New Importations

The Crested Cichlid (Symphysodon discus)

This article is supplied by Alan Slack, N.A.D.S. reprinted in "Our Discus" December 1993 N.A.D.S. publication.

The following article is reprinted from volume one, number 12 of The Aquarium Magazine, April 1933. Keep in mind that this article was published at the nadir of the worst economic depression that has ever been experienced.  In 1937 - 33 $150 might represent two or three month's wages and would be enough to pay for a rather fair automobile. Accompanying the text is a black and white photograph of a discus with eight even vertical bars which would possibly be identified today as Symphosodon aequifasciatus axelrodi. (Alan Slack N.A.D.S.)

Really noteworthy importations of tropical fishes are few and far between.  Plenty of "new stuff" comes in from time to time, but much of it is only appreciated by the practiced eye.

Outstanding characteristics are lacking. The fishes are sometimes sensitive often cannot be bred. Others are overly shy.  Some are beautiful only at moments: some not at all.  There are many qualifications a fish must possess in order to pass into the inner circles of aquarium life, not the least of which is commercial possibilities.

I have just seen a fish to rave about, but hesitate to make any prophecies before breeding has been demonstrated.  If it can be bred, I would rate it in importance with Pterophyllum scalare, to which it is related.  The importers, by the way call it a blue scalare, a name which does not appeal to me. It is not a scalare and its blue trimmings are no more apparent than the blue in many of our common scalares.  I would prefer calling it either the pompadour fish or the crested cichlid.  The black fin is remarkably wide long and erect, giving it a dapper, spirited appearance.  It is like a kingly crest or again a luxurious and well kept pompadour head of hair.

This fish, Symphysodon discus in color is very satisfactory.  The background color resembles the deep green often seen in Cichlasoma severum (Heros spurius).  There is a metallic bluish lustre suffused on the fore part of the body and head.  While the lighter part of the head in the illustration, as well as the high light in the fins are an intense blue.  The dark vertical bands are variable in intensity but at times are virtually black.  Another feature adding to the rounded effect is the deep blue or purple arching curve just inside the outer edge of the upper and lower fins and running through the base of the tail.

Symphysodon discus is found in the Amazon in the same region as Pterophyllum scalare but instead of being found among the reeds, it is located in stony situations.  The fish has been listed as an aquarium fish for some time, but has been regarded as one of those hopeless things that we would never get.  This shipment of twelve magnificent specimens has just been conducted and landed in New York by Mr. Griem each in its own separate can.  The Empire Tropical Fish Import Company of New York has the majority of them, the balance going to Germany.  It is through their courtesy that I have been allowed to photograph a specimen.

As the fish are to be held by their present owners for breeding and are not for sale it may be out of order for me to state that they are considered to be worth $150.00 per pair.  They now occupy one aquarium, get along well together and eat any food.  Naturally they are receiving occasional live food.  When I arrived they were enjoying a meal of fairy shrimp.

While these fish are not for resale it costs nothing to have a look and I advise fanciers to see them before they are farmed out for breeding.  Symphysodon discus is a fish in the grand style.

 

 

Discus by the Hundreds by Lois G. Saphian, reprinted from The Aquarium, August, 1955. Supplied to the July 1993 "Our Discus" N.A.D.S. magazine by Alan Slack, N.A.D.S.

On February 6, 1954, my son-in-law Myron Levy and I purchased six small Symphysodon discus from Acme Tropical Fish & Bird Haven in St. Louis.   At the time of purchase they were about the size of a silver dollar.   We placed them in a twenty-gallon tank that had been prepared and planted a week previously.   We had placed one small Amazon Sword plant in the center of the tank, with vallisneria along the back and sides.   We used an outside filter.   Having nothing in the way of dried food we started the young discus on grated beef heart.   They grew so rapidly that it was soon apparent that they needed more room.   There was nothing to do but provide larger quarters, which we did.   We bought a fifty-gallon tank and moved them into it.   In this we planted just two Amazon Sword plants which have since become quite large

A week or so after the move from the twenty to the fifty-gallon tank we suffered our first casualty - for no apparent reason one of the largest of the six died.   Soon we began to have an algae problem.   We put a small Plecostomus and two mystery snails in the tank and cut down light by floating water fern in the top.   This procedure brought the algae under control very satisfactorily.

As time went on we saw that three of the discus were outgrowing the other two and keeping the smaller ones away from the food.   We moved the smaller fish back to the twenty-gallon tank, hoping to put some growth on them.   One soon caught up in size; the other never did.   However, we finally put them back with the others.

For some time past we had been giving a more varied diet.   In addition to grated beef heart, they were getting grated yearling liver, white-worms and gammarus, which they love.   I had tried daphnia, which they ignored.   Some daphnia apparently took refuge in the luxuriant roots of the floating water fern and there are still daphnia in the tank.

Meanwhile, the Plecostomus was really living it up! He became so enormously large that we feared he might injure our precious discus with his huge spiny dorsal fin.   It was decided he must go and I undertook the job of removal.   The discus took refuge behind a rather large piece of slate, which was hopefully left in the tank, and where they hid when I worked on the tank.   The Plecostomus, who is a wily fellow when it comes to trying to get him in a net, kept dashing back of the slate too.   The following day I noticed that one of the largest and most beautiful of the discus had a large red spot around his gill plate.   There is no doubt it was inflicted by the Plecostomus when he was trying to escape the net.   I immediately prepared to take him out for medication.   In doing so the smallest discus was unfortunately caught in the net at the same time.   Before I could do anything about it the large one had flopped around in the net and injured a feeler on the little one.   I placed them both in the twenty-gallon tank and used chloromycetin - fifty milligrams per gallon of water.   The large one was dead the following day, and the small one lived on for a week, then he too died.

