Help with Discus

[cugerg]

Hi all

Im new to this forum and im asking these questions for a friend that has recently setup a Discus tank what are some of the main things my friend should know about keeping discus healthy and alive?

Ph???

Plants???

Hardness???

Tank Mates???

any further information would be of great help thanks and great forum by the way

[Hollowman]

Tip 1, Read.. read.. read.. is the best advice I can give.
Tip 2, Never rely on local fish shop advice.
Tip 3, Lots of good water is needed.
Tip 4, Feed a high quality varied diet.
Tip 5, For starting out, a BB (bare bottom) tank would be best.
Tip 6, Ask questions, however silly it might sound.
Tip 7, Don't be fooled into throwing meds at the fish.....ask first
Tip 8, Use the sponsors here to source your fish, cheap lfs fish are not going to be best.
Tip 9, Read... read... read....

hth

Hollowman :wink:

[scott bowler]

good advice Hollowman ,

[Hollowman]

:D I had to think carefully,and bite my tongue a bit lol

I hope others will add too :)

H

[pink66]

well put hollowman.. as a recent addition to the world of discus I can only agree.. read, read, read.. The amount of reading through the forum has been very informative. The people I have now met online who have been more than helpful is just wonderful.. and no question seems to be too silly.. There is always someone that will reply. I have just received and read The Naked Truth by Andrew Soh and it has helped me to discover that Finn is probably a girl!!! amongst other things

I have learnt that there is always a way to get there the secret is don't be in a hurry because that is usually when it goes pear shaped.

I was worried in the beginning that I may not be doing stuff correctly but the way my adopted fish has improved since being rescued must mean I am doing something right..

So dont worry and just keep asking questions.. :wave1

[DIY]

:D I had to think carefully,and bite my tongue a bit lol :lol: :lol:

In addition to the good advice from hollowman, here's my tips

1, You don't really keep discus, you actually keep water... the fresher and cleaner the water is, the better it is for the discus that have to live in the water you keep.

2, If they look sick or stressed, start with the assumption it's a water quality issue, and then work on other possibilities once YOU ARE SURE it's not a water quality issue.

3, Using the wrong medication on a sick discus in poor quality water is not a good combination..Providing excellent water for a sick discus without harsh medications has a higher chance of success by giving the immune system a chance to do it's job IMO.

4, If you feel like doing something to your tank to improve things... do a waterchange :lol:

5, Watch your discus and learn their behaviours.. Skittish, shy discus that constantly hide or "dart" about are telling you things are not ok... See (2)

6, Once you have done (5) for a few weeks you will understand this one. I find there is always one I like to call my "early warning indicator" it's the one that is first to show signs of stress, go dark, hide in the corner, eat less, show stressbars or whatever his/her most obvious stress sign is. I can take a glance at one discus in my main tank (my current "early warning indicator"), and it tells me all I need to know! If that one discus is happy then everything is good!

7, Assume anything you are thinking of adding to the water is going to either degrade the water quality or stress the discus... this will help explain why you will often see advice like "a stable pH is more important than a low Ph"

8, Avoid overstocking, it stresses discus out and leads to poor water quality as well. Whilst discus like to school they also like to have their own little territories especially when they sleep, it sounds like a contradiction but if you do (5) you will understand what I mean.

9, less important than (8) above - IMO discus are "happier" in larger groups. it helps to spread aggression and discus like to school together... when I first started with discus it was commonly advised to have a minimum of 6. If you want a large group without overstocking there is a way... buy a larger tank :wink:

10, re-read hollowmans tips above, then re-read 1-9 of mine :lol:

[Hollowman]

Excellent DIY, :lol: what great thread!!

and Pink, you are quite right, Andrew's book is the most read in my collection. Easy, concise informative. :)

H

[ILLUSN]

1, You don't really keep discus, you actually keep water... the fresher and cleaner the water is, the better it is for the discus that have to live in the water you keep.


that is the single most important point to remember.

if your water is good, your fish are good

[cugerg]

Thanks everyone for their information i will past onto my friends just a few more questions when you say good water how often should they do a water change in my chiclid tank i do it every 2 weeks. Also do discus need heap of plants in the tank and what other fish can be kepted with discus or what fish cant be kepted with discus? Thanks again everyone

