Article - Basic Discus Fish Care

[robbud]

Hi

I thought some this would be an appropriate place to post this article. Enjoy...

Basic Discus Fish Care

Are you thinking about getting some discus then and want to know a little about them. Have you been to the aquatics and seen some lovely colourful discus in there show tanks.
A lot of people will tell you that discus are only for advanced fish keepers but in my experience they are easy to keep as long as you follow some basic rules.

First of all, discus require clean water free of chlorine and heavy metals. You may be best to invest in a water purifying unit. Make sure the water is on the soft and acidic side. pH between 6.0 and 7.5 with a general hardness between 5 and 15. Now is you want to been them these will have to be lower.

The water should be well filtered but slow moving and be heated at around 82 – 86F.

Another point to cover is that discus are best suited to large deep aquariums as they commonly grow to around 6 or 7 inch. They prefer to be in shoals of no less than 6 when they are growing up.

They can be kept in bare tanks but benefit from bog wood and plants as these help the discus feel safe knowing they have some where to hide. If they get stressed and scared in a bare tank they can dash around and damage there selves.

Ideal tank mates for discus include small tetras from South America i.e. neon tetras. They are also ok with various cat fish and plecs but please make sure the discus is the largest fish in the aquarium.

Discus can be fed on most aquarium foods and practically like sinking pellets. They also like frozen bloodworms and brine shrimp. Young discus should be fed 3 times a day and adults just once.

I hope you have enjoyed this article and learned a little bit more about discus fish. If you would like more information on discus fish please visit my site http://www.discus-fish-secrets.com or the article page at http://www.discus-fish-secrets.com/d...sharticles.htm

[Cosmo]

Intersting article Robbod, but there are a couple of points I would tend to disagree with. Primarily the feeding regimen you mention.

Juveniles should be fed five to six times per day instead of three. While adult Discus may survive on one feeding per day, mine get at least two.

Diet should be varied as you say, but certain sinking pellets can cause problems with bloat if not presoaked. Mine like flake, but I've stopped feeding it to them since I lost two beautiful speciments to a suspected tainted batch. HI protein is important, so lots of real meat, i.e. bloodworms and live CBW's area a good source. Ocean Nutrition makes some good frozen food to supplement witih that has various ingredients (mine like brine shrimp plus) though others swear by ON 1 and ON 2.

84 to 86 IMO is on the verge of being on the chilly side. Mine live in 88 or so and seem to like it much better. Wilds may like it even warmer since the Amazon isn't known to be a temperate environment.

Like I said though, overall good article, thanks for posting

Jim

[discus2010]

Good article it all seems ok but i have heard that if you add hiding places to a discus aquarium they will hide since I have one in a planted tank and the entire day he spends hiding within my amazon swords so i heard to turn off the lights on one side of the tank and when they need to hide they go to the darker side but just my opinion