Discus

Thanks Ashley and Andrew,

 

Updated photos.

This group has settled in well into their new tank, and are staying together as a group all the time. The water has a yellow tannin shade caused by peat so the photos are a bit dark. Will give the fish a few more weeks to adjust before I add some sort of lighting.


@Marco your favourite of this group, the solid red snakeskin, is showing the slowest growth and also remains positioned in the middle of the group. What clear signs should i start looking for to try guessing at possible sex, or is it still early days? Im estimating the age of these fish to be about 7months old now, but its impossible to be accurate as they are Asian imports.

andrew

 

Hi Andrew,

they are really taking shape nicely, one can clearly see that these were directly imported and not channeled via a petshop in which they were first hammered.

Kind regards,

Dirk

 

Hi Andrew

Now thats a stunning group of fish you have there.
One day i will chat to u about getting some for me as well.

Regards

 

Hey Andrew I must say they perfectly shaped and in good health nice fish mate hope they breed lots for you

 

Howzit ... Are those fish fed 6 times a day ?

 

Hi Guys,

I would like to point out to you is that you should learn from what Andrew has done here. He has bought a batch of youngsters that all had the same size and raised them in a group. He did not add in fishes from another source with the next set of parasites and diseases, they were all just raised together. Then they were extremely well fed by Petra and Andrew in that they were fed regularly every three or four hours during the day with very high quality food. This is difficult for someone to achieve if you are working, but maybe someone at home can help you by adding food that has been placed in a bakkie in the freezer, or you can also feed dried food with an automatic feeder. What you need to take note of is the even growth of these fishes, there are smaller size differences but there is not one fish that is lagging behind and which looks as though it is thin. When I have written about this in my thread on discus feeding, this is what I mean, you need to feed huge amounts of food on an ongoing and uninterrupted basis and then only do you get this sort of growth. What you should also look at is the size of the eyes relative to the size of the body, this is small in these fishes, but as soon as discus are underfed, their eyes grow but their body does not, this is the quickest way to see if discus are stunted. It will be very interesting to see how big these fishes become, but I can see that are headed for a fine size if all goes well, 20 cm plus if I am to guess. Initially also Andrew did the right thing and put them into smaller tanks where he could do water changes more effectively, and now that they are larger the move to the larger tank will give them the necessary place to grow. And then note that with the bare bottom you can overfeed and it does not matter, the excess food can be removed with ease. So for those of you wanting to make a good start with discus, don't go the route of buying one here and one there, plan properly, buy a group when you have the tanks ready and then you will have this sort of success.

We wish you all of the best with those beauts Petra and Andrew, looking great!

Kind regards,

Dirk

 

I went to see these fish for myself today and I can without a doubt say that these fish are 100 time better in person than on those pics I must say Andrew I was blown away how healthy and beautiful your discus are. Looking forward to seeing what they become.

 

Hi Takumi

If you read post #1 of this thread, you will see that I try and feed my discus 9 times a day. Without rehashing what has already been recommended in terms of the correct feeding of discus, let me refer to the following recommendations http://www.tropicalaquarium.co.za/s...d-discus-and-many-other-tropical-fish-as-well

this is really an informative read and written by someone that has been breeding discus for 20+ years. Why go and try re-invent the wheel?

Unfortunatley we cant all be around during the day to feed as often as I do, I accept that. But in order to grow a discus out to its full potential, certain plans need to be made. Auto feeders, get someone at home to feed while you are at work, etc etc. I have my fish at my place of work which makes it easier during the week, but I have had to sacrifice my weekends tremendously to sit and get as many feeds in as possible over a Sat and Sun. My feeding over the weekend is reduced to 4 feeds ( but that is still 4 hours spent at work per weekend day - fortunately I have a VERY understanding gf ).

So yeah, suppose its a personal choice and what end result you want to achieve with your discus. Mine is to learn and achieve a goal of getting the fish to its maximum size. There are those who will settle for stunted fish with pretty colours. Each to his own.

