jefftse

Ok guys.. please bear with me and let me explain what i'm trying to do! I have a 75g planted tank and with the fish listed below:

6 Scissor Tail Rasbora (1 inch each for now)
5 Clown loaches (2 inches for now)
2 pelcos (1.5 inches for now)
3 otos (1 inch for now)
5 glolight danios (1 inch)
12 cardinal tertras (.5 inch for now)
8 discus (2.5 inches and will be picked up next saturday)

I know I know.. I'm overstocking.. but i'm planning to have another 75G in a year, so when the clown loaches got big and i can move them there. Also I'm okay not to keep the scissor tail or the danios. I bought them when I first cycled my new tank.

so do you think my tank can last me a year?

b0n3ZA

I've seen tanks that are more overstocked.

I think it could last you a year. Remove any big rock,s driftwood to create more swimming area. Leave some plants for hiding. Do NOT over feed! You don't want them growing too fast now do you?

I could be wrong though...
Don't rely on solely my opinion

Good luck!

nicole

Hi, congats on the new discus..My opinion is that would be overstocked,but I'm no expert on these matters.You should check out simply discus.com..they have heaps of good info on discus keeping there..Keep the tank as clean as possible with regular water changes, good filtration ect.
I know I havn't helped with your question..but I wish you all the best with your new tank and I'm sure you will enjoy owning discus.
Nicole.

Callum The Cat

nicole

Hey there Callum...yep you have the right idea did u get the pm I sent you?? Sorry Jefftse I know this has nothing to do with your topic.

jefftse

it's okay nicole! Well, i'm doing about 25% water change every other day. I think this should be things going.. what do you think?

nicole

When your tank is stocked with the discus I would a 50%wc at least 3x a week.This is what I would do anyway,everyone has their own routine, and I feel with the amount of fish you are going to put in your tank the more wc the better.Its all trial and error..the fun part is the learning with these fish..
What strains are you getting?
Nicole.

jefftse

50% 3 times a week wow.. that seems a lot and I don't know if the fish would even like it. but what do i know!

Strains? u mean the reading from the tank? everything seems okay except the water seems too hard and i'm softing it!

nicole

Hi,
yep that seems like alot but if you are putting 8 discus plus all those other fish in your tank you will need too...Discus dont cope well with less than ideal water conditions...I'm not trying to scare you because they are a good fish to own but you need to look after your water...I have found (when I first got into the discus hobby) if you only do say water changes say once a week with a fully stocked tank everything will seem fine for a while but in the long run it will lead to sick fish.
Most discus owners will do much more wc's than that, it means a healthy discus and is also good for growth if you are growing out a young one..I strongly suggest you go to the website I have allready mentioned.
By strains I mean pidgeon bloods,Turquoise,ect....colouring..thats the easiest way for me to explain it because the list is long.
How hard is your water?? and what are you doing to soften it with??You really need to concentrate on keeping things stable instead of using additives to your water.
If your water paremeters are less than ideal a good way to age it is to store water in a large container with an airpump and heater running and add prime (I'm sure thats what its called for you guys..I'm Australian..different products)
keep this water ageing for 24 - 48 hrs. Use this water for your water changes.
Nicole.

jefftse

Ok, last night, I did a 50% WC because I bought a bag of bio-spira. My LFS told me to do so.. While, i was changing my water, i realized that the temperature is changing dramatically. (from 82 to 76) I had a bad feeling about this. Fair enough, this morning I had a dead Cardinal. Luckily, only 1, well, I'm down to 9 from 12. They are really hard fish to keep.. and I already read about them. so what do you do to prevent big temperature change when you are doing just big WC?

Here is what I'm getting.

2-orange/red/white
2-Brilliant Blue
2-red turquoise
2-green snakeskin

nicole

Hi, when doing a water change feel the tank water and set your tap to the same as the tank water or as close as you can if you are ageing your water like I mentioned in last post just set heater the same.
very nice discus you are getting by the way.

jefftse

I don't know if i can age that much water since there is a lot of water. I guess I will change the adjust to as close as I can get...

also I'm just a softer pouch that I insert to the filter.. works 2 days and i have to recharge with salt water for 2 hours.

I really hope they are nice.. i can't wait to pick them up! I got a very sweet deal from this local guy. If he is good, i will recommend to everyone!

nicole

I understand your anticipation..I've got a few comming myself,but I have to wait for them to come out of quarantene,really frustrating..I'm sure your discus will be stunning..dont forget we love pics here Green Turquoise are a really nice strain.
Have you tested your hardness?What was it before you softened it?please remember keeping water conditions stable is the key.

jefftse

Thanks and I definitely will take some pictures!!

general hardness was 7. I haven't tested it for a couple days which I should. I need to put the softer pouch back to the filter as we speak!

jefftse

So I finally went to pick up these fish from this guy who sells fish under basement in cheap price... Let me tell you. NOT AGAIN. The fish was in very poor condition. I originally ordered 8 of them. I really didn't want any since they are a lot small than I was told and some didn't have nice fin. I finally got 4 out of the 8 since I know these fish are not going to make if no one get them out of this sh*t hole.. (I'm not going to go into the detail..).. I know I need to introduce all discus at one time otherwise I might have a problem in the future, so I quickly stopped by a LFS that I always go to and pick up 4 more. so I introduced them to my tank. It has been 2 days now. They are not eating much and it only stay at the corner of tank and stack them each other. I tried all kinda of food, brine ship, blood worm, etc. some might have a bite.. some wouldn't even move.. and I also noticed some of them are "dark discus". So I'm just guessing they are very stressed with the new tank and all the moving. How long usually will discus dis-stressed? and is anything I can do to help?

nicole

How are these fish going??any improvements yet?

capekate

Hi Jeffste
I am also wondering how your Discus are doing now? What a shame to hear such wonderful fish were kept in such horrid conditions...
I had picked up three discus and one of them, Ricky Blue hardly ate or interacted with the others for awhile. I was very worried about him since he wouldnt eat. I posted about that awhile ago and Nicole helped me through that. Just wanted to let you know that with some Discus it takes awhile to adjust. It took Ricky Blue almost two weeks before he adjusted to the new tank. Now he is swimming around and enjoying life and eating! So just take care of them.. and they will adjust in time. Good luck with these beautiful species of fish!

jefftse

Sorry Ladies, I MIA for a while since I was too busy traveling and other stuff. Unfortunately, 5 out of 8 didn't make it. but the guy I bought it from knew there was some wrong with them.. He said it was the breeder's fault.. anyway, he did replace 4 for me. so after I just lost one. The 3 remaining are doing pretty good. I did mention on the other thread that one of them is getting picked on all the time and hopefully it will go away over time.

I got the new 4 discus from the guy last saturday and they are in the separate tank being monitored. I want to make sure they are not bad or sick before introduce in the main tank. They are also a little small. I try to beef them up with beef heart and brine shrimp 3-4 times a day and change water everyday. The plan is to wait for 2-3 weeks to see what happens.

Thanks