Display Tank Update

I tried so hard to not get anymore discus, I know I'm running out of space in the 75g. Anyways, I now have 11 discus in the display tank as of April 2015.

 

 

Tips on Selecting Discus

Below are some general tips on how to select good discus:

- The first step is to observe the discus in your dealer’s tank. Make sure that they are active, curious and are not hiding in the corners. Discus which are stressed or sick turn dark (with the exception of pigeonbloods, ghosts, snow whites and goldens).

- Check for sick or dying fishes in the tank. If so, then avoid picking fishes from the tank.

- Presence of medication in the tank might mean the discus are sick, recovering from a disease outbreak or in quarantine.

- Check for wounds and lesions on the body.

- Make sure that the gill plates are not short or deformed - they should cover the gills completely. Look out for heavy breathing too

- The eyes should be clear. Discus with cloudy eyes and chipped eyes should be avoided.

- Avoid fishes with deformities of the spine.

- The discus should swim in an upright position. Fishes which struggle to do so could be suffering from swim bladder problems or other such ailments.

- Give a thorough check to see if there any external parasites attached to the body of the discus.

- Ask the dealer to feed the discus and observe if they have a healthy appetite. Make sure that the discus were not raised on Tubifex worms as food.

- Observe the feces of the discus. It should not be stringy or white in colour.

- Avoid discus with bellies which look thin or sunken. If so, this is could be due to long periods of starvation or presence of internal parasites. The same criteria applies to foreheads - a healthy discus would have a broad forehead.

- Avoid picking from tanks in which discus have peeling slime coat or the slime coat is absent.

- Ensure that the eye is not too big in proportion to the body. Large eyes could mean that the discus is stunted.

- The discus should have a round shape and should not be triangular or elongated.

- Lookout for hormone treated fish which have adult coloration in the juvenile stage. Juveniles with coloration on their caudal fins and on the tip of their noses are signs of hormone treatment.

- Avoid discus which keep their fins clamped, or with fins that are whitish and frayed.

Some tips which are strain specific:

Blue Diamonds: They shouldn’t show any stress bars on the body or along the eye.

Pigeon Bloods: Avoid Pigeon Bloods with a lot of black specks on the body (peppering). They can be pretty unsightly.

Turquoise: These are generally late coloring. Two inch juveniles with adult patterns usually mean that they are stunted.

Some more tips after you bring your discus home:

- Always quarantine your new discus.

- Avoid mixing discus which were bought from different sources to avoid disease transfer.

- Do not feed Tubifex worms! There is a higher risk of them carrying parasites than other foods you could offer.

- Young discus need to be fed several times a day to maintain good growth.

- Regular water changes help to keep your discus healthy.

- Avoid shotgun treatment for medicating your discus.

Reference Source

Tank Leak Disaster

The morning of March 19^th, 2015, I woke up to the shouting that the house was flooded. I scrambled out of bed to find the area of the fish tank surrounded with water. The tank lost about 20 gallons of water and the filters were starting to make cranking sounds. I quickly gathered all the towels to dry the puddles while looking for the source of the leak. Turned out that the bottom frame of the 75gal cracked into pieces and the water leaked from the back down to the stand and down to the floor. The worst part was that this happened during the night when no one was awake to catch this disaster early.

After drying the water and placed a bucket underneath the leak, I went to PetSmart to look for a new 75gal tank and stand. Luckily I browsed the pet stores often so I knew which store has the 75gal set. Cost of the 75gal tank with glass cover and light hood was $160; the stand cost was $135.  Assembling the stand took the most time.

After the new tank and stand were completed, I had to move all the discus and fishes to the 20gal hospital tank. Using water from the leaking 75g, I filled up the 20gal breeder/hospital tank. Then moved all the fish to the hospital tank one by one in bag.

Friday morning, I set up the new 75gal with as much of the old water I preserved from the leaking 75g. That was about 30 percent of the old water then filled up the rest with new tap water. Conditioned the tank with Prime, lowered the PH with Seachem Acid Buffer and poured in about 180ml of Tetra Safestart nitrifying bacteria into the tank, and ran the canister filter.

Tested the water the next day, and there was sign of low ammonia, but no nitrite. Giving that I was running the mature canister filter, the same sand substrate, and driftwood, I expected the cycle to finish rather quickly.

Sunday March 22^nd, the new 75g was cycled. Ammonia and nitrite tested zero, nitrate was at 2.0. I compared the hospital tank temperature and PH with the new 75gal and they were the same. I felt it was safe to move all the fish over to the new 75gal. 

Tank Upgrade

       Decided it was time for an upgrade from the 46gal aquarium to accommodate all the discus I've collected. Picked up a 75gal rectangular fish tank with stand on Craig's list on Feb 27th 2015. Saturday the next day I began working on setting up the 75.

CHOOSING THE SUBSTRATE
       I chose sand as the substrate this time around. Sand brighten up the tank as it reflects the light. As for plants growth I will be using root tabs and Flourish Excel (liquid CO2) to help promote their growth. 
       After some research on the two kinds of aquarium sand: playground sand and pool filtered sand. It is recommended that pool filter sand is a better choice. It is much cleaner than playground sand, and less finer, which means they would less likely be sucked into the gravel vacuum.

WASHING POOL FILTERED SAND
Fill up half the bucket with sand. Tilt the bucket at an angel so the sand is an inch away from falling out of the bucket. Use a hose, no nozzle to run water through the sand until the water runs clear. Amazingly, it wasn't that long until the water runs clear! This would take forever if it was playground sand!

Sprayed painted the stand with black.

