matthewY

one of my discus hasnt been eating for a while now. It still seems to go for the food but every time it gets hold of a bit, it would spit it out and then go for another... It doesnt seem to hold on to any of it. Its sharing a big tank with 5 other discus, afew cardinals and some GBA's. All otehr discus are eating well. Been feeding them mix of frozen bloodworms, discus tucker, frozen BBS, colour bits. None seems to stick with this guy. He looks very slim now and I'm totally lost for what to do...... Been reading in otehr places and some places seem to say some fish just do that and others suggest wrrms... and using metro???? any advice appreciated.... I have moved him into a floating container in the main tank with his own air tube so that he might have time to eat without the otehr guys compeating for the food... though I dont think hes gone for it yet....

HummingBird, not the most inviting way to introduce yourself to someone whith only 2 posts.... Would love to see teh pictures DAuckland, maybe you can still upload them. My discus dont look the best and are still small so i'm always tryign to compare what they should and could look like. Also like looking at others tanks as its great to have somethign for my tank to aspire to....

How can you say no to this face....

Discus!!! I've put 2 in my main tank and goign to put more.... discus!!!.... http://homepages.ihug.co.nz/~syscon_/fi ... _large.jpg Also, didnt u have some lying around that u were growing out?

called up SOG and they dont sell them anymore :-( I have pulled out the old heater and had a closer look. I'm now starting to wonder if its a scratch rather then a crack. Thers 2 parallel lines evenly spaced apart for about 3 or 4 cm down the side and when i "lightly" push on the line, i cant feel it moving or anything.... so question.... is this safe to use? I havent had a shock ever but dont want one either.... I have removed it for now and using a 200W aqua one and it seems to be working hard but keeps at 28 degrees... putting insulation around the tank too... oh yeah, tehres no moisture in the heater.... emmm... too scare to put it back in though....

Warren, good to know... I migth save afew bucks on the bills then :-)

SpidersWeb, u mentioned Switched on Gardner on anothwer post... do you know if they are still around? couldnt locate them online... aslo, would they still have the stainless steel heaters on the cheap? cheers

I'll check tonight.... My main concern was that if it was broken (or if I make it worst) then I cant put it back in to the tank... but I can totally see the flaw in this :-) Good advice, I always assumed based on everyone elses posts that heaters would explode when they crack, else they would just stop working as they burn out.... with regards to insulation, will do that tonight... been putting it off for some time, I have the sheets and all but the pipes are in the way for me to correctly wrap the tank so I'll need to doscnnect the pipes... Sorry, I can see how slack I've been :-( committing time tonight Also looking at getting another heater :-) Thanks for the wake up call

Hi there, bring this thread back to life :-) I was looking up info on the jager heater and wondered if it would help me.... My tank is one of those corner ones with about 300L - 350L.... Its holding discus and I've found that over the cold winter days the current heater (300w tronic heater) cant hold it more then 27 degrees but its set to 30 degrees.... its always switching on / off.... I also discovered today that it "may" have a crack in it but i cant take it out to check yet as it would mean turning off the heater and letting the thing cool down (which is bad for the poor already cold discus)... also, i have nothing suitable to replace it woth (a 200w aquaone...???) i'm sure its not cracked (fingers crossed) else it would have exploded by now right? but it looks like it and I figure I better be safe then sorry and check some time soon once i get some replacement.... anyway, so thinking if it does need to be replaced (or if i need a speare, which I have afew already but nothing which would hold the 300L tank at 28 degrees)... maybe the jager would do well... The otehr thing i was looking at is how mush is market gimic and how much is real... for example, they talk about using this "special" glass.... is this any betetr then other heaters? how does it compare to those which dont use glass at all (i think its either stainless steel or some form of plastic???)... anyone with any thoughts on this?

My tank finally has a few big enough fishies in it that shows up on camera :-) Display tank (300L - 350L) http://homepages.ihug.co.nz/~syscon_/fi ... _large.jpg Growing out tank (60L) http://homepages.ihug.co.nz/~syscon_/fi ... _large.jpg Mountain minnows + Golden algae eater (38L) http://homepages.ihug.co.nz/~syscon_/fi ... _large.jpg

whetu, $10.50? where do you pick up ur tubes from? Sounds like the all natural approach is best, biolux / "daylight" being a full spectrum etc.... Will hunt afew down (wink wink whetu) ;-)

oh, also, I have plants..... so teh green on that too :-)

Wondering what spectrum caolours people use when replacing tank lights. I've got some turq discus, a orange one and a white one. Really want to enhance the colours but wondering if say you want to enhance the blue/green, do you use blue/green light etc or does that make it worst cos all the other items in teh tank become that colour and thefore the colour on the fish doesnt stand out...

