Need a lot of advise regarding discus care.

[roydooms]

Hi my name is Roy. Ive been lurking here and never really asked a question. Now I really want to learn and give my discus proper care they need.

I have a 125g heavily planted tank with a "not so top of the line discus"(first discus). I had a problem a month ago. They had cloudy eyes and excess body slime. I put them in a QT and medicated with tetracycline. 3 out of 7 passed. The rest are doing great now. I don't know what I was thinking and bought some 2" discus. They are looking great. I want them to grow healthy and big. I'm doing 50-60% PWC twice a week. nitrates never go up to 20ppm.

I just recently built a 55g BB tank for discus that I seeded from the 125g. I have a few carinals and a flamingo that I saved from a friend in the 55g now. I'm thinking of getting 5-6 super flamingos from Kenny. So far I've been doing daily 30% PWC. My question is, how often should I feed the discus, how big of a PWC a day should I do to make them really grow? Thanks in advance.

[roydooms]

Anyone? If this has already been discussed a link to that thread would be fine. Thanks.

[strawberryblonde]

How often you'll have to feed them will depend on the size.

Juvies (under 3.5") require many small feedings. Some people choose to feed flakes with an auto feeder during the day (light feedings) and then do bigger feedings of beefheart, pellets and some type of worm during the evening in order to get the fish really full before doing a big WC.

WC for juvies should be at least 50% per day with thorough vacuuming every day. The more water you can change, the healthier the babies will stay.

For sub-adults (over 3.5" and under 6") you can reduce the number of feedings if you wish, but increase the amount you feed. They are a lot easier to raise for a first timer. They can have a large flake feeding in the morning and then wait till you get home at night for 3 big feedings before the WC.

WC for sub-adults isn't much different than for juvies. You still need to vacuum up that beefheart and other bits of food, plus the poop, every night and change out 30 - 80% of the water depending on what your parameters look like and how much you can manage. The more the merrier...lol

I chose to raise sub-adults since it was my first time with a group of discus. I bought them 3 months ago at 4" TL each. They were in a 54g tank and in the beginning I changed water twice a day - 60% in the morning and 80% at night. They were fed anytime I walked past the tank (I work from home) and ate a lot of beefheart, Al's FDBW's, discus flakes and a few tetra bits, though they didn't care for them much.

With just the frequent feedings and the huge water changes they are now all nearly 6" with the largest clocking in at 6.5".

Are you planning to mix your older discus groups with the new discus or will you be keeping them separate? If you decide to mix them, they'll need a QT period in order to be sure that they don't pass any diseases or pathogens to the new fish.

If it was me, I'd probably not mix them and would just raise the new ones in the 55g till their adults and then switch them to the 125g. At that point, I'd put the older discus into another tank and still not mix them.

[roydooms]

Hi, thank you for the information.

The first feeding in the morning, should it be light as well? Or heavy then the rest of the day feedings are light then heavy again at night? I only feed bloodworms right now. Do you have a feet recipe for beefheart? Or the Hikari beefheart is just as fine? I have those pellets for discus but they don't even look at it. I am not planning to mix the old discus with the new ones that I am going to get. Maybe I'll do what you said. Grow yen out in the 55 then move to 125g then move the old ones to a different tank.

One more question, how often should I do WC in my 125g heavily planted tank? I do 2 -50% a week and nitrates doesn't go near 20ppm. I have 4 juvies and 3 adult discus in there. Should I still be doing PWC every day? I hand feed them and most of the time, none of the food reaches the substrate. It's a community discus tank with rummy, cardinals, cories and amanos. Thanks in advance!

[strawberryblonde]

Hi again =)

I feed a pretty large amount of flakes for the first feeding. As much as they can eat in 5 minutes and then the rest sit on the bottom and they scoop them up within 20 minutes.

Bloodworms are ok, but they are more of a treat or snack food. Growing discus need a variety of meats and some veggies plus vitamins in order to grow to full potential.

Mine LOVE the San Fransisco Bay frozen beefheart. It's fairly inexpensive and doesn't foul up the water too badly. I can't get it locally so I order it from Fosters and Smith... 12 packages at a time. Shipping is the same price no matter how much you order so I fill up on it.

I've heard good things about Hikari too, but never used it. You can also make your own easily and there are some great recipes in the "Food and Nutrition" section of these forums.

