Discus Fish, how to keep them in your tank happily?

Question

I have been posting several things about fish lately, and discovered the Discus Fish. They're indeed a beautiful fish - and in order I do things right without rushing into it I'd like to know more about how to keep a Discus fish, how big they grow if they come in dwarf or just large and how many to a tank or in my case - I'd only like to have two - is it best to have them in pair? Single or groupped?

Many Thanks, all your answers I'm sure will be great.
Sara :)x

Answer 1

People often say Discus are very difficult to keep! Well that might be true if you don't get the basics right to start with. Once you have understood and put into practice what you know, it is I think, very easy to keep any Discus, wild or tank bred.

The following three factors are called the Golden Rules of Discus keeping:

Water Quality
If your Discus are ill or you have a problem with them, the root cause is nearly always the water quality. The native waters from which the Discus are from, in Brazil is soft and acidic. So it is understandable that we need to replicate this type of water in our home aquarium. A larger volume of water is easier to keep stable than a smaller volume, bear this in mind when you are choosing your tank, in other words get the largest one you possibly can.

I assume you are familiar with the Nitrogen Cycle (if not you really need to understand this fully). Discus will not tolerate Ammonia or Nitrite in any amount, and only the bare minimum Nitrate. Make sure the detritus is removed on a daily basis together with any uneaten food, as this will quickly form Ammonia. If you feed beefheart always feed day time, never at night, as there are always some fatty bits that do not get eaten and you don't want that in the tank overnight. Ph is of course very important, as this is the measure of acidity and alkalinity. Ph of 7 is neutral, that is between acid and alkaline.

Discus like the Ph between 5.5 and 6.8 and will tolerate 7.0 to 7.4. Heckles like it 5.0 to 5.5. General Hardness should be between 2 and 8. Conductivity should be about than 10ms. If you are unlucky enough to live in a hard water area, you will need to bring down the hardness and probably the Ph as well.

I would recommend a Reverse Osmosis filter, which strips everything from the water and will in the process lower the Ph and the hardness; this depends on how alkaline and hard the water was to start with, you can then mix back a percentage of filtered tap water to acquire the correct Ph, Hardness and Conductivity. To do this use a filter which removes heavy metals and chlorine, this filter will not alter the Ph or hardness of the water passing through it.

Feeding
For adult fish feed 2 or 3 times a day, do not overfeed as the food will pollute the water quickly. Feed should be high quality flake, Prima, beefheart (make your own, it's worth it in the long run), high protein foods, live food like white worms or small earth worms (make sure these are washed and purged 24 hours on shredded newspapers before feeding). Do not feed Bloodworm, Tubifix or any frozen processed foods that are not gamma radiated, or better still no ‘over the counter' frozen food, because how do you know it has not thawed out on route to the retailer? This can cause major problems, it's better to stick to your own homemade beefheart.

Water Changes
Stick to regular water changes every week. Discus like constant water parameters, so a 25% water change every week is best.

If you follow these guide lines you should have trouble free healthy Discus for many years.

Answer 2

2

Answer 3

Discus Fish Care Breeding Advice : http://DiscusFish.neatprim.com

Answer 4

Discus are not the easiest fish to keep. They need a large tank because they will grow to be large fish. They can grow to 10" and will put quite a bio-load on the aquarium. Requent water changes are a must, at least 30-40% every 3-4 days without fail. They need absolutely clean pure water.

Some people try to keep them in water that is close to their natural habitat's pH of about 6.0-6.5. This is not necessary if they have been raised in water that is higher. A friend of mine is a breeder (he has hundreds) and he just uses the water that is coming out of his tap (after dechlorinating and treating with stress reducing liquid). It is about 7.2 pH. He has, at last count, breeding pairs of at least 8 different color varieties.

Two fish will not be a good thing, unless you are very, very lucky and they turn out to be a male and female who are compatible, one will become dominant and bully the other unmercifully until it stops eating and eventually dies. They are like angelfish in this respect. You should have "at least" three fish and more is better.

Also, do not keep any fish with them that are fast swimmers or even a little bit agressive. Discus are very shy fish and will hide a lot if there are other fish in the tank. Do not place the discus tank in an area that has a lot of motion around it (no foot traffic or pets running around) they are very excitable and will crash into the glass and injure themselves if startled constantly.

They are quite pricey fish too. Most of the stores in my area of NE Ohio charge at least $24.95 each. If you are lucky enough to have a breeder in your area, you will pay around $10 per inch of body length.

Another tip, don't try to keep angels with discus. Angels can carry a disease that does not affect the angel, but is deadly to the discus. Once they begin to show the symptoms, there is no cure.

Good luck if you decide to try them. They are not a beginners fish.

Answer 5

They are really hard. Two would need to be in a 65 gallon. Breeders don't filter the water. They trickle in new water so there is a 100% water change every 24 hours. That's tough to do at home, but you will need to filter and you will need to do water changes almost daily.
http://www.discuspro.com/
http://www.discusnada.org/
http://rockymountaindiscus.com/
http://www.thekrib.com/Fish/discus.html
http://www.bestdiscusfishcare.com/
http://badmanstropicalfish.com/articles/article9.html
Read a LOT before you jump in. There's good info in the magazines, FAMA, TFH and Aquarium Fish as well as many books.

Answer 6

This is a very good - and evidently often quoted - source: http://www.discuspro.com/care3.htm