A Gift of Friendship
by Mary Cram, MAS
Over two years have passed and we still have the most beautiful fish in the hobby, Symphysodon Aequifasscciatus AKA "Gan High-Fin Blue" Discus. One day while reading the latest Trading Post we came across a listing by Ken Davis for some unusual fish we had not seen here in the Milwaukee area. After corresponding for awhile by phone, letters and via the Internet we came to an agreement. A trade would be of mutual benefit for both parties involved. Dan had made all the preparations in the fish room for the new arrivals. He then was ready to ship various cichlids to Ken to make the trade they had discussed at length about. I had just had foot surgery and was recovering at home when the shipment arrived. Dan would have to carry the styro with its valuable contents down to the fish room. Ken had mentioned to me that he was sending a surprise that he knew I would like. Once Dan arrived home from work he carefully unpacked the contents of the styro that had arrived that afternoon. Upon close examination of the cichlids we had received Dan realized what Ken meant when he said he had shipped something special for me. Yes, he had sent me 12 beautiful baby Gan High-fin Blue Discus. They were 1 ½" to 2 inches in size, but they were exactly what I had wanted. I immediately phoned Ken to thank him for his gift. In time the twelve young Discus got accustomed to their new surroundings. Dan had set up a 55-gallon tank for them with gravel bottom, plants and various large size pieces of driftwood Not only did they survive the transition from Georgia to Wisconsin, but also they were actually growing in size. Eventually the 55-gallon tank was too small for the Discus for they had grown to 5". Dan would have to move this group to a 75-gallon tank. It has been two years since my fish were sent to me and I lost a total of three due to Dan insisting it was okay to feed them black worms. It was Ismail Resul, another MAS member who I credit with saving the remaining brood. He quickly lent us his UV sterilizer and explained to Dan the hazards of feeding black worms to Discus. We started to introduce RO water in the tank around Thanksgiving in 1999. Slowly at first and then implementing a 50% water change using 25% tap water and 25% RO. We slowly raised the temperature from 80 degrees to around 85 degrees and a pH of 6.0, this seemed to work. Two of the discus had paired off and had spawned on one of the numerous pieces of driftwood that was in the tank just before the MAS auction in April 2000. We were pleasantly surprised and immediately e-mailed Ken Davis about the news. The eggs hatched on April 3rd. We set up a night-light in the back of the tank so that the parents could rear their babies and so that the babies could easily find their parents. On April 7th the fry were free swimming. What a sight to behold! The whole process the parents incorporated in rearing the fry captivated me. The fry were easily moved from one parent to the other. Each parent took their turn in nurturing and feeding the fry. We started to introduce baby brine to the fry on April 12th and they took to it well. It was very interesting just watching the parents trade off their parenting responsibilities and guard their babies. About 1-½ weeks later we moved the babies to their own tank. They have tripled in size and still continue to amaze me. They eat flake food, baby brine, and discus delight. Take it from me, if you haven’t tried raising Discus; please do! They are a challenge, but a rewarding one