Double Spawn

The previous evening Blue Turquoise was pecking at the wall and practiced going vertically. I waited for the trail of eggs to follow but saw none. I thought maybe BT was just practicing laying eggs since it is the smallest one of all the discus; it could be too young to have eggs. But now I know for sure that BT is female.

This evening, I checked on BT and it was still hanging around the same area of the wall. I looked closely and saw a patch of eggs on the wall! BT has spawn!  I observed to see if a male was nearby. Blue Diamond was around but not too close. Maybe the area was too small to have both parents hanging around. Currently Blue Diamond takes turn guarding the eggs with Blue Turquoise. They did not eat the eggs, just watching them closely.
 
The eggs look amber this time around. I don't know if that means BD has fertilized the eggs. I missed that action. I'm a little worried how the patch is near the filter, there is a big chance they will be sucked into the filter pipe. At this point, I can only let nature takes it course. I plan to leave the night light on for them tonight, in hope to help the parents guard the eggs. Let see what will become of this spawn by next morning.

Since Sunday, I have removed Pigeon Blood from the display tank, and kept it in the small QT tank as a timeout. Pigeon has twice eaten Yellow's eggs. It is an alpha male,so it dominates the display tank. I thought maybe a timeout, is what it needs.  Without Pigeon Blood, there is one less threat to the eggs being eaten. 

Blue Turquoise and Blue Diamond takes turn guarding eggs.

 

Late the same night, Yellow discus spawned on the cone, but her eggs were immediately eaten by Blue Diamond.

 

 

Yellow and Blue Spawn

It was late Saturday night when I arrived home to find another exciting experience. I was away for 12  hours and the display tank's light didn't get turned on. The first thing I did when I entered the house was to give Hanna a hug. Then I immediately went to the main tank to turn on the lights to check on the fish. To  my surprise, there was a batch of eggs on a Anubis leaf! At this point, I did not know which discus has laid the eggs or who was its partner since the spawning was over. I sat on the couch and observed, hoping I could figure out the answer.
So it seemed that it was Yellow again who laid the eggs. Sometimes I see Pigeon Blood came by to eat the eggs. But Blue Diamond was always near the eggs and Yellow, even when Pigeon Blood left the area. Could it be Yellow and Blue Diamond this time? Pigeon blood is the fattest discus in the tank and so it is the alpha. It is not afraid of Blue Diamond, it roams wherever it wants, and no one dares to fight it away. Pigeon Blood is the big bully, it bullies Blue Diamond everyday. Sometimes I see Blue Diamond has pecking marks on one side caused by Pigeon Blood. There were times when Blue Diamond fought back but then lost and left.
Unfortunately, the eggs did not get fertilized and were eaten again this time, either by Pigeon Blood or Yellow herself. I think Blue Diamond is trying to protect the eggs. They must be observed a few more times to find out who could be a better male, the one that one day know how to fertilize.

DIY Aquarium Filter

Made an aquarium filter today for the breeder tank, thanks to YouTube King of DIY video on how to make it.  I want another biological filter in the breeder tank  in case the time come when I need to turn off the HOB filter.

My first DIY project.

Equipments:
Choice of media filter: my choice are ceramic rings
A plastic bottle
A drill
An airline tube
2 heater suction cups
A piece of thick sponge

Directions:
Rinse the plastic bottle clean.
Rinse the ceramic rings.
Open the cap and fill it up with your choice of filter media.
Drill a few holes in the cap and a few holes at the bottom of the bottle.
Close the cap.
Drill two holes for the suction cups, one near the top, one near the bottom of the bottle.
Insert the suction cup's nub into the hole. 
Drill a small hole near the cap that the airline tube can fit.
Put the airline into the hole above.
Cut the sponge into a small size you like and cut a thin opening enough to fit on the cap.
Place the sponge on the cap.
Place filter in the corner of the aquarium.
Connect the airline to the air pump
Turn on the air pump.

Spawning in the Display Tank

It's Valentine's Day and suddenly out of the blue I noticed my Yellow and Pigeon Blood spawning in the display tank! This is the happiest experience to date! The unexpected pair got together who knows when and the yellow discus laid eggs on the driftwood. Sadly followed by the Pigeon Blood eating all the eggs! So the pecking order I observed the other day was actually a sign these two are pairing off. It's so amazing to see for the very first time in real life discus laying eggs, in front of my very own eyes! Unfortunately Pigeon Blood did not fertilize the eggs, but instead it eats them all! Yellow helps eat the eggs too.

