sharn

i believe auction a legally binding contract which means if they say the tank is 140cm long then thats what they have to give you regardless of whether they can measure or not (if you wana push the matter).

i would up the stocking of your discus to around 6. two fish can make a big difference in their aggression levels towards each other

make sure you shell the peas

i totally second the buying the largest you can afford part. i dont consider myself new to discus but i am still unable to grow them out very well, i bought 5 3cm discus and they all ended up dying even in a BB with heaps of w/c's but all my larger discus are doing well and i have seen a few double in size since i go them. healthy stock plays a major role also, if they get flukes etc when they are young it can cause a signifcant set back in the rate they grow. growing them up is hard work and IMO is best left to the breeders like discusguru 8) :lol: hopefully what discusguru has mentioned will be of some help to you, let us know how you get on

be careful how much peat you use, if you drop the kh too low you may be risking swings or crashes and thatll upset them a bit.

i had no luck with a chemist. try trademe, its used to darken horses coats (bays) and is sometimes for sale on there. also if you know a doctor well they can get it for you

that stocking sounds fine for that size tank. the problem with planted tanks is it can take alot of fiddling to get everything in 100% balance so the plants are using up nitrates and waste, i personally found it very hard to acheive. if the tank isnt in balance it means the nitrates and other wastes arent being used up quickly and you will need to do alot of vacuming and w/c's to keep the water clean which upsets the plants as they use the above as ferts. i would definatly move them into a barebottom if you can, i know Antwan saw drastic growth when he moved a few he had a while back into barebottom

Temmincki look pretty similar to someone that doesnt know cats well (when i first saw them i thought they were overgrown BN lol) so perhaps thats why its labelled as one?

i think a tank becomes big when it doesnt fit in a trailer or in the back of your average truck :lol: if its nearly impossible to move easily then its big. theres no such thing as too big though

first off you will need another 4 at least which means you need around 200L all up for them (excluding room for other fish, decor etc). discus require at least 40L per fish as adults. they also do much better in larger groups, you will soon find one becomes the boss and the other will become shy and may stop eating. when i had five i still had fighting problems, now that i have more they are definatly much more confident and the squabbles are less. IMO 4 discus wouldnt be too much for that tank if maintence is kept up but i dont think 4 will be happy, you can only try though contrary to popular beleif discus arent all that fussy about their water as long as its clean and stable. you want at least 3dKH to keep the ph stable and the temp around 28-31 (around 30 or so if they are growing). i have heard of people keeping discus in near african conditions and they are fine, it only needs to be lowered for breeding. slightly harder water is better for growing out young fish. dont worry about peat, its a nice addition but not necessary. i prefer (and so do many others) to grow up young discus in barebottoms, its extremely hard work growing them up in tanks with substrate. they will still grow in the planted tank but they probably wont end up being dinner plates :lol: try and do at least 2 50% w/c's a week, i do 40-50% every second day on my barebottom tank with 7 fish (200L tank) because of waste. growing discus need lots of food which means lots of waste :lol: i found beefheart extremely messy and it pollutes the water big time, even in my barebottom i wont feed it unless i can do at least a 70% w/c after. you may have better success with it than me though cause you have other fish to gobble up the leftovers. my discus' diet consists mainly of tetra colour bits, bloodworm, mysis shrimp (one of their natural foods im told), white worms and garden worms (a great treat they really go nuts over). high protein foods will make them grow well. you can put heaps of things in the beefheart, garlic is a great addition. shrimp, prawns, shelled peas, spirulina, baby foods (banana, spinach etc) and so on. heres a great thread of a heap of variations of the discus recipies sorry for the long post :oops:

no thats totally normal, discus get that too

sorry i was a bit late :oops: those little toothpick deserts were yum!

you will know if you have a pair. they will shimmy at each other and generally show off then go off together and 'bond' :lol: they do have little tiffs every now and again but pairs normally dont fight too much. i would think the behaviour your seeing is aggression and they are trying to pick out their pecking order. it is very difficult to sex discus, sometimes the only way to tell is see them doing their thing, there are a few ways people sex them but they arent always reliable. i would up those w/c's, daily or every second day would be good if its possible with around 30-50% a time (if you can do more then thats awesome!), extra clean water can help discus fight off certain problems sometimes. is the one thats still dark the lowest in the group? they normally secrete slime when they are stressed, there are toxins in the water or they have an external parasite.

i have a 1200lph canister running on my 150L planted, the spray bar is facing the back glass to diffuse the flow a bit. keep in mind many canisters are rated with no media and no head hight so a 1200lph canister is going to be running a few hundred less lph's after

you dont want something that has an insane turnover, perhaps something around 500lph with an adjustable flow and outlet (like a spraybar so you can buffer the flow against the glass). a decent internal will be fine or a HOB but they can be noisy if the water level isnt high enough. those aqua one internals are pretty good filters, i have one myself and find it good, you can adjust the direction of the outlet too. keep in mind you will need to upgrade the tank or move them to a pond down the track, they are quick growing messy fish and most get pretty big

that is a very good idea

heres a link to serpaes- http://www.google.co.nz/search?hl=en&q= ... arch&meta= sometimes LFS have funny names for their fish which is why (IMO) they should have the scientific name below for easy ID'ing.

i shall be there

keep in mind that young worms which havnt made it to the end of the anus may still have made it inside along with a few in the water itself. dead worms are worms that arent moving pretty much, i remember that i thought a dead worm coming out of my rummy meant i still had the infestation :lol: i would definatly re-do the tanks in two weeks time, it can be a persistent nematode. its awesome to hear you have managed to get the meds, levamisole is a wonder drug with these nasties

thats normally how i run in filters when i dont want to cycle a tank the long way, chuck the new filter on an old tank for a few weeks and your away (well sorta, you still gotta be careful and watch for spikes)

nope

its not the fish you need to worry about, its the bacteria colonies- they die very quickly (bout an hour or so) without oxygenated water passing thru their living quarters. you could probably put all the media trays/filters into a bin with tank water with a few battery operated air stones to keep the water moving until the power comes back on if your concerned about the colonies- this is how i intend to do it when i get my lazy behind around to getting some battery operated pumps :lol:

yep :lol: try and get as much of your bio media into the new one, thats got the most bacteria in it. just keep an eye on the water params to make sure you dont get any spikes until the colonies fill up the new canister

it is a very unusual mix indeed :lol: i would expect the discus or clowns to show problems first if it was a water quality issue so you can probably rule that out. colourbits shouldnt block them up, normally with a blockage its an uneven bump IME, it might show on one side more so than the other. i have heard if fish feed from the surface alot they can get air trapped in their guts (no idea if its true or not), perhaps thats what happened?

i have heard alot about the coating coming off those colour ones, i would steer clear of them if you can find something else you like. i have a dark grey, almost black gravel but its about twice the size of pea gravel with larger river pebbles mixed in. most fish stores should carry something similar