New to Discus keeping

[dtl]

Greeting, I'm new to this forum and need some help with new Discus I just bought. A little background on me, I've been keeping fish from a young age, and have generally stuck around livebearers and have dabbled a little with breeding angelfish. I have always wanted Discus but they were always too expensive and I never had the space for them. Well, I finally bought myself my first set of discus, four to be exact, and am keeping them in a 55 gallon tank I bought from Petco for a dollar a gallon (:D).

The discus are only juveniles, between 1" - 1.5", and are kept in a tank that hovers around 84-86 degrees. I try to do WC regularly, and dose the aquarium with Prime to decholorinate it. I initially bought them some frozen bloodworm and beefheart cubes, but they started only eating the bloodworms. I looked on the forum and noticed that this can become a problem as they aren't as nutritious at other foods, and should only be used as "treats". I ventured out and bought some beefheart and bloodworm flake from Kens fish. (I was originally going to buy FDBW but they were currently out of stock and I wanted to get food right away). The flakes have around 43-45% protein and around 10% fat which according to the forum is roughly what discus like. I also have regular flakes and tetra color tropical granules. In total, I have six different food for them.

Now here is the problem, since I have gotten them, which was about 3 weeks ago, they haven't been really aggressive when it comes to eating. When I give them the flakes, they usually swim by it several times, and look at it as to taunt me that they aren't eating. To me, it almost looks like they are blind to it! :angry: I know this isn't the case but it's very frustrating since I've spent a lot of time and money on them and want them to grow and be healthy! The flake eventually settles and they nibble at it, sometimes leaving it for me to have to vacuum it.

This forum has been an excellent source of information so far, but I was wondering if someone can give me a specific tip on what I'm doing wrong and help me get them to eat more. Any help would be appreciated.

EDIT: Aquarium is bare bottom with a Fluval 306 used as filtration and two sponge filters. No other fish in the tank, just the four discus.

[Mikielh1984]

Could you give more details on your tank? Is it bare bottom? Do you have other fish in the tank? Anything extra would be helpful.

[dtl]

Could you give more details on your tank? Is it bare bottom? Do you have other fish in the tank? Anything extra would be helpful.

Sorry, aquarium is bare bottom with a Fluval 306 used as filtration and two sponge filters. No other fish in the tank, just the four discus.

[Mikielh1984]

Sorry, aquarium is bare bottom with a Fluval 306 used as filtration and two sponge filters. No other fish in the tank, just the four discus.

How often are you feeding? How often are you doing water changes?

[dtl]

How often are you feeding? How often are you doing water changes?

At this point I try to sprinkle food at as often as I can to see if they eat. I work a regular 9-5 so I'm not home then. I try to add a little more so they have some during that time and just vacuum up whatever is left. I need to get a better routine set up, but I'm still trying to figure out what food they like. I try to do around 50% WC every other day, but will start to do 50% WC daily now.

[Mikielh1984]

You should also buy an auto feeder. I currently feed my little ones 5-6 times a day. I would also suggest maybe looking into a smaller tank for the time being. That's a lot of space for those guys. I would suggest a 20g or so until they get a little bigger. Easier water changes and much easier for them to find the food.

As far as getting them to eat I will leave that to someone more experienced than I to answer. My newest little group started eating on the second day and a week later eat from my hand so I am not sure what advice to give.

[dtl]

You should also buy an auto feeder. I currently feed my little ones 5-6 times a day. I would also suggest maybe looking into a smaller tank for the time being. That's a lot of space for those guys. I would suggest a 20g or so until they get a little bigger. Easier water changes and much easier for them to find the food.

As far as getting them to eat I will leave that to someone more experienced than I to answer. My newest little group started eating on the second day and a week later eat from my hand so I am not sure what advice to give.

They were originally in a 29g but I moved them to have more room. I could see how having a smaller space might be better for the time being. The auto feeder was something I'm really considering, I just want to make sure that they will eat in the first place. What kind of food do you feed your little ones?

[Mikielh1984]

I feed a very large variety of foods. I do my own homemade beef mix, spirulina flakes, golden pearls from kens fish, growth meal #2 from kens fish, beef heart flakes from inland empire discus, and FDBW from Al at aquatic suppliers. Personally I would move them back to the 29g and just do a few sponge filters with daily water changes.

[dtl]

I feed a very large variety of foods. I do my own homemade beef mix, spirulina flakes, golden pearls from kens fish, growth meal #2 from kens fish, beef heart flakes from inland empire discus, and FDBW from Al at aquatic suppliers. Personally I would move them back to the 29g and just do a few sponge filters with daily water changes.

Appreciate the help, Mikielh1984!

[DISCUS STU]

Are they light in color (healthy) or darkened? I've purchased and also bred Discus and normally at that size they should be eating aggressively and almost anything. How bright is the light? Discus can be very shy fish. I just purchased 6 Discus that size and put tinfoil under my light so there wouldn't be so much direct strong light coming in.

Are they aggressively eating anything like frozen bloodworms? If so, try mixing in other more nutritious foods with when you feed with the food they take readily. After awhile they should take to the new food and you can discontinue the other food. The nice thing about fry that size is that they should feed on almost anything and will stay like that into adulthood.

[dtl]

Are they light in color (healthy) or darkened? I've purchased and also bred Discus and normally at that size they should be eating aggressively and almost anything. How bright is the light? Discus can be very shy fish. I just purchased 6 Discus that size and put tinfoil under my light so there wouldn't be so much direct strong light coming in.

Are they aggressively eating anything like frozen bloodworms? If so, try mixing in other more nutritious foods with when you feed with the food they take readily. After awhile they should take to the new food and you can discontinue the other food. The nice thing about fry that size is that they should feed on almost anything and will stay like that into adulthood.

