My girlfriend got me an early x-mas present...

I know that impulse buys are not always the best thing, but I aim to do the best I can to care for my beautiful new addition to my aquarium. I'm speaking, of course, of a stunning 3" pigeon blood discus. I know some of you may be thinking "they need to be in a school" or "a 55g tank isn't big enough for a discus..." or even "take it back to the store," but I intend to care for the little guy and see how well he does. I always aim to maintain pristine water conditions, and having a discus now will only exacerbate that. As I'm sure I've mentioned on a few threads now, my water params are 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite, 5.0 nitrate, 7.2 ph, 82-84 degrees farenheit. I'm going to bump the water. I will likely bump the heater slightly so that the tank stays around 84-85 degrees farenheit, but is there anything else you guys can recommend I do to help take care of the little guy? I'm going to be doing 15% daily pwc's, feeding (thawed) frozen blood worms twice a day, and getting a few more plants. My lfs has some pennywort, which I've been wanting for a long time, so I'll probably go get some tomorrow. Well, since I've gone ahead and told you about him, I figure I should at least let you all see what the new little guy looks like. Enjoy the pictures.

I think I used a flash on this one... made him look a little pale








This was taken with my good macro lens... I was at f3.5 (not enough light since its 180mm focal length) so there is a decent bit of bokeh, but the picture clarity is MUCH nicer than the ones I took with my cheapo canon lens.


The colors are slightly off... now that my driftwood has leeched some tannins into the tank, the water is slightly golden, but I believe this fairly accurately captures what I am able to see.

Lupin said:

I'd aim for a barebottom tank at this moment and frequently feed it and maintain the tank. Nice fish.

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As much as I'd love to be able to provide that for the fish, I only just switched the tank over to sand, and have no desire to dredge it all back out to have to put it all back in. I understand that this may create a lot more work for myself, but I'm up to the challenge.

I also acknowledge that I'm kinda leaving myself open for bashing, as discus are schooling fish and I don't feel I have the room for a school of them, however, I will be adapting my tank a bit more to cater to its needs. I'm going with more plants, removing some of the fish I have, and going to stick with mainly cory's, harlequins, cardinals, my angel, and my discus. (I will likely keep my clown loaches for a little while longer too, but I don't want to stunt their growth)

It might be a long shot, but like I said, I'm going to do everything I can to care for this new addition to my tank. Do you agree with 15% daily pwc? Should I bump that up to 20%? I know its not really conducive to strong plant growth, but I do want to make sure my water is absolutely pristine. As it is, I over filter by quite a bit, and focus mainly on biological media in my filters. (XP3 and Emperor 400, full liter of Seachem Matrix in my filters) I believe I have also mentioned that I keep live plants. (hornwort, anubias, and melon swords)

destined_love7 said:

It's beautiful!

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My thoughts exactly when I saw it... When my girlfriend told me she wanted to get it for me for x-mas (she was going to surprise me with a fish in a bag one day, but decided that was not wise... thank goodness...) I had a tough time saying no. I went into it knowing fully well that I couldn't provide a school of them, but depending on how this one goes, I very well might be willing to get 2-3 more, and just go with cardinals, discus, and cory's. As it is, I've had a hard time keeping my eyes off of the tank... constantly watching to see what my new discus is up to and how it is interacting with the other fish around it.

destined_love7 said:

I love getting new fish. I have to stop myself all the time. I just like to see how the new guys interact with everyone else.

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Its addicting, no? My biggest problem is my inability to have more than my 55g tank. Its sad... but my folks have laid down the law on this one. I'm 21 and currently living at home... still hoping to change that some time soon, but even then I won't just go out and buy a whole bunch of tanks. No way in heck am I going to set up a lot of tanks in an apartment, only to have to relocate them a matter of months later. I'll just have to be patient until I own my own place, then I can really get cranking with the monster tanks. Project 300g shall come to fruition! :grinyes:

Anyone else have an opinion on what I mentioned earlier about having 3-4 discus in a 55g tank as the primary inhabitants? Its a serious consideration of mine... and depending on how well this one does, I just might go for it. I've always enjoyed watching discus on youtube and the such... now I actually get to watch my own discus. I'm practically like a kid in a candy store. :silly:

tanker said:

It looks a little skinny. I would try and vary it's diet--Blood worms, mysis, beefhearts, tubiflex, ect.

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I agree... and I did my best to select the healthiest looking fish in the tank. The lfs owner had 3 other discus in the tank, this was the largest and looked to be fed the best. It was kinda bossing the other 3 around too, so I was hoping that going for a naturally dominant fish might help it stand a chance in a new environment. What is your take on Discus and krill? I have blood worms and krill on hand, but plan to go buy some beef heart tomorrow morning.