Discus and Water Changes

[akhouri]

Hi,

I am new to owning Discus and was wondering how often do you need to do water changes. I live in Sydney Australia and was told by the aquarium where I purchased them to do water changes monthly. I have very good filtration system.

When doing water changes, do you need to prepare the water in advance by air rating it, or do you simply prepare the water in a bucket and add all the necessary stuff and pour it in the tank when doing the change. I have a second tank that I can use to prepare the water with a filter and heater.

How many discus would you keep in a 125 litre (32 gallon) tank?

Thank you for your help.

Cheers!

[Hollowman]

akhouri, welcome to the forum.

The first and best bit of advice that any discus keeper needs, is NEVER listen to advice given in your local fish shop (LFS)

Water changes are THE most important thing you need to be prepared for when keeping these beautiful fish. Water changes of 30% water volume, 3 times a week is a general MINIMUM for these fish.

Water needs to be aged for 24 hours before use to stabilise the ph, and it is best to heat and airate it ready for use. What you use to hold your water before use is up tp you, I either use 25 ltr barrels or I have 5'X2'X2' tank.
I don't know what your water parameters are where you live, as I live in England, but you need to buy test kits for Ammonia, NitrIte, NitrAte and Ph. The proper temperature should be between 86-90f or 28-30C.
Don't go adding stuff to your water like the herbal remedies that lfs's like to push, they don't do anything, but you will need a de-chlorinator to aid neutrilising the chlorine in your tap water. Aging water for 24 hours will also help gas off the chlorine.
In a tank of your size, you could house an adult pair, no more. We generally say 10 gallons per adult fish. If you have not bought your fish already, please look at the sponsors websites for quality fish, the ones in your lfs will be poor disease ridden culls that they will sell at a stupidly high price. The sponsors will help you, and not force a sale, as they would rather you make the right decision for your situation.

If you have already bought your fish, post up some photos so we can see the condition of them, and help you with real advice.

hth

H :)

[ILLUSN]

G'day mate, where about is sydney are you?

i do daily changes in my breeding tanks in my display tanks i do 50% twice a week.
before each change water is aged with a double dose of prime, heated to 29C and airated for 24hrs.

in a 125 mate I'd have a pair of discus, if your willing to do daily changes of 90% you could have 4 juvis and grow them on to bout 5inches then sell off 2 but you cant slack off on the changes, 90% EVERY DAY and HEAPS of food, would also help to remove all uneaten food bout 20mins after each feeding.

[akhouri]

Thanks for the advice. I from the inner west in Sydney.

I was told by my aquarium dealer that I could hold 8 discus in 125 litre tank. I currently have 5 and the fish are doing well. The water quality is perfect except for high phosphate. Not sure why it's reached so high as the tank is only a few weeks old and am not over feeding the fish.

[Hollowman]

Pics please

[ILLUSN]

probably in the tap water my phophate spike a little as well every now and then i assume your hooked up to prospect res if your in the inner west.

[DiscusDave]

Thanks for the advice. I from the inner west in Sydney.

I was told by my aquarium dealer that I could hold 8 discus in 125 litre tank. I currently have 5 and the fish are doing well. The water quality is perfect except for high phosphate. Not sure why it's reached so high as the tank is only a few weeks old and am not over feeding the fish.

I'm in the inner west as well and get high readings of phosphate. Must be in the mains supply.

Some LFS staff deserve a good kick in the *****. That's shocking advice, as the others have said a responsible recomendation would have been 2 fish.

Dave

[sanoptic]

http://www.discusworld.com.au/waterchanges.htm

I follow their advise,works well fish are all healthy & growing fast.
Saves a lot of water too in these times of water restrictions.

Cheers

[TW]

Hi akhouri :D

Welcome to the forum and the wonderful world of discus keeping.

Sadly, the LFS has not given you very good advice. If you read up a bit on the recommended stocking level for discus, both in books, this forum as well as on other discus speciality forums, you'll find that it's pretty standard advice that it's 1 adult discus per 10Gallons.

Did you purchase adults, or juveniles? Especially for juveniles, water quality is really important. Juveniles need to be fed frequently and water quality must be spot on. If not, you could end up with stunted discus (discus that stop growing, but their eyes do keep growing - so you end up with a discus with disproportionately large eyes).

There's lots of info available, so take a little time to read up. Is there any way you can get a larger tank & start cycling it up, so you can move your 5 discus into it soon?

[Dave+Amy]

Wow that's shocking advice...you should definately get a bigger tank as soon as possible. I used a 200L tank as a grow out tank for my 4 small (4cm) juvies and I did 60% daily waterchanges.
I've overstocked my 5' tank a bit with 7 semi-adults but I'm doing 40-50% waterchanges daily.

Phosphates can also be due to overfeeding and not enough waterchanges