PETEYPLECO

Darryl, I know this is an old post but I am also looking at getting some discus and placing them in a community tank, can you update us on the health of the discus as I have been advised they will not do so well unless you have 5 of them to school together. Have you added any more discus? Describe your water conditions? Cheers

I think 5 discus is a little out of my budget even at the small size 30 to 40mm @ $30.00 each. Also with the amount of fishies in this tank already I would say it would be way over stocked - can you imagine the tank when the discus grow up ! ! WALL TO WALL DISCUS. I am looking at getting rid of Petey my 6" Goldspot Pleco but this will not reduce stock enough. Can I please have some more thoughts from all sides?

Any other comment on the "single discus" thing would be appreciated before its to late? MUST HAVE DISCUS !

Yep GOLDSPOT pleco, got a 6" one myself, great critters till they get BIG. I'll have to get rid of him soon if anybodies interested?

Decapitaion or insinkerator - something quick and painless thanks.

So if I buy just one discus thats 30mm in size, turn the temp up a bit and add this to my community tank now will it survive? Will it grow up to still eat the neons etc? I WANT A DISCUS !

I have a 165 ltr planted cube comunity tank with noens, clown loaches, bristlenose, a geophagus, mollies, flying foxes. Conditions are Ph 7.0, 25 to 27 degrees, unsure of hardness dH, external canister filter. Are these conditions / other fish okay for adding discus? Will the noens get eaten? Is one discus okay as you can see the tank is quite highly stocked? TA !

I have a large 6" + Geo,I have yet to see one this big anywhere, I call him Snappa as he is usualy a bit snappy to others. He will bump all of the larger fish in the tank - Clown Loaches, Pleco but he will leave the small fish alone. None of this is serious nipping though just a slight bump or a chase to let everyone know he's there. These are a beautifull fish arent they with their red and blue flash in their scales, and those long fins.

Done the dose of Excel and got me two Flying foxes so here goes, fingers crossed. PLANTMAN - what do you mean it will come back if water conditions do not improve?

My tank is 600mm deep, 160 ltr cube. pH 7.0, external filter, twin 15w fluro light. I have noticed the taller plants in my tank are developing a blackish grey long algae over leaves closest to the top of the tank. No leaves below say 200mm deep have this algae. Is this just the higher amount of light at the surface promoting the algae? How can I remove this as I dont wish to prune the plants?

Few - only lasted about 1 hour - no losses yet.

Yup, the powers out again as of about 3:30 and I was told it would be off for "A WHILE" as from 4pm ! Check my posts for what to do from the last power cut we had as it may help.

DITTO on this one and also is it really that hard to have the conditions right to have them breed?

Sorry for your loss of fishies, I know what its like as I lost a few after a long power cut. CHIN UP !

I agree with luke, if you add just cold water you can have problems with bringing on desease due to stress - whitespot also in my case. Aparently the human skin can detect a half a degree difference in temperature - so I try to refill my tank with water of near enough equal temp when doing say 20 to 30 % water changes. I think it would be like a cold bucket of water thrown on you while you were in a nice warm shower !

I use / prefer and sell a white non scratch scrubber or hand pad. These can be used a few times providing you rinse after use and keep clean. Safe for glass and perspex. These are available from Hollywood Fish Farm in Auck.

I work for an abrasives importer in Auckland who brings in Diamond Core drills siutable for this job - we dont sell direct to the public but if you go to one of our distibuors they will get one in from us. Let me know where you are located?

I agree, looks like he / she has bumped or scraped something - are there any sharp edges on anything - or is it squeezing into something to small? I would also use a small amount of melafix.

When i bought my 2" goldspot pleco ( also named petey ) i kept him in a small tank along with my goldfish and white clouds while I set up his new tank properly. The tank he was in at the shop contained gold fish and was about 18 degrees so there were no major temperature variances when I got him home but I still had him sit in the bag for about half an hour before actually placing him in the water. He lived in this tank for 5 months quite hapilly at this temp - but I would add he was not as active as he is now in his warmer home. Hes in his big tank now and kept at a steady 26 degrees along with neons, clown loaches, mollies and a geophagus. To answer your question I would say the goldfish and your pleco could live together at an agreeable temp but you would have to get both species temp range and see if there is a happy medium. Also check other water parameters such as PH etc.

Were you the fella I gave the white algae pads to for a trial the other week? If you are how did they go and would you like to buy some for shop use and for sale in your stores?

Its been said a thousand times but what the hell. GREAT TANK MATE ! Looking at a project like this myself, can you please share some info on your pump and filter setup as this can be pricey depending on which way you go. Where can one learn more about creating a monster like this eg: the correct method or application of filtering. Keep us posted and more pics please.

Anyone have any thoughts on a large home made or non aquarium specified canister type filter. I am planning a huge tank and Im thinking along the lines of a cheaper option on the filter from maybe spa or swimming pool? Does anyone have a huge tank that they have incorperated some kind of canister filter of their own?

Do you work at Jansens?

I shopped around both direct to tank builders and retail and found Hollywood fish farm on the north shore was by far the cheapest and most freindly.

Nice one ! The big tank at the north shore branch is a beauty ! !