Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I know a lot of you like to eat your fish (or aren't as interested in 'pretty' fish), but I wanted to share some pics of my fish with you. They're about 5-6" and I read an article by an ichthyologist that says they're pretty bony and hard to eat.

The only problem with these guys is that they require pretty low nitrates, clean water, and high temperatures (in the 28-30 Celsius range).

I'm also going to keep them with some plecos...(last pic)

The discus are a great looking fish, how many in the FT? Are they breeding? you could make a buck selling them to fish suppliers!

Awesome pics too, its so hard to get good photos of fish in water

Pretty

Very cool!

Are they a salt water species?

Right now, I have 8 adults in a 75. I posted them up for sale, but I plan to keep a pair out of them. My goal was to hook one of the aquaponics setup to the fry tank. Fry need to be fed constantly, so nitrates build up pretty quick in them. So even though I'll probably do massive WC, when I tested my past fry tanks, nitrates still easily reached 15 ppm by the end up the day (think 100-200 fry in a 75G being fed 5x per day and you understand why). I used to do two WC per day just to keep it under control but that was getting ridiculous. Hopefully aquaponics will be the answer... I'm hoping to make a little extra on the side selling Discus too. At least to give me something to trade for equipment.



Thanks. I can't take credit though, my wife took them. She has a knack for it.



Nope, they're freshwater. One of the few 'colorful' freshwater species. The wild discus don't have this much color but there are a lot of variations so crossing them led to the large variety of strains.

So do they taste good?

Sorry, couldn't resist... They do look like nice fish...

I'm sorry... what?!!!
You're calling frisbees colourful

Great looking fish, look really healthy. I've never seen some of those color patterns in Discus before.

Really? The blues are pretty common (blue turquoise). They're one of the originals. The Tangerines (orange ones) are less common but I think it's b/c people have moved on to the 'newest' thing. The Albinos are definitely different. They have a very high selling price and are extremely difficult to breed (offspring have poor eyesight so they have a hard time finding their parents or food).



I've wondered this myself... I can't afford to cook up a healthy discus. I would rather sell them on the cheap and buy some filet Mignon.

Had one of the blue discus in my tank but he became a victim of "the cat pissing on the power board while we were on holidays" episode. I wasnt that sad to see him go as he bullied my lovely angel fish to death. They look pretty but are very angry fish

Yep they arent really friendly enough for a community fish tank, and at 80 odd bucks for one 100mm diameter fish id be eating steak too...

I imagine discus prices are a lot higher in Australia from all the import restrictions..? Over here, USD/AUD 80 is expensive for 100 mm. The albino here that size would probably cost about $60. The blue or tangerine would probably be about $25-35.

Those guys up there are between 5.5-6" and I'm selling them for about $65-70 each, which is about half what the professionals and pet stores sell them for.

As for filet, yeah, I could easily clear my stock out for $25-35 per fish, easily buying a kg of filet Mignon (in USD prices).

Btw, I'm quite upset the last time I went to Australia no one would serve me kangaroo.

really? Most supermarkets will sell you some (although you have to cook it yourself) And i often see roo on the menu at pubs and restaurants. Apparently we are one of the few countries that eat our national emblems

Ive just started breeding guppies, its pretty sweet.

how long ago did you come to Australia? eating kangaroo is the in thing now..the main benefit being that it has added to the aussie vernacular eg "mums making filet mignroo tonight" etc