Hammy's Discus Are Gone !

[hamfist]

Well it was worth a shot. I really wanted to see if I could keep them in my local water, but I lost two over the last couple of days and the others were clearly not thriving, to my eye. I'd been water changing 30% daily and feeding small amounts 3-4 times daily. In fact doing everything "right" apart from the water.
I suspect that the key issue is nitrates, and I feel a tiny bit annoyed about it. My API master test kit has always told me that the nitrates in my tanks and tapwater were pretty much zero. However, in the last 2 days I have discovered that the nitrates test part of the kit is faulty !!! I have discovered that my local water board say that the nitrates reading of the tapwater is about 30 ppm. I then decided to test my test kit by letting a dead shrimp marinade in a cup of water for a (warm) day to see what my test kit told me the nitrates reading was....... Water from that cup, one day later, was still reading zero for nitrates. So clearly my test kit is faulty. And, to be honest, I would not have even attempted discus in our local water had I known the base nitrates reading was 30 ppm. That is too high to have any realistic chance of success with discus.
BTW, the kit is still in date and I do all the appropriate shaking of the reagent bottles and test tubes.

....... So anyway I phoned one of my LFS to see if they would take the remaining 5 discus off my hands, as I know they have an RO mix system on one bank of tanks. They were happy to, but said they could not pay me for them, which I assumed anyway. I just wanted to save their lives, as I felt I had a responsibility to them. If I'd kept them, I'm sure they would have all died within the week.

So sadly I took them in this afternoon. While I was there I spotted a fish I had been very much aware of over the last couple of weeks. They said they would give him to me for free, as credit for the discus !

So I am now the proud owner of "Buster", the 9" flowerhorn !

He has settled in instantly and, after 30 minutes in the tank is already owning the it. He has not started re-arranging the decor to his liking but I'm sure that won't take him long.
Blimey, I'm going to need to get some big ole pellets for him. Mighht feed my daughter to him if she's naughty !

 

[flip]

sorry to hear about the discus. the flowerhorn is stunning though!!

 

[minxfishy]

Forgive me if Im being dumb, but how would leaving a dead shrimp in a cup of water make a difference to the nitrAte reading. The ammonia would obviously start to rise, but without any bacteria to convert the ammonia to nitrIte, then onto nitrAte, how would the nitrAte rise? Least that was always my understanding of the process.

Anyway, sorry to hear about your Discus, enjoy the flowerhorn.

 

[star4]

Sorry to read the discus didnt work out Flowerhorn looks a bit of a brute

 

[ian]

nice flowerhorn Hammy!



note to everyone...never trust a nitrate test kit!

 

[hamfist]

Forgive me if Im being dumb, but how would leaving a dead shrimp in a cup of water make a difference to the nitrAte reading. The ammonia would obviously start to rise, but without any bacteria to convert the ammonia to nitrIte, then onto nitrAte, how would the nitrAte rise? Least that was always my understanding of the process.

Anyway, sorry to hear about your Discus, enjoy the flowerhorn.

Good point Minxy. I didn't really think that though I suppose. Anyway, from the info I got from my water board, the lowest level the nitrates ever are in our tapwater are 25 ppm, so the nitrates test part of the kit must still be waaaay off.

 

[minxfishy]

Yeah NitrAte tests are never particularly accurate, I know how you feel, I get 20ppm from my tap water, thankfully its never interferred with any of the fish Ive kept.

 

[ChilliPepper]

That's a shame Hammy, but you gave it a shot

Like your Flowerhorn, I must say I wasn't expecting that

 

[markandhisfish]

sorry it didnt work out mate. discus as you know wont tollerate high levels of nitrates at all. at least you did the right thing by the others. and you got yourself a beast of a flowerhorn

 

[rdp50734]

Sorry to read that! Discus are overrated anyway! Buster is cracking! Are you going to put any other fish in with him?

 

[ajs2294]

I'm sorry to hear your discus journey ended so soon. Out of curiosity was the fish in the top left on the first picture here one of the ones that passed away?

 

[snowflake311]

Sorry About that's a bummer. What a 180 on your choice of fish discus to flowerhorn he looks good . Hope he does well for you good luck. How are your other fish doing? Did you always have this nitates in the water? Or is this a new thing? Because tap water can change from time to time hence why they are always checking it.

 

[DiscusKeeper403]

That's odd, how where they at the LFS? If they were fine at the LFS in tap water they should be fine in your tank with tap water, where they using R/O? Just so you know, that cup test wouldn't show any nitrates anyways.

 

[hamfist]

I'm sorry to hear your discus journey ended so soon. Out of curiosity was the fish in the top left on the first picture here one of the ones that passed away?

Nope, she survived, and will hopefully do well in appropriate water. That was a rather strange picture of her, that you referred to. Just wierd lighting I suppose.

Sorry About that's a bummer. What a 180 on your choice of fish discus to flowerhorn he looks good . Hope he does well for you good luck. How are your other fish doing? Did you always have this nitates in the water? Or is this a new thing? Because tap water can change from time to time hence why they are always checking it.

No, I assume that it has always been so. The test kit that I have is the first I have owned, having got on fine without one before.

I have found my local water board's test results for throughout the previous year on my local water and it showed the lowest nitrate result at 25 ppm and the highest at 35ppm, so a fairly steady level really.

All my other fish are doing great, thankfully.

That's odd, how where they at the LFS? If they were fine at the LFS in tap water they should be fine in your tank with tap water, where they using R/O? Just so you know, that cup test wouldn't show any nitrates anyways.

No, in the LFS where I bought four of them from they were being kept in RO water, but the staff told me that they had been supplied from the supplier in tap water. They could not tell me the stats of that particular tapwater. Of course, it may have been a load of rubbish, as we all know what porkies LFS staff can tell us gullible punters.

Sorry to read that! Discus are overrated anyway! Buster is cracking! Are you going to put any other fish in with him?

Thanks, My wife is already completely infatuated with Buster. More than any other fish I have owned. It seems like I have some serious competition for her affections !

I am going to keep him on his own, apart from a couple of BN's, who he will hopefully tolerate.

 

[rdp50734]

If you decide on a change of stocking again I want first dibs on him!