Used 1/3 cup of vinegar and 1/2 gal of water as cleaning solution. The solution is safe for cleaning aquarium. Use a razor to scrape the residues off the glass. This will not scratch the glass.  After cleaning was done, hose down the tank one final time.

Washed a 50lb bag of pool filtered sand I bought from Leslie's Pool Supplies.

Put the clean pool filtered sand in the tank.

Fill the tank with tap water using the Aqueon water changer.  Place a plate between the hose and the sand to avoid sand disruption. Add Prime and Acid Buffer to condition the water. After the tank is filled, I pour about 200ml of Tetra SafeStart beneficial bacteria to kick off the nitrogen cycle.

Treatment: Intestinal Flagellates/Hexamita

Before the diagnosis, I was getting really worried about the pair's refusal of food. I brought it up to the discus store owner the two times I visited the store. He said if the discus is not eating, treat them with Metro+. The second time he mentioned this medicine I decided it might be a good idea to get it just in case. It has been three weeks that the pair have stopped eating, and my main concern was that they will starve and waste away, which is the terminal stage - death  due to hunger. Whatever it was, I must figure it out soon...very soon.

That Friday evening when I returned home, I decided I should dose the breeder tank with some Metro+, hoping whatever it is, this medicine may help.  It was the next day when I saw the white string feces hanging from the discus's anus that I confirmed they have Intestinal Flagellates or Hexamita.
After constant research on the internet on how to  treat this illness, all sources pointed to one single drug: metronidazole. Now I'm glad I bought the Metro+, because Metro+'s  active ingredient is metronidazole. Bingo.

Metro+ Treatment
There are two ways to administer metronidazole: oral or bath.
Oral: Medicating the food if the fish is still eating (most effective).
Bath: If the fish is not eating, the medicine can be put in the water as a bath.
This antibiotic will be for every 24 hours for a period of 5 - 7 days. Temperature should be raised to 90-93 degrees as the drug is more effective at high temperature. Importantly, 50% of the water must be changed before each dose.
Also the ammonia and nitrite in the hospital tank should be kept at zero. 

That was exactly what I did for the next 7 days, I completely used up the Metro+ bottle that treats 100 gallons. Plus I decreased the water line down to 1/3 less in the 20gal hospital tank to save on medicine. Each day during the 7 days period, I put in a little bit of the medicated frozen blood worms to see if any of the three are eating, but sadly they refused to eat. That was fine, because I have to do a 50% change of water every day before each dosage, which I then vacuumed out the uneaten food. All I can do now is wait until things starting to turn around. Part of the treatment process are monitoring the feces and feeding sparingly to see if they will start eating. I hope I caught this sickness early enough to save these three or lessen the mortality rate.

In the mean time, I moved some gravel from the display tank to the breeder tank hoping to fight off ammonia. Since I have to change 50% of the water everyday for the next 7 days, I was having a little bit of ammonia in the hospital tank. I placed the matured gravel in a open container inside the breeder tank to help with the beneficial bacteria growth. This seems to help keep the ammonia at bay.

Day 9th, Yellow and snake skin pair are eating again! I fed them the medicated frozen blood worms soaked with metronidazole and some drops of VitaChem (fish vitamins). They ate when I moved away from sight. From the corner, I observed them...and indeed they ate aggressively! This was such a break through for me! Then I saw from one of the snake skin pair a long thin black feces hanging! Hallelujah! The worst is over! These guys are turning around. I couldn't be happier! Now I just need to keep them hospitalized a little longer so they regain their weight before they can join the display tank. Speaking of which, that's a whole new entry on its own - an upgrade!

Metro + active ingredient: metronidazole

 

Hospital tank set up: Bare bottom, sponge filter one on each side. Bag of gravel and a container of matured gravel as beneficial bacteria bed.

Success! Discus eating and black feces on day 9th of Metro+ treatment!

Discus Hunger Strike

It's was over a month ago when I realized something was wrong with the snake skin pair. I hesitated to write about this experience because I was afraid they weren't going to make it. The pair had stopped eating for about three weeks after their last move to the breeder tank, I thought maybe they were stressed from the multiple moves. Every time I put some frozen blood worms in the breeder tank, I ended up vacuuming the same amount out after a while. Into the third week of their hunger strike that I noticed a white clear string stuck to the filter and one at the bottom of the tank. At first I didn't think much of it until I actually saw the white string mucus like feces hanging from one of the snake skin's anus! Immediately I searched the internet for clues and came to the diagnosis of intestinal flagellates! 

Symptoms:  Your discus may quit eating or spit out its food. White, stringy, mucus-like feces will hang like a thread from the anus.

Some called it Intestinal Flagellates, others called it Hexamita. I can't quite distinguish the difference between the two terms since the symptoms for both are almost identical. 

Hexamita flagellated protozoan found in the gastrointestinal tracts of a variety of cold and warm water fish, including several species of Cichlids.Occasionally hexamita is found in healthy fish. Stress from malnutrition, shipping, over-crowding, or poor water quality may lead to rapid reproduction of the protozoan, resulting in disease.  

As I scrambled to search for a solution, I noticed the same white string feces hanging from Yellow in the display tank! Double trouble! I bagged Yellow and moved her to the breeder tank. In the breeder tank, the pair and Yellow started fighting aggressively. The pair felt their territory was invaded by Yellow. To prevent the three from fighting which will lead to more stress, I used a piece of plastic canvas to divide the tank, separating the pair from Yellow. The breeder tank is now the hospital tank with a sponge filter one on the opposite wall.  I have got to decide on the remedy for this sickness asap.

symptom: hunger strike and white clear string feces

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.