Re: New Discus

["Tom Wood" <tomwood2 at flash_net>]

James Purchase wrote thusly:

"Tom Wood wrote, as I knew that he would, <sigh>:"

Aw, that's sweet James, I love you too. (Now stop humping my leg.)

"As far as "cycling" a filter in a quarantine tank, you have a number of
Options: ::snippage::

1. You could keep a couple of HEALTHY fish in the quarantine tank as a
source of ammonium for the filter bacteria. . This would entail, in effect,
running 2 quarantine tanks."

So, these two 'healthy fish' are always magically immune to the same things
that show up in every other tank? And now anyone wanting to keep a single
tank has to keep a minimum of three? I'll pass.

"2. Maintain the filter in the quarantine tank using inorganic ammonia.
::snippage::"

Pass again. I just want to keep a nice show tank, not maintain an empty
tank/tub of water. Laziness? Sure, but that empty tank is going to suffer
too when decisions have to be made about how to spend my time.

"3. Forget biological filtration in the quarantine tank altogether and rely
on excellent mechanical and chemical filtration and LOTS of frequent water
changes. ::snip::"

Pass again. The large water changes are stressful too because of the
continually changing water parameters. Keeping pH stable alone would be a
challenge.

"Its rather unfair to just plop them into an already populated display tank
and hope for the best. I'm glad I'm not one of your fish."

Me too, I'd have to get at least two much larger tanks just so you wouldn't
complain. It might be fun to add a large snakehead to the mix though, how
fast can you swim?

I still think the main tank is the best place to put them. Adding
dividers/driftwood or rearranging the landscape is a good way to disrupt
established territories. Turning out the lights for a couple of days helps
reduce pecking order disputes. But the lush cover and good water parameters
provided by a well planted tank seems to me the best way to unload the
stress, rather than running them through the gauntlet of less than ideal
quarantine containers. It's a risk either way.

IMO, YMMV, terms apply, your fish may die, etc.

TW