Discus discussion....what discus do you keep?

[firestorm]

Hey guys, well I thought it would be fun to start a thread all about discus. Tell us what kind of discus you like to keep, what your setups are like, anything special you do for them, maintenance and pictures

You all probably know clearly all my problems I was having, because I thought I could treat them like any other cichlid, but boy was I wrong. It has been an uphill battle for me, but things are looking pretty positive. I have gotten every one to eat frozen foods, one of the wc had white poop, I had treated with metro, but that wasn't working and he still wasn't eating, so I finally got some meds for worms and flukes. Since then he is acting much better, still hasn't eaten yet but he is actively swimming around now and breathing is back to normal. I have kept the temps at 86 degrees, and have been doing daily 75% water changes for the past week and a half. Once he starts eating again, I will be keeping the temp at 84, and doing 50% water changes every other day. I feed them now 4x a day, with a diet of beef heart, blood worms, brine shrimp, NLS pellets (not quite interested yet), and tetramin flakes. I was also advised to grow my own daphnia for them, and make my own beef heart blend. Someone also suggest using chicken hearts, is this good or bad?

I would love to know all about your guy's discus and how you keep them. Every little bit can help all of us learn new things

Edited August 5, 2008 by firestorm

[DiscusKeeper403]

I have two Discus setups. My main Discus setup is a 50 gallon. I have a Aquaclear 70 on it. Had a Ehiem Liberty too, but shut that off as it was leaking. I only use foam insterts. No carbon.

Temp: 30C (two Elite heaters)

Fish: 2 Lyretail Swords, 1 Honey Gourami, 5 Discus, 2 Ram and a small Angel.

Diet: Brine shrimp, Blood worms, Mysis shrimp and occasional Turkey heart, Spectrum Discus pellets (fed 2-3 times daily)

W/C routine: lately been doing once every other day on this tank. All Discus are full grown. Every 2-4 weeks I clean the insterts out with tank water.

Tank is planted and has gravel

Next is my 29 gallon. I have 4 Discus. All of them are still babies. Depending on if I get a bigger tank three will be replacing a pair in the main tank once it forms. The other (runt) will be given away to a good home.

Temp: 30C (one Ehiem heater)

Fish: 4 Discus

Diet: Hikari Discus pellets, Spectrum Discus pellets, Blood worms, Brine shrimp, Mysis shrimp (fed 3-4 times daily)

W/C routine: 30% daily.

This tank is bare bottom. Only has a simple spondge filter in it.

I'll see if I can add some pictures Monday. School has started up again so I have been busy.

I am glad your fish are doing better!!

Edited September 5, 2008 by DiscusLova

[firestorm]

Great to hear about your set ups Yes my fish have been doing great with all the changes I have made, and I am planning on putting some sand substrate back with them soon. I bought about 3 more medium-large pieces of driftwood for their tank, and tied more plants to it. Eventually I would like to get their tank up and running again with lot's and lot's of plants. They don't really seem interested in the dried foods I feed them yet, but they like the brine shrimp and blood worms I feed them. I was talking to Denis at golds, and he told me not to feed them beefheart because it is not necessary and not very good for them. So I feed mine a sprinkle of NLS H2O stable flakes, a sprinkle of NLS discus formula, a feeding of brine shrimp, and a feeding of bloodworms every day. Even though most of them don't eat the dried foods yet, I still try to offer it to them and hopefully one day they will find they like it. I am now doing 50-60% water changes every 3 days, filter is an eheim 2250 canister, I have one 300W ebo jager heater.

