spheredome
11-29-2015, 11:46 AM
Since new member cannot reply to other's post, I shall share my opinion and experience in hope to help in some of the unresolved encounters. I only have experience keeping discus alive in my tank. Breeding is outside my interest. Not all issues are disease infection but as compared to fisheries importer, their encounters are certainly more. For reference only.
1) Discus do not get fins snap off easily overnight, their spines are hard and sharp. Most likely is they gets stuck in decorations and tears off while struggling. When badly frightened, discus will dart to any hiding place and they might get stuck in wood, side of internal filters. Small angelfish likes to nipple on the spines, given time, they do chew off the sharp tips but not overnight. Chinese algae eater must be avoided as they nibble on discus slime, causing them to stress and group in one corner.
2) Discus definitely do not like fast moving fish that will charge at them or bang into them. Even small zebra fish can spook discus in the dark as they may dart into the fish. Fish can die of fright btw.
3) Tanks that have poor water circulation tends to get into problem later and I believe many of the invisible case degrades are due to this factor, because you did not give buffer to process sudden water foul, e.g uneaten food, fish vomit out food and slimes. Air pumps with air stone are important and those with emergency battery offers backup in case of power failure. Unless the tank is very big 4feet, slow water flow that do not cycle top to bottom fast will result in crashes at certain time. While discus do not like one direction strong water flow but decent water flow keeps them exercised.
4) Discus do not like dirty water. Dirty water is not just about zero ammonia and nitrite, it is about water that has lots of dissolve substance, smelly, stale, chemical. A clean water flows smooth but dirty water appears like slimey. My overstocked tanks always have some ammonia and nitrate (will never read yellow) but the fishes are fine with frequent partial water change. Thus discus are rather accommodating while rams and shrimp do not. Discus will have burn fins and protrude eye when ammonia is too high, too long. Your tank water should be soft and clear clean every morning.
5) Discus prefer warm water, 31C-33C are ok. Even 34C during the tropical daytime does not affect them. During my water change, temp can drop from 33C to 31C, no issue. But Discus gets sick very quickly in cooler temperature (like catching cold). If possible connect the heater to a reptile thermal switch as a secondary protection in case the heater's thermal coil get stuck, overheating the tank to death. Multiple internal power head filter create heats too, helping those in cold room. I live in tropic and thus do not have cold temp issue. Stay with this range even during disease treatment. Don't assume that the heater bar will distribute the heat throughout the tank uniformly when it turn off. Use an alternate thermometer.
6) If unsure on water parameters, I will go with blackwater. I alter between blackwater and clear water as I like (as blackwater can be boring), there is no issue. In blackwater, more fish squabble encountered but nothing serious. Once your fish gets use of it, it will do just fine. Volume of water does matter, 20L vs 100L of water means a lot of different is sudden parameter changes from a bucket of water. However, I felt that warm temp of 31C-33C is necessary during change. I never bother too much about ph unless they are extreme but I guess people will fall sick drinking the water too with extreme ph.
7) Discus love green plants. Add a bunch of tall plants and that calms things down. In my opinion, bare tank with too few fish makes them skittish. The minimum number of discus also depends on size of tank. Too big a space with 6 fishes and they will still be skittish. Crowd many together and they will eventually calm down because they cannot see what happened when one fish decides to dart. If you overstock (not advise), be willing to do frequent water change.
8) I use tablesalt as first disease treatment and aquarium salt as normal additive. Salt treatment is safer for suspicious case or patches appearing on fins etc. Do not jump straights into antibiotics as they are harsh. I use methylene blue as second option, mblue will fix fungus and bacteria which helps to discus fight off illness. Example I stop using Biozyme because the bacteria will grow all over the discus slime making the discus ich and sick. Methylene blue and tablesalt solve the problem in 3 days, while EM and furan are slow. Mblue will destroy biofilter but to me its fine because I want to clean all filter off bacteria during treatment. Ammonia spike will happen, daily partial water change is needed with minimal feeding. Discus will not die eating less.
9) Melafix are used only for small wounds and not when there is disease outbreak. Anything that cause bacteria to grow including aloe vera should be excluded until the bacteria is in control (i.e post recovery). Furan, EM can cause discus to become slightly skittish during treatment. Tetracycline makes discus go mad. My discus and angelfish were not affected by Methylene blue.
10) Fresh tap water cause redox to fall a lot for me. This may also be caused by anti chlorine and chloromine (my feel). Tanks with slow top to bottom water flow may at risk of fish crash, if you are going with frequent water change method, make sure your tank has good oxygen circulation. Doesn't mean fish is not gasping for air, it means ok. Never ever feed the fish soon after water change. Utility tap water O2 and chlorine may not be same through the year, thus observe for abnormalies. If you come home very late and about to sleep, don't bother to feed and skip water change, so that your fish will not end up dead the next morning. Always allow 1 hours to monitor.
