Brown discus pic

[lordroad]

You'll have to click the link since it's a big image.

http://www.chetday.com/images/Discus1.JPG

He was sold as a blue discus, but I think he's really a brown. I bought him almost full grown for 52 bucks (was this a decent deal or a ripoff?)... so far, he's been perfectly healthy, though he's been fasting since I got him. Only recently seen him eating glassworms, but today he spat one out... still an improvement, though.

 

[blueturq]

*celebrate

 

[AndyL]

I'm no expert on discus ID but I could have sworn those were refered to as heckels - a wild type.

Andy

 

[lordroad]

According to my discus book Discus As Hobby by Jim Quarles, it looks like a brown discus, which is wild caught, but also the easiest of the wilds to care for and spawn in the aquarium. So it could be offspring of wild caught, as it seems comfortable in the tank, but that's only speculation.

But a lot of these wild species look alike so who knows.

 

[fishboy]

Good deal. Either way if it is wild or not, 52$ for a nice round adult fish is a steal!

 

[Cichlid-Man]

Andy, Heckles have one dark bar in the center. And usually have horizontal stripes

or

Lordroad, thats a nice one. It very well could be a blue discus. Or a green discus Its nice whichever kind it is. 52 is a good deal!

Where'd you get it?

 

[lordroad]

I live in Asheville, NC, and bought it from an LFS called western North Carolina Aquarium and Imports. It's a great place... huge variety of fresh and salt water fish, and the fish always look great. It's funny cause they carry all kinds of pets and usually fish stores that aren't just fish specific are disease infested, but all their animals are well cared for... their hermit crabs are the best I've ever seen anywhere.

 

[lordroad]

What's the longest you guys have brought in a new discus and it goes off food? I'm starting to get concerned.

I've had mine for a little over a week, and he looks perfectly healthy. Moves and swims fine... other fish in the tank (four little clown loaches and 2 balas as long as my index finger, plus a 4 inch ghost knife) do not bother it at all, and the discus is perfectly at ease around them, even the family of clown loaches when they get frisky at feeding time.

I feed glassworms (mosquito larvae), freeze dried bloodworms, two types of flake food, bio blend pellets, and baby shrimp freeze dried. The discus always swims toward the food and seems interetsed, and I've seen him eat, but he only eats about one or two glassworms. As said, the discus ignores the other fish completely (though when I first got the discus, the entire tank was terrified of him--save the BGK--and the four clowns and 2 balas clustered together in a corner like a school).

My book recommended turning the heat up for a new fish. This is done and stays constant at 86-87. Thanks to clown loaches which are two and a half weeks new to the tank, it's also curbing the Ich that always seems to show up when you get a new loach. No sign of Ich on Discus though...

Water parameters are sparkling. Ammonia, nitrite 0, nitrates 5-10. p.H is 7.2.

I'm worried that the discus misses the other brown or blue or whatever discus that was in the sales tank. Stupidly, stupidly, I only bought the one, and the next day when I came back to get the second, someone had already snagged it. I know it's not ideal to keep one discus, but I made a judgment call on it... it was pretty much full grown, in wonderful condition, and I've read of people keeping discus singly and doing fine... in fact, I read one "How to care for discus" article suggesting to keep either 1 discus, 1 mated pair, or a group.

The clerk told me they could have been a mated pair, but who knows. They were about the same size.

Like I said, other than not eating, he's fine (great color, bright yellow golden brown body, bright eyes, alert, etc.).

And here's another pic:

http://www.chetday.com/images/discus long.JPG

 

[blueturq]

frozen bloodworms are great for discus, they love the stuff

 

[fishboy]

What is the temperature in the tank right now? Discus need it hot, around 83-86 degrees F constantly. If it is much below that, often they will be sluggish and eat little.

Keeping a single discus is a problem. Although they are cichlids, they do like schools. I would suggest getting at least 4 more. I would also suggest feeding different types of food. Mine love frozen bloodworms, beefheart, as well as live black worms.

A week with it eating little really isn't much of a problem. It is still becoming acclimated to its environment. I would only really start to worry if it stops eating for 2 weeks. Just wait it out, and start introducing new foods, and it should start to eat.

Good luck

Daniel

 

[lordroad]

Temp right now is 87.

I'm thinking about getting a couple more when this guy calms down and starts to eat. The trouble with that is I want to get some the same size... I've read and heard mixing smaller ones and bigger ones could cause problems, and the big guy like other kinds of fish excretes hormones to keep the little one small (heard this from one of the owners of a local LFS, as well as read it somewhere online).

It'll be pushing the bioload, but I have top notch filtration, and I constantly water change.

When they start eating normally, how does it look? Skim off the top, or go after floating down pieces and suck them up one by one? So far mine just kind of swims through the cloud of glassworms, occasionally sucking one up as if he could care less about eating.

 

[Cichlid-Man]

Yeah more discus would help. He doesn't look like he is suffereing from starvation now. Could he be eating after dark and when you turn the lights out?

Mine eat bloodworms, color bits, and cichlid flakes. So i have a variety that sink and float. They go after it all pretty good in my tanks. Live Blackworms are supposed to be real good.

Yeah the excreting hormone thing is true.

If you can't find any more up there in your LFS, and want more wilds (this looks like a wild to me) then i suggest you contact Ken Davis, he imports a lot of wilds. He is in Atlanta. Good guy and nice fish fishfarm@mindspring.com