I want Discus!

[Hobbs]

What an awesome fish and I want my next tank, my fifth, to house these fish.

I keep my tanks crystal clear, do large water changes and gravel cleaning weekly and have never had ICK, fungus, worms or any problems with any fish so far. I credit this to the large water changes weekly and new filtering every other week.

Here in lies my problem and that's my tap water that remains at a steady 7.6. Better than going up and down but still too high, I'm afraid for Discus. It is also hard water. I live in an apartment so getting an RO system is something I probably won't be able to do and hardly have room under the sink to install one. I also don't want to keep adding chemicals to my water as my thinking is these chemicals are probably worse than having a higher pH. A counter top RO may be something I can use, however, altho I've heard they're not that great.

I've gotten mixed messages from reading about Discus such as:
1. Angels can not be kept with Discus. Other say they can.
2. Small fish like neons/cardinals can not be with Discus. Others say yes.
3. Some say only 6 Discus in a 75 gallon tank and others say 8-10.
4. Discus grow to 6 inches. Other sites say up to 9 inches.

So.......I've come here to get the straight scoop on this wonderful fish and to find out if it's feasible at all for me to even try to have them.

Here's a link I found today that has Discus to die for......in the US. This site claims that charcoal filtering should never be used in a Discus tank. Something else I didn't know altho I don't use charcoal in any of my tanks.

Anyone want to jump in and help me with some of my concerns?

Thank You

[Hobbs]

oops Forgot to post the link.

http://rockymountaindiscus.com/Gallery.htm

[luvmydiscus]

Well I am new here, new to Discus but not new to fish keeping. I to have the wonderful hard water thing too. A few years ago I was breeding Angels, I was trying to soften the water in anyway that I could. I ended up loosing more Angels than I had alive.

I was very discouraged to say the least. I then thought, if they want to breed in the tank with the hard water just leave well enough alone and see what happens.

About the only thing I did have was the driftwood that might have lowered it a bit but never put anything else in there from that point on. Soon I had more Angels than I new what to do with.

Our LFS here also do not do any adjustments for any of the fish they keep as they have found that they just die when they go to their new homes.

I currently have a Blue Snakeskin Discus baby and I use my water (treated ) right from the tap. I am not going to breed but rather have a tank for show.

If you are wanting to breed though that might be a different story all together. I have never bred Discus so the experts here might be able to direct you better.

This is just my experience and there are many opinions regarding water for Discus.

Another thing I did do then was use peat pellets, you might want to try this to soften the water a bit.

Good luck....... :D

[fishball]

Hi, hopefully someone who has more experience can give you advice later, but I'll try to help with what I know.

About water, if you buy your fish from a local pet shop that has similar water parameters to your house, then the fish are usually accustomed to it. I never purchase discus until they've been in the store for a while (although bad strategy sometimes since they sell fast). This way I know the new fish get use to the local water and are fed the same food that I would end up feeding them.

The Angels thing. People say they have some parasite thing going on between them that are safe for one species but deadly for the other. If you plan to mix, make sure neither has the parasite. Although I can't confirm the accuracy of this. Again, if you see your local pet shop do it successfully, it's possibly safe to buy from that tank.

I keep small 1" neons with 6" discus. Ghost shrimp on the other hand...

My discus started at around 3." I've got some beautiful 6" ones now. I originally had 3 in a 75 gallon. Having 6 however is definately a good number. I would go higher too but I have other fish in the tank. Usually its the 1" per gallon rule.

That's all I've got.

[samir]

this place has better discus
http://www.discusfantasy.com/index.html

[luvmydiscus]

That is what I did with my new Discus. They had 7 Discus in the store for the past month, so their water is the same as what mine is and they were all very nice. Hopefully this will be alright for my Discus.

:D

[Hobbs]

this place has better discus
http://www.discusfantasy.com/index.html

Thank you. I see their hatchery is in TX so that's good.

[Hobbs]

Thank you all for the posts and information.

[FishLover]

I bought some discus from rockymountaindiscus.com. Their discus have some serious peppering problems. I would not buy from them again. There are better options out there. If you find a local breeder, it is better to go and pick up the fish. You can save you about $60 for the S&H charge and your fish will not have to travel in the bags over night. Less stress for them.

As for the water pH, if you tap water pH changes after a period(most cases it does), then you need to aging your water. If you don't want to do that, you can use a product called Discus Buffer to lower the pH. I use it all the time and so far no problems.

10 g per adult discus is the rule people use here.

Water temp is very important too. You may want to keep them around 86F. Most nasty things don't like anything over 86f and your discus will love it.

Water changes are the key to keep discus. You may want to do more than once a week WCs with teh 75g tank, especially when they are young since you are feeding them more. I would go for at least 2 to three 30-50% WCs per week until they are about 5" big.

[Merrilyn]

Here in lies my problem and that's my tap water that remains at a steady 7.6.

I've gotten mixed messages from reading about Discus such as:
1. Angels can not be kept with Discus. Other say they can.
2. Small fish like neons/cardinals can not be with Discus. Others say yes.
3. Some say only 6 Discus in a 75 gallon tank and others say 8-10.
4. Discus grow to 6 inches. Other sites say up to 9 inches.

site claims that charcoal filtering should never be used in a Discus tank.


Your water at a steady 7.6 should be fine. It won't suit your fish if you want to breed, but it will be okay for growing out discus.

As to your other questions :-

1. Yes you can keep angels with discus, but I would not recommend it. Angels are a much more robust fish than discus, and will out compete your discus for food and tank space. They also have common parasites, and whilst the more robust angels will quite happily live with a few worms, they will affect your discus quite badly.

2. Small tetras can be kept with discus, but if you put small tetras in with large discus, expect them to become lunch. If they grow up together, they don't seem to see the tetras as food. Cardinals do better in the higher temperatures that discus prefer.

3. You could have 7 or 8 adult discus in your tank, along with a few other tankmates without causing any stress.

4. Discus can grow up to 9 inches. We used to see them that size all the time around twenty years ago. Lately the largest seem to be around 8 inches when fully grown. Discus can live to around 14 years (my oldest was 12 years) and they seem to keep growing all that time. Good food and absolutely pristine water conditions would be necessary to grow a fish to that size.

Charcoal or carbon filtering has been thought to be a cause of hole in the head with discus. Jack Wattley was the first discus keeper to make that connection. For years he has been telling new hobbyists not to use carbon in their filters, and just to keep it for times of removing medication from the water after worming etc.

Good luck with your fish. You're definately on the right track :P