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Hi Everyone,

Though I would post some general Discus keeping guidelines

DISCUS GUIDELINES AND WATER QUALITY


So you have decided to keep Discus, well great choice, but you have heard how hard they are to keep….. Well let’s see how hard they really are.

Discus are very well suited to high show tanks 18 inches or more high is quite comfortable for Discus. The water holdage should be around 50 to 60 gallons. In these size tanks you can keep 4 adult Discus but borderline 6 Discus. An aquarium of this size may seem bare if you purchase 6 juveniles, but don’t worry it wont be long until they grow better and more safely in this size tank than if you increase the tank to suit their size. There is an exemption to this rule, if you get fry or juveniles under 3 inches then they should probably be housed in smaller tanks until they have attained some size. The reason for this is small Discus tend to get lost in large tanks, and cant find food as easy resulting in poor tank water quality due to left food.

There are 2 ways of keeping Discus a planted show tank and the bare bottomed tank.

PLANTED TANK

Heaps of aquatic plants, driftwood, gravel, heater and the fish themselves. The substrate needs to be quartz or washed river gravel. Be very careful that the substrate you use doesn’t leech calcium into the water. Filtration should be slow current or a rain bar system. The Aqua clear 300 is the perfect choice for a 50 to 60 gallon tank.


BARE BOTTOMED

These tanks are very simple in set up only Heater, air operated sponge filter and maybe some plant pots consisting of plants are needed. If you bare bottom for breeding purposes then a breeding cone or upside down plant pot is used. This tank makes cleaning more easier as you can see the bottom and what needs to be siphoned out.

HEATING

Discus require higher water temperatures than most freshwater fish. Temps between 82 – 86 F us comfortable for them. Temps below 82 F leave the fish open to parasites, and above 86 F is reserved for treatments of diseases.

LIGHTING

Discus do not like harsh bright light, something softer is better; I have found that blue lighting is taken to a lot better than the “sunlight’s”.

WATER QUALITY

Discus like soft acidic water clear of chlorine, chloramines, and the PH value is between 6 and 7.5. The GH should be between 3 and 15 dH, BUT the most important thing is constant water conditions. If your water is too hard the use of driftwood or peat in the filter can reduce the hardness greatly. There are other forms of softening water in the way of RO water (reverse osmosis units), but these remove all the trace elements out of the water as well. The easiest way to make sure that you water is fine is to age your tap water for 24 hours making sure its aerated and properly run through carbon. An outside storage drum or tank is perfect for this.

FEEDING

Discus like a varied diet rainging from, live foods, blackworm, tubiflex worms, to bloodworms, beefheart mixtures, brine shrimp, mysis, krill, flake and pellet foods. Small frequent feeds are great for discus at least twice a day is ideal.

TANK MAINTENANCE

Discus thrive on clean water but don’t like huge water changes. Small changes 10% to 20% a couple of times a week are fine, except when breeding but will go into that later.
The filter needs to be cleaned thoroughly every week and any debris (rotting plant matter) needs to be removed. Ammonia, nitrite and nitrates need to be kept to nil or very low to maintain happy healthy fish. If using peat you will have a tanned affect to your water this is okay Discus don’t mind the light brown colored water.

When changing the water make sure the water is the right PH and is around the same temp as the water you have replaced (within a couple of degrees). The slime coat that catches on the tank wall needs to be wiped off regularly as it is quite sticky and becomes the breeding ground for bacteria.

These are most of the guidelines for keeping these beautiful fish, I’m sure most of you do similar to this if not the same, but if you keep to the above you should have no problems keeping these beautiful fish.


Trace

Anything anyone can add to this would be great.

It might be a good idea to add in other types of fish that you can keep with Discis.

55G Planted tank thread
19G Container Pond
[IMG]http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y118/Wingsdlc/Ric

There are other fishes that discus are compatible with and other information I would like to share with you.

Compatibility: Although they are best by themselves in the aquarium, they would also do well with dwarf South american cichlids,angelfishes,swordtails.

Another interesting fact I got from a source is that the fry they produce feed from the parents skin secretion.

For those who are wondering what would you feed for a discus if you want more.

3.5 kilograms of cleaned beef heart with all sinus and fat removed +
1 kilogram of beef liver with sinew removed +
2 kilograms of scallops with roe on +
1 kilogram of fresh prawn meat. +
1/2 cup lecithin +
1 cup of wheat germ +
100 grams of Spirulina powder +
1 table spoon calcium lactate (not a necessary ingredient to add and very hard to find!) +
4 cups of blanched and very finely diced baby spinach.


McCollum