Discus Grow Out Contest Official Rules & Entry Thread

[Canadian_Aqua_Farm]

Canadian Aqua Farm's 1st Annual Discus Grow Out Contest

www.CanadianAquaFarm.com

Thank-you everyone for the huge amount of interest in our grow out challenge. We will be proceeding with the contest. Below you will find all of the details.

Purpose of the grow out contest:

First and foremost this contest is intended to be a fun activity for the members of BCA. This is also intended to be an educational experience that will hopefully dispel some of the myths that discus are hard to keep. I firmly believe that for hobbyists who are willing to invest in high quality, healthy stock and put forth the effort to meet a few minimal requirements the discus hobby will prove to be a pleasurable and rewarding experience. Additionally having a knowledgeable vendor/breeder/mentor that you can turn to with your questions is also a huge key to success.

Deadline for entry: January 31st, 2012.
Draw date: February 1st, 2012 a random draw will be held to select the participants. I will make at least six groups of six discus available for the contest. Sizes will be between 1.5"-2" total length.
Start date: Grow out fish will be available for pick up between February 18th-25th, 2012.
End date: September 15th, 2012
Winners Announced & Prizes Awarded: End of September 2012
*Please only enter if you are serious about seeing the contest through from start to finish.


Hobbyists of all experience levels are encouraged to enter. First time keepers are welcome. In order for your entry to be valid you must agree to the following:
1. Must have been a member of BCA on or before Jan. 17th, 2012. Each account is limited to one entry.
2. Must be willing and able to post photo updates on BCA at least twice a month and include details about the frequency of water changes, feedings and so on for the entire 6 or 7 months that the contest runs. Each participant will have their own thread in Canadian Aqua Farm's sponsor section in which to post the updates.
3. Must be able to pick up contest fish in Maple Ridge between February 18th-25th. Long distance participants are welcome but must pay all shipping costs associated with receiving the fish.
4. Must be able to provide suitable living conditions for a group of 6 juvenile discus as outlined below.
5. If your name is drawn to participate you will be required to pay a $20 entrance fee. All of the funds collected will be put towards prizes, additional prizes above and beyond that will also be awarded.


Housing requirements:

• Aquarium of at least 20 gallon capacity dedicated solely to the grow out contest.

• Heater able to maintain water temperature of 29C-31C (84F-88F).

• Filtration of your choice.

• Air pump and air stone are highly recommend to maintain the highest possible dissolved oxygen levels.

• At the very least a 50% water change must be done twice a week and more often would be better.

• Must be able to feed them at least twice a day and preferably more often with suitable foods... frozen blood worms and/or freeze dried black worms make a good staple diet with the occasional feeding of a dry food such as Tetra Colour Granules for variety.

• Bare bottom tank is strongly suggested as it is much easier to keep clean.

• No other tank mates for the duration of the contest.

Water Parameters:
I suggest using tap water and adding water conditioner to neutralize the chlorine. I strongly advise against the use of any other chemicals, extracts or additives. There is no need to adjust the PH or hardness of your water for these discus. They will readily adapt to any water parameters, hard or soft, high PH or low PH just so long as those parameters remain constant and the best way to keep them constant is by not adjusting them. The temperature should be between 29C-31C (84F-88F).


Judging:
The contest will end on September 15th, 2012. Participants will be expected to submit photos of their best one fish for assessment. I will find an expert or possibly a panel of experts to do the judging. More on that will be announced closer to the time.


Prizes:
1st Place - $200 Canadian Aqua Farm Gift Certificate
2nd Place - $100 Canadian Aqua Farm Gift Certificate
3rd Place - $50 Canadian Aqua Farm Gift Certificate

How to enter:
Please send me a PM expressing your interest to partake in the contest and include the following six pieces of information. I will reply by PM confirming your entry and post your BCA user id at the bottom of this thread under the "Confirmed Entries" section.

1.Tank Size:
2.Filtration:
3.Water change frequency:
4.Feeding frequency:
5.Other tank mates:
6.Link to BCA thread in which you have posted a photo:
*If you have never posted a photo on BCA then please post a photo on this thread to demonstrate your awesome photo taking abilities
Upon receipt of your entry I will send you a confirmation by PM and post your user ID at the bottom of this post. If you do not hear from me or see your user ID below then please contact me.