[Hollowman]

Thanks everyone for their information i will past onto my friends just a few more questions when you say good water how often should they do a water change in my chiclid tank i do it every 2 weeks. Also do discus need heap of plants in the tank and what other fish can be kepted with discus or what fish cant be kepted with discus? Thanks again everyone

Frequency of water changes depends very much on a couple of factors, stocking levels, feeding, breeding, raising.
Whatever one though, the frequency is far higher than that of which you have been used to. Most of us try to water change most days, or every other day, some can get away with leaving maybe another day longer.
Water quality is the main issue for discus keepers. Discus demand a stable and high water quality which they will thrive in, they quite literally 'shine' when you have this right, and will let you know when it is wrong.
Changes of 100% per day is not uncommon, sometimes more. In my larger tanks I would be changing 50% every other day, but I stock lightly, and feel I can get away with this. My fish are happy with this, I don't have disease or health problems.
Others will have their opinions on this, as there are several different ways of changing water.

As for 'heaps of plants' again it totally depends on what you want from a discus tank. Discus eat lots of high protein food, which means they pass a lot of waste. Uneaten food and waste can be difficult to remove from a heavily planted tank, and in my opinion makes maintenance more time consuming and awkward. Because of this, I choose you run BB tanks (bare bottom) or tanks with a very thin (1/2'' thick) layer of sand on the bottom, making daily clean-ups far easier and hygenic.
Most fish you will buy have been raised in bare tank conditions, and therefore know no different, so it is not unusual for them. Wild caught fish however, would prefer a proper biotope which can be achieved and can look stunning.

As for tankmates for discus, there are several different types to go for. Being mostly slower moving fish, discus get stressed by big, even small, faster moving fish, so avoid these. I would go for fish that are Amazon based, so there are lots to choose from. Do not include any type of 'barb' or common Pleco's
Again, others will add to this.

Hope that helps a bit

Hollowman

[pink66]

I can only tell you what is working for me..

I really wanted a planted tank but was unsure about how well I would be able to keep it clean.. My plants are either on driftwood or are in small pots so they are easy to clean around. whenever I test the water all reading are fine.

As for tank mates, I run at 31deg and have 2 bolivian rams, 2 orange finned cats (very cute), some bronze tetras and 2 bristle noses. All with no issue at all.. I did have a clown loach but he kept attacking the discus so he now lives in the african tank (and is very happy).


Hope this helps

:D :D :D

[cugerg]

Hi again sorry to keep asking so many questions i went to my friends house to have another look at their tank and i have some more questions first question is what temperature should they running their heater at? Also here are a list of other fish they have in their 3 ft tank

7x Discus ( 1 big 6 small to medium )
2x Silver dollars
1x Knife fish
1x Bristlenose
1x Eeltail catfish
3x Guppies
1x Red Jewel
1x Silver Shark
2x Bronze catfish

Is this overstocked and compatible with Discus should they get rid of some fish cause have too many or not suitable with discus?

Thanks everyone for their information helps alot

[ILLUSN]

thats a WAY overstocked tank, generally its 1 discus to 50L of water, i personally prefer 1 discus to round 65-70L.

a standard 3 footer (round the 120l mark) is really only good for a pair of discus.

the knife fish will give you problems when your discus get sick, most treatments will kill it, so move it on.

the eeltail worries me, if its like my eel tail (Tandanus spp) it will grow to 3 foot long, with a nice big mouth that would eat an adult discus whole.

I'm assumming the guppies will get eaten by the discus so their water requiremtns wont be a problem much longer.

silver dollars can get agro and make too much mess IMO, I'd move them on as well.

bristlenoses, jewels, shark and corries shouldn't be a problem, unless the jewels start breeding, where once again you'll get agro problems.

my suggestion, get a bigger tank (6 discus = 300L minimum), till then do DAILY water changes round 60-90% with aged, heated water.

as for your heater, set it at 29C (will also help take care of your guppy problem).

[Hollowman]

Yep, WAY too overstocked, I would also bet that all the discus your friend has are stunted too.

Can you get pics of them?

[cugerg]

I will try and get some photos over the weekend and post them