Confusing names

[aix]

Hi!

I am planning to buy some discus from Singapore (since we have no breeders in Estonia) and since my water is not exactly perfect for discus (pH 7,5, KH 5,5) I was wondering if there would be some more durable or suitable discus for my water? My favourite is Royal Blue but if this is not suitable the variety is big. So please, all you experienced discus people, give me some advise. What is the "easy" discus?

I am a breeder for Corydoras, Pterophyllum etc at the moment and I have experience with aquariums 19 years but this is not really much for discus.

I have a 500l HEAVILY planted tank (I grow Ech. plants for selling in the same tank) planned for discus. I am planning to take 4 fish 6-7cm to begin with. Is this amount OK? I have Eheim 2260 filter with substrate. It should be OK.

And since discus breeders only give commercial names, could you inform me about the naming system?

Also for growing plants I have 4*58W JBL bulbs on this tank, hope this is not too much to make discus sceared?

Thank you.

[April]

hi and welcome. your water sounds fine to me. they will do fine at those parameters. for a heavily planted tank though i would suggest you get adults or larger ones. as small ones will not grow well in a planted tank.
any strain is fine. but maybe being a beginner i would suggest barred ones over pigeons as they show their bars when stressed so easier to detect if theres a problem. Royal blues sound nice. some of my favourites as well.
steady parameters are best. so once their settled in im sure they will be just fine.
no idea on the lights sorry.
maybe ask in the biotope section for that.

[Carol_Roberts]

Hi Aix and welcome to Simplydiscus :wave:

Discus names are confusing to nearly everyone, lol. Blue turquoise and red turquoise varieties are very easy to raise and low in cost. Royal Blue is most likely easy to raise too.

April is correct - your water is fine to grow out discus and raise babies.

Are you buying a group of babies hoping to get a pair and breed discus? If yes, let me tell you the easiest route to success.

Juvenile discus do best in groups of 6 or more. Grow them out in a bare tank with only a filter and heater. (No gravel or plants). In addition to a good basic dry food, feed with lots of meaty foods like worms, beefheart and frozen bloodworms, etc. Do daily water changes of 30% - 50% (or more) depending on tank size and fish load. I like a 55 gallon for grow out.

It may take a year or two to reach breeding age. When pairs form a 29 gallon is a good size for breeding tank.

[aix]

Thank you for reply.
It may be a bit difficult for me to keep a bare tank. So could you perhaps tell me the reasons (differences compared to bare tank) why planted aquarium is not suitable for young discus. ::) If I change about 40% of water twice a week.

I will take your advice and start with 6 young fish. how many fish could I finally keep in my 500l aquarium?

What would you suggest the temperature should be ( in C if possible).

Thank you.

Ailar.

[Carol_Roberts]

Best temperature is 29-30 C.

Discus are different than other tropical fish. They need very clean water and lots of meaty food for optimum growth. Bare bottom is the easiest tank to care for.

Think of the tank like a glass feeding trough. For best growth you add lots of meaty food. Discus are messy fish. Each day you clean the tank and add 30% - to 50% fresh aged water. Discus stay healthy and grow large.

It is very difficult to grow out juveniles in a planted tank. Optimum conditions for discus are different than those for plants. You end up compromising. Adult discus can be kept in a planted tank.

[aix]

Thank you for this information. I have kept and bred more than 50 species but never had this problem. It seems now I have to get my 128l from a garage and get it started. Tricky business. But still worth it. Thanks a lot.

Best regards,
Ailar

[Preeda_Lim]

In my experience, water change is a must, though depend on yr water quality after feeding at the end of day. For the "easy" strain that i would suggest are:

Pigeon blood
blue discus(Blue turq/blue diamond)
Red Turq

IMO I found that spotted discus is a bit difficult..

Cheers,
Preeda

[aix]

If the target would be NOT to grow my discus bigger than 8'' how many times per day should I feed them? I just do not like big fish anymore since I seem to have a "habit" of growing my fish too big. Currently my oscars (about 14'') and plecostomus (about 26'') are in our zoo since could not turn in my tank anymore. Do not want my 500l to become too small.

[Willie]

Aix;

Even the experienced hobbyists and professionals on this forum have difficulty getting young discus to grow in a planted tank. Its not because we haven't tried and its not because we don't make enough water changes. I'm convinced that its not doable.

Since a planted tank is important to you, I recommend you get larger discus -- just a few. In this case, your supplier should be able to send you pictures of the exact fish they are selling. So, there would be no issues with confusing names.

Willie

[aix]

Thanks, Willie. I must agree with you what concernes planted aquarium. How big fish would you recommend? Water is stable (same pH and KH in aquarium and in tap water) so I can make large changes. I currently change 50% twice a week.
To be honest I have kept discus before, but I managed to keep (and grow) them for 4 months before we had a 4-day electrical failure because of storm. Naturally discus could not survive such a period without filtration and heating. I did my best but... Now I am planning to buy UPS for filter. I hope that 2-3C drop in 2 days is not fatal to discus when filtration is OK. Please advise.

[korbi_doc]

:bounce2: :bounce2: Hi Aix, you've had great advice. About the UPS, I've installed an air system with a linear air pump & sponge filters & airstones attached to an inverter with back-up deep cycle battery. Had an outage last month that lasted 3 hrs & the temp in my tanks dropped from 30*C to 26*C. I covered the tanks with blankets & the fish did fine, temps came right back up & they had plenty of air. Got my equipment from John @ Jehmco. Call, he'll help, good luck Dottie ;D ;D

http://jehmco.com

[aix]

Thanks to normal room temperature and 500l aquarium it does not cool down. 3 hours has not been a problem. Much bigger problem is with filter because of massive death of bacteria. If I am at home when electrical problems arise it is not such a problem. I clean the filter and the only problem is that all the "aging" process starts from the beginning and it takes time before the filter is working normally. Much bigger problem is when I am not at home. When the bacteria dies and filter starts to work again and spreads dead bacteria all over aquarium. Fish are not happy. Thank God such things only happen 1-2 a year but still... That is why I am planning to muy UPS.

[Carol_Roberts]

You must be using canister filters. Perhaps you would be better off using air driven sponge filters inside the tank or even hang on the back filters like Aqua Clear. My power has been off for 25 hours before with no major die off of bacteria in filters.

[aix]

You are right- I am using a canister filter, extremely powerful Eheim 2260 with 18l of biological volume. Perhaps because I do not have enough time to make hudge w/c every day. With such filtering volume and 2400l/h I can miss some w/c. Though it seems I have to change my manners with discus. To avoid nitrits and nitrates level going up. As I have understood even plants can not remove fast enough when we are talking about discus.

[aix]

Could somebody suggest, how big fish(cm, '') should I buy for my planted tank?