People often say Discus are very difficult to keep! Well that might be true if you don't get the basics right to start with. Once you have understood and put into practice what you know, it is I think, very easy to keep any Discus, wild or tank bred.
The following three factors are called the Golden Rules of Discus keeping:
Water Quality If your Discus are ill or you have a problem with them, the root cause is nearly always the water quality. The native waters from which the Discus are from, in Brazil is soft and acidic. So it is understandable that we need to replicate this type of water in our home aquarium. A larger volume of water is easier to keep stable than a smaller volume, bear this in mind when you are choosing your tank, in other words get the largest one you possibly can.
I assume you are familiar with the Nitrogen Cycle (if not you really need to understand this fully). Discus will not tolerate Ammonia or Nitrite in any amount, and only the bare minimum Nitrate. Make sure the detritus is removed on a daily basis together with any uneaten food, as this will quickly form Ammonia. If you feed beefheart always feed day time, never at night, as there are always some fatty bits that do not get eaten and you don't want that in the tank overnight. Ph is of course very important, as this is the measure of acidity and alkalinity. Ph of 7 is neutral, that is between acid and alkaline.
Discus like the Ph between 5.5 and 6.8 and will tolerate 7.0 to 7.4. Heckles like it 5.0 to 5.5. General Hardness should be between 2 and 8. Conductivity should be about than 10ms. If you are unlucky enough to live in a hard water area, you will need to bring down the hardness and probably the Ph as well.
I would recommend a Reverse Osmosis filter, which strips everything from the water and will in the process lower the Ph and the hardness; this depends on how alkaline and hard the water was to start with, you can then mix back a percentage of filtered tap water to acquire the correct Ph, Hardness and Conductivity. To do this use a filter which removes heavy metals and chlorine, this filter will not alter the Ph or hardness of the water passing through it.
Feeding For adult fish feed 2 or 3 times a day, do not overfeed as the food will pollute the water quickly. Feed should be high quality flake, Prima, beefheart (make your own, it's worth it in the long run), high protein foods, live food like white worms or small earth worms (make sure these are washed and purged 24 hours on shredded newspapers before feeding). Do not feed Bloodworm, Tubifix or any frozen processed foods that are not gamma radiated, or better still no over the counter' frozen food, because how do you know it has not thawed out on route to the retailer? This can cause major problems, it's better to stick to your own homemade beefheart.
Water Changes Stick to regular water changes every week. Discus like constant water parameters, so a 25% water change every week is best. Thanks for waching..Yassar Ceethirakath
Comments on "Discus Fish Home"
Sadly, two of my ...
Sadly, two of my discus just died, they've been with me for a year and a half. Sadly both of them died on the same day.
Any advices? I have my PH level at 7.6 which is pretty high. I actually bought a PH stabilizer lowering the PH level by .2 everyday. I just started this process around 2 hours ago. Do you think the high PH level is the cause of the death of my Discus?
OR could it be the regular feeding of Bloodworms for its diet?
OR could it be that i hardly change my water? once every 6 m
WHAT? NO BLOODWORMS ...
WHAT? NO BLOODWORMS? ARE YOU SERIOUS? please give me some more advice on the diet, i feed them bloodworms and brine shrimp.
how to make beef ...
how to make beef heart wht the ingerdint
Discus fish - living room at Xmas
Just tested my new 'HD Vado' camera and filmed the Discus Aquarium in our Living Room.....the lights are only around the fire at this time of Year! I will be moving at least 5 of the younger Discus to another Tank in the next day. The Congo Tetras are breeding and I have 2 other Mature pairs of Discus producing fry reguarly. A RAM, Rummy's and 4 Sterbai Corydoras are also in as Tankmates. They are generally peaceful but have the odd chase when I go near the Glass, as they think they are about to be fed!!
DISCUS FISH
150 GALLON GALLON PLANTED DISCUS SHOW TANK. FINALY DONE IT 3 MONTHS AGO. DISCUS ARE GROWING UP FAST ALONG WITH THE AROWONA . EQUIPMENTS... TOO MUCH TO LIST. 3D BACKGROUND. 3 EHIEM 2028 PROFESIONAL II FILTERS. 2 JAGER 200W HEATERS....ALL THOSE THINGS DONE BY ME. IT TOOK 1 MONTH TO SET UP. PLANTS ARE REAL .ALL TANK IS CUSTOM MADE IT BY ME. The background is constructed from a hybrid industrial grade foam.
My 600 litres (~158 gallons) discus tank
My 600 litres (~158 gallons) discus tank Discus: 4 x Angel diamond 2 x Red turquoise 3 x Pigeon blood red Other fishes: Black phantom tetra Red phantom tetra Scalare Plecostomus Corydoras julii Best Regards, hyll
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