New discus owner with lots of discus questions :D

[Jack L]

Juku
Fwiw when I grew baby discus in a planted tank I removed the school of tetras that I found where hogging all the food

[Juku Eja]

Well, even if you decide to introduce large grown discus again some day, don't underestimate them either.
Because this kind of deep substrate planted environment with only weekly WCs could be detrimental for them also.
Don't forget, juvies or grown ups they are still very delicate fish that requires much more maintenance and fresh water than all the rest of freshwaters that we usually keep.

Nah, definitely won't underestimate discus of any size maintenance-wise.

Juku
Fwiw when I grew baby discus in a planted tank I removed the school of tetras that I found where hogging all the food

How did that go for you, Jack? Did the babies grow well?
Edit : Found your thread. Very impressive, especially starting with those gnarly-looking babies. Absolutely tip my hat off to you bro.

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Riz

[Jack L]

yeah, its been going for 8 months or so now. it is a lot of work working around the plants, wood and stone. i had to remove some of it to help vacuum out detritus, but its been working so far. i've done it before, years ago, just a lot of maintenance.

[atterate]

Hi i am a new in discus

i bought some pigeon at 1" size i bought 6 of them and i've had them for around 1 week and they stayed at the corner of the tank each time
i come to see the tank is it normal? or are they sick?

[rickztahone]

Hi i am a new in discus

i bought some pigeon at 1" size i bought 6 of them and i've had them for around 1 week and they stayed at the corner of the tank each time
i come to see the tank is it normal? or are they sick?

You bought 1" discus? May I ask where you were actually able to buy 1" discus? Do you have pics? How large is the tank? What are you feeding them?

[atterate]

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here's my fish and btw i'm from indonesia

my tank is not really large since i was using and old one
but i am making a new one with 55 gal capacity

and can i mix the 1" fish with a 3" or 2"?
or should i separate them?

[DONTKNOWYET]

I personally think that a lot of the problems associated with planted tanks are because one needs to learn how to keep the plants healthy before they can keep any sensitive fish in it. Once you do, a planted tank is superior to any other tank in terms of keeping fish healthy.

In their desperation and old fashioned habits folks "siphon" their substrate to get rid of things....What most folks don't realise is that "cleaning" the substrate means releasing ammonia and other toxic gases into the water column. You don't need discus to kill fish. You'd kill most your fish earlier than later with habits like that...

In a discus growing cycle, you feed, and feed and feed...I haven't kept discus but that's what I did to other type of growing fry. Imagine what goes in the substrate, in your lovely looking planted tank....food left overs by the number. Now "CLEAN IT UP" because you read on the internet you need to keep a discus tank clean..... Your literally gas your fish if you do that.

The issue is not microbes or planted tanks being unhealthy for fish. The issue is "issues with ammonia, nitrites and harmful gases". The majority of fish issues are related to that, including under-filtered and probably some neglected BB discus tanks where the owner had lingering ammonia/nitrites due to overfeeding, trying to grow their fish as fast as they could in a tank with filtration or water changes that could not support the effort...

My idea of a BB tank is one that has a bunch of emersed plants grown above. You'd be surprised at their "water purifying ability". They are massive natural ammonia suckers that get to it before a chemical reactions such as nitrification or other microbe chemical reaction is achieved.

I came across this thread a while ago and I wanted to post it to see what you'd make out of it. It's from a forum for planted tanks enthusiasts. It makes a good read, including what that fellow fed his discus....to make it recover. It's not me by the way. I found it accidentally. I hope if the owner of the thread ever came across, he/she is not going to mind because its in the name of knowledge.

http://www.ukaps.org/forum/threads/s...f-congo.38348/

[Filip]

I personally think that a lot of the problems associated with planted tanks are because one needs to learn how to keep the plants healthy before they can keep any sensitive fish in it. Once you do, a planted tank is superior to any other tank in terms of keeping fish healthy.

In their desperation and old fashioned habits folks "siphon" their substrate to get rid of things....What most folks don't realise is that "cleaning" the substrate means releasing ammonia and other toxic gases into the water column. You don't need discus to kill fish. You'd kill most your fish earlier than later with habits like that...

In a discus growing cycle, you feed, and feed and feed...I haven't kept discus but that's what I did to other type of growing fry. Imagine what goes in the substrate, in your lovely looking planted tank....food left overs by the number. Now "CLEAN IT UP" because you read on the internet you need to keep a discus tank clean..... Your literally gas your fish if you do that.

The issue is not microbes or planted tanks being unhealthy for fish. The issue is "issues with ammonia, nitrites and harmful gases". The majority of fish issues are related to that, including under-filtered and probably some neglected BB discus tanks where the owner had lingering ammonia/nitrites due to overfeeding, trying to grow their fish as fast as they could in a tank with filtration or water changes that could not support the effort...

My idea of a BB tank is one that has a bunch of emersed plants grown above. You'd be surprised at their "water purifying ability". They are massive natural ammonia suckers that get to it before a chemical reactions such as nitrification or other microbe chemical reaction is achieved.

I came across this thread a while ago and I wanted to post it to see what you'd make out of it. It's from a forum for planted tanks enthusiasts. It makes a good read, including what that fellow fed his discus....to make it recover. It's not me by the way. I found it accidentally. I hope if the owner of the thread ever came across, he/she is not going to mind because its in the name of knowledge.

http://www.ukaps.org/forum/threads/s...f-congo.38348/

This is the common knowledge about planted tanks in the hobby which unfortinately dont works in practice with discus (Just in theory maybe).
The main problems in planted tanks with discus are not plants them selves but the deep dirty substrate and nutrient rich water column they are put in to in order to grow .
That substrate is a home for a lot of pathogens that many fish and especialy discus, are not accustomed to live with .