I suspect three possibilities why the parents ate the eggs:
1. The spawning happens in the community tank. With so many threats, the parents don't feel safe for their youngs so they rather gobble them up.
2. The parents are first time parents and due to inexperience, they don't know the right thing to do with the eggs.
3. Perhaps pigeon blood is a also a female, since it is the alpha of the tank, it wants to claim Yellow for itself, for a caviar meal. 

The Pecking Order

With Yellow being the newest member of the discus show tank, a pecking order has been observed. 

The Pigeon Blood bullies the Blue Diamond. 

The Yellow bullies the Blue Turquoise. 

This pecking order seems to lessen after the yellow discus spawn on Valentine's Day.

Discus Feeding Time

Today the yellow discus is released from quarantine to the main tank.
It is flakes day.  Here is a video of the feeding. The yellow discus is still new to the main tank and still a bit shy.

Flashback

I found videos of my fish tanks back in 2009. Thought I share them:

This video has my silver arowana.

These are videos of the discus I had in 2009, my first introduction to discus fish.

 

Discus Food

These are the food I feed my discus and other fishes in the tank. The frozen food are treats, once or twice a week. The dry food are the daily food, alternate between the flakes and the granules.

Frozen blood worms and frozen beef hearts are treats once or twice a week.
Cobalt Discus Flakes, the flakes are big and everyone seems to like them.
Tetra Granules, they are slow sinking granules and all fish like them.
Sinking Wafers are for the bottom feeders, such as the corycats and the clown loaches

Tetra Granules feeding day, and of course some sinking wafers for the bottom feeders.

Water Change

This is how I currently do my water changes for the main display tank:

Equipments:
-Aqueon Water Changer
-10gal container glued on a dolly
-heater
-airstone
-Prime (water conditioner)
-Eheim Water Pump 1000 connected to a 5ft 5/8 hose

PREPARING TAP WATER
1. Filling the 10gal container with tap water from the sink using the Aqueon water changer.
2. Put in enough Prime for 10 gal of tap water
3. Use an air stone to keep the water aerated
4. Have a heater in the barrel, but only turn it on the night before the water change.
5. Let the water age for at least 24 hours.

 Filling the container with tap water using the Aqueon water changer.

Condition the water with Prime, aerate with airstone. Age for at least 24 hours.

WATER CHANGE
1. Vacuum and take out 10 gal of old water from aquarium.
2. Using Eheim 1000 water pump, pump the 10 gal of aged water from the container back to the tank.

Vaccum and take out old water from the main tank using the Aqueon water changer.

 

Pump back the 10 gal of aged water from the container back to the tank. Made ease thanks to the Eheim water pump

Discus Pair Moved Back In

The breeder tank water parameters tested good. The discus pair is to move back in today. They were constantly being bullied by the Blue Diamond in the big tank while their breeder tank was under renovation. When I caught them in the net, they flipped violently and scraped their skin a bit. It was painful to see them hurt themselves like that. I hope it wasn't traumatic. This is why I do not like to move fish back and forth if possible. I do hope this is the last move. Keeping my fingers crossed the water will stay good.
After a short while in the breeder tank, I noticed the pair have much less stress marks and are swimming well. I assume this means they are much happier in their own tank now that the water is good. Ammonia and Nitrite = 0, PH=7, Nitrate= 5.0 ppm.  I fed them a little bit of frozen blood worms.

Quarantine Tank

I decided to use the 15gal columnar tank as a quarantine/hospital tank. Initially I used it to age water with the HOB filter, an air stone, and a heater running. One day I tested the aged water and noticed a nitrite spike. Nitrite is the second phase of the nitrogen cycle so that means the nitrogen cycle somehow has started in the the tank. Perhaps because of the running filter. To confirm this, I tested the water straight from tap and nitrite shows up negative. At this point, I can't use the water in there to do water change because of the nitrite. I think it is best to let the tank  finished its cycle and use it for a quarantine/hospital tank. I sped up the cycle with Tetra SafeStart Plus and place a sponge filter in there to enhance the biological filtration. Tested the tank 7 hours later to find the the nitrite has disappeared and now with a little bit of nitrate. The cycle is complete.
It should be safe to add fish.

