setting up for failure?

[Enreche]

I have never tryed discus before and I really want to give them a shot, and my local pet store is selling nice baby discus for good price. (I know buying babys is kinda risky but I cant afford adults so this would be the only way)

the babys are red tourquose but dont have much color yet. id say they are 3 or 4 months old, and the largests ones are larger than a 50 cent peice. and thet are only 12.95 each.

I am gonig to buy three (I can only but three ><), and locate them into a well cycled 10G, PH 6.4-6.6, and temp of 88F.

once they grow a bit they will be placed in other, larger tanks, suited for discus needs

I want to see if anyone might have any suggestions for success, or anything that would be useful to know. im nervous spending 40$ on fish and having them die :X

btw, im thinking of feeding worms, perhaps some baby brine, and dry? mix it up a bit?


help well appreciated :hmm3grin2orange:

[Northernguy]

Thats a great price!thumbs2:

A 10 sounds a little small They need extremely clean water and with such a small tank you would be doing water changes every couple of days.
How many are you thinking about?

[cocoa_pleco]

i would say a 10 is too small too, for a growout i would really go with at least a 33g and a 75g+ fullgrown

[Enreche]

well i dicided to take the risk and buy them anyway, and so far, everything is going good thumbs2:

a 10 is small, but as soon as they grow a little bit they will be moved. i already have a 55 going that will be their home sooner or later

its been about 24 hrs sence they were put in, and they are doing better than i thought they would. theyre stripes arent faded and a little bit of neon blue is showing on der fins :19:

[Wild Turkey]

If you already have a 55 going i would say move them in there if possible. A ten is too small IMO 75g would be best but i think the 55 will do just fine for a few ful grown, but not smaller.

[Northernguy]

That sure is a nice looking discus!:22:
I do agree with WT.Do not wait too long before putting them in the 55.
You really do want to keep discus fish as healthy as possible.They are very picky fish.

[Enreche]

yes i agree with you bolth. i set it up only a couple weeks ago and i want to make sure its well cycled first. i have some small angels that will be going in there soon, then once im sure the tank is steady enough i will add the discus.

yeah so far im preety happy with the deal i got on these guys, only 13 bucks a peice, and if im lucky they will be good looking adults :1luvu:

[wilsonyoc1]

Could we see some Pics please.
thanks:22:

[ILuvMyGoldBarb]

That 10 will be fine until the 55 cycles, providing you are willing to change 90% of the water at least once a day. Also, go ahead and drop that temp down a bit, while Discus can handle 88, it is a bit high for them. Most Discus keepers agree that 82-84 is optimum for them. Also, in order to grow these fish to their full potential you are going to need to do a lot of feeding and changing a lot of water. For Discus as young as yours are, you need to be feeding the 4-6 times a day. It is the large feeding requirements of young Discus that creates the need for frequent, large water changes. You can feed them less than that but if you want your best growth out of them you really should feed them that frequently. Finally, while they are in the 10, you really should try to change 90% 2 times a day. 90% water changes once a day is standard for larger tanks.

[cer]

That is a nice looking fish!

[jestep]

I would say a 10g is ok provided you can meet these conditions.

1. You are definitely going to get a bigger tank within 1 - 2 moths tops.
2. you can do 1 - 2, 50 - 100% water change every day.
3. You are going to use pure RO/DI water for your changes.

When changing that much water, you're going to stress the crap out of the fish, unless the water is perfect before you put it in. Personally, I would wait until you have at least a 20 or 30g just to have some consistent chemistry. It's just not worth the risk. The price is great but if you lose them it doesn't really matter how cheap they were.

[cocoa_pleco]

3. You are going to use pure RO/DI water for your changes.


that could be a problem since fish need minerals and RO water has none because its pure. you cant use pure RO water, you need to mix it with some tapwater for minerals

[ILuvMyGoldBarb]

Agreed. Using pure RO/DI water for changes will lead to sick fish. You should always reconstitute RO/DI water before adding it to a tank unless it is simply being used for top-offs.

[cocoa_pleco]

one thing i forgot to mention is apparently there is a product that replaces good minerals and you dose it to RO water, never seen it myself but a few members here have mentioned it

[ILuvMyGoldBarb]

Seachem makes a great product for that for planted tanks. Seachem Equilibrium is designed with just that purpose in mind.

[Northernguy]

I really like the Seachem products!
They all seem to work really well!thumbs2:

[Dkarc]

No need for r/o water. Discus can and will do fine in plain tap water (granted, a pH of 9.0 for example is extreme for most any fish). Such small discus I would most definetly do as many water changes as you can. While keeping them in a 10g is good for them to find food in (less energy expenditure in feeding) it will be difficult to maintain water quality in such a small volume of water while feeding so often. I would move them to the 55 as soon as you can. It will let you get by with less water changes and will also give you more peace of mind.

-Ryan

[Jellygirl]

I can't advise, but I wish you luck in your new venture with discus. Hopefully we can see some piccies soon and I look forward to them turning into lovely adults for you.

Jellygirl