Making Mistakes - 55g planted tank (mis)adventure

[ravvlet]

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[Iminit]

Discus look great. Yes you can just take them out and measure. But what I’ve been doing with the babies is make a circle out of paper 3,4 inch and up as you go. Leave it taped to the front of the tank. When they swim by you can see how big they are. When bigger than 4” remove and add a 5” circle.
Sounds like a fun show. Do you know Seattle Roy? He’s a knowledgeable fish and plant keeper. I know he had some wild discus he was growing out a little while ago. Think he’s been involved with that show before.

[brewmaster15]

Actually - how DO you measure them?! Do you scoop them out and throw a measuring tape on them? Is it top to bottom or nose to tail? Mine are pretty round thankfully so I think both measurements will be similar. Would it be stupid stressful for them to do that?

Net them and measure them from nose to tail. Some go to the base.of the tail... thats standard length. Total length includes the tail. I've always included the tail in my measurements since its part of the fish.

[ravvlet]

The Greater Seattle Aquarium Society home show was today! I am exhausted because I was up till 4am trying to finish a mural in the hall…the ADHD really got me this time.

The judges were great. They loved the discus (Al, I gave a shout out about your food, I hope it makes the Final Cut!) but hilariously were most impressed by my goldfish, who at six months old is a monster.

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Meanwhile, some of my discus are about the size of the 5in circle I had taped to the side of their tank. Really excited. The judges couldn’t believe I was growing plants at 88 degrees - I can’t explain it either, but most of the plants look pretty happy so I am not complaining!

I am going to go take a nap. Here’s some shots of the tank for now - the Home Show video they took will go live sometime in March and I’ll share when it’s online.

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[ravvlet]

Also one of the judges seems really certain I ended up with all males. I hope he’s wrong! But at least they get along fine for now. They’re far too busy chasing down the shrimp to bother fighting each other!

[LizStreithorst]

There are two different measurements. One is total length which is tip of nose to end of tail. Most folks these days use TL when they meausre their Discus. The true measurement which is no longer often used is Standard Length which is nose to base of tail. I can let you know why one measurement is true and the other is false if you want to ask. Most folks don't care.

To put a tape on the fish, dampen a towel and put it on the ground. Put the tape on the towel. Net out the fish, put it on the towell, set the tape at the base of the fish's nose, and read the tape.

[brewmaster15]

The Greater Seattle Aquarium Society home show was today! I am exhausted because I was up till 4am trying to finish a mural in the hall…the ADHD really got me this time.

The judges were great. They loved the discus (Al, I gave a shout out about your food, I hope it makes the Final Cut!) but hilariously were most impressed by my goldfish, who at six months old is a monster.

IMG_2305.jpg

Meanwhile, some of my discus are about the size of the 5in circle I had taped to the side of their tank. Really excited. The judges couldn’t believe I was growing plants at 88 degrees - I can’t explain it either, but most of the plants look pretty happy so I am not complaining!

I am going to go take a nap. Here’s some shots of the tank for now - the Home Show video they took will go live sometime in March and I’ll share when it’s online.

IMG_2711.jpg
IMG_2712.jpg

Thanks for the Plug!

[brewmaster15]

Also one of the judges seems really certain I ended up with all males. I hope he’s wrong! But at least they get a8long fine for now. They’re far too busy chasing down the shrimp to bother fighting each other!

Most likely wrong. The fish are still young and growing so its hard to say at this point.. but I see at least 2 that are probably female.. the white pigeon and one of the. Red turqs.
Time will tell

[LizStreithorst]

I use Total length. I have to since everybody else does. But I think it leads to breeding Discus with the longer peduncles that we see so much in the Discus we see these days. With an extra long peduncle you can gain about 3/4".

[dspeers]

Very entertaining and informative thread. One thing I am curious about, no discussion of prophylactic medication for this new tank. Has that been abandoned in favor of tincture of time and an isolation tank for any new stock? Or, is that dependant on fish source?

Gets kinda fun, display tank, quarantine/isolation tank, hospital tank, also if your new stock purchase is substantial, do not want to risk the entire group so need an observation/test tank for one old stock hero and one from the new group. So that would be a DT, QT, HT, and OT. Who says discus keeping is time consuming?

[ravvlet]

Very entertaining and informative thread. One thing I am curious about, no discussion of prophylactic medication for this new tank. Has that been abandoned in favor of tincture of time and an isolation tank for any new stock? Or, is that dependant on fish source?

Gets kinda fun, display tank, quarantine/isolation tank, hospital tank, also if your new stock purchase is substantial, do not want to risk the entire group so need an observation/test tank for one old stock hero and one from the new group. So that would be a DT, QT, HT, and OT. Who says discus keeping is time consuming?

Hi, these are my only discus and their tankmates are snails and shrimp I raise myself mostly. If I do add more fish in the future, I have a 20g L aquarium that I will use to quarantine them for at least a month or two. I don’t want to risk my discus!

[ravvlet]

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I think this guy is one of the larger ones. Not as big as I’d hoped but not bad? I have had them since December 19th, and today is Feb 10th, so almost two months. They were sold to me as 3-3.5in but I didn’t think to measure.

Poor guy bonked himself on something trying to escape me, which is why I was so afraid to measure them!
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Going to keep an eye on that. I don’t like the look of it.

Also, I’ve been keeping up with daily water changes, and there’s no nitrite, but I’m still seeing up to 1ppm ammonia. There’s three filters in here now, so I’m flabbergasted, and I’m wondering if it’s just a side effect of using Prime as a water treatment. The judges for the home show were surprised when I said I treated the tank with prime when I do water changes and said Seattle water is really good - but I’m pretty sure it still has chlorine in it? So don’t I need to treat, especially since I’m going from tap to tank?

Water from tap is still testing zero ammonia so it’s not that. My goldfish tank however is now also testing positive for ammonia so I’m extra grumpy. I do weekly water changes on that dang tank. Those fish are just going to have to go on a brief diet while I try to sort it out.

Nothing more frustrating than water quality problems right after letting people film your tanks…

[ravvlet]

Welp, right from the horse’s mouth, here is what Seachem has to say.

“Under the conditions of a salicylate kit the ammonia-Prime complex will be broken down eventually giving a false reading of ammonia (same as with other products like Prime®), so the key with a salicylate kit is to take the reading right away.”

[ravvlet]

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I decided to be brave and pull the biggest fish out. Ugh, I hate handling them like this and can’t say I’d do it again!

I did a big water change and vaccuum- and found lots of dead and half eaten snails, and zero shrimp. I knew they’d been eating the shrimp (fine by me, they were culls anyway and I’ve got more), but the snails surprised me, and could explain the ammonia issue, as some were only partially eaten. I also discovered that the discus pellets are almost the same color as the sand and vacuumed out a bunch I had fed them today - oops. Will be cutting back on those. They seem to be more thorough eating the black worm and the flakes.

[fishy_jim]

Welp, right from the horse’s mouth, here is what Seachem has to say.

“Under the conditions of a salicylate kit the ammonia-Prime complex will be broken down eventually giving a false reading of ammonia (same as with other products like Prime®), so the key with a salicylate kit is to take the reading right away.”

Fish are looking good! Are you saying then to read the test immediately and not wait the 5 min? You say you are adding water straight from the tap, are you adding straight cold or are you adjusting the temp at the faucet?