Newbie questions

[El_Rey_Del_Mangos]

Hey all-

My name is Joshua and I am a newbie to Discus, in fact I have none yet but am seriously considering starting 2 tanks.

I have been into aquaria for many years. I currently have a 180gallon Oscar tank, a 75 gallon Severum tank (w/clown loaches and lima shovelnose), a 30 gal Ram tank and a 15 gal shell dwelling cichlid tank.

Here's the dealio: We jsut built a new office and will be having 2 110gallon tall tanks built in the wall. I'd really love to make em a discus/tetra display tank. I am not looking to breed, simply want a ncie beautiful tank to watch while I work.

I've been doing alot of reading abotu the importance of water conditions et al. I have several questions but I'll try to keep this short for now:


1) Can anyone recommend the best book(s) on Discus care? Is there a comprehensive FAQ online that you can recommend. I've found a few but they weren't as comprehensive as I'd hoped.

2) I assume a fishless cycle is preferred.

3) Are there some strains which are heartier than others? If so, which do you recommend to start with? I'd like to have more than one strain if possible.


I'll save the myriuad of other questions for later <g>

I am in no rush as the tanks aren't even installed yet, but I wanna make sure I do this right.

Thanks to all who can help answer these (and probably countless other questions).

best
Joshua

[breed_beyond]

Best thing to do is read read read, and ask every question that you can possibly think of. There is a great wealth of information here and plenty of people to help you out. Second get water test kits. And third stick around here and post any time you have any questions.......As for books to read i've read some books by degan that seem to be good, go to your local library and check out every book on discus you can find, always remember that there are very differant idea's and ways to keep discus so don't believe everything you read, keep an open mind, and spend about 100+ hours reading all the posts here.....Brian

[Ralph]

I agree with Brian. I read books and the forum for 2 months before I actually bought my first discus, and I, like you, kept other kinds of fish before. The best info I have found though is here on the forum, it requires some searching sometimes, but the answers are usually here.

Fishless cycling:
http://forum.simplydiscus.com//index.php?board=5;action=display;threadid=1151
It gives info and referrals to both kinds of cycling.

Strong strains:
I have heard various opinions on which strain is the heartiest but I don't think the differences are so great that it would dictate your choice of fish, most people I think choose by color. Given proper care they will all do well.

King of the Mangoes?

[Jeff]

Joshua,

There are several good books out there I like by Watley and Degan sold on Amazon, but all the info in those books is available here. This is the most complete refrence on the net or in print anyware in the world. Take your time and read through all the posts and you will have more info than any of the books. The 110s are perfect for Discus if they are tall it will be hard to clean the glass is the only thing. As far as what to start with, just buy them from a reputible breeder and the starin won't really matter. There are a lot of beautiful varieties available to select from. You just need healthy discus and you will be ok. With two tanks in a office I would do a lot of mix and match. The only problem is you won't be getting much work done. ::)

The fishless cycle works fine.


Good luck and welcome to Simply Discus.


Jeff

[DarkDiscus]

Joshua,

Welcome to the board and to the discus addiciton.

Like you, I was an afficianado of central american cichlids (and africans, too) for many years before taking the plunge. I absolutely don't regret it at all.

Your idea for a discus office sounds beautiful. My suggestion would be to learn as much as humanly possible by reading everything you can on the board. I have a library of about 10 discus books at the moment and while all are of some value, you will learn more here than from any of them.

Ask questions. Talk to various people about different viewpoints. For what you are looking for you will probably be better off buying adult or nearly adult fish, as it is difficult to get them to grow in a planted tank. You need to decide if you want wild fish or some of the beautiful new strains.

Learn as much as you can.

Then jump in and don't look back!

;D

John

[Mike_T]

Will you get to right these off as a business expense? ;)

Mike T

[breed_beyond]

I'm sure that he can right them off, dentists and docters do it all the time, which allows them to bring fish guys to clean there tanks etc, which I think defeats the purpose of having a tank in the first place. All too often you see them in docters offices and they have no idea what kind of fish that they have how to feed them or anything else, maybe it's just me but taking care of my fish is half the fun.....Brian

[El_Rey_Del_Mangos]

hey everyone, thanks for the advice so far.

I do plan on reading and researching whatever I can prior to getting the fish... learned that lesson many years ago <g>

as far as the write off, well the office itself is gonna pay for everything as it's for the office :) Now if I could swing it paying for some of my stuff for my home tanks... ahemn, but that's not *exactly* legal....

As far as taking care of the fish, I agree.. that is a major part of the experience. I don't blame those who simply want a tnak to look good and be an aesthetic addition to a room/office... but I am a hobbyist first and foremost as my menagerie of tanks will attest. :)

So I see that many use the reverse osmosis units for their water changes... how necessary is this really??

thansk

oh yeah: I smoke cigars (and pipes) thus I morphed the name of one of my favorite milder cuban cigars El Rey Del Mundo with mangoes.. just cause I'm weird.

