white tail

[BK]

Hi all, I have a problem with some Rummy Noses that I got 3-4 days ago. I've lost 3 out of 8 (total of 26 tetars in same supply) they get dead rear half of body over night(turns white and tail gone) other fish in tank are gromi's and Cory's. Tank has been sit up with other fish for 3 weeks and no problems with them or other fish in last batch. Have used Malafix last nigth on deaths. What is this? What should i do.

Does any one know were/who in CHCH I can get a Ram from. This is all for Discus tank so glad I have bear bottom tank to bring them up to size in before they go in this tank.

[Alan]

I do not know what your problem is BK

But I am glad to see that you have a bare bottom tank

But, IMHO, you have it for the wrong reason.

You should not be using it just as a growing on tank.

But for a quarantine tank

Then if anything goes wrong, you can do you medication in the bare tank before adding the fish to your main tank that hasexpensive fish in it.

The Quarantine Tank should have the same water parameters as the main tank too.

Alan 104

Hope I didn't offend you BK, I was just trying to be humourous with the way I wrote my first reply.

I have now done an edit on it, so that it reads PC

Al

[BK]

Main tank doesn't have any thing too dear in it just getting it started so not to concerned. I'll be getting over $650.00 of Discus on Tuesday so this is my major concern. Will raise in bare bottom tank and once they are about 4-5 inch will introduce to show tank which have the tetars. Have found that tetars turn there toe's up if you think about moving them.

[suphew]

IMHO your tank is far far to new to have that many fish and will most likely be causing your problems. A tank should cycle for a month or more with just a few fish and even then should have fish added slowly.

Also Discus are difficult to keep, I (and most people who keep discus) recommend not keeping them until a tank has been running for 6 months, this is to allows the tank to mature properly and to give you time to get your water (and maintainance) stable. Discus are very messy fish because of how they eat and their waste (which is the reason for a bare bottom tank), adding $640 (so I'm assuming 5+) worth of discus all at once will cause a huge nitrite etc spike in a none matured tank that will likely kill them all.

Sorry to be the barer of bad news, but I think you just need to slow down bit

[DiverJohn]

HI BK, I had a similar problem a couple of montsh ago with some rummy nose tetra's. BUt they were mature (about 2 inches long) Over the space of a couple of weeks 3 of 4 went all weak, hiding in teh corners, wouldnt eat. basically wasted away the 4th one is still alive and kicking zooms around with the barbs, and harliquins no problems.

I havent been doing this very long but from reading some posts on here male fish can be quite "agressive" towards females and I wondered if that might have something to do with it??

[BK]

Suphew do you keep Discus. How many tanks do you have . I've cycleing tank for about 2 weeks before adding fish and another two weeks b4 I fully stock. I use medium from other tanks to start with and in tank ready for Discus have a couple of Danios in. It has twice the amount of filter medium supplied (old medium from my many tanks) in the trickle filter and two sponge filters as well. Funny when you ask for info people like to tell you everything you are doing wrong and 6 months to cycle tank is a joke. Maybe asking people who keep Discus would be better option. I wanting now to be told that water has to be between 6.2pH and 6.4ph. Maybe Jack Wattle dosen't know what he's going.

[BK]

Thanks John I've noticed that the one of the others seems to be a full on with the rest. Could just be the not tonigth honey problem you reckon.

[Lucid]

BK, Suphew is not telling you that you are doing it wrong he is speaking from his own experiance of keeping discus and is trying to help you not spend all that money on some nice fish only to lose them from rushing things.

In my Opinion, if you arew going to ask the questions but are not prepared to take on board some of the answers, I would suggest not asking the questions.

Majority of the users here have no commercial interest in the hobby and are speaking from experiance, so it is usually good to respect what they have to say, and as with most hobbies what works for some, won't for others, but you don't know if you write it off before giving it a shot.

B

[BK]

May be I was a bit quick to reply but there are a lot of people who try to to talk up the problems that can happen and this really gets me pissed. Reading the last comment on suphew post i most proably was to quick. I've been told that they can't be changed from tank to tank, have to be at 6.0pH etc etc and at one store in chch they try and make you feel like you don't know what you are doing. I'm getting 9 fish and would be please if I only lose 2.

[Lucid]

the store that you have mentioned BK is not here and the people here are not paid to give advice. It seems that you may need to think before posting next time, like I said earlier this is a place for hobbiest and majority of the users here are just that.

All I ask is next time you feel that you are being told something just reread the post and try to look at it from another angle, as we are all here to help the next.

B

[suphew]

Hi BK, sorry to have offended you, but if you had supplied the information that you have now at the start I would have taken it into consideration when giving advise. However I still stand by what I said regarding 6 months before adding discus, as I tried to state part of this is to allow your tank to mature but the larger part is so YOU can learn what you are doing.

Yes I do keep Discus have been doing so for 5+ years, I also lost my first two discus trying to do what you are doing and I had 10 years experience with many different types of fish at the time. I currently have a marine setup and mixed discus setup, but have had up to 7-8 tanks at a time before and have been keeping fish for 20+ years off and on.

If you decide to go ahead with the discus I wish you the best of luck, they are great fish and well worth all the extra effort.

With regards your PH question (assuming you are still interested on my opinon!!) because discus have been tank breed for a long time now they tend to be alot less sensitive to PH unless you are to trying to breed them, it is better to have constant PH than one that keeps changing because you keep changing things to try and lower it. Personally I use around 40% rain water in my water changes to soften it and keep PH low. It did of course it take me a good 6 months to get this ratio right and for my PH to stablize but then what do I know aye.....

Jack Wattle is a Discus god , but he does breed and keep the most difficult strains of discus, as well as developing new strains. Trying to compare what Jack does to what the average home keeping needs to do is like comparing a backyard bucket racer to an F1 team. IMHO of course.

[robert]

I have been breeding and raising discus for over 25 years both hear and over seas, i have breed at least 1500 discus from four pairs in the last five years, i have 18 at the moment, three breeding pairs that i am bring on, still a bit young yet, but my point is that if you read up and vist the different sites that are a round you will find that discus are very easy to look after, good filtration good food and veriaty clean water and good tank maintainance is all you need, same as any fish.

When i buy new fish that are imported i take some care to try and match the water from where they came from, most come from singapore, its very easy to find out the ph etc of the web and the poeple who breed there, i agree that you should not play with the ph its better to have it stable not up and down, of cause chch water is not treated and is very good for drinking so we have a head start.I would not wait six months for a tank to cycle that is crazy, bk has water form other tanks and media as well, that should be more than enough.

I will repeat discus are very easy fish to look after.

[suphew]

yes you are right, but the point I was trying to make was for someone who hasnt kept ANY FISH of ANY TYPE, learning how to run a tank that provides the basics that discus need takes time.

for example, there is a person I work with that has a goldfish filled perspex coffee table, every month she removes everything, takes it all outside, cleans it all down with the hose, then fills it all back up again with the hose, as far as she is concerned the fish live, it is clean, they get feed, maybe I should suggest she gets some discus?

Buying fish then killing them so you can learn what you did wrong isn't the most positive way to learn and doing it with discus is just an easy way of handing over lots of money to shops and local breeders.

Discus are easy to keep any and the only two I have ever lost was due to not knowing the basics of how to keep them, but BK hasn't even got them yet but is assuming hes going to lose over 20% of them.

[HummingBird]

lol I hope you pointed out their error suphew