Does anyone know anything about discus? (It's a tropical fish.)

[AMKuska]

@Jared77

Thank you that is great to know! I'm not sure if he can eat the baby shrimp, he's about the size of a nickel, but just in case I will definitely get him his own tank cycling. My current planted tank has java moss tied to a cichlid rock, corkscrew grass, micro swords, an amazon sword, a wisteria, ludwigia repens, and some smaller plants I've always called "Nanos" but no idea what they actually are. All these are in a 29 halfmoon.

I've got my choice of 55 gallons he can go into, and canister filters galore. I'll pick out something nice from the Store O Devin and get it cycling tomorrow.

I'm glad to know the 50% water change thing is a myth. I am not disturbing my tank that much!

@Chickie'sMomaInNH We had the black striped convicts for a little while. NEVER AGAIN. I had a pair in my planted tank before I got shrimps and they tore everything to shreds ALL the time. I couldn't have the plants just so for an hour before they were ripping them up again. Finally decided on shrimps and endlers because endlers just don't get into trouble, and shrimp are pretty.

@murphysranch That's how I feel. I even had a "walstad" tank for awhile which involves almost no water changes. The only problem I had with it is that my plants grew outrageously and I had to pull up old plants and replace them with young ones before the big ones busted out of the tank.

 

[seedcorn]

Walstad? What is that?

 

[AMKuska]

@seedcorn the walstad method is a fresh water tank set up with the goal of it being entirely self sufficient. You start out with good quality, organic dirt, cap it with sand, cover the bottom of the tank with a minimum of 75% plants, and then add a large population of shrimps, fish, and trumpet snails. The plants grow much faster and better with an actual dirt floor, and between them and the shrimps/snails they eat all of the waste produced by the fish. The fish feed the animals that do the cleaning, so it forms a mini ecosystem. There is no filtration of any kind except the plants. A heater and light is all you use.

It isn't without its flaws. I never had to do water changes while I had that tank, ever, but I did have to sit there and pick our excess snails once I had enough to aerate the soil. (And you need a lot of snails to aerate the soil. The gas bubbles can kill your fish, so if you don't have enough snails you have to poke the soil with a stick every couple of inches until you free them all.)

You also end up doing a lot of trimming because you need the fish tank to be packed with plants and so obviously when they start growing like weeds you need to wack them back every once in a while.

I used that tank to breed bettas in because I hated sitting there with a turkey baster sucking up poop and squinting for babies every single day. I closed it down when I stopped breeding them, but my new tank has just as many plants and snails, just no dirt.

 

[seedcorn]

How deep the dirt?

 

[Jared77]

Google Diana Walstad. I'll get back on growing aquatic plants. Had a long shift so don't trust myself to not doze off while posting here.

 

[Jared77]

The thing to remember is aquariums are ecosystems so it's up to us to make sure we provide them with everything they need. @seedcorn growing aquatic plants is not impossible but it has a bit of a learning curve.

First thing is being sure the plants you're trying to grow are true aquatics. If I couldn't identify a species or it didn't have a tag with a scientific name to Google I won't buy it.

The other thing to realize too is some aquatic plants can be grown not totally submerged. They are kept in a very wet environment and grown that way. Then they get plopped into a tank the leaves will die off and the plant has to grow new leaves. Trick is to find out when the plants came in. If it's pretty recent and they are in the little black plastic pots with rock wool those were not grown submerged. You can still put them in the tank but be aware your going to have some leaf loss and it will take a while for them to grow back.

If the plants have been there a while and the pots look old then it's fairly safe to sat the plants may have already put out new growth and the leaves they have will be submerged growth.

Plants that are grown out of water in the pots I mentioned are all heavy root feeders. Which means they take up nutrients the traditional way we expect plants to take up nutrients. So when you plant them be sure to supplement with a fertilizer tablet under or very close to the plant so it has the nutrients to put up new growth. They will store food in their rhizome but it only goes so far and often times it's not enough to get them through all the new growth necessary to survive in your tank and they perish.

Flourish makes a substrate tablet that's very good. I usually use one per plant when adding new plants that are root feeders and then the following New Year's Day I supplement then again. It's a time release fertilizer tab and I've found 1-2x a year to supplement my root feeding plants is enough to keep them looking great. Simply put it on the substrate near the plant and push it down with your finger till you hit bottom. Then cover the hole and you move on to the next plant and repeat till all your plants are fed.

