Hello

Hello all, I am a discus keeper from KZN. I have kept them for about 15 years now and currently have about ten tanks with various precious specimens. I would welcome news from any other discus keepers around.

 

Hi @aquazulu

Welcome to tasa.
Glad to see another Discus keeping member on here.
Hope you enjoy your visits here and feel free to jump in and chat, share some knowledge.
You say you have ten tanks? Tell us about the inhabitants, and I dont mean say "They are Discus" hehe. What have you got and share some pics!

Regards

Marco

 

hi @aquazulu .. welcome to tasa . discus are great and quite difficult to keep. good on you, cant wait to see some of them!

 

Welcme

If there is no pics it never happened

 

Welcome!

 

Views of the fish room

 

My red spotted leopard pair. The femle is purebred but the male a yellow spotted leopard snake intermediate.

 

My yellow spotted leopard snakeskin pair. Female is purebred and the male (lower) is an intermediate

 

Some inhabitants of my mixed tank.

 

These are my wild fish that are in a 700 litre tank in my lounge.

 

I keep all my fish in bare bottom tanks.
The largest tank in my lounge is 1700 x 600 x 800 H. This runs on a 75 litre sump and has 9 wild fish in it. These are all greens and blues from the Tefe area. I have had them for 18 months and they are all fit and healthy but no signs of spawning.
I have a rack with 4 tanks 500 x 500 x 500 (100 litre) for my pairs at the upper level and then 2 tanks 1 000 x 500 x 500 (200 litre) below these.
The pairs I have are a chequerboard pair, the yellow spotted leopard snakeskins, the red spotted leopards and a pair of red melons.
The two tanks below hold another 6 wild fish (browns) from the Curuai river system.
My breeding cubes are all on sponge filters and the two 200 litre tanks below are on a 175 litre sump.
I then have a rack of 4 x 200 litre tanks where I am growing some fish.
These four tanks are on a 175 litre sump filter.
I have another two yellow spotted leopard snakeskins (both female), 5 ring spotted red leopards, 6 red spotted leopard snakeskins. All these are about 8 months old.
Until 18 months ago I have only kept the tank in the house with the wild fish in it. I have kept a variety of variety fish over time. About 18 months ago I cleared out the guest room attached to my garage ( to my wifes horror) and started installing tanks.

I have had limited success with spawning and raising the fish. Still a lot to learn. There are a handful of very keen discus keepers in Durbs and we chat often.

 

If you would like more pics I will try and take some of better quality. Let me know what other info you guys would like. Water changes, feeding, photos of filters, etc.
Now where do i find pics of all of you guys fish??

 

Takes me back - very nice setup Dude!!! Thanx for sharing!

 

That is a great setup and equally great looking fish.

I really love those wilds.

Have a look around and you will find loads of pics.

Speak to @Marco about breeding, he is now trying to breed parasite free discuss.

 

Hi @aquazulu

Wow! Very very nice fish, and equally nice setup. Congrats and kudo's on doing a great job.

I think I recognise some of your fish. The greens you got, I also got some from same supplier, Mr de Waal? And if Im not mistaken those yellow spotted leopards are from Gavin?

Thats besides the point though, you have very nice fish, and they are kept in good conditions, nice big and healthy.

I have managed to get a freak spawn from a pair of wild tefe greens. Eggs eaten unfortunately. I have them now in a cube, hoping for the best, but I think its still a tad early for success. Still hoping though!

Welcome here, glad you aboard!

Marco

 

Welcome and must say nice setup.
Always something new to learn from everyone.
Nice!

 

We are a small fishkeeping community arent we Marco. I have always got my wild fish from Mr. de waal. He never has a huge variety on offer as I think he purchases out of Briazil based on price. However having said that my fish have always arrived healthy and i have enjoyed them immensely. This last import was the first time i have had something different. Gavin is a great guy to have nearby and we spend many fish hours together. He brought back most of the fish I have for me from his last trip to Aquarama last year including those little yellows which I am really enjoying. I have had one spawning from them where i raised about twenty to about R2 coin size but then lost 1 a day for no reason we could put our finger on. Still I suppose if it were too easy we would not do it. There is plenty of challenge left in trying to produce decent quality fish. Gavin is far more successful and produces a lot of good quality local fish. I have a pair that i bought from him as juveniles raising a spawning now. Lets hope for the best.

What is your current fish inventory?

 

@aquazulu

Hehe, yeh its a small world hey, and in aquaria, as you say even smaller.
I dont have much at the moment. Have cleared out most and just kept the pairs I have. Rearranging the fish room/hatchery with some added tanks etc. I have a nice pair of Blue diamonds that Im hoping will spawn in coming days. They spawned last week for the first time in a while, but the female ate the eggs, something she has never done before.
I then have a pair of Snakeskins, the pair Wild greens and a pair of fish I call Madeira royal blue. Theybare not true Madeiras, tank breds, but have the promiminent Heckel bar. Ive managed to get them to spawn a couple of times but everytime something has gone wrong so no fry were raised, though they are great parents. They seem a tad more reluctant to spawn than my others, the female playing hard to get.

Gavin has tremendous knowledge. I dont know him well but have spoken to him on the odd occasion. You are fortunate to have him around yes.

In our small "community" its guys like Gavin, and on the forum here @Dirk Bellstedt who we tap into to get as much info possible, its great to learn from 'someone', not just books and hearsay.

Kind regards

Marco

 

@aquazulu

Hehe, yeh its a small world hey, and in aquaria, as you say even smaller.
I dont have much at the moment. Have cleared out most and just kept the pairs I have. Rearranging the fish room/hatchery with some added tanks etc. I have a nice pair of Blue diamonds that Im hoping will spawn in coming days. They spawned last week for the first time in a while, but the female ate the eggs, something she has never done before.
I then have a pair of Snakeskins, the pair Wild greens and a pair of fish I call Madeira royal blue. Theybare not true Madeiras, tank breds, but have the promiminent Heckel bar. Ive managed to get them to spawn a couple of times but everytime something has gone wrong so no fry were raised, though they are great parents. They seem a tad more reluctant to spawn than my others, the female playing hard to get.

Gavin has tremendous knowledge. I dont know him well but have spoken to him on the odd occasion. You are fortunate to have him around yes.

In our small "community" its guys like Gavin, and on the forum here @Dirk Bellstedt who we tap into to get as much info possible, its great to learn from 'someone', not just books and hearsay.

Kind regards

Marco