Throwing in the towel. 
I lost a discus today, the little yellow one.:cry: I have no idea what happened, the others seem fine.
I reached a conclusion today: I shouldn't keep them anymore. If I had the money to fork out for adults, then I would certainly do so, as I am confident in my abilities to keep them thriving. However, I've learned through much trial and error that juveniles are a whole different ballgame, and it's been a lesson in humility along the way.... I guess sometimes we need a good lesson in humility when we think that we can bend the rules due to our experience level. The truth is, juvenile discus are suited for bare bottom tanks until they hit adolescence, or preferably adulthood. Everyone that told me that was 100% correct. Keeping juveniles in planted community tanks yields stunted fish at best, or at worst, dead ones. At least, that's been my experience with several of them. You simply cannot keep the water quality good enough to grow out juvies in a planted tank.
My other issue is, I stretched myself too thin with 2 other planted tanks, a cichlid tank, and a nano reef. I have found myself unable to keep up with all the maintenance necessary for a discus tank.... unless it comes at the expense of proper maintenance on the others. With a 50 gallon reef on the way, I simply won't be able to do it.
Thus, I've thrown in the towel on discus, at least while I can't afford to buy adults. It was really difficult for me, as I've grown attached to these fish, but today I took the remaining 2 to the LFS where I work part time. I will be back tomorrow to pick up some small angels to grow out in this tank instead- I know that this can be done.
So here ends my journey with discus.... at least for now. Thanks for reading my rant, and for all who are considering keeping these beautiful fish, remember: what you hear about the difficulty of raising juveniles is completely true. Do not cut corners, and if you don't have the time or resources to raise them properly, then please save up for adults.
You'll likely see a "planted angel tank" thread from me tomorrow. Look for it.
I lost a discus today, the little yellow one.:cry: I have no idea what happened, the others seem fine.
I reached a conclusion today: I shouldn't keep them anymore. If I had the money to fork out for adults, then I would certainly do so, as I am confident in my abilities to keep them thriving. However, I've learned through much trial and error that juveniles are a whole different ballgame, and it's been a lesson in humility along the way.... I guess sometimes we need a good lesson in humility when we think that we can bend the rules due to our experience level. The truth is, juvenile discus are suited for bare bottom tanks until they hit adolescence, or preferably adulthood. Everyone that told me that was 100% correct. Keeping juveniles in planted community tanks yields stunted fish at best, or at worst, dead ones.
At least, that's been my experience with several of them. You simply cannot keep the water quality good enough to grow out juvies in a planted tank.My other issue is, I stretched myself too thin with 2 other planted tanks, a cichlid tank, and a nano reef. I have found myself unable to keep up with all the maintenance necessary for a discus tank.... unless it comes at the expense of proper maintenance on the others. With a 50 gallon reef on the way, I simply won't be able to do it.
Thus, I've thrown in the towel on discus, at least while I can't afford to buy adults. It was really difficult for me, as I've grown attached to these fish, but today I took the remaining 2 to the LFS where I work part time. I will be back tomorrow to pick up some small angels to grow out in this tank instead- I know that this can be done.
So here ends my journey with discus.... at least for now. Thanks for reading my rant, and for all who are considering keeping these beautiful fish, remember: what you hear about the difficulty of raising juveniles is completely true. Do not cut corners, and if you don't have the time or resources to raise them properly, then please save up for adults.
You'll likely see a "planted angel tank" thread from me tomorrow. Look for it.
and I should clarify that my statements were made as generalizations, and of course there are always exceptions. As hard as I tried, changing a ton of water multiple times weekly, I just couldn't get them growing. :wall: So eventually, I dropped off to weekly 50% changes since I figured they wouldn't grow anyway. 
