Looking for my first Discus, a few questions

[Kkenny]

I am looking into getting Discus and am very happy that I stumbled across this site.

Through reading about discus though I do have some questions I hope you can help me with.

One, I see some advertisements for discus as AA or AAA . Is that a type of grading the quality?

Also I know there has been discussion on PH. I want to provide the best living / spawning conditions for my discus, so I am concerned about the PH of my tap. It comes out at 7.2 and after aging 24 hours it is 8. I am not comfortable with that. How can I get it down naturally? I was told Peat and driftwood. How is the success on that? I was thinking of putting a filter with peat in the water barrel where I will be ageing my water, so the water will already be conditioned to the lower PH before being used in water changes. Will that work? Any other suggestions?

I have been looking at several different Discus breeders online. I am very leary of shipping. There is a shop within traveling distance to me. Does anyone have any feedback on this company? http://www.sunrisetropicals.com/

And lastly, how likely is it that if you get a school of 6-8 babies that you will get a few pairs?

Thanks!

[Dennis The Mennis]

Hey, welcome aboard

There are a few really good places to get Discus in the sf bay area. Two in particular are sponsors to this site and both have a very good reputation. Why don't you check this area out and see what you come up with. http://forum.simplydiscus.com/forumdisplay.php?f=42
I haven't personally dealt with Sunrise Tropical but they seem to have a nice selection.

If you check out the Discus University section, you'll get a good idea of what a perfect Discus should look like. I have to say though that IMO some very beautiful fish have not been scored very well. So the perfect fish for you does not necessarily have to be a perfect Discus. It will just give you an idea of what to look for/at. It is also nice to see all the different kinds/variety of Discus fish.

http://forum.simplydiscus.com/forumdisplay.php?f=91

[Tropical Haven]

I am looking into getting Discus and am very happy that I stumbled across this site.

Through reading about discus though I do have some questions I hope you can help me with.

One, I see some advertisements for discus as AA or AAA . Is that a type of grading the quality?

Also I know there has been discussion on PH. I want to provide the best living / spawning conditions for my discus, so I am concerned about the PH of my tap. It comes out at 7.2 and after aging 24 hours it is 8. I am not comfortable with that. How can I get it down naturally? I was told Peat and driftwood. How is the success on that? I was thinking of putting a filter with peat in the water barrel where I will be ageing my water, so the water will already be conditioned to the lower PH before being used in water changes. Will that work? Any other suggestions?

I have been looking at several different Discus breeders online. I am very leary of shipping. There is a shop within traveling distance to me. Does anyone have any feedback on this company? http://www.sunrisetropicals.com/

And lastly, how likely is it that if you get a school of 6-8 babies that you will get a few pairs?

Thanks!


First of all AA and AAA quality is no different then a grade A discus. They do this to make their discus sound better than anyone else.

As of PH unless you are getting a breeding pair from the start I wouldn't worry about your PH being 8. At this PH your discus will do just fine in this range and you don't have to bother with playing around with your PH range.

Being in California you can always contact Kenny with Kenny's Discus. He is a sponsor here on this board and a wonderful person to deal with and has superior discus at great prices.

[Darren's Discus]

Hi,
welcome aboard,The most important thing about getting into discus is starting with quality healthy fish and dealing with someone that's their when and if you need help there are a lot of great people on this site that can help you out with great fish,someone you should definately talk to is Kenny at Kenny's Discus all the best and hope your discus keeping experience is a good one but be careful you can become addicted very quick so hope you have lot's of room for all those future tank's.



cheers

[Kkenny]

LOL I never was a fish person, I have always been a dog/cat/horse person. Then I bought my husband a 55g tank for fathers day, and he has started a Malawi cichlid tank. I was not interested at all , it was "his thing", and had not a clue when he was going on about PH and water test and all that "fish talk"

Wishing I would get more involved he got a tank going for me and said I could put whatever I wanted in it. Boy was that the wrong thing to do! Now we are drawing straws to see who gets the first 100 gallon tank, and I already have the spot picked out to put at least 3 55g tanks for those future fry!

Now I just need the fish! :)

[White Worm]

cant go wrong with Kenny! Great, healthy discus for great price!!

[Dolphin Dip]

http://forum.simplydiscus.com/showthread.php?t=60695

here's a link to one of kennys' threads. some very nice discus.

ps. it's always better to spend a little bit extra on the fish. higher quality discus, means less stress on you and the fish. and less money and time spent on medication and picking out replacement fish.