Look forward to learning more on this great forum.

best
Joshua

[Carol_Roberts]

Hi Joshua:
I'd like to add a couple of things. Many of the older books (prior to 1995) stress low pH. We now know discus will grow just fine in a wider range of pH (say 6.0 to 8.0). I doubt you'll need RO water unless you plan to breed or you have very, very hard water.
Carol :heart1:

Joshua, do you have an easy method of doing waterchanges at your office, because you will need to do them often to keep healthy discus.

[DarkDiscus]

Joshua,

There's nothing saying you can't buy the fish for the office and then have some of them migrate to your home...

;)

As for the cigars, I know one of our board founders here is a big fan! When he has the time, I'm sure he'll chat about cubans with you.

Good luck with the fish!

John

[Don_Lee]

Welcome Joshua,

You have received great advice so far, I will just make a few additions. First of all, if you are interested in a planted tank, mosey on over to the planted tank section of the board to find our more about plants with discus. ;) I think most here would agree that adult discus can do well in a planted tank if one is prepared to care for the tank correctly. I like Jack Wattley's book "Discus For The Perfectionist," "Penang Discus," and Jim Quarles books, although I do agree much information is availabe right here on this forum. Also-note that we have a chat room that some of us frequent, you could ask questions there too(unless Gipper is too busy teasing Ping or Julz! lol.)

Don ;D

[korbi_doc]

:bounce2: :bounce2: Hi Joshua, glad to hear you'll be discus-nut too! Lots info right here; if you want good reference book, I love "Discus Health", Dieter Untergasser. A good read/reference book. & the cover of the one I have has 2 discus almost the color of mangoes!!! Just like mine!!! Hahahahaha- have fun, I know you will!! Dottie 8) 8) 8)

[El_Rey_Del_Mangos]

thanks again to all. :)

My water at home is 6.8ph from tap and the office has the same reservoir source (not sure how the plumbing will affect it though) so I assume I'll be good....

as for water changes, we were going to have plumbing run to each tank but the contractors had their heads so far up their *** we scrapped that idea. I plan on buying a very long (100;) python wiht a 3 foot syphon head (the tank is 110g hihg -30" high) and I have become a pro with the python over the years LOL

We are undecided on whether to go for real plants or fakes. I know real plants help contol nitrates, but it may not be worth it with the additional maintenance req'd. Will mull that over and will check out that section of the forum too.


As for some of the fish winding their way into my tanks at home... that may happen (shhhh <g>). Could always use some more dechlorinator and food too <g>

As for the fellow cigar afficionado onboard, would love to chat with him.

thanks again to all. Iam starting to get really excited aboutthis.. though I am guessing I am still a few months away from getting fish into em. I think the tanks will be here by Dec 1.

best
Joshua

[DarkDiscus]

Joshua,

Sounds like you have PLENTY of time to read up and become a discus expert prior to buying. That's a really good thing. Take full advantage.

Enjoy!

John

[roger]

Hello Joshua,

Welcome to the board.

I just got back into discus myself about a month ago. No tank as large as your dealing with so you could say Im jealous :)

If your not looking at breeding fish then I can't think of a reason to get a RO unit. Your water atleast from an initial look has the right pH. The water on my end is hard and has a high pH but the fish arent complaining. I think most everyone will agree that water quality is more important than the chemistry. The fish seem to thrive as long as they get consistent clean water. So that 100' python is going to see some use. My boys currently get a 30% change every couple of days.

Since I was starting from scratch with a 29g and moving the fish over to a 55 (which happens soon) I went with some cory cats to load the tank up. Since everyone is going to end up in the 55g it didnt seem to make sense to have 2 tanks setup for qt. I think though in a perfect world I would have gone for the fishless cycle instead.

From what I have read and heard I dont think any of the different flavors of discus are more hardy then the others. Some people do say that some of them mature/grow faster than the others. If your ordering your fish from one of the major breeders they should be able to answer that question for you.

A side note here, dont go for large discus to start with. Go for some smaller ones so that you are going to have to "get rid of a few" once they start getting to big for the tank. :)

[joey8483]

be sure to age your water for 24 hrs or so. as for breeds blue turquoise are a hardy strain so are the reds. keep them destressed (out of high traffic areas). feed the best food you can find. Healthy and destressed make discus pretty easy to keep.

[Eddie]

be sure to age your water for 24 hrs or so. as for breeds blue turquoise are a hardy strain so are the reds. keep them destressed (out of high traffic areas). feed the best food you can find. Healthy and destressed make discus pretty easy to keep.


Uh, this thread is 8 years old