New to Discus

Hi,
I am currently setting up my tank for Discus fish. I have a Triagon 190 corner unit.It is planted on both sides. My ph is 7.5 and I am working on reducing it TO 7 by using rain water for my water changes. I have also raised the temperature to 28 Deg C. The tank has being running for 5 months now and currently contains some angel fish, 2 bali sharks 9 Neon tetra and a dwarf Gourami. I am looking at removing all bar the Neon Tetras and maybe 2 angel fish prior to putting in the Discus fish. I would appreciate any advice especially if there is anything else I need to do before putting in the Discus. I have ordered 2 Turquise and 2 Blue discus from my local pet shop.

Rgds
John

Hi John,

Welcome to the forum

I don't keep Discus myself but always thought they need a lot of water. However, I am sure someone more knowledgeable about Discus will be able to advise you.

Best of luck with your plans.

Any questions, don't hesitate.

Valerie

Hi John ,

The tank bred Discus I found can be fine in pH 7.5 its the hardness i be more concerned with , if your water is hard then you may have a problem. Best around 2 degree's you can use peat in a filter in the water before you add it to the tank this drops the pH slightly and also makes the water softer.I leave it filtering for about 24 hours then add. I be careful using rain water if you live in the city .(I've never tried it so cant really comment)
Also an adult discus needs approx 50 litres of water per adult(some books say 75 litres, but as a rule of thumb for myself i allow about 50 and do water changes every other day about 20% ) , I would say the 4 discus would be fine in that tank , once you have good filtration , i would not put any other fish in with them though 4 is a good number as they are a shoaling fish and are much happier in numbers unless you were lucky enough to get a pair out of the two you bought, the neons can be fine but i found they dont do as well in the higher temp range. I never found the juwel filters to be much good for a discus tank and prefer and would recommend an external the more filtration for discus the better. Also make sure the discus are in good health when you buy them lots are stunted that i've seen in the shops . Try stay away from bloodworm only feed it as an ocassional treat. And use a good flake food for discus I use the JBL little red pellets as a staple food and they seem to do well on that also the hikari bio gold discus is a very good one but a little more pricey. The substrate is best as sand as any un eaten food cant decay into it , i found myself a tank with no substrate they do best and eventually i'll master keeping them in a planted tank i've tried several times but I just cant seem to keep on top of it , its alot more work, hope to set one up soon maybe this time i'll get it right. It usually goes alright for the first few months then i get a bit lazy and the pollutants start building up in the substrate , so sand is definetly the way to go if you want to have them in a planted tank . I could go on all night about the planted tank thing as anything that could happen has happened me with this in relation to discus, also the choice of plants is important too try and keep more low maintenance plants unless you are willing to pruneweekly and remove dead leaves daily, and you must put some sort of substrate under the sand where you are planting for the roots as the sand tends to compact over time fairly quickly too. In general though i found the tank bred discus are very easy to keep once you are regular with your maintenance its the wild ones when it becomes a totally different story. Like keeping a totally different species of fish and thats where most of the myths come from about discus been hard to keep. They are just very fussy about the water quality but never the less are as hardy as the best of them once they are sub adult.

Hi John
This is the way i setup my tank for discus, i hope this will help you www.irishfishforum.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=40&t=1189

Here's how I bred Discus:

Temp: 29 degrees. keeps most diseases at bay, encourages good growth and breeding behavior.

Change 15% of the water twice a week and use some "easy balance" to keep the water fresh. You don't need to pre-heat the water - cold water simulates rainfall.

Use "Wormer Plus" every 6 weeks. All discus have worms and are affected worse than other fish...this product is cheap


Keep the PH between 6 and 7.. you really shouldn't have to worry about other parameters if you are changing the water regularly and are not over stocked


Feed frozen bloodworms in the morning and Tetra Granules in the evening. You can feed frozen krill too but my Discus are not mad on it...

Corys and Cardinals = Good Mates Avoid Angels and Plecs basically avoid any agressive fish or algae suckers.


I have two internal filters (main one is a Juwel) and two heaters in the tank but I'm not sure if that makes any difference...

here's a few links that may help

www.simplydiscus.com/library/discus_husb...scus_4beginner.shtml
www.aquariumhobbyist.com/discus/graphics/discuspagefaq.html
www.discus-south.com/discusCare.shtml
www.midlandsdiscus.co.uk/discusfishcare.html

they should answer all questions

Seamus