I kept my one whole with juts an opening. Scrapped out all teh white stuff inside by cutting then into small cubes and using a knife, plying them out. Scraped of most of the hair on it leaving just a small bit for the GBAs then Boiled for about 10 mins. I. they seem to like it and I feel confident that the guys clean :-)

had a friend who had 2, they layed about 100 eggs very frequently (roughly monthly from menory), ended up causing him too much stress :-( as mentioned, Seperators seem like a good idea ;-)

Sound quite do-able then. I will investigate once it arrives, see how easy it is to remove the end caps :-) As to selling it, yeah been thinking about it, got it at a good price so could maybe make afew $$$ of it to buy the 3 foot one but issue is no one really seems to sell the 3 foot ones at nice prices... i need pretty much a 2 tube light hood. A bit concerned overall about over driving teh tube thouggh.... hard to predict how long teh tube would last compared to if it wasnt overdriven (tubes can be costly too). Anyone know how much new starters cost for 3 foot tubes? if they are cheap then I might aswell replace that too...

I ended up buying a 4 foot light hood without noticing it was a 4 foot one :-( thinking now that I eitehr sell it or cut it down to fit in my 3 food tank. Anyone have any suggestions as to how easy it would be to convert 4 foot light hood to 3 foot one? I figure it would be a simple cut to size (with all the parts / cables removed first, reposition teh fittings for a 3 foot one and change the transformer / ballast. Anyone know if this is going to work / not work? if its worth doing / not worth doing?

picked up 2 discus, good sizes (7cm or so) for $90 all up. They had a really good range yesterday but most of the good stuff had gone by the time I went in this morning. They have lots of turq's a few white ones and afew orange ones. Careful when picking... some dont look as good condition as others..... Wellington animates :-)

Wow, 6am post, some guys wake up early :-) The main RCD's ive seen to use a relay of soem kind which gets turned on when you push teh green button and cuts of when it either trips or when there is no longer power to keep the relay on (during a power cut). I know my $12 bunnings one works in a similar way. To test this, just turn the power switch on teh socket off while using rcd, wait afew seconds and tuen it back on (without resetting it from teh rcd ofcourse). If all is well then good, simple power cut simulator :-) The one I have would not re-arm??? itself when tehrs apower cut :-(

ha, you are correct, didnt notice thsi was the salt water forum :oops:

Different approach to this would be to always drip water into the tank throughout the day and have an overflow unit which drains anything before it spills over / overflow. Theres afew DIY overflow designs on the net and in the DIY section which are based on cheap pvc pipes if you dont want to drill holes at the top of your tank. So long as the DIY units dont loose their syphon, they should keep on working. Good though to have a slow drip rate and a water alarm for peice of mind so that even if the overflow stoped working, the alarm would notify you when the water level is too high and also the slow drip rate would mean that it can cope for say up to a day defore flowing over the tank. Also helps with water changes (its chnaging the water for you the whole time and all you need to do is clean teh gravel from time to time)

Hey Phil, Thanks heaps for teh advice, I'll have to try it with a larger tank by the looks of things. Its great to hear you have had success with just rain water, it gives me a *fair* amount of hope. I have afew question though.... When you say u use undergravel filter and sand, I'm guessing you are talking about putting the sand over the filter and not using teh filter as a mesh to protect eggs? also, how long before you think you want to start and sell your guys? if the shops use guys which can breed then that kind of sux and justifies why so many of us who try are unable to get any success :-( ohyeah, ps: :-) the baby discus are still doing very well and not so baby any more ;-)

SpidersWeb thought I'll highjack this thread incase I can get some good advice too :-) I think you are 100% correct in teh prep side. I've just been using rainw ater hoping that teh conductivity of that alone is enough for them to breed. I've been feeding them frozen brine shrimps, frozen blood worms and some discus tucker (prettyy much any high quality frozen food I can get). I think the flaw has been in both the food and the water which is what you pointed out. I'll need to investigate the cost of the conductivity meters, I remember seeing one from australia which did ph, consuctivity / hardness and a range of other things but no price (and ofcourse I am cheap so prob cant afford it in teh first place). If anyone near buy have one I can borrow for up to a week, I'll be dead keen to try again once my guys (girls)have "plumped" back up. Other issue around water is that i dont have access to RO water, does anyoen know a local place which sells good RO water that I can use for this? I have the cardinals currently floating in a container in my main tank at the moment for conditioning.... that way I dont have to chase them around a 350L tank when i want to capture them for breeding.... With regards to food, do you think the frozen stuff is enough or I really need live food? cheers

Hey, just wondering how the breeding ended up going. I gave it a try for the last 3 weeks (doing some good quantity of water changes etc with rain water) and no good so wondering if anyone else has had any luck.... I think my flaw was in the conditioning (or lack of) of the fish to begin with

just thought Ill do a quick update.... EPIC FAIL :-( anyone else???? Plan to try again in a month or so, see if I can change what I'm doing just enough to make these guys happy. I'm not the besta spotting eggs but I dditn see any at all :-( I left perants in there but had a gril underneath and hoped whatever eggs they lay would hatch and I would actually be able to see soem movements (and then at that point, remove the parents)... no luck I'll try again in a month or so.... fatten them up first :-)