11) Avoid live food. Use frozen food, pellets or flakes. Frozen beefheart are good but fouls the water most, good as supplement. Do not heavy feed for new tank or when you add a few fishes. I only feed my fish one time a day for a mix of 4" size to adult fishes together. Less frequent fed fish will less likely to waste food. Remember to turn off power head filter during feeding. Large amount of food trapped inside can foul the water later.
12) Discus actually have different character. Some are friendly approaching while some are "don't disturb me unless you have food". And some bites if you put your hands in. The first 2 months when starting discus tank is hardest, after that, it get easier with time. Even for a cycled tank, new fish will likely to fall ill after an environment change but unless the new fish is exposed to deadly bacteria, most diease are commonly treatable. When I see ill fish among the heathy ones, I avoid buying unless u can quarantine them. Give time (>1.5 months) for a fish to acustom to the fluctuation. You add new fish to your main tank, do anticipate for potential disease outbreak and control.
13) Some deaths are unavoidable as long as they are not spreading. A full belly fed fish got stomach ramp by another fish is a goner. While motionless flat or swimming in circles are bad omens of death, these may not be taken as disease diagnose accurately. Some are already immune weak or poorly fed.
14) Discus get dark bruise around mouth when they knock very hard on tanks. The bruise should subside in 1+ week, if not it means your fish is still skittish. Put dark paper on sides of the tank to help prevent fish banging into the clear glass for new fish. They learn the space eventually with longer time. Do not confuse with red patches and blood streak from ammonia poison.
15) Discus darkening once a while is something that puzzles me. Background, temperature, sudden spooked, just wake up, bright sunlight. But if the discus is not eating or responding to your movement or have not moved for a day. Need to watch out. Water change and keep water temp on the high side is good. Fish that has been with you for months are easier to care because you know their behaviour.
17) One of my new adult discus had big white round pimples (not whitespots or HTH) growing all over body and it took me 2 months to find the cure (after spotting a contributed picture on google). Diflubenzuron first and later methylene blue (treat the white stuff) specifically.
18) Some discus do cough out slime, strange. Young small anglefish love to eat the floating slimes and helps eating small floating worms too.
19) Too many fine bubbles in water irritates discus. Some are fine, too dense to many is not good cause them to scratch. Also water with constant floaters debris are not good. Wool filter can get rid of them.
1) Discus do not get fins snap off easily overnight, their spines are hard and sharp. Most likely is they gets stuck in decorations and tears off while struggling. When badly frightened, discus will dart to any hiding place and they might get stuck in wood, side of internal filters. Small angelfish likes to nipple on the spines, given time, they do chew off the sharp tips but not overnight. Chinese algae eater must be avoided as they nibble on discus slime, causing them to stress and group in one corner.
2) Discus definitely do not like fast moving fish that will charge at them or bang into them. Even small zebra fish can spook discus in the dark as they may dart into the fish. Fish can die of fright btw.
3) Tanks that have poor water circulation tends to get into problem later and I believe many of the invisible case degrades are due to this factor, because you did not give buffer to process sudden water foul, e.g uneaten food, fish vomit out food and slimes. Air pumps with air stone are important and those with emergency battery offers backup in case of power failure. Unless the tank is very big 4feet, slow water flow that do not cycle top to bottom fast will result in crashes at certain time. While discus do not like one direction strong water flow but decent water flow keeps them exercised.
4) Discus do not like dirty water. Dirty water is not just about zero ammonia and nitrite, it is about water that has lots of dissolve substance, smelly, stale, chemical. A clean water flows smooth but dirty water appears like slimey. My overstocked tanks always have some ammonia and nitrate (will never read yellow) but the fishes are fine with frequent partial water change. Thus discus are rather accommodating while rams and shrimp do not. Discus will have burn fins and protrude eye when ammonia is too high, too long. Your tank water should be soft and clear clean every morning.
5) Discus prefer warm water, 31C-33C are ok. Even 34C during the tropical daytime does not affect them. During my water change, temp can drop from 33C to 31C, no issue. But Discus gets sick very quickly in cooler temperature (like catching cold). If possible connect the heater to a reptile thermal switch as a secondary protection in case the heater's thermal coil get stuck, overheating the tank to death. Multiple internal power head filter create heats too, helping those in cold room. I live in tropic and thus do not have cold temp issue. Stay with this range even during disease treatment. Don't assume that the heater bar will distribute the heat throughout the tank uniformly when it turn off. Use an alternate thermometer.
