My Discus

[petertr]

Article is very out of date....

axelrodi was suggested as a name for a single specimen by Shultz 1960. supposedly collected from Belem by a "gentleman" of that name....less said the better, There has always been some considerable disagreement over the name ( due to his very close relationship with the aforementioned gentleman, ), the location, and the whereabouts of that gentleman at the time he claims to have discovered this new species. ...

the current classification

s discus = heckle
S aequefasciatus = green discus
S haraldi = brown & blue discus

(bleher 2007)(ready kullander et al 2006 confirms the devision into 3 species, but disagree onthe name, however the name tarzoo ( originally Lyons 1959)is a nomen nudem

names like alanquer, tefe, santerem are merely trade descriptions of the locale from which they were collected, these being brown, green, & brown

from the pics yours are brown ( therefore could be described as alanquer santerem etc...) and turquoise/red turq or a variant thereof.

Thanks for that - very interesting.

"Aren't discus supposed to be kept in at least groups of 5 anyway?"

You said you already have 5?

"At least 5" implies it is fine to keep more than 5 to me.

 

[petertr]

Went to buy some new discus today.

The place I bought mine from only had either extremely expensive (~£50) stuff, 2" babies or stuff that is too similar to what I have.

Popped into a few other places, but was all very overpriced (IMO) - although Fish Alive in Durham have some utter beauties in at the moment - but £150 each isn't in my price range!


However, one thing I did notice/realise is just how big fully grown discus can be - I think 5 full size discus might be just nice in my tank.


Would also keep the water quality up, and maybe I can play with plants etc instead. Will have a think!

 

[Jim Curtis]

What I was trying to tell you in the nicest way I could was that your discus look a bit stunted. If I had to guess whether it was genetics or enviroment I would have to go with the latter. I'm only saying this because adding more discus is going to make your water issues even worse and the discus you add next are going to have an even tougher time acheiving growth to their full potential. If anyone disagrees with me I would love to hear from them. What do Mike os and DL think? Mike was brutally honest with me a few months ago I guess he's become quite a gentleman lately. I expected him to say what I just did after some debating with myself. I'm sure i'm going to get flamed for it even though I know everyone was thinking it.

With Discus you generally get what you pay for. You are planning on putting any new fish into a quarentine tank right? I would def do that especially if buying from an LFS. Especially if we are talking discus.

 

[petertr]

One of the reasons for me posting pictures is for comments like that.

In what way do they look stunted? I haven't a clue what I'm looking for.

 

[Jim Curtis]

This particular fish has a pretty big eye compared to the body. They also seem to have a slightly elongated shape and have weak chins. None of them have very round bodies. Notice how yours seem to come to a point? Thats a fairly common trait in juvinille fish but your fish are a bit old for that.

This is a pretty good looking discus based on my limited knowledge. The only thing that sticks out with me about this one is the dent in the chin area. Ideally the fish will be round like the name implies. The biggest difference between a good discus and a poorly developed discus is the amount of space between the eye and the top/bottom of the body.

I'm not trying to represent myself as an expert or somebody who is particularly successful at raising this fish, most of my discus look a lot more like yours than they do the red discus in the second photo. Just trying to share what I know.

 

[petertr]

Well, replaced the Fluval 405 with a FX5 last weekend.

The 405 wasn't giving me the "polished" effect that I'd hoped it would. I don't think it had quite enough mechanical filtration in it with those 4 "screen" sponges plus a full tray of filter floss.


The FX5 has 6 much larger sponges, and again I've filled a whole tray with floss - but its 2-3X more floss than before.

Also, I got all my cermic chips from the 405 plus another 3 bags of the stuff!


Came back after a week's holiday and the water looked ace - brilliantly clear.

Just doing a 50% water change now - tested the parameters : 0ppm Ammonia, 0ppm Nitrite and 5~10ppm Nitrate - really happy with that as it shows I didn't cause a (mini) cycle by moving filters.
Only thing I am noticing now that the filter is running with the tank 75% full is just how much water is being pushed through the output - its like having a hose pipe on full blast - that's a little bit of a worry - so I'm thinking about putting a spray bar on to "diffuse" it a little bit.