And then there were three!   Our chances for having a pair were fast fading away - or so we thought.

When we first obtained the discus, I wrote to The Aquarium and asked for all back issues that contained anything at all about Symphysodon discus.   I received a nice letter from Mr. Anderson and the back issues of The Aquarium which I requested. In one of them was a most interesting article, "The Return of the Discus", about Mr. F. Cochu and his experiences in finding and catching the discus in their native streams.

Since our discus had come to the Acme Fish Store from Paramount Aquarium Co. of New York, I took the liberty of writing to Mr. Cochu for some information.   I received a most gracious reply.   In answer to my question as to their approximate age at the time we had acquired them, he wrote they had been about five months old.

In January of this year (1955)   we noticed that two of the three became more colorful and very coy and flirtatious with each other, sort of ganging up on the third one.   It got to the point where the third one was afraid to come out to eat, hiding behind one of the sword plants most of the time.   Their actions, in general, made us think that the first two might - perhaps - be in a spawning mood.   Finally we took No. 3 and the snails out, leaving the romantic (we hoped) pair alone together.   This was near the end of February.   About March 14th they became very excited.   If anyone even walked into the room it was enough to send them scurrying behind the slate.

To give them privacy we rigged up a wooden frame and hung a neutral colored blanket in front of the tank.   At this time we noticed that the ovipositors were in evidence; however, the blanket seemed to frighten them so that all signs of an imminent spawning disappeared.   We left the blanket in place, but sort of gave up on them and stopped watching them so expectantly.   They soon became accustomed to the blanket and seemed to feel much more secure, and less jittery.   Then on March 26th when I fed them I noticed the ovipositors were evident - they weren't going to fool me again.   late when I was preparing to leave for the afternoon they were at the end of the tank not hidden by the blanket and where I always feed them, acting as they do when hungry. I thought, perhaps I should take time to feed them white worms, which after cleaning thoroughly, I placed in a nylon net and hung just inside and at the top of the tank.   When I next saw them, about 4:30 that afternoon, I approached the tank with the intention of removing the net which I had left there.   At first I didn't see either fish.   Then one swam down to the end of the tank where the net was being removed.   He literally shook with anger.   I looked then for the other one.   Imagine my shocked surprise to find this one in front of the slate upon which there were beautiful, beautiful eggs!   When I recovered enough to make sense I called my "partner" who was, of course, as excited as I was.   I felt we had a big decision to make - should we remove the slate with the eggs or leave them and trust the parents to do right by them.   We decided to treat them as we would angels.   I took the slate out, taking water from the large tank, and using methylene blue and gentle aeration.   One thing I noticed the eggs are slightly smaller than those of the scalare - and too, they take three days to hatch, but are free swimming about four days after hatching.   There were about 200 eggs, perhaps 150 of which hatched.  

On April 5 the discus spawned for the second time.   This time I did not remove the slate and the spawn was eaten on the second day.

We have learned that the most difficult part is the rearing of the young discus.   We saved only 25 of the first spawning.   We felt that wasn't a very good percentage and came to the conclusion that we would have to experiment and try something different with each spawning, hoping to hit upon something whereby we could save more of any future spawnings.

At the present time, two and one-half months and seven spawns later, we are beginning to wonder if there is a way to save most of them.   Here is an account of our results and experience to date - June 5th, 1955.

Every spawning was deposited on slate about 3 1/2" X 14", although on two occasions a few were placed on the glass of the tank.

March 25 - 1st spawning. Result - 25 baby discus now varying in size from 25c piece to size of half dollar, and growing rapidly.   Started them on newly hatched brine shrimp.   Now they prefer grated beef-heart.

April 5 - 2nd spawning.   Left in with parents and eaten on second day.

April 13 - 3rd spawning. Tried these in an established tank - 28-gallon.   By the fourth after they were free swimming all had died but five, which I removed, and now they are almost as large as the first ones.

May 6 - "Mama and Papa" took quite a rest.   I was afraid they had quit for good, so was delighted when they finally spawned again.   We saved 107 of these.   They are way past the danger period and growing fast.

May 17 - Saved only 30 or so of this fifth spawning.

May 27 - The sixth spawning are still in the crucial period.

June 2 - Only seven days later.   This spawning is hatching today.   The crucial stage is the third through the fifth day after that the fish become free swimming.   After that there are very few lost, and from that time on growth is fantastic.

We can pick out very soon the ones which won't survive.   They never eat.   I've tried in addition to brine shrimp, egg infusion on some, a cooked food made from canned baby food (beef heart, egg yolk, pabulum) on others, and still they die.   I've   used more methylene blue, 80 to 84 degrees heat - aureomycin - nothing seems to help.   From five spawnings then, since we cannot tell about the last two spawnings as yet, we have 167 baby discus.   These are thriving beautifully.   The parents are gorgeous, and become even more so just before they are going to spawn.

Trying to find a way to bring the youngsters through that crucial five-dat certainly presents a challenge - we hope soon to come up with some answers.

The Aquarium Editor's Note (1955):   Whenever we hear of some fortunate aquarist spawning a pair of discus, we always have great hopes that the result will be the long-awaited development of a domestic and readily breed-able strain.   Unfortunately, these spawnings usually turn out to be accidental, and after once or twice, the discus refuses to cooperate.   Mrs. Saphian's rare pair may be just what the hobby has been awaiting.   At the time of going to press, her fish have spawned 12 times and are continuing at intervals of about ten days.   The water in which these fish are spawned and reared is slightly acid and moderately soft (25 p.p.m.).   It is interesting to note that the water used is made soft by use of a "Zeolite" water softener.

 

 

 

 

 

 
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