# Discus development (load warning pics)



## Dutch Dude (Sep 14, 2006)

Hi there,

I respond to quit some posts on the SA board so now it is time to share some of my fish with all of you.

Back in the end of may 2008 I bought some youngsters red/turquase Stendker Discus. This is the first time discus for me. People say they are delicate but with proper care they realy aren't. The hardest job is to keep the water clean especially during grow out and the heavy beefheart feedings. Here a pic of the fish a day after their arrival. The tank doesn't look to hot but it is my QT and grow out tank and not a display tank.










Next image is of the same fish at 15 July a couple of weeks after they were transferred to the display tank. Back then the tank looked nice with healthy large Echinodorus and lots of floating plants. Later on I discovered lots of food particles get stuck inbetween the floating plants and the Echinodorus didn't do so well at the higher temps and the lack on nutritions (no plant substrate) and low light levels.










The following pic is of 4 of the fish back in October. They started to look more and more like adults and started to defelop nice paterns and colors.










Here pics of today. They are all around 5 1/2 inch TL at the age of 12 months and still have abouth a year to grow. Growth will be slowely but some might eventually reach the 7 inch TL. The plants are smaler on this pic but good thing is that the fish are larger :wink:



















If you like you can leave a comment or add a pic of your (red/turquase) Discus.


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## edburress (Jun 9, 2007)

Ruurd, really beautiful discus :thumb:

It is nice to see pictures that show their development and growth. Their quality of care is evident. Thanks for sharing Ruurd!

Ed


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## DiscusQueen (Jul 16, 2007)

Hi. Beautiful looking discus. :drooling: 
I remember reading your posts about wanting to try them and thinking if I can do it and get them to grow and spawn, can't wait to see what you would do. Great job :thumb: :thumb: Congrats on the progress and I'm sure they will continue to thrive under your care.. Sue.


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## Ape-Fish (Jul 1, 2006)

:thumb: They look happy!


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## rickztahone (Nov 5, 2008)

great looking Stendker's. i like your display tank, looks nice. is that silica sand? is it difficult to maintain it clean? i am about to go BB on my 125 and my 55 QT tank due to gravel being too difficult and time consuming to clean. hopefully i can put an order in from Kenny to fill up my QT tank :thumb:


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## DeadFishFloating (Oct 9, 2007)

Awesome Stendker's Ruurd! :thumb:

I like the aquascaping on the tank as well.


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## gage (Feb 7, 2007)

well, i know what i am thinking about turning my 90 into if my flowerhorn doesnt make it through whatever it has.


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## jcushing (Apr 6, 2008)

looks great, why dont you post up your water and feeding regimen...


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## Dutch Dude (Sep 14, 2006)

Wow,....I'm overwhelmed by the nice comments and questions. Thank you all for the nice words! I will try to answer the questions.

Ed,....unfortunately the pics don't display the size of the fish very well but I received them at barely 3 inch. Now they have grown to 5 1/2 inch. The smallest (not so great looking) fish is just nipping the 5 1/2 inch (last pic, the one on the right) and the largest is 6 inch (last pic, in the midle close to the substrate). It was great to see their development and knowing that all the effort payed off.

Sue,...thanks for the nice comment. I indeed mentioned I would like to have some discus a long time ago. Back then all the stories that they are so delicate hold me back. Now I know discus aren't diferent to most other cichlids but they are definitely more work (to keep the tank clean). I'm glad Larry (apistomaster) talked me into discus. He was my learning master as well and I could not have found a better one becouse he keeps and breeds Discus for over 4 decades. I don't have the intention to become a breeder but when I have the chance I definitely want to have the experience to grow out some spawns. Lets see if I'm skilled enough and if the fish will spawn for me. Current plans are to set up a 50 gallon (European measures) tank with a larger in-tank filter and put a pair of Alenquer in there. I plan on growing up youngsters of 2 inch and wait until they pair up. Quit a challenge to go.  How are your discus doing Sue?

Ape-fish,.....I hope so but the colors are bright and strong so this should indicate they feel OK.

Peter,....thanks mate! The aquascape is simple and not to difficult to keep clean and the DIY background definitely helps to keep the tank nice. The first aqua scape on the second pic was more my style but unfortunately it was to hard to keep it clean enough with all the floating plants. I think I have found a nice compromise.

Gage,...your flowerhorn is ill? Thats bad news! Did you already made a post on the illnes board?

Jcushing,.....Over the time I keep the discus the water changing and feeding regime is changed quit a bit. When discus are still small they grow the fastest and need a lot of feedings (at least 7 a day). I start feeding a lot of beefheart blend. This food was from Stendker Germany and the same they feed their fish. Discus Hans is arranging to make the Stendker beefheart availeble for the US market as well. The drawback of beefheart is that it makes the water dirty very quickly. This and the large number of feeds require daily water changes of at least 50% but I did 70% for the first3 months or so. After that the fish slowed down in growth (they do at 4+inch) and I started to feed more and more bloodworms and artemis. Gradually I could bring the water changes back to every other day 70%.

Currently my fish still have a good apatite. I no longer feed the beefheart and added Tetra discus granules to their diet. I feed them 2 small feeds of the Tetra granules, and 3 feeds with bloodworms or artemis (all frozen foods) and several times a week they receive live foods like Daphnia or live artemis. This time a year live bloodworms aren't availeble over here. The fish still receive 5 feedings and I will continue until their apatite starts to decrease and they reached the maximum size. In the future I will only have to feed 2 to 3 times a day. Right now the water changes are 2 times a week 65% and almost every day a quick siphoning of the substrate to take out the poo. Those small cleanings are only lasting 20 minutes and abouth 12 gallon so not to time consuming. Right now they are still quit a bit work but that will decrease when they become adults and full grown.