We all know plants need certain amounts of things to grow and aquarium plants are not any different. If they don't get enough of each component to grow be it nutrients, or CO2, or light then that component that is in short supply becomes the limiting factor. That factor is why the plants growth rate is slow or it's nonexistent because the plant can't overcome the limiting factor.

Hornwort doesn't have a root system so it takes up nutrients out of the water itself. That's why I think your plants are not doing good is an inability on their part to get the nutrients they need. Start there with fertilizer tablets and see where it goes. Stick to something simple like a sword plant or some cryptocorynes. Be patient with them and see if they rebound. Once established with new leaves and an expanding root system they usually are pretty tough. It's the initial transition that is their make or break point.

Hope this helps. I have kept aquariums and aquarium plants on and off for over 25 years (that's tough to admit seeing how I'm 37 ) and made a lot of mistakes. I've done the most simple set ups to crazy high tech set ups that were a delicate balancing act to keep from turning into an algae farm. But my plants were doing so well you could actually see the oxygen bubbles they were releasing from photosynthesis. Overboard is an understatement. But my little people are my focus so I've scaled my aquariums WAAAAY back. Right now I have just a 2.5 gallon tank that's needs a little rehab to make it fish ready.

So anything I can do to help please let me know.

 

[AMKuska]

@Jared77 My husband has taught our 3 year old to refer to Dori as a "Powder Blue Tang" and the names of ALL the fish he comes into contact with. He also helps our son run his very own fish tank. Our son does all the water changes and feeding himself. (We portion out the food into his hand, otherwise it would be all in!)

He takes very good care of his fish. (Is it terrible to say he probably lavishes more love on them than I do on my own?) and doesn't go to sleep without saying "ByeBye Fishies!" to his tank.

You might try fish keeping with your little ones. They might surprise you.

 

[secuono]

Holy cow, to buy a bunch and have nearly all die is so depressing and clear that something is way off.

They are very shy and picky fish. pH needs to be stable, whatever it is in the tank after 24hrs with filters running, that is your real pH. What comes out the tap is usually false and will stress Discus and other sensitive fish. Best to set up a large barrel with a heater and a bubbler, fill it 1-2 days before a water change, turn heater and bubbler on. Heater should make the water 82-84F, same temperature as it should be in the tank. Discus hate temp swings, so watch out for that, especially since they are in a garage...
Add your tap water chemicals into this barrel of holding water. Use this water instead of your tap water. Change this water out each time for the new water change.

Since they are baby Discus, they need daily water changes of 50% to 100%. That depends on tank size, number of fish, filters, quantity of food.
Baby Discus should be eating 4-8 times a day, tiny meals.
New Discus, of any age, like to go off food for 1-2weeks. Adults can go 2-3wks without food and it won't hurt them, but the younger they are and more stress put on them (unstable water, bad water quality, too much activity outside the tank) the sooner they need to eat or risk getting sick.
Discus express their emotions on their sleeves, almost instantaneously. Pale white/no color is from a new move. Black, very dark, obvious stress bars equals a sick or very stressed out fish.
Bloodworms worked for mine, two of them took a week to eat. Four others took 8-10 days. Even longer for them to eat other frozen foods. Mine only eat frozen, they won't touch flakes yet. Freeze dried can cause bloat, so can feeding too much in one feeding.
My tanks are heavily planted, so I'm down to water changes every 2-3 days. I have a 35 gallon barrel of heated, pH stable water that I use for their tank.


Can you post a picture of the fish?
Do you have an API master test kit, do you know the pH, Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrate, temperature, tank size, filter types, how long has the tank been running, is the tank cycled correctly, what are you feeding?

 

[secuono]

Alright Jared! Any suggestions to keep aquarium plants. Only Horwort does well for me.

Tell us more about your tank, lighting type, hours the lights are on, how high above the tank? What substrate do you use, any fertilizer in liquid and pill form? Water temperature, fish species? What plants have you tried?

Tons of plants can grow in low light, most can grow in medium light. All need some fertilizer, many need pills in the substrate, since they have real roots. Stem plants need liquid fertilizer in the water column.
6-8hr lighting is enough, regular 4ft shop light or equivalent also is enough.

 

[secuono]

Just saw that they are nickle size, that is very tiny! I wouldn't of risked/gambled them at that size.
I'm also guessing he got at least 10, 15, 30+??? Since most sell in large lots when they are that tiny, few will sell only a couple nickle size Discus.