Latest discus project

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thecarl

Member
So, on a quest to try a different secret to growing out discus, I've set up a 20 gallon long with a Cascade HOB 300 and a sponge filter powered by a little power head. I did some reading and saw that some people have better luck growing out discus in a small tank, the idea given not letting them swim to much and having enough discus to prevent too distinct of a pecking order. Burning less calories.

I've got an auto feeder that was feeding hikari discus pellets but they wern't so crazy about that. Trying Sera Discus pellets now and they love it a lot. I've only got one problem, probably due to excessive light and no plants. Lots of hair algae, I'm going to research ways to control that and build a low light led lamp for this tank. It has a finnex planted plus on it right now, probably way to much light for a bare bottom tank.

Here's a picture for this month, I'm going to take monthly pictures to track their growth progress.

IMG_1257-X2.jpg
 
discus_2013

discus_2013

Well-Known Member
Not to sure I like this idea, just the space restraints, how big do you plan on growing them before they get into a bigger tank?
 
discus_2013

discus_2013

Well-Known Member
Also do you worry about a taxing bio load, with auto feeding and a small tank with that many fish, I have never heard of this before.
 
L190

L190

Well-Known Member
It has been a while since I raised discus but I have heard of using smaller tanks to raise them. The smaller tank helps them find food easier so they don't spend much energy looking for food, but I'm not sure about using a 20 long to house 7 discus to do this. It sounds like you'll have to do daily water changes and monitor them very closely to make sure they aren't stressed.
 
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thecarl

Member
Yeah, I'll be moving them to the big tank soon, a 75 gallon. I've been able to get away with doing water changes about once every 3-4 days (30-50% or so). I test the water daily to check for nitrates and ammonia, with all the filter capacity I put on it, things are actually holding up, been doing changes based on when nitrates get to about 20ppm. They were a lot smaller I'll note only 3 weeks ago.
 
DMD123

DMD123

Administrator
Staff member
Contributing Member Level III
Interesting experiment. I think I've read that this process is also used with fish like arowana that benefit from a tighter grow out tank when younger. Looking forward to your updates.
 
Betty

Betty

Well-Known Member
Staff member
I don't know anything about raising discus or that type of algae, but it sure is cool looking. :punk:
 
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thecarl

Member
Yup, algae is getting fixed. To many phosphates in the tank, which is expected when you're feeding that many fish. Most of the algae is gone now. They're all happy except that brown one, he hasn't been happy since day one though. He'll eat one or two blood worms and then he's done.
 
T

thecarl

Member
Picked most of them up at Denny's Pet world during their anniversary sale. Couple are from Aquarium Co-Op. The co-op ones were originally in the 75 gallon with the other three large discus for the past couple months but weren't growing much there so I added them to this school to see how they do. So far two out of three are growing much faster now. The third one is over 2 years old so I don't think he's going to grow at all.
 
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thecarl

Member
I decided to be a little more frequent than once a month, here's tonight's photo. Also, added 4 more discus from Mac's Discus (I wanted to have a good selection to choose from for colors). It was good to see Steve and chat with him for a while. I've gotten discus from him here and there for at least a decade now.

Here's the tank set up before I added the new 4 discus. They are growing really fast considering it's only been a couple of weeks. You can probably see in the photos the filtration system I have going on, it's working pretty good.
IMG_1264-2545x1909.jpg


Here's the school with the 4 new one's added. The experiment continues :)
IMG_1271-2545x1909.jpg


Tank parameters continue to be stable, nitrates start to build up at about day 4 or day 5 after a water change to around 20ppm before I do a water change. Also I snuck in a couple of flag fish and albino bristle nose pleco's to help clean up the algae. Also in the works, building a 3 watt LED light so I can take this planted plus off and cut down on algae growth more. Discus like less light anyway.
 
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thecarl

Member
Yes, I don't have a photo right now but I'll get one up here in a week. Fish are all about 4" now only two are smaller because they didn't eat right away for a couple weeks when I first got them even at that, they are around 3". I just moved them all to the 75 gallon community today and set them up on two eheim feeders so they get fed every 2 hours automatically. Still on Sera discus pellets, they love them. I also feed them frozen blood worms in the evenings. The 20 gallon got to the point where I had to do twice a week 200% water changes just to maintain nitrate levels below 40ppm, the bigger problem was all my bio sponges were getting clogged daily. 75 gallon at present has a Fluval 406 and FX6 canisters, hopefully that's enough bio capacity for these guys as they continue growing. Still doing daily water tests to make sure nothing crazy happens. Keeping tank temperature at 87°F now, they were at 90°F in the 20 gallon.

In conclusion, I can say that the growing out trick in a small tank works. It was suggested to graduate them from the 20 after they reached 4 inches from Steve at Mac's Discus, so following his advice to see where it gets me. In 6 months these guys should be pretty close to fully grown.
 
MattArmstrong

MattArmstrong

Member
Good to hear! I've been researching discus, mostly on simplydiscus.com, and it is refreshing to hear a story that hasn't ended in mysterious deaths. It seems all too common.
 
T

thecarl

Member
MattArmstrong said:
Good to hear! I've been researching discus, mostly on simplydiscus.com, and it is refreshing to hear a story that hasn't ended in mysterious deaths. It seems all too common.
Click to expand...

Yep, in my case, I usually know what kills them. Last two times I've lost discus it was due to drowning. Tank didn't have enough dissolved oxygen to keep them alive overnight. My 75 gallon has so little surface agitation for c02 injection that at night it runs out of oxygen if I don't have a power head or air stone running. Last time I lost one was because my power head became clogged.
 
dleblanc

dleblanc

New Member
If you're not too far away, I have a dissolved oxygen meter I can bring over. I'm in Monroe. Almost all my discus came from Steve - he's a good guy, and I'm happy with how my fish turned out. Personally, I'd do more water changes., but you're measuring your parameters, and 20 ppm is about where I draw the line, too.
 
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thecarl

Member
Yep, Monroe isn't to far away, I think it's about a 20 minute drive in good traffic from here. I go out to gold bar a lot since I have relatives up that way. Cory tested my water for me a while back and it appears dissolved oxygen is fine during the day when the plants are pearling, it's at night that I have to watch out for. (I live only about 2 miles from his store). Right now I'm starting to suspect I'm dealing with gill flukes or other parasites, two of them are kind of breathing heavy but everyone else is fine. Tank parameters are in good shape.
 
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