6) If unsure on water parameters, I will go with blackwater. I alter between blackwater and clear water as I like (as blackwater can be boring), there is no issue. In blackwater, more fish squabble encountered but nothing serious. Once your fish gets use of it, it will do just fine. Volume of water does matter, 20L vs 100L of water means a lot of different is sudden parameter changes from a bucket of water. However, I felt that warm temp of 31C-33C is necessary during change. I never bother too much about ph unless they are extreme but I guess people will fall sick drinking the water too with extreme ph.
7) Discus love green plants. Add a bunch of tall plants and that calms things down. In my opinion, bare tank with too few fish makes them skittish. The minimum number of discus also depends on size of tank. Too big a space with 6 fishes and they will still be skittish. Crowd many together and they will eventually calm down because they cannot see what happened when one fish decides to dart. If you overstock (not advise), be willing to do frequent water change.
8) I use tablesalt as first disease treatment and aquarium salt as normal additive. Salt treatment is safer for suspicious case or patches appearing on fins etc. Do not jump straights into antibiotics as they are harsh. I use methylene blue as second option, mblue will fix fungus and bacteria which helps to discus fight off illness. Example I stop using Biozyme because the bacteria will grow all over the discus slime making the discus ich and sick. Methylene blue and tablesalt solve the problem in 3 days, while EM and furan are slow. Mblue will destroy biofilter but to me its fine because I want to clean all filter off bacteria during treatment. Ammonia spike will happen, daily partial water change is needed with minimal feeding. Discus will not die eating less.
9) Melafix are used only for small wounds and not when there is disease outbreak. Anything that cause bacteria to grow including aloe vera should be excluded until the bacteria is in control (i.e post recovery). Furan, EM can cause discus to become slightly skittish during treatment. Tetracycline makes discus go mad. My discus and angelfish were not affected by Methylene blue.
10) Fresh tap water cause redox to fall a lot for me. This may also be caused by anti chlorine and chloromine (my feel). Tanks with slow top to bottom water flow may at risk of fish crash, if you are going with frequent water change method, make sure your tank has good oxygen circulation. Doesn't mean fish is not gasping for air, it means ok. Never ever feed the fish soon after water change. Utility tap water O2 and chlorine may not be same through the year, thus observe for abnormalies. If you come home very late and about to sleep, don't bother to feed and skip water change, so that your fish will not end up dead the next morning. Always allow 1 hours to monitor.
11) Avoid live food. Use frozen food, pellets or flakes. Frozen beefheart are good but fouls the water most, good as supplement. Do not heavy feed for new tank or when you add a few fishes. I only feed my fish one time a day for a mix of 4" size to adult fishes together. Less frequent fed fish will less likely to waste food. Remember to turn off power head filter during feeding. Large amount of food trapped inside can foul the water later.
12) Discus actually have different character. Some are friendly approaching while some are "don't disturb me unless you have food". And some bites if you put your hands in. The first 2 months when starting discus tank is hardest, after that, it get easier with time. Even for a cycled tank, new fish will likely to fall ill after an environment change but unless the new fish is exposed to deadly bacteria, most diease are commonly treatable. When I see ill fish among the heathy ones, I avoid buying unless u can quarantine them. Give time (>1.5 months) for a fish to acustom to the fluctuation. You add new fish to your main tank, do anticipate for potential disease outbreak and control.
13) Some deaths are unavoidable as long as they are not spreading. A full belly fed fish got stomach ramp by another fish is a goner. While motionless flat or swimming in circles are bad omens of death, these may not be taken as disease diagnose accurately. Some are already immune weak or poorly fed.
14) Discus get dark bruise around mouth when they knock very hard on tanks. The bruise should subside in 1+ week, if not it means your fish is still skittish. Put dark paper on sides of the tank to help prevent fish banging into the clear glass for new fish. They learn the space eventually with longer time. Do not confuse with red patches and blood streak from ammonia poison.
15) Discus darkening once a while is something that puzzles me. Background, temperature, sudden spooked, just wake up, bright sunlight. But if the discus is not eating or responding to your movement or have not moved for a day. Need to watch out. Water change and keep water temp on the high side is good. Fish that has been with you for months are easier to care because you know their behaviour.
17) One of my new adult discus had big white round pimples (not whitespots or HTH) growing all over body and it took me 2 months to find the cure (after spotting a contributed picture on google). Diflubenzuron first and later methylene blue (treat the white stuff) specifically.
18) Some discus do cough out slime, strange. Young small anglefish love to eat the floating slimes and helps eating small floating worms too.
19) Too many fine bubbles in water irritates discus. Some are fine, too dense to many is not good cause them to scratch. Also water with constant floaters debris are not good. Wool filter can get rid of them.