Confirmed Entries:
1.jiayaw
2.gklaw
3.DBam
4.er201
5.shelby67
6.Graeme
7.Diztrbd1
8.Scherb
9.Jasonator
10.Airbaggedmazda
11.catgoldfish
12.guppygeorge
13.AWW
14.clairel
15.target
16.grizadams_7mm
17.aswain
18.aquaboy71
19.couch
20.Hoppin Hedgehogs
21.Flygirl
22.Danw

Participants (selected by random draw, see post #6 for video)
gklaw
guppygeorge
shelby67
Jasonator
Scherb
target
aquaboy71
DBam
Airbaggedmazda
Diztrbd1
Control group: April

Links to participants tank journals:

Jasonator - Jason's Discus Adventure
shelby67 - 6 discus in a bowfront. Grow-out contest
Scherb - http://www.bcaquaria.com/forum/canad...journey-25374/
target - Target's grow out fish
aquaboy71 - Juveniles in a 37G
Airbaggedmazda - Airbaggedmazda's Discus growout
DBam - Dave's Super Duper Discus Growout
gklaw - gklaw's Discus Grow Out
guppygeorge - guppygeorge's grow-out discus
guppygeorge (2nd thread) - Guppygeorge's grow-out discus ii

Articles:
I promised to make this an educational experience and as part of that I will be writing articles pertaining to various aspects of discus care as they arise through out the contest. Here is the first one:
Gas Bubble Disease In Discus And How To Prevent It

Monthly Summary Threads:
February/March: march-discus-grow-out-contest-summary-thread-27165
April/May: Discus Grow Out Contest May 6th Summary Thread

May 6th, 2012: Some thoughts on tank size and mixing the contest fish with other discus:
Over the past month I have been contacted by multiple participants wondering if the time has come to move the discus into a bigger aquarium. In my opinion and experience this is not necassary, I have regularly grown discus from fry to breeding adults in 20 gallon aquariums just by doing 100% daily water changes. They key is maintaining the water quality through frequent large water changes. Even in a larger aquarium frequent water changes are still key to getting good growth but the increased water volume allows for more time to pass between water changes which is a benefeit for those with busy schedules. Part two of the question has been "Can I mix the grow out discus with my existing stock?". At the start of the contest one of my requests was that the discus be kept seperate from other fish/discus. Part of the reason was because of the small size of the contest fish they would not have been able to hold their own with other larger discus. The other reason was to avoid exposure to parasites/bacteria/viruses. So for those that are in a situation of wanting to move the discus into a larger aquarium but doing so would mean mixing with existing discus stock my advice would be as follows. Move only one of the grow out discus (one that you don't mind risking) and observe it for two weeks. If all looks good at the end of the 2 week period then go ahead and move the remaining fish. In all probability if your existing discus are healthy there will not be any problem, most trouble of the bacterial and viral type seems to arise from freshly landed imports that have not been properly screened/quarantined. For that reason I would still strongly advise agaonst going out and buying discus to mix in with the grow out fish without putting them through a QT/observation period first. I will post an article with my recommended QT procedure but it will take some time to write as it is a rather complex topic.

[clairel]

Hi Rick,

29 gallon tank
AC 30
Sponge filter
Water change frequency: 50% a day
Tankmates: None
Feeding Frequency: 4 times a day




This is the Cuips pairs' tank (but now I've added pool sand).

Best regards,

Claire

[Aswain]

1. 46 gallon
2. eheim 2236
3. 50% daily
4. 2x daily tetra granules 2-3x frozen/live daily
5. no other tank mates
I will be using a eheim 200w heater in a bare botthem tank with a airstone.

[couch]

Sounds like a lot of fun. I have been keeping fish for a long time but never discus.

1.Tank Size: - 20 gallon
2.Filtration: sponge filter, HOB
3.Water change frequency: daily
4.Feeding frequency: work from home so muliple times/day
5.Other tank mates: none
6.Link to BCA thread in which you have posted a photo:Photos of my fish room

Thanks, Rich

[Danw]

Please count me in!

[Canadian_Aqua_Farm]

Hi All!

Well the big day is finally here, it's the day I draw names to select the contestants for the first annual grow out contest. I would like to thank everyone for the huge amount of interest and I have an exciting announcement to make. I have enough of the brilliant turquoise discus available that I am going to make 10 groups of discus available for the contest

Each entrant was assigned a number that corresponds to the order in which I received your entry. These numbers can be found in the very first post of this thread. I have used a random number generator courtesy of RANDOM.ORG - True Random Number Service to select the contestants. Click below to view a video of the draw process:



To summarize the draw, the participants will be:

gklaw
guppygeorge
shelby67
Jasonator
Scherb
target
aquaboy71
DBam
Airbaggedmazda
Diztrbd1

Thank-you to every one that entered and congratulations to the 10 participants! If any of you need to withdraw from the contest for any reason please let me know and I will draw a replacement. Otherwise I will be in touch closer to the pick up date to make arrangements. Just a reminder that the discus will be available for pick up between February 18th-25th, 2012. Good luck to you all!!!

[shelby67]

Sweet! Thanks Rick!

[Canadian_Aqua_Farm]

You're welcome and congratulations!

[Scherb]

Wow i won, i never win anything that's awesome. Congratulations to all other participants. and Thanks to Rick and the Canadian Aqua Farm Discus Hatchery .

Cheers

[target]

Thanks Rick. This should be fun. Looking forward to seeing everyone's fish grow.