Discus Beginner

[Jdinh04]

I had finally finished my 20g planted aquarium, and now I will want to start another tank. My uncle however has a tank that I am trying to get, I am unsure the size of this tank but he has an oscar in it so i'm sure it's a pretty big tank, lets say big enough for discus.

With spending most of my money on the 20g planted tank, money is limited for waht I want. I just started getting attached to discus a few weeks ago. My lps doesn't carry discus often, but after checking out Cary Strong's hatchery I no longer hesitate about getting high quality discus, also with the short drive I can most likely get a ride to check out his hatchery.

When I stopped by GLD's website, here are the strains of discus that I am interested in: oriental leopard, red spotted x green x leopoard, and wild heckels.

By no means I am not an expert at keeping discus nor know information about these specimens.

I will post more as I get more information on the tank that I hope to have for some discus.

[Barb Newell]

Hi Jdinh04 :wave: , welcome to Simply Discus! You can't go wrong with Cary if you want quality fish, and good support and advice if you need it.

Barb :)

[Anonapersona]

IMO a planted tank is a good introduction to discus, as it is more complicated than a normal community tank.

Discus are both easier and harder. More water changes, less hardware -- unless you intend to breed. Lots of food is required to make large well shaped fish, and that makes a lot of waste that has to be removed.

Food is the big thing, most of the group here will tell you to use blackworms and beefheart, but IME you can grow beautiful fish on just New Life Spectrum, growth formula, then discus formula when they get bigger. Life is pretty easy with pellet food, a barebottom tank that is siphoned every day, and something between 3 and 7 water changes a week, depending on your stocking level, and weekly filter and tank cleanup. [I did feed beefheart for the first year but dont much anymore]

Maintaining temperature is one thing we all have issues with, so use dual heaters. In your location, you also need to be aware of what you'll do in a power outage in winter, so give that some thought.

I started with discus last summer and found that getting good fish from a good breeder who is there to answer questions, and getting advice here in the forums, is the thing that will make you successful.

[Jdinh04]

I understand that these discus require a good amount of clean water, which will happen if I intend to keep them.

I feed all my fish blackworms and omega one and sometimes frozen bloodworms so that wouldn't be a problem.