They are light in color, they still seem healthy. The breeder has a good reputation so I'm not too worried it's bad stock.

They do eat bloodworms aggressively, I just read on the forums it's best to let them starve for a little by not feeding them that so they will eat other foods.

[dtl]

Just a quick update. Finished a 90% WC, and added 1 tbsp of salt for every 10 gallons. They seem to be very active right after the WC, don't seem too skittish or frightened. Will let them acclimate for a bit and will feed them some flakes in a few minutes. Hoping for the best, *crosses fingers*.

[pcsb23]

There are a number of things here.

First off you only have 4 very small discus in a (to them) very large tank, i.e. a 55 gal. This rarely, if ever, works well. At the size you have you should be getting a minimum of six and preferably a dozen. I'd also start these off in a smaller tank - you can use poret foam to partition the tank btw.

Next you have added salt, why? if you want to keep brackish fish stay with your livebearers.

Next your temps are too high, 82 is fine, honest!

You probably won't need the fluval on this tank if you are running two sponge filters. All of my grow out tanks that weren't systemised just used sponges only, saves on energy and maintenance. Sponges are remarkably efficient.

[dtl]

There are a number of things here.

First off you only have 4 very small discus in a (to them) very large tank, i.e. a 55 gal. This rarely, if ever, works well. At the size you have you should be getting a minimum of six and preferably a dozen. I'd also start these off in a smaller tank - you can use poret foam to partition the tank btw.

Next you have added salt, why? if you want to keep brackish fish stay with your livebearers.

Next your temps are too high, 82 is fine, honest!

You probably won't need the fluval on this tank if you are running two sponge filters. All of my grow out tanks that weren't systemised just used sponges only, saves on energy and maintenance. Sponges are remarkably efficient.

I made a lot of rookie mistakes with my first set of discus. I should have bought six of them right away instead of four. When I was doing research on them before purchasing, it was always recommended that 55g is the smallest to go. This probably applies to more grown discus. The salt I read helps with stress so I gave that a shot, honestly just trying everything to make them eat more. The temp is hovering around 82-83 right now too.

Since I dropped the food last night they all seemed to immediately go to the food, but they only look at it. I swear when I watch them it looks like they don't know what to do with the food. My next step is putting them back in a smaller tank and maybe introducing one of my guppies to show them how to eat. Trying everything here...:confused:

[DISCUS STU]

A smaller tank is a good idea, a 15 gal., bare bottom tank, is good for fish of this size. I use the Aquaclear 50 outside power for tanks this size, even though it is rated for much larger tanks. It has an adjustable outflow. I clean the filter every few days by squeezing out the foam into water I took out for the water change. I'm using this set up for 6 fish this size. In my case, it took a few days to get them to go for anything but bloodworms but eventually they came around and are eating flake, Turkey heart, Tetra Bits, et al. The lighting is dim. They're small fish, in the wild they're instincts have them hiding in semi darkness so as not to get eaten by other fish. The salt won't really hurt but may not do much here. I'd be careful with starving small growing fish too much, but not a bad idea in moderation. Little fish like this can feed constantly.

Since they rushed to the food last night they should probably start going for it soon. I'd continue to feed some bloodworms and alternate feedings with the new food. Don't give up! There's a learning curve with Discus and it takes a little while to get experience. Its may be a little harder to start with fish this size but it's completely do-able.

[pcsb23]

I made a lot of rookie mistakes with my first set of discus. I should have bought six of them right away instead of four. When I was doing research on them before purchasing, it was always recommended that 55g is the smallest to go. This probably applies to more grown discus. The salt I read helps with stress so I gave that a shot, honestly just trying everything to make them eat more. The temp is hovering around 82-83 right now too.

Since I dropped the food last night they all seemed to immediately go to the food, but they only look at it. I swear when I watch them it looks like they don't know what to do with the food. My next step is putting them back in a smaller tank and maybe introducing one of my guppies to show them how to eat. Trying everything here...:confused:Definitely worth reducing the size of the tank, a piece of poret foam works well as a divider and means you don't have to buy a new tank! For adults a 55 is an ok size to go for, for 4 juvvies it's too big.

82-83 is perfect :)

Salt is rarely needed with discus.

Find out what they were being fed by the supplier and try that. btw the guppy idea isn't the worst I've heard either, but you risk cross contamination so maybe better not to. With more discus of the same or similar size you will find they eat well, it's as though they are competing (which they are really) ... with very small discus I always try and stock densely. Going back to the tank size, it can work to your advantage too if you partition it with poret foam as all you do is reduce the physical area the fish swim in, but still maintain the water volume of the 55 - this results in more stable conditions and potentially better water quality.

As for mistakes, don't worry we all make them, some of us still do!

[nc0gnet0]

With more discus of the same or similar size you will find they eat well, it's as though they are competing (which they are really) ... with very small discus I always try and stock densely.

I could not agree with this statement more.

-Rick

[Maura_Paz]

When I first bought my discus I had the same issue! Bloodworms, brine shrimp and recently beef heart seems to work. I haven't been able to feed them pellets or dry food at least not in front of me! I have also used the garlic to lure them with the blood worms and they eat it right up! http://img.tapatalk.com/d/14/07/16/9uze5use.jpg

It could work.... Good luck!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[dtl]

UPDATE: I moved them to a 20g bare bottom tank and I'm doing 80% WC daily. They are freely swimming around except when the light turns on, which I only do periodically to see them. They haven't really taken too much to the food yet, but they attack frozen beefheart and eat it up right away. Will continue to feed them that and introduce other foods. Not giving up!

[pcsb23]

Sounds like promising progress, well done :)