If you build it, they will come - Jims Discus Journal

[fishy_jim]

Well folks .... so I noticed the leopard snakeskin and the red rafflesia acting funny last night and side by side twitching every so often. Then they started cleaning off a section of the driftwood. Tonight after finishing by water change I see this !!! I litterally just put my fish in the tank on Saturday. 3 days later, Im a grandpa.

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[brewmaster15]

Well folks .... so I noticed the leopard snakeskin and the red rafflesia acting funny last night and side by side twitching every so often. Then they started cleaning off a section of the driftwood. Tonight after finishing by water change I see this !!! I litterally just put my fish in the tank on Saturday. 3 days later, Im a grandpa.

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Grampa maybe. hope you get wigglers, but its not likely any will survive long in there. Still its a good sign the water is good.


al

[Iminit]

Lol! Nice they will probably lay eggs there a few more times. Thing is this happens often when you buy bigger discus. I think the stress of traveling causes it. But good luck!

[Discus Fever]

Eggs are always a good sign, congrats!!

[fishy_jim]

My replacement blue diamond arrived yesterday from Gabe and I went ahead and added an additional one to it to take advantage of the shipping. One of them took to the tank perfectly fine but the other one layed down and stayed down for 10 hours !! Before going to bed last night it was trying to right itself but wouldn't stay up. This morning I cant even tell the difference between the 2 and all are doing great and exploring their new home. The smallest discus (turq) has become the b!@#$ of the tank so not sure what its issue is with everyone. Lol. 20240128_073521.jpg

[fishy_jim]

After water change shot. The blue diamonds really colored up after the water change. I alzo added some crushed coral to my canister filters today to help stabilize my PH. Im really loving these fish from Gabe. They are all doing great so far, hopefully everything stays on track.

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[brewmaster15]

Jim I'm glad all is going well and hope that continues for you. Stay on track with the husbandry and that will go a long way.

[fishy_jim]

Tank is doing great - currently working on getting my tank PH to stabilize using some crushed coral. So far so good with that. FYI - I have learned through that process getting a cheepo PH pen/meter was a waste of 10 bucks. Those things are junk and not accurate. My API test kit shows consistent values where the PH pen was showing as much as 1 value difference in readings from day to day, reading to reading. I do have a new question though, When adding the fish 11 days ago, I raised the temp to 86 to entice getting them to eat. That process only took 2 days to get them eating and now today they eat like pigs devouring 2 FDBW cubes within minutes. I have lowered the temp to 85 and then in a few days I plan to set it at 84 as long as they look like they are still eating. Is 84 a good temp to settle at? I figure that is smack in the middle of the temp range recommended.

[AquaticNerd]

For fully grown adults, 84 is a perfectly fine temp. I know some folks on here go as low as 82.

[fishy_jim]

Some individual shots of the crew. Enjoy !
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[brewmaster15]

Jim the tank and fish look real nice. Now that you had them awhile whose your favorite?
Al

[fishy_jim]

Jim the tank and fish look real nice. Now that you had them awhile whose your favorite?
Al

Hey Al, thanks !! My favorite I would say is a toss up between the Striated Turq and the Red Rafflesia with the Snakeskin coming in 3rd. They look like different fish today compared to when I plopped them in 2 weeks ago. I will say that I am really enjoying these fish. Its amazing how personable they are. They have no problem letting me touch them when feeding your FDBW and they greet me coming up to see me when I approach the tank. I kinda have them trained to know its time to eat when I tap on the glass, pretty cool.

I wanted to ask you if there are any tips to get them to accept the pellets I also got from you? I have been adding a small pinch in the morning. They fall immediately to the bottom. Eventually 2 of them will pick the bottom and eat them. Is that how they eat the pellets ususally by grazing off the bottom? Will the others eventually start to follow suit also?

[fishy_jim]

Sorry ... more pics. I will lighten up on the photos after this... I promise. Todays project I am building a device to help me with re-filling the tank during water changes. I will have all the parts by tomorrow.
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[fishy_jim]

An update I never wanted to make on my tank but here it is. Today I lost my Red Rafflesia to my what I believe is a parasite issue of some sort. The panda that I had originally seen the issue (long stringy clear/tanish poop) is still kicking. I noticed the other only just yesterday also starting to poop issue. This morning it stayed away from the others and then later started swimming weird and then it was gone. I am devastated by this as I have put so much work into this and doing everything by the book. Today is 3 weeks since getting them so I am pretty bummed now. This is the fish that has layed eggs 2x since getting it too !! I started metro on Tuesday soaking the FFDBW in it and they have been eating it but not really sure how much stays in the food by soaking. I have been also doing 60% daily WC prior to re-dosing the recommended dose. What do I need to do at this point, stay the coarse with the metro and daily WC? All the other at the moment seem fine, I hope I don't loose more. Here are some pics I just took of the panda showing the poop best I can. If the metro is working, will I know by it starting to have normal black poop? It looks the same as it did last week prior to staring the metro. Any advice/help much appreciated.

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[danotaylor]

Dang, that sucks Jim. Sorry mate