maybe a stupid question but.......

[dolly_daydream]

hi
maybe you can answer this question for me ,,im going to try breeding discus ive got the tank and sponge filter blah blah.anyway its currently cycleing at the moment,as been for a week,and the ammonia is high, so anyway i went to my lfs recently and was looking at discus and the shopkeeper asked he if could help me,i explained what i was planning to do and my tank is cycleing so im just waiting for it to be safe to add my chosen discus he said and i quote"what do you wanna wait for your breeding discus so your going to be doing 90% water changes daily anyway,so theres no risk of high ammonia/nitrites doing the discus any damage"is this true or was he just trying to make a salr ??
please help as my brain is burning out trying to figure out if its true or not,
thanks
claire

 

[dolly_daydream]

please someone must have a opinion

 

[Tolak]

Iwouldn't put discus in an uncycled tank. They are pretty delicate, just keeping them takes work. There is some truth to the 90% water change thing, but you would still be leaving in 10% of the ammonia. I don't think this would work with discus.

Tolak

 

[littlefishie]

Agreed, regardless of how many water changes you'd immediately be doing, there'd still be some level of ammonia in the water. Until the tank is completely cycled there won't be enough beneficial bacteria to break down the ammonia.
Never listen to your LFS without doing your own research first. Most of the time they are just out to make a sale, so it helps to know your stuff.
Like the Petsmart employee that told my housemate she could keep a yellow lab cichlid in a 2.5 gallon by itself. She was just looking for a sale without offering accurate information.

Just wait til your tank cycles and go buy the discus afterwards. If the LFS employee says anything to you about it, just be like 'I realized I didn't have enough cash to get them right away.' Orrr, instead of that, send them here We can educated them properly.

 

[yvez9]

the lfs must make mad profit on discus considering they sell them rather expensive... I'm pretty sure he just wanted to get you into buying them now and close the deal rather than hope you come back

if i were you, i'd find another store...

i like the guy at the lfs i visit, he told me "hey, it's not my money so why would i want to make an extra sale?)

 

[fufanu360]

well, i would think you should fully establish and stabilze the tank before any discus get in there, i would start off with some dithers once your cycling comes close to end, just to make sure everythign is stable with the bacteria and wut not because discus dont take to kindly to bouncing parameters