Shocking!

This morning I was phoned by a LPS I frequent with a 'rescue' problem. A lady had bought 6 Discus from another Pet store a week ago. Firstly this lady kept them in 26'C Water along with 3 Oscars, 5 Tinfoils and a red tail cat. Last nite the 4th one died. She brought the remaining two to this PS to try save them but they have no tank available to house them, and judging by their size, the PS owner felt it highly unlikely that they will survive in his busy shop. They are at present smaller than a R5 coin! My question, have people become so unscrupolous that the life of an animal,albeit only a 'fish' to some, is worth so little that the few rands made from it makes it worth it? It fills me with anger! I have adopted these 2 babies but i really dont know if they will make it. How can PS owner sell ANY fish to a person without at least informing the buyer of what he/she is buying? The world is turning into a very very sad place! Forgive me for ranting and raving here, but at least here I know ppl will understand.

 

well done to you for the rescue .yes I agree with you, but it seems the all mighty dollar is more powerfull than life be it human or other.

 

Firsty Marco...

You going to have to do a CRASH course in keeping discuss... and I would seriously advise you to consider finding someone else who mich take them over from you if you have no experience. Discus are very finickity fish to keep. Based on the inexperience of the previous owner, I doubt she fed them properly, or looked after them according to their water requirements... so for some reason I don't think these fish will make it either... unless you are really lcky

Secondly, we should NEVER, NEVER EVER rely on a LPS to give us correct advice, or evern be prepared to help us. They are not an LPS because of their passion for fish. NOT A CHANCE. They are in the industry to make money. They don't care what happens to their stock when they walk (or swim) out the door.

 

unfortunatly this is the norm rather than the exception! when i first started with the hobby i went into a ps and asked for a algae eater suitable for my 16L, they sold me a small,5cm long bristle nose pleco saying it would only grow to the size of the tank. i was quickly corrected on that score by another forum and so got a 40L and now have a 1.2m which he will now remain in for the rest of his life. it is terribly sad too think off the number of fish living and dieing in horrible conditions, betta fish in particular touch my heart when you see them in those little cups and know they will probably end up in conditions not much better!

 

You have it lucky. Most people are recommended the 'regular' pleco (AKA common plec) which gets to monstrous sizes. By comparison, your LFS has somes saints running it.

 

the wholesaler supplying these tiny discus is the same one that is supplying those dyed blue angels... these tiny discus are 25-30mm and wholesale for R39.95 plus vat...

terrible!!!

 

I read you Zoom. Luckily I've been keeping Discus for a few years, reason why PS owner phoned me. Problem is though small discus do grow up, they shouldnt be put through this amount of stress at their tender age, like you say, if they make it, I will be very lucky! I would never buy them at this size!

 

Little update. The 2 are in a 60l 'hospital tank' at the moment. I will keep them there for the next 2 to 3 weeks if the make it. Water is nice and warm, 31'C, and they just gorged down some live brine shrimp! Holding thumbs!

 

good going, keep us updated.

 

At least they are eating. Good luck

 

This whole issue illustrates two issues:

1. If you want to make a success of keeping discus you need to prepare the aquarium that you want to keep your fishes in properly by obtaining reliable information from good reputable books.

2. What we see here repeatedly is that the average pet shop owner is not informed about keeping discus AT ALL and that he/she is definitely not a reliable source of information and advice. I have had my differences of opinion with pictus about these issues, but in South Africa, the "petshop factor" significantly contributes to the problems that beginners have to keep discus. He maintains that you have to have the basics correctly in place, as indicated in point 1, I maintain that the "petshop factor" makes it difficult for the beginner. With the sort of experience that Marco has explained, this illustrates exactly what I am getting at.