ACCLIMATING NEW FISH
Floated the bag for 30 minutes,
Opened the bag to mix some of the tank water in.
Let it float for another 10 minutes,
Added more tank water into the bag and waited a few more minutes.
Released the fish.
All steps with the tank light off.

As part of the quarantine process, I dosed the QT with ParaGuard. This doesn't stain the water or alter the PH.  ParaGuard supposedly help clear any parasite or ich a new fish might have.

 My quarantine tank set up: bare bottom with HOB filter, a sponge filter, a heater, and a fake plant to help the fish feel safe. 

New yellow discus in quarantine, 2/7/2015

Tank Updates

Yesterday I went to Aquarium City, a local fish store to check out their new plant shipment. I got some Italian Vals to plant in the back as curtain. It's been a while since I last purchased any plants. I think the lights that came with the tank are not strong enough for plants, especially those that need more light than the low light plants.Now that I moved the breeder light stick over to the big tank, I feel there should be enough light for plant growth. So let's give the Vals a try and see.

For the breeder tank, I got it a new background. I learned discus likes green, especially I want to make the breeder tank as comfortable as I can for the pair. Also I toss in a bag of gravel in the tank, hoping it can help accumulate the good bacteria without having to scatter the gravel all over the tank bottom, as it is recommended to have bare bottom tank for breeding discus.

Aggressive Algae Eater

Another issue I noticed in the big tank is that the albino algae eater sometimes sucks on the slim coat of the the discus. If this persists, the discus slim coat will be eaten away.  or the discus sake, the algae eater must be removed. I plan to bring it back the store.

Bullying in the Main Tank

While waiting for my breeder tank to cycle, the pair is moved to main tank along with the other discus. Good thing is the pair is healthy and disease free.
The Blue Diamond particularly bullies the pair. The other discus doesn't seem to care. The smaller one of the pair has to constantly guard the bigger one.  At this point I don't know which one is a male or female until they spawn. The Blue Diamond starts the fight. They locked lips quite a few times a day. I am worried that the fighting will stress out the couple. They haven't eaten yet since the move. They need their own space.The breeder tank is now cycled and I just did little water change to bring down the nitrate. I will move the couple back to the breeding tank on Sunday when the big tank is due for a water change.

Breeder Tank Ammonia Spike

So I tried to please the pair by feeding them from frozen blood worms, dry blood worms, to frozen beef hearts. I even got GarlicGuard to help increase their appetite. But the pair are very slow eaters. Maybe they are still getting used to their new home. They never finished any of the food I give them. In the end I have to vacuum out the leftover, either give it to the big tank or throw away. Any waste I see at the bottom was vacuumed out right away. Then one day, the water seemed cloudy and I decided to test the breeder tank water. Ammonia is light green. My first thought is to use the Nitra-Zorb bag insert in the HOB filter. Nitr-Zorb suppose to help remove ammonia and nitrate.

     The following day, I tested the water again and I still see some ammonia. I changed out 3gal of water and waited for the next day to test again. Still light green. So I decided to use Ammo-Lock to detoxify the ammonia. That was when the problem got worse.
     Ammo-Lock detoxifies Ammonia temporary for 24 hours so that the bacteria can catch up to eating up the ammonia. Ammonia will still test positive and results even more green on the Ammonia test. I put in some Ammo-Lock every other day but the test keeps showing dark green! Dark green is off the chart and is considered extremely toxic! How could this be? The ammonia is testing worse after it being detoxified by Ammo-Lock? I did an 80% water change; the next day ammonia still tested dark green! I get really worried because I cannot figure out the cause. Yet I am running out of ways to possibly solve this problem.

