First time bringing Discus home. Please Help!

[JRunyon21]

Tomorrow my LFS will be getting a shipment in for me containing 3 Red Turquoise and 2 Pigeon Blood Discus. After work I am going to pick them up and bring them home.

What type of preparations should I have for when they arrive?
I understand the basics: 84 Deg, 0 Ammonnia, 0 Nitrites, 0 nitrates. Fully cycled/aged tank. I have a homemade Beefheart mix ready in the freezer. Is there anything big I am missing here?

What is the best way to assimilate discus to my tank's water?

Please give any advice you think I would need. Thanks.

[seanyuki]

Let them settle down a feed them the following day...


Here goes: it works very well.

"What you can do for acclimation is this: when you receive the box, there will
be a cardboard box outside containing a styrofoam box inside. You can open
up both the cardboard box and styrofoam box and take out the blue
bags(liner) containing your fish inside. Just put the blue liner on the
floor somwhere for now...now empty out all the packing material inside of
the styrofoam and you have yourself an empty styrofoam box to work with.

Start by adding ~ 3 inches of from your prepared QT tank into the empty
styro(doesn't have to be exactly 3", more or less is fine), than proceed to
cut open all the fish bags and pour everything into the styro(both fish and
water in bags). At this point you can add an airstone into the styro. About
every 15 mins start adding another 2 inches of water into the styro and do
this for about 4-5 times, and your fish should be adjusted well to your tank
water parameter. Now you're ready to just net out your 3 fish and put them
directly into your tank without problems. Discard all the water inside of
the styro and never add those into your tank."

Cheers
Francis:)

[rickztahone]

when you say that your LFS is getting a shipment in do you mean just your discus or a larger shipment? i ask because it would be best to get them before your LFS ever puts them in his/her own tanks. the less handeling thr better. also, how did you cycle your QT?

[Don Trinko]

As above, They will probably come in a seperate bag. Bring a cooler to keep them warm. Find out how long they have been in the bag. Many just adjust the temp (float for 15 minutes) and then dump in the tank if they have been in the bag a long time.
If they have only been in the bag a few hours then normal acclimatization is correct. Don T.

[JRunyon21]

LFS is getting a shipment in just for me. They will not be putting the fish into any tanks. They will be holding onto them until I get there. I decided to take the day off so they will not have to wait at the LFS until I get off work. Thanks for all the advice.

[rickztahone]

LFS is getting a shipment in just for me. They will not be putting the fish into any tanks. They will be holding onto them until I get there. I decided to take the day off so they will not have to wait at the LFS until I get off work. Thanks for all the advice.

well that sounds great then. you are set to go, just follow the previous given advice. good luck

[JRunyon21]

Got the discus today and the assimilation went well. I now have another question. It seems that the fish are sticking to one side of the tank (side with less flow). I currently have a 75 gallon tank with a 29 gallon sump. The return is a 650gph pump (so I am guessing somewhere around 400-500gph after making its way to the top of my tank). The current is fairly strong but nothing too strong. I have tried to cut it back a little to see if they react differently to the water movement. My question simply is.

Do discus like a certain amount of water movement?

If so, is there anyway I can divert/slow down this water movement without affecting my filter turnover?

[Elite Aquaria]

They do not like heavy water flow...

[nickmcmechan]

point the filter ouput towards back wall of tank, if they don't like the flow there they might move to the front?