New to Discus, few questions

[Alistriwen]

Hi all, I've come to this forum in hopes of learning a bit more about my favorite fish the Discus. Currently I have 25 tanks varying in size from 2.5 - 55 gallons. I've kept fish since I was 9 with a few breaks in between so Ive got quite a few years of experience under my belt with fish keeping but I've never kept discus before.

One thing I hear often is that Discus require proper diet and good water above all else. With that in mind, I was curious what food folks here find works really well? I use NLS for most of my fish now, store bought and home raised and I've had amazing results. Is the NLS Discus formula as good? I also have cultures of live brine shrimp as well as a variety of frozen and freeze dried foods I substitute for the staple once in a while.

I have also heard a lot of people do 50% daily water changes. I will probably be keeping my adult discus in 120+ gallon tanks and it seems a bit excessive to be changing 60 gallons of water daily? Provided that I have proper filtration, a good amount of live plants and don't overfeed or overstock would I be ok with 2 25% changes weekly? Currently the only fish I have that get more than that are new born fry which get 3 x 30%. It wouldn't be too big a deal if my plan weren't to eventually try to breed discus as well at which point I'd have a whole lot of tanks and doing 50% daily would become impossible.

I have a few more questions but I'll leave those for now. Any help would be appreciated, thanks!

[Elite Aquaria]

Alistriwen,

Welcome to Simply...This is a great place to learn...I feed Frozen Blood Worms, Frozen Brine (once or twice per week), Live California Black Worms, Omega One Flake, and Beef/Cod/Shrimp mix...Fry are feed live Baby brine shrimp 6 times per day (Thanks to my wife...;)).

Water change really depends on your water quality...If you have poor filtration then you need to do more water change...Prior to upgrading my filtration to a central system I changed 70% daily...now I only do as needed which is around 50% every 3 days...:D

[Apistomaster]

Welcome to simply,
I believe the most important thing about water changes for discus is to have a regime and stick with it. In a planted tank, like it sounds you are planning to eventually keep your discus, a minimum of 50 to 75% twice a week works well. I would never argue against more frequent large water changes, they are always closer to the ideal, there is a point where enjoying your fish can become a chore. I try to strike a balance between enjoying the fish and keeping them happy enough to raise fry for me. The few who have been able to set up a constant flow through of fresh aged water have the ideal system.

I have a similar approach to feeding discus. Offer a varied diet consisting of some prepared pellet/flake, frozen blood worms, live black worms and frozen brine shrimp.
I personally don't use frozen brine shrimp but I use earth worm sticks as part of the diet of my discus. I prefer frozen blood worms to brine shrimp. My discus are not very used to brine shrimp and it can be almost as messy but less nutritional than beef heart blends.
Beef heart blends are excellent for growing out young discus fast in bare bottom tanks but should be used very sparingly in planted tanks with substrates. It is easy to pollute planted tanks with uneaten beef heart particles. I might use it once a week or less in my planted discus tank. It is not essential to feed discus beef heart but when you get a lot of fry to feed, it's economy and results are obvious.

The one thing someone is bound to mention sooner or later is that if you are buying juvenile discus, it's best to raise them using the bare bottom method until they are at least 4-inches. They can be then put in your planted tanks and treated as adults.