discus

AT R215 this does not sound like an A grade discus. What would have happened is that it landed at about R60 and wholesaler and retailer have both added about 100%. The normal classic ripoff.

Can you perhaps post a pic of this wound. It is impossible to diagnose just based on what you are writing.

Kind regards,

Dirk

 

since my phone is gone ,it is gonna take a while.i think its best to give him back ,because the other 2 are perfect no probs

 

If you move that discus again after having moved him into this tank two days before, he will most probably die from the stress, that is how sensitive these fishes are. However, I leave it to you as to how you want to sort this out with the local pet shop owner.

Kind regards,

Dirk

 

i told him ,soo when he gets stock i am going to swap him and get a turquise for my other turquise as they seem to stick to there own species

 

Shakester,

hybrid discus are all a mix of the same species whether they are red turquoise or blue diamond so they will all mix eventually and breed as well. They are definitely not different species so this does not apply to your fishes.

Discus often arrive in South Africa from Singapore and Penang after having been in a bag for between 36 and 40 hours and are sold off by the importer within days of arrival and then are moved to the retailer, often with more travel time. Discus should be quarantined for about three weeks after arrival and then only resold, but the dealers in South Africa are only after the quick profits and not for the interest of the fish. The result is that if you purchase fishes from petshops in South Africa, you very often have losses. The poor fishes are being treated very badly in the process. You must consider this when you want to exchange your poor little fellow with the pet shop owner again. He is just going to sell the little fellow to the next guy and then he is happy, but the fish is invariably on the death list. This is the most common route of discus in South Africa. They are not easy to keep in any case, but this mistreatment before they reach the buyer is a massive additional problem.

Kind regards,

Dirk

 

yes prof ,i saw the discus for over a month at the LFS so now decided to buy not noticing the deformaties

 

Yes Shakester,

And I wonder how he has fed them? Bet you he is feeding tetra bits and bloodworm, have you asked him? That diet is about the fastest way to stop the growth of young discus immediately, they need a broad variety of food and they need LOTS of food, you can read my advice in the sticky thread. This type of intensive feeding is just about the biggest adaptation you have to make when you start with discus. I hope you are feeding yours about 6-8 times a day now or are you working during the day? You should perhaps get someone to feed them for you during the day, and also not too much or else your filtration cannot cope.

Have you moved the temp up yet? That is very important for your new fishes. If you keep them too cold they are also more susceptible to hole-in-the-head, so be careful.

The king places high demands on his owner, I hope you are realizing this!

Lekker slaap,

Dirk

 

ok ,the temp is nothimg below 28 , i have a feeder in place for 4 feedings ,and the frozen food i put in every day ,they look healthy and swimming around soo think they all right,he ids feeding flakes ,worms and granuals

 

these guys are being a bit to picky ,they eating only live brine shrimp and blood worms

 

Hmmm...

This is like a child only wanting to eat McDonalds burgers for dinner. I anticipate the Professor's advice here.

I have actually heard Dolphin talking about a garlic type product that you mix with the other flakes which will encourage them to eat the other food. Is this correct Prof?

 

Just my humble opinion Shakester, I'm not an expert but i've kept discus for a while now. Its my experience that 'new' discus tend to be a bit picky at first. I also think "not lower than 28'C" aint gonna cut it if you want to keep Discus. You have to be sure, and 28 is already a degree or 2 too low. Higher temp = faster metabolism = more eager to eat. I also find, at I'm not 'beating' your fish food, but if your dry food aint good quality, they wont eat it! To me its that simple. If my discus do not eat something i will try another once or twice, then stop, no use messing up the system with uneaten food.

 

Hi Shakester,

The advice given by Zoom and Marco is quite correct.

Firstly, with regard to food, bloodworm should not be fed more than twice a week, but brine shrimps are very good. Zoom, you are quite right about the garlic. I import a beefheart mix which contains garlic. This does attract the discus which is good because this mixture contains beefheart but also a lot of vegetables and it also contains a lot of vitamin C. In addition garlic works as a mild anti-worm remedy. it does not kill the worms like a medication might, but it certainly works against the worms and the fish benefit. So, I feed my beefheart mixes and the fishes benefit in more than one way.

Marco, your advice is also spot on. After settling in new discus you need to move the temp up so that it stimulates the fishes to eat. And I also fully agree that 28 C is at least one degree if not two degrees to low. And yes, the dried food MUST be high quality, so this el cheapo stuff is useless.

So, Shakester, you can see that a lot of folks on this forum can help you with your fishes, but you need to listen to the advice and apply it!

Kind regards,

Dirk

 

Dirk,

Just a quick question. Would you have to mix the food with a specific type of garlic mix, or would you be able to mix it with pure garlic out the fridge. I'm only asking because I know Shakester might come and ask this, and the only advice I would be able to give is go to the LPS and ask for the Seachem's garlic stuff. (I think it's seachem that Dolphin was using.)

 

Zoom,

I would use pure garlic if I had to and not some extract from an imported source as you would be paying through your neck and I do not see why this should be better than just natural local stuff.

However, I do not see how you can get either the imported Seachem stuff or natural garlic to bind with whatever you are feeding and for this reason I use my imported mixture, called SV2000, which has it all mixed in together with all the other nutrients that discus require. Approximately 20-30% of the diet that I feed my discus consists of this beefheart mixture and my discus grow out to be really large, and I believe this mix plays an important role in achieving this.

Kind regards,

Dirk

 

Hi Dirk,

Just to go slightly off topic, but still related, I've heard of some people feeding this ox heart to the likes of Apistos too! What are your thoughts on this??

Regards
G!

 

Hi G,

In principle the beefheart mixtures have a very good food analysis and should be good for feeding dwarf cichlids, but it is a little course for small dwarfs and would actually be better for medium to large sized cichlids. It would be excellent for Oscars for example and Oscars very often suffer from Hole-in-the-head so this would help against it.

Kind regards,

Dirk

 

Thanks Dirk!

Maybe I'll take a pack next time I come through, and see how they do with it?? If it is too course then I'm sure my tetras will enjoy ripping it apart like the little Piranhas they are!! They'd chew through steel if it tasted nicer!!

Failing that my friend is after another oscar, so I could pass to him!!

Cheers!
G!

 

I use a combination of Seachem Garlic and Seachem Entice...

 

Hi Marco and others,

I moved Marco's questions to a separate thread so that other folks could find this specific topic more easily. I think this is a common question for which reason I felt it was important.

Kind regards,

Dirk

 

You have a problem as I indicated above that you cannot mix this with your present food without thawing it. What you can do is to wet your dried food with the garlic though. However, the discus will not pick up the garlic off the bottom of the tank so this will be a mess.

I think you must rather add the garlic to your next curry and eat it yourself instead. Then if you open a nice bottle of Cape wine you can sit and watch the king and his friends.....

Kind regards,

Dirk

Shakester,

You must not get fish bait and tropical fish food mixed up, they are vastly different. Fish bait is often high in carbohydrates and sometimes really vrot. Feed this to your discus, and then you can eat your discus with the garlic you now have in your fridge the next day.

Have I ever told you that they eat a lot of discus in the Amazon area.......

Kind regards,

Dirk