Post and discuss your discus

Welcome to the world of discus. They are truly an amazing fish that dispite what is said a very easy to keep if you fallow some simple rules. They just require more work, no magic beans required.

I have a heavily planted 72g bow front show tank. It includes 7 5inch plus discus all of different strains. My fish include a red turk, brilliant blue, blue diamond, checkerboard pigion, pigion blood, red marlboro, and alenquer. I also have 2 albino bristlenosed plecos along with a group of 5 cory's in the tank.

Here what you have to have to properly keep discus.

- 2 heaters that can consistently keep your water at 84-86 degrees
- A good biological filter
- at least a 55g tank
- a water storage container that can hold at least 75% of your tank volume (if your tap water does not have stable PH)
- the ability to do consistant water changes
- the ability to feed a wide variety of frozen and dry foods sveral times a day.

You will need to decide to either buy adults or grow out juvies. I recommend you buy adults, you will pay more for them but by the time you put the work and food into growing out juveniles it is cheaper to buy adults. Plus you will know exactly what the fish looks like when you buy it. Juveniles change so much you really have no idea how they will turn out. If you want to grow them out do it in a bare bottom tank. Do not put gravel in there! You will need to feed them 4-6 times per day and do at at least 50% water changes every other day but every day would be much better. If you do not keep this up your discus will not grow and will never meet there potential. There's nothing worse then stunted big eyed discus. For a filter you can use sponge, hang on, or canisters. I prefer XP3's on my tanks, but any of them will work. Do not use carbon, only biological filtration. You do not have to RO filter your water, todays discus are hardy and can live in water up to Ph 7.8 easily and water that is very hard. Soft water is only used for wilds and for breeding tanks. You will need to age your water with a air pump and heater for 24hrs before doing your water change to remove any CO2 out of the tap water. If your tap water has consistent PH you can skip aging, but it still must be the same temp as the tank.

Go to simplydiscus.com and you will find all the info you could ever need about keeping discus. I also recommend buying you fish from a sponser on simplydiscus, only buy local if you have a reputable dealer with great looking stock. You will see pictures on simplydiscus of what fish should and shouldn't look like.

Hi all,....I'm new into Discus as well and just keep them for abouth 7 weeks or so.

Back in the 80's my dad kept 2 wc browns and a green one in a 40 gallon tank. I remembered them as shy and very peaceful wonderful colored fish that were fascinating to watch. Now that I'm grown I still was fascinated by their appearance but the high energy costs (heating the tank) and the reputation of Discus being very difficult was holding me back,.....til recent. I have a nice e-mail contact with a great learning master Larry (Apistomaster). Thanks bud for all the info :thumb: He breeds Discus for over 4 decades and is always enthusiastic abouth them. So some pics, some links, some info,.....making me doubt,...and finally I was caught by the Discus addiction. :wink:

I decided to go with youngsters to become more experienced on growing them and to watch them grow up to beautiful adults. Originally I bought 8 alenquer but after all they turn out to be a diferent specie and most likely red scribbled. I put the 3 inch fish into a 50 gallon tank with 1/2 inch of sand substrate, some floating plants and a piece of driftwood. I did daily water changes of 50% to 70% and feed frozen (artemis, bloodworms, whiteworms), 2 times a day beefheartblend and live foods (bloodworms, artemis, daphnia). So far mine refuse pellets and flakes but I guess they are spoiled with the frozen and life foods :?

I returned 2 fish back to the lfs and stick with the 6 best looking fish. I tried to make a mix with my Guianacara but the constant quarreling of the Guianacara made my Discus stressed and even a bit skittish. I decided to take down my future Gymnogeophagus tank (waiting over 1 1/2 year to receive fish) and switch it to a discus tank. I still have to work on the aqua scape and some plants do need to grow larger but so far so good.

The fish are only 5 day's in this tank and still need to get used to their new tank. In the meantime they are grown to 4 inch. After a grow spurt they don't grow much at this moment but i noticed some changes in the body shape.

So far I can tell that Discus are known to be delicate but I don't agrea on that. Like told by an other poster you need to follow some rules and do more water changes compared to most other fish and thats it! No mysteries and no magic treatment needed for happy Discus. I also discovered that discus aren't the dull slow moving specie but do have some character! They definitely act like cichlids! Now I finally keep them I'm very pleased and wish I didn't hold back for so long. They are marvelous fish!

Next thing is to adjust some things to the aquascape and buy me a nice school of rummy nose tetras and a bushy nose pleco. Ooh by the way,.....their curent tankmates are abouth 50 cherry shrimp. Eeeeh,...minus one,.....hahaha! While I wrote this one of them get eaten :lol:

Here is a pic of the curent tank,.....what do you think?

:lol: Yes you need to prepare yourself for loooooong discus posts :lol: Thanks for the nice words. Right now I'm not satisfied with the aqua scape but considering this tank is set up only 6 day's ago it isn't that bad. No worries guys becouse I used established filter foam and left in abouth 20% of the water from the Gymno tank.

Dntx,....To be honest I'm not a big fan of the Pignon Blood and related Discus and like the more natural colors. That is why I originally bought alenquer. Unfortunately I receved diferent fish but red scribbled and red turquoise I do like. Mine might end up as a cross between blue and red scribbled but time will tell. So if I look at your fish you can guess I like your red turquoise and the large fish in the midle. What color is he,...looks like a wild green. A very nice fish and large to! At first your fish seem to be small but then I noticed your tank is a 265G !!!

Shef,....how are the Discus doing? Are they growing? Some seem to have rather large eyes compared to their body size. A temp of 86 is a bit high imo. I keep mine at 83.

To all of you,...what are you feeding and how many feedings a day?

Currently I feed BHB (beef hart blend) in the morning, and 3 to 4 feedings of frozen or life.

Shef,....BHB is indeed beef heart blend. You can cook it your self but you probably need some experimenting on the recipe. I have experience and ame stuck with 5 lbs of bhb they refuse to eat (probably becouse of the texture and to much spirulina). So I bought frozen Stendker bhb.

Um,...they hide behind the plants? I can't think of a good reason for that. Whether you should remove the plant or not,...I have know idea. I'm new to discus as well and didn't struggled with this issue. Maybe someone can jump in on this. If I was in your position I would remove the water sprite if they hide all day and act to shy or don't come out to feed.

Keeping nitrates low is very important for growing youngsters (not only discus). The large fish also release hormones to the water that slow down the growth of the other fish. So water changes are essential to keep them growing. Stunted fish will never reach their normal size. If they are still growing you might provide them the best change to reach their maximum.

Huh that turquoise are red spotted greens? I'm surprised becouse that doesn't look like spots and more normal patterns for a turq. Well,....I'm jealous right now,.....I get wet dreams of red spotted greens

Oooh and I'm curious at the nitrate reading!

Thats a nice low nitrate level and 10 is fine :thumb:

Those fish are indeed nice once and nice colors and pattern. Once they are grown it will be more easy to determine the exact color.

The stunted once is definitely not created by you! You only keep them for a short period and some seem to grow nicely. Those fish were already behind in development when you bought them. So give them the best circumstances for growth and health is all you can do. I hope they do start to grow but they might end up as small fish. The other fish will grow to normal size as long as you keep on feeding the flakes, pellets along with some more protein rich foods like frozen or live bloodworms and bhb.

After two weeks of a smaller appetite my discus start to feed heavily. Yesterday the eat abouth 1 1/2 times the normal quantity. I guess this will couse a new growth spurt. I removed the sword plant and replaced it for a larger one.