This emphasizes that it is critical to get good advice before you start, which is what I strive towards by giving the advice that I do on this forum. The second thing that it emphasizes is that you should obtain your discus from someone that has healthy well fed discus that are in a good condition so that they can be transported without the chance that they will die from the stress because they are in a poor condition. Get your discus from reputable dealers, I would suggest that unless the pet shop owners get their act together, you cut out the "local pet store" entirely. Dolphin has excellent discus because he treats his discus correctly after they have been imported, and you can also get good fishes from local breeders such as myself and a few others that I know of.

The damage that local pet shops do to the reputation of discus and the numbers of discus that they murder is incredible. All they are interested in is that the public buy more fishes, they are not interested in what happens to them as a matter of fact if they die, they hope that you will come and buy more.

Kind regards,

Dirk

 

Sad when this happens.... Good luck with the Fish

 

The guys are swimming around happily today and atfeeding time they absolutely destroyed the beef-heart i fed. Little concerned with one, seems like he has a bit of white spot. Will just raise the temp a little more and see where that gets me. Truly incredible to think that if all goes well, these tiny wobbly things will become such grand animals in a few months.

 

latest update. The guys are having a very good day. Swimming up and down when I approach the tank, and they are eating like crazy. Ich still present on one, but he looks ok and at 32'C the ich wont last long. Maybe they are gonna make it!

 

Looks like there will be a happy ending

 

32 wont do anything to ich. U'll hav 2 make it even warmer, maybe 34 for 10 days. U shud not just take discus like that if there is a gud chance of the dying. U just end up spending money on a lost cause. It is sad but PS must accept responsibility for their actions.

 

I agree with pictus about the increase in temp, although I am not sure if that is going to cure it. What have your experiences been pictus? I had a very bad experience about ten years ago. I bought some ancistrus cat fish from a reputable breeder and then put them straight into my large recirculating discus setup. One day later the catfish were covered in ich and my discus started getting infected a few days later. Higher temp alone did not get it under control and I eventually medicated and I think the medication also contributed to the losses. Bottom line is I lost 4 12 cm discus and one of my real giants of about 16 cm. I have heard that one can treat against ich with metranidazole which is completely harmless and I must check my wise books about this.

To some extent, I also agree with pictus about not taking on such poorly discus as you can infect your own fishes as well as I have explained above. If they go into a system on their own then they should not cause any harm. However, small discus that have been given a knock like this invariably suffer permanent growth damage and do not grow out properly.

Just to illustrate what is done to discus, you can check out the thread on the yellow discus. I visited that petshop two weeks after the pic was taken and there were Peckoltias in the tank that were covered in ich and the discus were already showing clamped fish and growths so there were on their way out. I did not take them with me though.....

Kind regards,

Dirk

 

I hear and to a degree I agree with you guys. I'll see what happens with the ich and raise the temp a little more. I've actually never had ich in my tanks so I'm in no-mansland with that. Prof I did put them in a locked-out system so there I'm safe. With regards to them never amounting to much, possibly, but they will still be nice to look at, and if only for the experience I will gain from getting them to good health, I'd find it worthwhile. I think its the 'humanitarian' in me that is driven to that. I'm not one to throw away a life just cause its a little beat up. Eventually they will probably just end up in my display tank and when I see them I'll remember where they came from

 

Its great that u feel that way Marco, and then I wish u gud luck with them. With the ich problem the prof is right, u might end up loosing that fish to it. Just be carefull before u add medicine, especially with high temps. U r sitting with low oxygen levels in warmer water, and adding medication will further limit this. I'm also not sure if those small fish will handle medication, like the prof said, maybe metro if it will work. Metro is softer on fish than most medicines. Just in reply Prof, i recently had 1 discus pick up ich, still have no idea how, and i raised temp to 34. It took 2 weeks with lots of w/c but eventually the ich was gone. I find, and i dnt know what ur experience is, that Discus can recover from many 'minor' ailments without meds, but when meds are eventually needed, they tend to die. If its the meds or the disease that kills them, i dont know.

 

Thanks for your input Pictus. I have the temp at 33 now. I'll see how it goes and no, I wont be adding meds now, I was also worried what meds will do to them.