Rickztahone,....the sand is fine river sand from a Dutch river the Maas. It is close to playsand but does have a larger grain and contains very small gravel particles. I mixed in some very fine gravel as well of grain size 1/10 inch to give it a natural look. If you want to grow out discus I do suggest a BB tank! I did it with a very fine layer of sand but a BB tank makes it so much easier to clean. Once the fish are around the 5 inch you could add the sand. Best is to use a very thin layer of abouth 1/3 inch. The poo will be on top of the sand so not to difficult to clean and the thin layer prevents build up of dirt and gasses. It isn't to difficult to keep it clean but does require more time as a BB tank. If you like it easy and simply you could go BB, and if you don't mind to put in some extra time you can go with a very fine sand layer. In my opinion gravel and discus is a no go. The dirt will be trapped inbetween the gravel and it will be very hard to keep it clean enough. Most of the dirt will be on top of the sand and much easier to get ride of. You could put some plants in pots or make a terrace at the back to put the plants in. You could also go for driftwood in stead of the plants and that definitely easier to maintain. Larry uses poolfilter sand for his tanks. A 125 tank is great for a nice group of 8 discus! What type of discus will be in there?

Thanks for all your nice comments.


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## rickztahone (Nov 5, 2008)

Dutch Dude said:


> Rickztahone,....the sand is fine river sand from a Dutch river the Maas. It is close to playsand but does have a larger grain and contains very small gravel particles. I mixed in some very fine gravel as well of grain size 1/10 inch to give it a natural look. If you want to grow out discus I do suggest a BB tank! I did it with a very fine layer of sand but a BB tank makes it so much easier to clean. Once the fish are around the 5 inch you could add the sand. Best is to use a very thin layer of abouth 1/3 inch. The poo will be on top of the sand so not to difficult to clean and the thin layer prevents build up of dirt and gasses. It isn't to difficult to keep it clean but does require more time as a BB tank. If you like it easy and simply you could go BB, and if you don't mind to put in some extra time you can go with a very fine sand layer. In my opinion gravel and discus is a no go. The dirt will be trapped inbetween the gravel and it will be very hard to keep it clean enough. Most of the dirt will be on top of the sand and much easier to get ride of. You could put some plants in pots or make a terrace at the back to put the plants in. You could also go for driftwood in stead of the plants and that definitely easier to maintain. Larry uses poolfilter sand for his tanks. A 125 tank is great for a nice group of 8 discus! What type of discus will be in there?
> 
> Thanks for all your nice comments.


i plan on getting some eruptions and some blue snakeskins. maybe a couple of 3R's. haven't made up my mind yet. i will indeed do the BB in the 55. i will get rid of the gravel over time in my 125


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## blairo1 (May 7, 2006)

Ruurd bud, nice to see a thread from you. I was wondering just the other day how you and your fish were doing, those Discus look pretty **** good to me, nice aquascape as well. They've rocketed along! Those colours are beautiful!

Good work.

Any other feesh you can update us on?


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## CHK (Jan 12, 2007)

Beautiful fish Ruurd! I am where you were: afraid that the fish would be fragile. However, reading your post, I am not able at this time to change the water every day. My hat's off to you. :thumb:


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## Dutch Dude (Sep 14, 2006)

Rickzahone,... I personally don't like the gathering of diferent color strains in one tank but some combinations are interesting like Alenquer X Santarem, RedTurq X Brilian Tuq and I expect the Eruptions and blue snakeskin would be a very interesting mix! Two fish with a diferent color but matching paterns. Good choice in my opinion! 
:thumb:

Blair bud,....long time no see! How are you doing my friend? Thanks for the nice comment! Well I have not much new fish to share except for the Discus. I took down the Apisto breeding tank after a successful spawn and put the parents and the youngsters in the Discus tank and Guianacara tank. I plan on taking the Bolivian tank down. I hope you don't be upset abouth it, haha! After almost 10 years I became bored of them. I bought 2 batches, artificially raised fry, and have had parent bread youngsters that also spawned. They become bored to me becouse there aren't many secrets left any more if it comes to Bolivians. Time for a new challenge,.....turning the Bolivian tank in to a 50 gallon display tank for 1 pair Alenquer or Santarem discus with the possibility of spawning them. Blair,...discus do have the magic and are definitely addicting! How are you bud and what fish projects are you working on?

CHK,.....Discus aren't fragile as long as you stick to some rules. Most important is the water qualety. Abouth the daily water changes,....I do only 2 times a week a large wc of 65% and almost everyday a very small one of only 4 buckets so I can siphon the poo from the substrate. Those small water changes take only 15 to 20 minutes. Growing out youngsters is a diferent storey and realy a lot of work. I don't know what the reason is you can't do the daily wc's but have you considered to buy large fish of 5 inch or even adults? You won't have to worry abouth growth and you don't have to spend a lot of time on feeding and water changes. The only drawback on buying adults is the price of the fish. But,....growing out discus does cost a lot as well,....lots of feed and a increasing water bill when you do a daily wc of 70%. At the end it probably doesn't make a huge diference.


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