If you can wean your fish off the bloodworms and onto the beefheart, discus flakes and possibly Al's FDBW's they'd be better off. You should be ok with those foods for your new fish since they won't have gotten addicted to the bloodworms yet. =)

For the 125g tank you want to keep nitrates at or below 5ppm if possible. Discus are very sensitive to nitrates and juvies even more so. I have a 115 with a sump, so 150 gallons total and I was doing 80% WC's, but have now cut back to 60% every day and once a week I give myself a break and just do a thorough vacuum which removes about 15% of the water in the tank. If yours is heavily planted you can probably get away with doing a smaller WC every day instead of my huge ones. LOL

[roydooms]

What can I do for the discus in the 125 to eat food other than BW? Don't feed them for a day then Introduce new food? I have Mysis shrimp, can I feed them those too? I'll buy both HIkari and san Francisco brand BH. We have those here since I live in the bay area :)

I'll say that 98% of the substrate are with plants and I really can't vacuum to clean it. Is that going to be a problem? Plants will most likely consume those waste. I'll start doing 25% daily PWC n the 125.

I'll check out the discus food recipes. Thank you.

[mlov1022]

Al's FDBW's they'd be better off. +1 your fish will LOVE THEM!

[Skip]

I just recently built a 55g BB tank for discus that I seeded from the 125g. I have a few carinals and a flamingo that I saved from a friend in the 55g now. I'm thinking of getting 5-6 super flamingos from Kenny. So far I've been doing daily 30% PWC. My question is, how often should I feed the discus, how big of a PWC a day should I do to make them really grow? Thanks in advance.

my question back to you, is are you going to buy Kenny's fish and then put them in with your existing fish without qt?...


I'll say that 98% of the substrate are with plants and I really can't vacuum to clean it. Is that going to be a problem? Plants will most likely consume those waste. I'll start doing 25% daily PWC n the 125.

it will be a problem.. if you are growing out with heavy feeding.. the substrate will be an issue.. if plants "most likely consume those waste" then everybody would be growing/raising fish only in planted tanks..

ps.. try to up the WC to at least 33%.. the more the better.. so change as MUCH as you can tolerate on your monthly bill.. and recycle the water in your lawn :)

[BradC]

Mine LOVE the San Fransisco Bay frozen beefheart.

Mine also love this beefhart! They also love/eat FDBW from Al but I feed that more as a snack once a day or so.

[judy]

even with a planted tank you can vacuum the surface of the substrate right around the plants-- and you should. with every WC. I had a planted tank for many years, in which I grew out juvies that became large, fat and sassy-- but every ting I did a WC i surface-vacced a third of he substrate. so each week it ewans fully vaccuumed. Raising juvies in a planted a much mroe challenging-- you really have to work to keep the water clean. But it can be done IF you take proper care.

[roydooms]

my question back to you, is are you going to buy Kenny's fish and then put them in with your existing fish without qt?...



it will be a problem.. if you are growing out with heavy feeding.. the substrate will be an issue.. if plants "most likely consume those waste" then everybody would be growing/raising fish only in planted tanks..

ps.. try to up the WC to at least 33%.. the more the better.. so change as MUCH as you can tolerate on your monthly bill.. and recycle the water in your lawn :)

The new discus will go in my new 55g. I only have 8 cardinal tetras in there now.

I'll be doing 50% PWC everyday on my 125g.

[roydooms]

Mine also love this beefhart! They also love/eat FDBW from Al but I feed that more as a snack once a day or so.

I bought some SF Beef heart and my discus love it! FDBW? I thought any thing FD is not good? I have frozen BW. Or is it different(nutrition wise)?

[roydooms]

even with a planted tank you can vacuum the surface of the substrate right around the plants-- and you should. with every WC. I had a planted tank for many years, in which I grew out juvies that became large, fat and sassy-- but every ting I did a WC i surface-vacced a third of he substrate. so each week it ewans fully vaccuumed. Raising juvies in a planted a much mroe challenging-- you really have to work to keep the water clean. But it can be done IF you take proper care.

I'll surface-vac as much as I can. I just don't want to pull out the plants. I'll be extra careful. Some parts are hard to reach and is impossible to vac. I'll vac as much as I can n my 125g. I have 4 juvies in there and I want them to grow big and healthy.

Thanks everyone.