Regards

Andrew

 

@Dirk Bellstedt , thank you once again for all the advice.

@jpvd007 , thank you for your impromptu visit yesterday afternoon. Was great to catch up again, and look forward to seeing your discus fry at the 3 month mark.

regards

andrew

 

update: these guys are now going on almost 8 months old if my guess is correct and they are starting to develope some attractive colouration. The red snakeskins are getting fine striations on their forehead and face and one or two this is extending across their body. In one fish these marks are very broken, giving it a spotted appearance. Cannot wait to see how they develope further.

In two of the leopards, the blue base colour now seems to be getting less and the red striations now seem to be forming small circular rings. Perhaps we will be able to select for this trait further down the line. I find it quite attractive.


2 of the 5 leopards


what seems to be turning into a spotted snakeskin


the tank they are housed in

 

The thing that stands out the most to me in your leopards is there body shape I just love the way they have filled out and how true there name rings out there perfect "disc-niss":nuts:, They are truly lovely specimens!

 

my 2 odd cubes housing discus. The one on the left is home to 3 so-called browns and 3 cobalts along with 2 of my slower growing rss. One of which is being monitored closely as she has gone off eating. Added live mozzie larvae on @Marco advice and she picked on about 4. Also went for some of the live daphnia that ended up with the mozzie larvae so im holding thumbs she pulls through.

In the right-hand cube I have a pair that spawned 2 weeks ago but unfortunatley ate their wrigglers on the second day. they havent spawned again since. The newspaper is just to mask the pair off as this tank is directly in front of my shop door.


Cobalts and browns

 

Where did you get em ?

 

they are all from Malaysia

 

Yes, who imported them ? You know some say that it is a miracle for fish from malaysia to spawn and raise young, I don't agree with that, not all fish can be bred in germany... I love malaysian fish, some of the best fish in the world are bred there.

 

Yes i am extremely happy with my group of 27 discus. hopefully this time next year we will see some action. Unfortunatley I cannot disclose my source as they are not a TASA sponsor and I dont want this thread closed down.

Regards

Andrew

 

Somehow missed your post.

The super feeding you do certsinly is a big help.... I subcribe to a similar regime on weekends and at least five times a day during the week. 40 litres water changes a day is also part of my routine.

Some of my fish were landed at about the same time as yours I think
. Would be interesting to see the difference in size.

Btw your fish are looking great !

 

Thank you.

I note on a different thread a comment was made to me that perhaps to discuss your fish, you may need your lawyer present. I am happy to ignore this irrelevant comment and discuss your and my fish if you are prepared to be civil. Ok?

Right, now that that is out the way, yes these fish are growing tremendously and I am happy with their developement. They were imported as 4.5-5cm size fish on 7 March this year which is tiny. I have had them less than 6 months now and some are already bigger than some stunted adults that were dumped with me by someone who did not follow correct feeding/management. So I am really keen to see what size these grow out to be as adults.

When you say some of yours were landed at the same time as mine, am i correct in saying that you obtained yours from Liaquat ( altum )? If so, then yes, Liaquat was at the same wholesaler that I was where we both buy our fish from. But if I remember correctly that was on 18/4/12. This was the day my second batch of discus arrived, the cobalts, browns and virgin reds. Unfortunately when the discus box was opened I couldnt see your fish as the larger discus get packaged double bagged with paper between each bag, whereas the smallest fish ( 4.5-5cm ) just get sent double bagged, no paper. Fortunately the wholesaler in Malaysia is wise enough to print stickers with the strain name on and these are stuck to each bag. If it wasnt for this fact, it would be a nightmare trying to correctly identify the strain.

How about posting some more photos of your fish?

Kind regards

andrew

 

My comment in respect of the lawyer was a joke as you were bombarding me with questions. Should have added a smiley.

I' have to post some pics of their current state. Been some reallly amazing transformations and different growth rates..