Recent content by severum mama

It's not exactly 100%, but I drain the tank down to the trim and refill. The fish are still covered with water, but are laying sideways until the tank fills a couple of inches. I didn't cycle my tank. It had other fish in it up to several weeks prior to bringing the discus home. With as much...

I have 6 juveniles. I just use a sponge filter in a bare tank. It's so much easier to clean a bare tank. I use 2x 50 Watt heaters. The reason for this is that if one of them sticks on, it isn't powerful enough by itself to kill my fish.

I'd be doing more if you want to maximize their growth- every experienced discus hobbyist I've ever talked with would recommend the same. I'm on the 100% daily schedule until mine get to 4" or so. I've got them in a 20 gallon high right now and will move them to a 40 breeder at around 3 inches...

Hi, I hadn't replied to this yet because I really just didn't know the answer. 8.5 seems awfully high, but on the other hand I have read accounts of discus adapting to harder water, I just don't know how far outside of their preferred range you can go with them. Jessica rose mentioned that her...

Swimming sideways on the bottom while the tank refills. It's their nightly routine.

The water where I live is so soft that I can't keep rift lake cichlids alive without the use of buffer (I've tried). Even in a tank full of holey rock and aragonite sand, the pH won't go above 7.4, and once I killed an entire tank of Julidochromis filling the tank from the tap like I always do-...

That's not that high. Unless you are keeping something really sensitive, most species you'll want to keep will do fine.

So, one of my canisters lost siphon when I was out of town. I'm down to 9 Tropheus. I don't think I lost any other fish. Still sucks though.

Well, the breeder showed up to our club meeting last month with 3 bags of 3 juveniles, and put them into our monthly "mini auction". I won 2 bags and paid 35 total. [emoji6]

Larger discus don't require this amount of effort. Juveniles get stunted without an aggressive water change schedule (been there, done that). This grow out tank is only 20 gallons so it's important for me to keep up on it. If a person doesn't mind small football shaped fish (lol), it isn't...

Heh, there are a few spots of algae in the tank. But yeah, the maintenance always gets done. They produce a lot more waste than I would have expected. You'd never know the extent of it in a tank with substrate.

Great, sounds like you've got feeding down. If your pleco turns out to be female, it won't get the big bristles.

I don't keep jewels. I know that there are a few species in the genus Hemichromis and some are more aggressive than others. They are African riverine fish so the water parameters for them would be quite similar to the fish you have. I'm just not sure if they would be too aggressive.

So, as of tomorrow I will have had these fish for a month. They have become quite personable, and will approach the glass to beg every time they see me. I've managed to not skip a water change yet. My long term plan is to move them into a 40 BR when they hit 3 inches, then try to grow them out...

Seachem Safe and a spliced together Python / Aqueon fill hose with a PVC elbow "hanger" on the end. It's 50 feet long and reaches all the tanks in the fish room. That way I don't have to clamp the hose into the tank like I do with a regular Python. Safe is much, much cheaper than Prime in the...