On top of that the PH dropped to 6.0! If the water is too acidic, the good bacteria will have a hard time to accumulate. I over dose the tank with stability, hoping to speed up the biological filter, but still the ammonia test still show dark green.
     This went on for 4 days. The pair somehow seemed normal. They swim normal and breath normal. How could this be when the Ammonia is tested 8.0? Base on the result, there is more than enough ammonia to wipe out the whole tank!
    So I did a little late night research on Ammo-Lock. Someone had the same problem and the cause of the false reading is Ammo-Lock!  Ammo-Lock bonds to the ammonia and converts it to a less toxic version. It is so potent, it will always yield the false dark green reading on the Ammonia test. What can I do to get rid of both Ammonia and Ammo-Lock? To get my true reading again?
    There is one very last thing to try.....change 100% of the breeder tank water. This is the only way to get rid of the Ammo-Lock trace.  But that means I will have to  recycle the tank again. I overdosed the tank with bacteria hoping it will speed up cycle. In the meantime, I have to move the pair to the big tank where the water parameters are safe. I have some hesitant moving the pair; I don't want to shock them, but  I cannot have them go through the nitrogen cycle. Of course safety is priority.  The pair was moved to the display tank and the breeder tank started fresh with aged water and was overdosed with Tetra SafeStart.

Breeder Tank

Two days after I brought the snake skin pair, I decided that the 15gal column tank is a bit too small for the two of them, along with the spawning cone. So I went to Petco and got a 20gal tall tank that was on sale. I already have an extra filter and heater, I just need to make a cover for the tank, which I got a plastic screen from Home Depot and cut into the shape I wanted for the tank cover. I set up the breeder tank with most of the water from the established main tank. Moved the Aqueon 55 HOB filter established from the big tank over. In addition, I placed a corner sponge filter in to help the biological filtration. Heater on to 86 degrees Fahrenheit. Dosed the tank with Seachem Stability.  The pair and their spawning cone are ready to move in.

My Fishes

I got most of my discus from Tropical Fish of Garden Grove. The price is good for these Malaysian discus. Another one of my favorite discus store is Total Fish and Pets in Alhambra. This store has high quality Malaysian discus, all trained on pellets! Lot of variety and price is decent. They have Wild discus which doesn't come along often. Highly recommended. Shipment may vary. 

Tropical Fish of Garden Grove, $75  on 5/15/15

Yellow Pigeon 5/17/15 $70 at Total Fish and Pets

Red Melon  5/17/15 $70 at Total Fish and Pets

Supposedly this is the last to my collection. 4in Albino Platinum $150, the most expensive discus of all the ones I have. Purchased 4/17/2015 at Tropical Fish of GG.

 Bought this from a friend, Golden Spotted Discus is a 6in male. $40, such a great deal for this colorful giant. I named him Big Joe.

Got this 5.5' wild discus at Total Fish and Pets for $120. This wild discus is hard to find, especially this one came from the Amazon River.

 

Got this 4' melon red discus on Valentine's Day for $80. Particularly picked the one with the most uniform red. 

This is the first acquired discus. A medium sized turquoise, about 3inches when I brought it home on 11/2/2014. $35

This pigeon blood discus is about 4.5' when I brought it home 11/12/2014. $80

This blue diamond is about 4.5' when I brought it on 12/20/2014. $70

This snake skin pair was purchased unintentionally on 1/17/2015. I came to the store looking for a red discus, came across this pair laying eggs on the wall! I just have to get them! My very first pair!  One is 5 inches, the other one is 4.5 inches. $110 each, $220 for the pair. At this point I don't know which one is a male or female until they spawn.

Got this yellow discus on 2/7/2015. It is about 4 inches; $75.

Got this pigeon blood on 2/28/15 for $80. Suppose to be a yellow pigeon blood.

Got this 5 inch orange discus for $50. It is cheap because it has only one eye. I felt bad for it plus this orange color I don't have yet.

Three Albino Corycats. I heard they are schooling fish so I got three. They are pretty active cleaning the sand and gravel. They were on sale at PetSmart. They make a lively cleanup crew.

 

Three Clown Loaches, about 2in. A must have with discus. Pretty and lively. Good bottom feeder crew.

A friend gave me three 4in Roseline sharks on 3/29/2015.

My Discus Aquarium

My 46 gallon bowl front show tank

Main inhabitants are:
4 adult discus: a blue diamond, a pigeon blood, a red melon, and a blue turquoise discus;
Tankmates:  and a pair of pearl gouramis and 3 blood fin tetras
Clean up crew: 3 clown loaches, 3 albino corycats, 2 chinese algae eaters

Hardscape: a large driftwood, 4 stones, Floramax substrate, and playground sand

Filtration: 700 Penn Plax canister and a corner sponge filter.

Plants: Anubis, Java Fern, a patch of Java Moss

 Lighting: LED lights