Slug

I mean really bored. They take their SW lighting fixtures they have laying around and ghetto rig them up to their cichlid tanks! Well heres a 55gal fts...its not the planted paradise like some of you have, but with daily water changes i don't want to think how hard that'd be.

96w Quad on left 250w MH right. Discus scared out of their minds LOL.

Shawnie

neat invention..what will you stock it with?

its great seeing before and after pics

Lucy

It looks cool, but I don't think the fish are thrilled. lol

Shawnie look at the left hand side of the tank.

Darlene

Interesting...I hope your fish get used to it.

Shawnie

are those fish on the left? I thought it was a decoration LOL o my!@

Slug

Lol yes those are the discus. I had just done a waterchange so they are freaked out more from that then the lights. I was just playing around. I have kept the 96w on and turned the MH off for the stock lighting....it was just to bright and hot.

Had the nice shimmer going.

Lucy

Oh Shawnie! Between you and I, I don't know who's worse.

Shawnie

is it really live fish? I just saw the line below and WOW are those really live discus? I seriously thought it was deco..poor babies

wondering why you would play around with such beautiful sensitive fish? not to mention the cost if you loose them!

ikevi

They are fine. Heck Discus are much hardier than people give them credit for. Just give them ~50% water change a week. (Once they are older and wont stunt of course). And don't ever take them and put them from high ph to low ph.

Anyways I fully understand the need for bare bottom tanks. (Almost all mine are). And I was just thinking about replacing my bulbs to 50/50...

Are you planning on keeping the lights on during the day?

Shawnie

oh yes, they look fine~!

Angelika

I dont know much about discus, but dont they like plants and such? or is that Im just in awe of MsMTS's discuss tank.... is your tank setup being fair to these scared looking fish?

ikevi

Well they have all their color, they aren't hiding under the filters, it just looks like they were startled... I bet in less than a half an hour they would be swimming around like nothing happened.


As for plants. Well almost all breeders I know never grow their discus in planted tanks. (Now that mine are older I keep them in tanks with potted plants.)

Shawnie

all I can do is shake my head..maybe its been a long week and im just seeing things

Angelika

Im not referring to what breeders do and how they keep them. Im asking about what is natural to the discus in their natural habitat and keeping a fish at home in an aquarium isnt it more humane to attempt to create than environment... Im just a newbie and could of course be completely wrong, however I read this
'Discus are a natural for the planted aquarium as they like to have cover to hide with aquarium plants and therefore are not quite as likely to be skittish.' on this site http://www.freshwateraquariumplants....pe/discus.html

again I could be wrong, but I think sticking a fish in an empty tank with nothing but some lights and filters which is on display in this picture is not attempting to create an envornment for the fish....

Slug

Lol.

Discus are really not the delicate fish people make them out to be. They were major delicate in the 80s and early 90s. Now they are just another FW fish IMO. I have more problems with GBRs then Discus. I find them easy actually. I do daily WCs right now. Look at them they are perfectly fine. They are just grouped up for saftey. They arn't black, fins arn't clamped, not gasping for air in a top corner....they are perfectly fine i assure you.

Discus like plants....to hide behind, any structure for that matter. My philosophy is the less they have to hide behind, the less they hide. Domestic fish don't know a plant from a rock. Its easier to keep them in the water they prefer in a bare tank. Plants just make the discus look pretty. And in all honesty there is a major lack of plants in their wild habitat, just sticks.

And yes they are swimming around now.

Slug

$100 says most fish you get at your LFS are bred in tanks just like this.

ikevi

Agreed. And the reason people don't keep discus with plants till they are older is because it is next to impossible to keep the water clean enough to prevent stunting. (IE big eyes compared to the body, body isn't really round, etc.)

Slug

Yeah, the tank is very hard to clean if well planted. And the wastes just stay in the tank. Barebottom i see the waste and do a WC right then. I'm actually comfortable enough to drink the water out of my discus tank.

The enviornments we provide for our tank bred fish are purely for our eyes to enjoy. Its not needed. Wild fish or F1 fish, sure i can understand. But further down the bloodlines nah, just to please us. If it were true that we should create tanks for our fish, why are all the tanks not biotypes?