome and I felt like I was in Discus heaven :-)

I got 2 Blue Diamond and 2 Blue Pigeon Blood discus. They are smaller than the ones I currently have, but seem to have settled in well so far (2 days). Here are a couple of pics.

http://reeflightinginfo.arvixe.com/Discus/DSC_2803.jpg

http://reeflightinginfo.arvixe.com/Discus/DSC_2804.jpg

[discusplantedtanklover]

Very nice tank set up.

[Etek]

awesome tank..one day I'll have a nicer display tank BB is easy but just not as pretty. Anyway how big is the blue pigeon? Mine was about 3-3.5" when I got her and she's 6.5" now after a year.

[Discus Ranz]

That really is a cool tank set up. Very nice!

Ranz

[spookypora]

awesome tank..one day I'll have a nicer display tank BB is easy but just not as pretty. Anyway how big is the blue pigeon? Mine was about 3-3.5" when I got her and she's 6.5" now after a year.

Thanks.

The blue pigeon is about 3". I have noticed that they have some black peppering showing up. I did not see this when I got it. Did you get yours from Hans? Does it have very visible peppering.?

[0Dgreen]

more than likely the peppering is showing now due to the driftwood in you tank, keeping pigeons surrounded by lighter colors generally helps reduced peppering to a minimum. The fish is simply trying to match to its surroundings.

[abuckley75]

Looking good!


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[spookypora]

Well, looks like one of my discus jumped out of the tank. I have not seen the body yet, but the fish has disappeared from the tank. I cannot look behind the tank since ths space is too tight. The only logical explanation I can think of is that the fish must have freaked out and in one of its mad dash exited the tank.

[DiscusPamela]

So sorry for your loss. Discus can be jumpers when spooked. Is there no top you can get to fit that tank?

[discusplantedtanklover]

Sorry for your lost, good luck for the rest.