[DiscusKeeper403]

Great to hear about your set ups Yes my fish have been doing great with all the changes I have made, and I am planning on putting some sand substrate back with them soon. I bought about 3 more medium-large pieces of driftwood for their tank, and tied more plants to it. Eventually I would like to get their tank up and running again with lot's and lot's of plants. They don't really seem interested in the dried foods I feed them yet, but they like the brine shrimp and blood worms I feed them. I was talking to Denis at golds, and he told me not to feed them beefheart because it is not necessary and not very good for them. So I feed mine a sprinkle of NLS H2O stable flakes, a sprinkle of NLS discus formula, a feeding of brine shrimp, and a feeding of bloodworms every day. Even though most of them don't eat the dried foods yet, I still try to offer it to them and hopefully one day they will find they like it. I am now doing 50-60% water changes every 3 days, filter is an eheim 2250 canister, I have one 300W ebo jager heater.

Beef heart isn't really good to feed them on a regular basis. The reason for this, is because of all the fat in the heart. This fish cannot process this fat so it will build up in their body and lower their life span. This is only in big doses though. I believe turkey heart is a little leaner though.

This is probably the most argued dietary opinion in all of Discus community. Some people feed it, others don't.

[Sam Chicklets]

I keep mine in a 66 gallon tank running a Rena XP3, Magnum H.O.T., and 2 55 gallon sponges. I have a 20 gallon conditioning tank that I use for water changes every 3 days. I feed primarily frozen brine shrimp and NLS Discus Formula, with some frozen blood worm every few days.

[firestorm]

Yeah I saw your discus Nick and they were absolutely beautiful I have found it so hard to find frozen beef heart around here lately, so I might just continue buying the cichlid delight which contains turkey heart....which should also be pretty lean. I can see feeding smaller discus beef heart because it is higher in fat content, which all babies need to grow.

Anyone ever consider a system that hooks up to RO and does continuous water changes? The tall skinny white dude at golds pointed this system out to me. But the problem with having that is you would have to continuously be adding trace elements back into the water, wouldn't you? Unless you can hook it up somehow to run tap and RO through it. What do you think of using a white sand with them?

[Sam Chicklets]

White sand may make them pale in color. Also I would only use sand in a discus tank if they were full grown as you don't have to feed them as often and there is less waste to clean up. Also I have rams horn snails in their tank to clean up excess food.

[firestorm]

White sand may make them pale in color. Also I would only use sand in a discus tank if they were full grown as you don't have to feed them as often and there is less waste to clean up. Also I have rams horn snails in their tank to clean up excess food.

Maybe I will try the black seachem fluorite sand then. I can hold off on getting the substrate until they grow larger. Ramshorns sound like a good idea too.

[Fish_Frenzy]

I would recommend not doing RO unless you are serious about breeding...even then, I don't think it's necessary.The fish have already adjusted to Calgary water...to switch them to RO is just going to cause them to go through another stressful situation.

I have had my Discus breed and have had wrigglers (they got eaten before getting any further) in plain ole aged Calgary water. IMO it truly isn't necessary to have RO for Discus. I hope this helps.

Tammy

[DiscusKeeper403]

I would recommend not doing RO unless you are serious about breeding...even then, I don't think it's necessary.The fish have already adjusted to Calgary water...to switch them to RO is just going to cause them to go through another stressful situation.

I have had my Discus breed and have had wrigglers (they got eaten before getting any further) in plain ole aged Calgary water. IMO it truly isn't necessary to have RO for Discus. I hope this helps.

Tammy

s

Tammy, you are very correct. The only reason you would want R/O is if you are trying to make some money on the off spring. Softer water= better penetration of the fishes sperm. This means you are going to end up with more fry.

Edited September 9, 2008 by DiscusLova

[firestorm]

My plans in the future is to get good quality WC stock, or very good quality domestic, and start breeding them. I would actually love to get some different types of hard to find fish here and breed them. That way people will have a chance to get some of that species in this area. I know it ticks me off when I search all over for a certain species, but only people really far away seem to have them. I probably won't switch to RO for my current discus, I am testing the tank with peat and lot's of good old driftwood right now. If I ever were to switch to part RO, I would make the changes very slowly over a period of time. I would not want to cause alot of unnecessary stress on them. But thanks guys for that advice, I never thought of that factor before.