P.S . If you seek first hand quallity information about anything in this hobby , go to forums specialized for a particullar matter and stick to that.
Dont expect to find trustworthy knowledge for keeping discus in a plant oriented forum , and vice versa , dont expect to find great wisdom about plant keeping here on Simply Discus . Thats my piece of friendly advice .

[prakash.dudharejiya]

Hi All,
Before six month I have bring 20 discus coin size fish. After six month I have found that some fish group Ver big size till 3 inch and some near by 1 inch.
1 week ago I seen that small size fish got black colour and then stared dying.. now only have 12 discus big size and only one small size 1 inch.

My tank has capacity of 100 liter. Tank size 26 " 12 "16 . I use food as only tetra bite and some time live blood warm.

Any help will be welcome....
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[Filip]

Hi prakash and welcome to the forum .
You have nice looking group of discus in your tank , but your keeping routines are very inappropriate and thats probably why you have lost 8 discus along the way .
Please consider changing your methods of keeping before you start loosing some more discus .

First and foremost you need a much bigger tank to keep discus .
200 - 250 liters is considered as a Minimal tank size for discus .
You need to get a bigger tank As soon as possible or if you are unable to do that any time soon , you need to cut down your stocking levels to a minimal level of 5-6 discus and sell or give away the rest .
Right now you are way overstocked and that will surely result in more deaths in near future .

Second and not less important is how much water do you change on this tank ?
With this overcrowded stocking levels you should be changing 90% water change DAILY to keep them healthy and alive .

Third and less important issue is your feeding routine. Feeding only tetra bite as a staple diet is not an optimal nutritional choice for raising young discus . You should consider varied diet and stay away from blood worms because they can carry pathogens that may be potentially harmfull and compromising for discus immune system .

Good luck with your fish Prakash and please consider changing something before its too late for your nice looking discus .Being only 6-7 months of age they still got potential to become descend looking discus , if you change your way of keeping them .

[prakash.dudharejiya]

Thanks for reply.
I am going to purchase big tank next month. So it will create more space..
I heard that rain water is good for discus. So can add rain water in tank.

[Filip]

Thanks for reply.
I am going to purchase big tank next month. So it will create more space..
I heard that rain water is good for discus. So can add rain water in tank.

I wouldn't put rain water in my tank .
First it has totally different parameters from your current tap source , and second I often have rains in my town that are so dusty and dirty that I have to take my car on a carwash after them .

[prakash.dudharejiya]

1

[Kaushal]

Hi everyone.
Can anyone tell me how to start a new thread in this site.

2 of my discus died last night, very heart broken because of this.
I checked all the water parameter, everything is under control.

But out if these 2 dead discus, i was breathing heavily coming at top surface.
Other one suddenly had some sort of truma, she swam incredibly fast,striked here and there in tank glass, then rested normaly for 20 minute, then again did the same, again become normal, and later in the evening when i came home , i found her dead.

i had 4 discus in my tank, of which 2 are no more now.

Please support and guide me. i heard this is the best place for discus related issues and suggestion.

Hi all,

Brand new to the forum here from Indonesia and happy to announce that I've very recently purchased half a dozen young discus fish. They're only been in my tank for less than 36 hours but thank heavens they are already eating and looking relaxed, if not still a teeny bit sheepish.

Being a discus newbie, naturally I have a ton of questions but let's do one thing at a time so you guys won't be annoyed by me. For this post I'll post a few pictures of my tank and the 6 new discus, and then if anybody would so kindly answer or give their valued opinion to a couple of things :

1. What kinds of discus do I have? This is the first time that I'm a bit intimidated by the sheer number of different varieties and strains and names for a single species of ornamental fish.

2. How are they looking right now in terms of shape, colour/pattern, stuntedness, and what can I expect from them in terms of future colouring and sizes if given decent care and diet? I got them from a couple of local LFS and they're all about 7 cm from nose to peduncle. I'm aware they are most definitely not in the upper range in regards to quality with the prices I'm getting them for (ranging from Rp 50-60.000, which equates to $4-5 per fish), so I tried my best to look for the best body shape and health out of the lot.

My plan in getting young discus instead of more mature ones are firstly because of their lower prices (doesn't hurt that much if anything bad happens to them), and secondly also I want them to become used to the small schooling fishes already in the tank so they can hopefully see that they're friends, not food.

So, on to the pics then!


The tank they're in. Around 480-litre (125g) planted tank with a 120-litre sump underneath. Been established for about 6 months and housing rainbowfish, Harlequin rasbora, a couple species of Asian barbs, and extensive clean-up crew of young BN catfish, small cobitis loaches, Caridina typus shrimps, and trumpet snails for sub-substrate cleaning.

The discus!


First 2 are these ones. I'm guessing they're Red melons? Personally in my eyes they're the most decent in terms of body shape and potential for growth.


This one is a Yellow Pigeon Blood, methinks? Sorry for the poor pic, was taken only a few hours after purchase, so still very shy. Looks in good shape and also good potential for growth.



This one is also still very shy during the shoot, and it's a Turquoise, I think? Maybe a little stunted?


The two shy ones hiding under a log.



These two are I think are the least compared to the others in terms of shape and growth potential. Can see the bigger eyes relative to the body size. Also colouration a bit darker than desired. Blue Diamonds, right?



The blues and reds together.

Thanks all looking forward to the replies.
Riz

[Kaushal]

hi everyone.

i am from India.
Its been only 3 months since i have started keeping fishes.

Out of 5 discus that i had initialy are now 2 discus.
Lost 3 discus already, because of different reasons.

Not to mention, i have read a lot of post before buying my fishes and discus.
Made some mistakes even after knowing i am doing a mistake.