Discus

All good. You know I'm around my facility most of the time, so pop around whenever you up for a chat.

In fact, that is an open invite for anyone who wants to talk fish at a neutral venue.

And perhaps help with water changes.......

 

Having seen these fish in person I must confess it is amazing what can be achieved if you listen to good advice.

 

Yes Henk, was great that you popped in to see these guys and what can be achieved with what some may view as extremely sensitive fish to keep. Make no mistake, they are. But with Dirk being my mentor through this process, why go and try re invent the wheel. His knowledge of fish, nutrition, genetics and chemistry is so vast, I really owe all this success to him.

These fish are highly inbred and manipulated from the east, so I'm not holding out much hope for using them in a long term breeding program. This for me was an excersise in understanding the basics of discus care and now I have 14 months of solid discus experience and know who I can trust for help when needed. In all this time I've mainly followed the basics, and this has all been discussed right here on tasa. The information is here for everyone to read.

Out of 80fish I've bought in total and 4 I got from Dirk to grow out, I've sold 39, kept 43 and had 2 losses. One loss due to a serious internal bacterial infection, and one was doa from the supplier. I've treated with metro, purbac and flubendazole, and now know where and how to go about getting these meds easily for when I need them. I know what to feed, how to feed, and where to get this food from.

These fish are not easy. They require constant work, monitoring and effort if you want them to thrive in your aquarium. Right in one of my first posts on this thread I said an important part of keeping these fish is to have someone close by who knows them and is prepared to guide you through the good and the bad. Now, a year later I will unequivocally state that that is the MOST important factor. For this I thank @Dirk once again for being the mentor you are.

Awesome

Andrew

 

ok, to update, as there has been a flood of emails etc asking: yes the eggs are still there this morning. Doubt if they will last another night in with all these other fish, so will wait and see what happens next.

 

Ok, its now 24 hours down the line and this pair is defending their eggs very well. A few have been eaten and some have turned white, but the majority are looking good.

 

Then as I was locking up my facility around 7 last night, another pair I have in a large breeding cube decided to spawn. These guys, Leopard male and Snakeskin female were only due to spawn today by my calculations ( go figure ) and they always spawn late afternoon. So it was a total surprise. Their eggs too survived the night and are shown here.

 

Good luck keeping my fingers crossed ,you 100% correct with out proper guidance there will be trial and error I've been through it before ,I've kept discus for quite a while and the advice I got from prof has save me allot

Great mentor mate prof should come back

 

+1 :top:

 

Loads of spawning activity this weekend. Another pair spawned yesterday afternoon, but unfortunately the eggs were eaten within about 30minutes after spawning.



The male is the leopard on the left, and the female is the red-spotted jobbie on the right.

 

Male

 

Female

 

Cobalt/Solid turquoise sex unknown presently

 

Mmm,I think it is a male!nice fish Andrew!

 

Thanks Charles, I suspect so too, but will have to see when he finds a mate.

 

Young cobalt/solid turquoise in a different tank

 

Red Snakeskin pair moved to breeding cube 7/5/13

 

Keep me in mind when you start selling the youngsters

 

Will do

 

Group shot

 

Love that picture Would make a nice jigsaw puzzle Discus always look like they've got their eye on you, just in case you're up to no good.