Selecting Discus

[glen pratts]

Well I have one discus with black eyes and pinched forehead, however he is very sweet and would like to do something to help him.

He is alert and go after the food just to spit it out immedaitely, eats little, his face looks pretty clear but his body is a little dark.

¿¿Is there something I can do to give this guy a chance??

Ive only been keeping Discus for 2 years, so im not a real expert. However i will try to give you some tips with what i have learnt so far. Here goes it!!

Do small daily water changes about 5% to 10%. Use a thin tube with a clamp to slowly feed the water into the tank. Discus do well with plants as they provide oxigen. Perhaps include some polisperma plants in pots in your tank. Bare bottom tanks are easier to clean and keep your discus healthy. Ive invested in an RO system and get my water to a perfect 6.5PH with ease. The water quality is the key to helping your little mate. I collect water every second day and use an internal filter with peat moss. Ensure to leave the water for 24 hours prior to using it. This will alow the clorine to evaporate. You can speed up the process by adding an airstone. With the airstone i believe that you can use the water 7hours later, i think i read that somewhere. I leave it 24hrs to play it safe. Feed him beaf heart making sure you syphone the bottom 1hr after the feeding. Feeding is also important. I feed four times a day. I start with JBL discus granules. Then 1hr later frozen brine shrimp washed under tap water in a sieve. 1hr or so later frozen discus food by ocean nutritions and then finaly Beef heart or liver cut to little bits and hand fed. I let them swallow before i give them the next bit. A little bit at a time so as not to faul the water. Then after waching TV for a while i syphone the bottom and add clean water. In my opinion the key to healthy and happy discus is dedication. This hobby is very demanding if you want your Discus to look good ! all the best. I am no expert but this seems to work for me!

All the best GLEN from the Rock

[Stasie]

Ok, a question again about bare bottom tanks.. I have a bare bottom tank but I also have 4 plants in pots.. there is gravel in the pots.. is this still considered an issue.. I'm thinking it would be, considering I can't vacume these, but I do have a couple of bushy nose pleco's who enjoy the gravel in there, along with an elephant nose.

[prolude006]

I am really not sure I agree with it being difficult to keep discus in a planted tank. It is just my opinion of course based on my results so far....I am new to the discus keeping part of the hobby but not planted tanks or cichlids for that matter. I jumped into keeping discus after many years of keeping other tropical fish.
So far I have a 75g planted tank with 4wpg and no co2, just dosing liquid ferts.Plants are doing great and starting to carpet the bottom. Low tech, very low budget.

For my discus I started out with a 3" blue cobalt (discus hans)
then I added a 4" red turquoise(discus hans) then a 3" santarem, 3" brilliant turquoise, and a 3" blue diamond (all discus hans).
My blue cobalt is now 5" as well as the red turquoise. I have had the cobalt for 2 months and red turq for 1 month. The other three Ive had for 3 weeks and they have grown probably .5" or so.
I feed them morning before work and then evening when I get home. I use omega one flake food and feed them large quantities of it each feeding.
I change my water 20% once a week as I always have for my planted tanks.
My ph is 7 and my TDS is 200ppm which is high iron in our water, I dont worry about testing anything else, less a problem arises.
My two 5" have spawned two times now in the last 3 weeks of adding the smaller discus and one batch had a few wigglers(exciting). Pair on my first two purchases(lucky I guess).
My lfs has grown 5 8" Hans discus in a 90g planted tank at the store and they look amazing. They do feed frozen foods there though!
This is just my direct observations of keeping discus...and I wouldn't hesitate telling others to try growing discus in planted tanks.

[Tito]

Hum - I just keep shaking my head....

Only thing I can say is - if you feed right - you will not pollute the water. I stay away from gravel - always have - common sense says most fish will not be able to sift in the nooks and crannies. BUt I always use Sand - yes sand has this great ability to keep all food on it's surface. Since Discus are grazers I never see any food stay on the sand more than five minutes. I feed NLS and in my opinion probably one of the best foods I've come across for all fish. Salt, African and SA. I keep one side of my 125 heavily planted and the other side open. I have 8 juveniles and all but a 1.5" fish are growing rapidly and well. Their colors are coming in too. I also feed Spirulina Bhrine Shrimp and MYSYS shrimp. Frozen of course. So far so good.

[Ceahorse]

You mention to avoid Discus raised on tubefex worms.. As a staple or entirely.. like can i feed my discus them once a day

[prolude006]

freeze dried name brand should be safe every day if you like.

[Jhhnn]

freeze dried name brand should be safe every day if you like.

IIRC, the San Francisco Bay brand of freeze dried tubifex is gamma-irradiated, as well. Which doesn't make it radioactive, at all.

It's dead, Jim- anything that might have survived the freeze drying process wouldn't make it through that... not even virii or encapsulated spores. The only other considerations would be the possibility of heavy metals or other non-volatile chemical pollutants.

[plaza80]

wow I learned a lot by reading this. Thanks.

[H82LOS3]

wow I learned a lot by reading this. Thanks.

LOL yea me too

[Brarryoxill]

Hi,

Need advice from gurus as Im relatively new to discus keeping..... my discus are currently on BH bought packaged from LFS and Hikarai pellets meant for my aro, but my aro is not taking. Is there any thing else that I should be feeding the discus?

Thanks for the advice

[Eddie]

Hi,

Need advice from gurus as Im relatively new to discus keeping..... my discus are currently on BH bought packaged from LFS and Hikarai pellets meant for my aro, but my aro is not taking. Is there any thing else that I should be feeding the discus?

Thanks for the advice

Hey there and welcome to Simply, glad to hear yours are eating pellets. For the most part, I'd say you are good to go. Depending on the make up of the pellet, you may try using a more nutrient/vitamin rich pellet such as Ocean Nutrition Formula One or one of the New Life Spectrum Pellets. Some feed flakes also which are a very good supplement to a discus diet. Ocean Nutrition makes several amazing flakes that discus love, with Prime Reef being used by many. Another thought, if you want to add some worms to their diet, one of the Simply Sponsors sells Freeze Dried Australian Blackworms that are a big hit at the moment. Everybody's fish are devouring them with much gusto.

http://forum.simplydiscus.com/forumdisplay.php?f=179

Take care and all the best with your fishes!

Eddie

[jameskturner]

great post. I already knew that you should avoid the chipped eye and triangular body, but I didn't know about the sunken body.

[selvon]

Thanks for the info it really helps

[victor_r]

i picked up some pionon blood and two of them have lots of black speckling well i should say more then the other two the article said what not to get and to avoid this what is bad about this

[danny2013]

i picked up some pionon blood and two of them have lots of black speckling well i should say more then the other two the article said what not to get and to avoid this what is bad about this

Nothing is "bad" about this. It is just unattractive. The black spots you see is just peppering. Not harmful to the fish.