Discus

@pHish_man

Andrew-your fish are looking super. As always.
Congratz on them bud!

 

@Sean J @butcherman @Marco

Thanks for the kind words guys.

My journey into discus keeping has been interesting, challenging, hard work at times, but most of all.....fun. These Malaysian fishes have given me some good experience and this has been instrumental in raising my para-free stock. I must still get around to starting a thread on the Madeira Merahs..........

 

Sir, what are you waiting for? Please start that thread! I'd love to see those foosh!

 

Yes, they are what the breeder refers to as Madeira Merah. But I will start a thread of their progress at some stage so as to not confuse them with the Malaysian fishes in this thread.

 

Hi guys,

Saw the update and hope me commenting on @pHish_man 's fish aint taken up wrong.
@Reedfish-the "Madeira Merah" is the older Brown based San Merah that the breeder (Hanke) crossed with a fish from Madeira - a sort of semi-royal blue. So its a barred fish, 9 bar with very very nice red colour.
I like it cause its a barred fish.

The old San Merah which was used in the lineage also throws some barred fish when bred. They usually resemble Rose/Virgin reds.

The new "Super San Merah" you are referring to is now a very very clean Pigeon blood based fish.
It will give 100% "San merah" as long as bred to another Super SM. BUT...if bred to another fish it will peppery and crappy.

Anyway - just some info

Rgds

Marco

 

Hi Marco

Thanks for adding the comment. I must really get around to starting a thread on these guys.

Now that they are starting to colour up, there is definite variation in terms of colour among the group. One can now clearly see the San Merah, Rose Red, Virgin Red and then of course there are some that look like the wild-type madeira. But they are ALL 9 bar fish, so absolutely no pigeon influence.

But for now I'm just trying to get them to max size. As it is, there are about half of the group that are already the same size, if not larger, than my 2.5 year old leopards and snakeskins. And there is a huge difference in size compared to my own bred non pf discus of the same age. So ive definitely seen the advantage of going the para-free route.

Andrew

 

Hi @pHish_man

Id also love to see some pics of them....so now is about time you get going with that thread-we have done enough encouragement.

I remember when Prof Dirk and I had a chat about these MM's we looked at photo's and there were quite a few in each batch that showed the Royal blue type markings on the head.
They were especially attractive I thought.

Something along the same lines-at the moment there seem to be quite a few breeders in Asia experimenting with similar crosses.
I see the very very red types being crossed with Heckels to offer a very red fish with the broad prominent Heckel bar.

Anyways enough rambling. Congratz again Andrew you have done exceptional with these fish

Rgds

Marco

 

yes please stop with the teasing already us discus sluts are starting to go moggy with anticipation!!!!

 

Ha ha Jason, that's such a true way of putting it.

Ok, just busy getting the main tank in the front reception area ready to move the pf fish across. Basically, we have drained the tank, scrubbed it, sprayed down with a high pressure cleaner, then bleach was sprayed everywhere and left for a few days. Then rinsed and sprayed more bleach and now its been standing for about 2 weeks. Today Ive removed the base polystyrene and we busy painting it brown so that the fishes have a brown base rather than white. So a lot of prep work has gone into getting this tank ready for the MM's.

Once the poly is back under the tank, I can start assembly of all the plumbing to sump, UV and trickle filter and then do a fill up and final bleach treatment. Then drain the 1000litres, rinse, fill and get the temp of the water up and ready for the switch. Fortunately I have 25kg's seeded ceramics in the MM's current rig and another 25kg's of new rings and with Henk's Special ( stinky ) blend and Seachem stability, things should go smoothly with the swap around.

 

Hi Reedfish

Are you able to post a photo and a link to these new type San Merah fish? What is the difference between the old type and the new type?

Andrew

 

Hi @pHish_man

This is hijacking your thread....

This is the 'new' Super San Merah



Its an absolutely fantastic fish!
The difference between this and the original San Merah is that this is now Pigeon blood based-whereas the original San Merah was a result of selective bred Brown discus.

We are not always up to date with the latest developments in Discus breeding-but in the last 5 years the Pigeon blood strain has come a very loooooong way as far as being improved.

Many spectacular strains are now Pigeon blood based (such as this one) and as you can see the black fins and peppering of typical PB types is not visible in this fish.
Some Golden based strains, which were also weak in genetic make-up has been boosted and improved by "converting" them to PB genetics-like the Red Golden diamond.
Asia-where new strain types are mostly coming from has always loved the Pigeon blood, and now with peppering and fin colour improved by abt 95% they are improving on all the older strains using the "newer" PB gene.

The new PB and also Albino lines coming from Asia are absolutely stunning-and coming from me-who has always frowned upon these 2 types to now be impressed by them says a great deal for their appearance.
Id for one love to have some of these Super San Merah....

Hope that answers the question

Marco

 

Awesome info @Marco

I see that fish has been around for the past 6 years already.

Perhaps we should move this discussion over to http://www.tropicalaquarium.co.za/showthread.php?13757-Origin-of-hybrid-discus-strains and revive this topic. Maybe one of the new mods can help out here?

Andrew

 

Fry free swimming day 5

 

Polystyrene painted and as soon as its completely dry, will pop it back under the tank. Ive flipped the left sheet upside down to compare the white to the brown. One can also see on the white side how the weight of the full tank has compressed the poly against the metal stand. ( I don't use wooden boards as support between stand and tank )

 

Free-swimming day 6. Hungry buggers.......almost ready for bs

 

Loving the updates Andrew....
I cannot stop looking at these parents and they look like magnificent parents as well.

Does the rule apply if the BBS fits in between the eyes they can eat it or is this just a common misconception/myth. How does it work with Discus, when do you know when they are ready for BBS?

 

@hein24 thanks for the kind words. Basically, the rule would rather be when the bbs fits in the mouth ( rather than between the eyes ), then its time to feed them to the fry.

I basically start the feeding at around 7days free swimming.

Andrew