After a year of reading up and dreaming of keeping these beautiful fish i decided that enough was enough !

taking you back to July 2007 i had a sizable tank ,Ro filter and compatible tank mates for Discus!

My first mistake was not to go to one of the expert dealers! my thinking was buy local from a trusted shop that i could ship home fast!!!( i didnt know of any local hoby keepers/breeders in my area)

so with hard earned cash in my hand i went and reserved the largest 2 fish from a tank full of smaller 2"fish ,they looked at the time the best of the bunch.

photo's to follow

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This was them ! the stress bars showing as they were new to the tank!

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All was fine for the first 2-3 months!

they were becoming more colourful and showing great character! i admit they were not the fastest feeders and the Congo tetras & Clown loaches would beat them to most food!



Then One stoped eating all it wanted to eat was aquatic plants!.... ...I asked at aquatic shop where they came from to get help!..............


As you can guess.....they tested water and thats about it !

this is how they looked in November 2007

first photo didnt look to bad.
second (right) photo was the fish not eating!!!.......(here in isolation)

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the (Right )photo shows a thin fish ,very pinched above the eyes!

The fish looked rough and was passing white jelly like phoo.....Not a good time in keeping discus!(why?what? ...how do i ?.....questions ?...?...questions ...??


it was sugested that i medicated and fed live brine shrimp, do large daily waterchanges ! at first he would eat only the brineshrimp that swam past his nose,then within 3 days he was out hunting every shrimp with greed!


I kept him isolated with no competition for food and he started to fill out!.........

At this point i Joined B.I.D.K.A. ( discus forum) and found all the help i could wish for they put me intoutch with a local Discus keeper (thanks Martin!) he is exelent.he answered all my questions and even tested my water to match his!


well at christmas i was a happy Lad when the Wife gave me money to get more FISH!

I got FIVE fish breed from a BIDKA member for the price i had payed the local shop for ONE

In January i put all the fish back together and the original 2 now healthy paired up straight away!



I must add that over christmas i removed the gravel and Congo tetras and went B/B (bare bottomed) now using a little play sand.

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Ok they may not be Big Rounded Discus but hey im happy i have brought them through a tough time!


I Now want you to look at the first photo .....when i bought them they were stunted they are lemon shaped and have a large eye!.....not the best fish to start with !


I am Still Learning !


i will try and upload some more pics of the other new fish !

comments welcome

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one of the christmas fish

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Ok Open For Comments

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Hello Rob

Just spent 20 mins trying to reply to you on this thread, hopefully when i press the "submit reply" it will work this time!

Stunning last picture mate, stunning!!!

Thanks for sharing all that information, i am glad you persisted with it.

i do like a happy ending! nice fish matey

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Thanks FRY !

I have tryed to give a account of what happend ...and if anyone can learn something from my experience the all the better!

i would say to a newby

1 join a good dedicated website!
2 select fish through dedicated supplyers and devoted breeders! the guy who breed the last fish advertises here on AC
3 get the best stock you can! it will give you the best start!
4 be ready to do as many waterchanges as you can! ( with good water)
5 be patient and watch your fish ........they wil let you know when they are not well! (this comes with keeping them )



most of all ENJOY

spawning pair ......they eat the eggs

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