Thinking about taking the plunge

[alang]

When I was a teen, I had a friend who's dad had Discus. I loved them, and vowed to have some of my own one day. While I did have many tanks over time, I never had discus.

Fast forward almost 30 years. Last year, I got my daughter an aquarium. It had been almost 15 years since my last tank, and it sparked my interest again. While researching fish breeds, I rediscovered discus, and the desire was reawakened.

After several books and many hours on the net, I came to the conclusion (right or wrong) that Discus were happier in a planted tank. I also learned that a stable environment was also key. My first step was to figure out how to maintain a stable planted tank.

Last Janurary I setup a 65g tank and have spent many hours on the net and elbow deep in my tank learning how to keep a stable, heavily planted tank. While no expert, its reached the point where I am comfortable with it and its very stable.

Having accomplished my first goal, I have restarted my research on discus. As with most things the more question that are anwsered, the more present themselves.

So this is my first round of "newbie" questions. I have spend many hours on this and other sites, but still have a few things that need clairification.

1) Aging water. I do 50% WC per week, but have never aged water. What is the purpose of using aged water? I use a chemical de-clorinator, and the water I add is pretty close in temp to that of the tank water.

2) Feeding schedule. I have seen people mentioning feeding 3-4 times a day. I work, so this isn't possible. Is this just for very young fry? At what age/size can you get away with feeding once or maybe twice a day?

3) Do discus care about current? I have two pretty large canister filters (way more than I need for my current situation). These generate a pretty good current that I have pointed longways down the tank. My current fish love it. Will discus?

4) Do discus like to swim in/through plants? I have both wide leaf and stems now. Would it be better to have less open water that will give the fish stuff to swim through, or have a tank with more open swimming area?

I continue to mine lots of info off this site. Thanks to everyone who has comtributed.

[DiscusDave]

I age my water so it's the same temperature as the tank water and I can use a water pump to pump water from the aging barrel to the aquarium to save time. Some people also like to adjust the PH and hardness or mix with pure (reverse osmosis) water and this is much easier in a storage container than the aquarium.

I've only ever fed my Discus twice a day (other than weekends - they get 3-4 feeds if I'm around). As long as you're using a good frozen food (like Discus Dinner) twice a day is fine

Discus prefer calm water due to their body shape. Probably better to use only 1 canister.

Discus will generally swin in the open near the front of the tank when they're happy but they need places to hide when they feel stressed or being picked on by other fish. So backgrounf stem plants are good with open foregrounf - and/or driftwood but try and avoid pieces with spikes since they tend to race around the tank if they get a fright.

Dave

[Merrilyn]

Hi alang and welcome to the forum.

Seems like once we get the discus 'bug' we're never really free of that majestic flat fish :P

In answer to your questions, a lot of keepers age their water in a separate barrel or buckets, and some never do. Really depends on your source water. If you need to adjust the pH or hardness of your water, then do it in the bucket or barrel first, before you add it to the tank. Never the other way around.

In the wild, fish don't have a regular feeding schedule. Some days will be a feast, others a famine. I like to feed my fish morning and night, mainly because I enjoy watching them eat :lol:

Juvenile fish will need to be fed more often, but you can manage three feedings a day if you feed first thing in the morning, again as soon as you get home from work, then an hour before lights out. Adult fish can manage quite well on one good meal a day.

Discus prefer calm water, they will swim in the current, but prefer to spend most of their day in the calm waters. I've got big filtration on my tanks too, but I direct the outlets across the surface of the water, so there are lots of calm places in the tank.

Keep your planting mainly to the sides and rear of your tank, and leave plenty of swimming room at the front of the tank. Discus like to blow into the substrate to find food (it's fascinating to watch) so try to keep the food in the clear area, rather than letting it get lost in amongst the plants.

The only other thing I would add is you will be better off getting fully grown fish, or near fully grown, rather than juveniles. Juveniles need different conditions, and don't do well in planted tanks, so stick with the adult fish.[/b]

[alang]

Thanks for the info!

I have been rescaping the tank and moved the outflows around to provide lots of calm water.

Merrilyn, your sig indicates you keep wild discus. What are the differences in keeping wild vs. captive bred fish? I would think that wild would be heartier and better able to deal with a less stable environment (kind of like purebred vs mutts in the dog world). Calling them the ultimate challange seems to indicate the opposite. One of the sources for discus I have found are wild fish, so I am curious if this is an option for a beginner.

I am investigating breeders now. Hopefully my tank and I will be ready for fish soon.