Are Discus Easy To Breed?

[JohnRossDele]

i have quiet an interest in Discus since they look very good and pricy (would get a huge budget if i bred them!!)

what would they be classed as beginner, intermediate or expert

1) what tank size? in juwel

2) how many fish?

3) bare bottom tank with breeding cone or planted?

4) what temp?

any further info would be great cheers!!

 

[JohnRossDele]

i have quiet an interest in Discus since they look very good and pricy (would get a huge budget if i bred them!!)

what would they be classed as beginner, intermediate or expert

1) what tank size? in juwel

2) how many fish?

3) bare bottom tank with breeding cone or planted?

4) what temp?

any further info would be great cheers!!

ohh yeah 1 more thing can they be kept in a pair?!!

 

[Sheilaf]

i have quiet an interest in Discus since they look very good and pricy (would get a huge budget if i bred them!!)

what would they be classed as beginner, intermediate or expert

1) what tank size? in juwel

2) how many fish?

3) bare bottom tank with breeding cone or planted?

4) what temp?

any further info would be great cheers!!

As far as expertise goes I believe most would classify them as expert, ecspecially for breeding.
1. What tank size for a pair? I guess bigger is always better but I've heard 20g being used. I think I would try to use a bit bigger just in case, maybe a 30 or 33 (I don't know what juwel sizes are, I don't even know what that is)

2. In order to get a breeding pair you'd be best to start off with 6 to 8 juvies and let them pair off themselves, I don't think you can force a pair and Discus are extremely hard to sex. If you were to start off with 6 to 8 juvies you'd need at least a 55g tank, if not a 75g. Plus they would need frequent feedings and water changes. Or you could find a mated pair but there is no guarantee that when you got them they'd breed.

3. For breeding, bare bottom. It may be too hard for the fry to see the parents in a planted tank and I don't know how well cleaning would work.

4. I'm not sure if you need to up the temp for breeding or not. A friend of mine breeds her discus and I don't believe she changes the temp. I keep mine at 85 or so.

The can be kept in a pair as long as it is a mated pair. If not, the bigger the group the better as the dominant fish will have more targets and not single out one or two.

 

[arobinson1984]

the minimum tank size you would need would be a 55gal.

Discus are certainly not for beginners and are extremely hard to keep, they have special requirements and also need pristine water conditions so you'd need to perform daily water changes ideally.

Andy

 

[mike os]

breeding tanks 20 -30 gal max per pair

grow out i like 2x 36x15x18 to start with

then 2 x 48 18x 18 when they get bigger

per pair in reality

water very very clean, 200% water change a week for parents, preferably soft water and 30c.

for juveniles minimum 50% wc a day

all bb tanks, cone optional

personally I find discus easy, but then again I have bred a couple of thou.

most would consider them for experienced aquarists only.

dont expect to make any money off them... seriously, they are too much work and produce too few fish of real saleable quality ( as seen by the level of crap found in 95% of shops)

 

[rabbut]

^^Mike is an experienced Discus breeder, so most his advice is good As said though, breeding any fish is hard to make a profit from if you are doing it properly and culling any poor quality stock. This said, I only consider my own breeding projects as successful if I can get 95% of the eggs into top quality adults. This has to mean the Genetics as well as care are A1, a good breeding pair/group of most fish will allow you to be successful under my definitions, but a good pair/group of fish is hard to find in an LFS, as it's all commercially bred trade stock with at best mediocre genetics behind them due to over/in breeding of trade stock Go speak to a proper hobbyist breeder that know what they are on about and[/] have good quality stock themselves

Discus are certainly not for beginners and are extremely hard to keep

Just like Rabbits! Discus, hard to keep, just like rabbits. Obviously, it's not that I was too ignorant to get off my backside and research rabbits before I bought them and added them to a 6ft pen. It will just be that they are hard to keep when the 12 foxes I added as clean-up-crew are eating them in the morning Sorry, but if you are describing Discus as hard to keep, in the modern day, with tank bred stock, you are either poorly informed by an ignorant aquarist, or fall into the "too ignorant to research first" category if speaking from personal experience in recent times

Discus are not for beginers as you state correctly, they need a mature tank and prefect water qality all the time to do well, but hard they are not. Advanced due to specialist needs, maybe, but hard, no

The main thing when you breed discus, is that KH is fairly low. Higher KH readings lead to more infertile eggs, so keep it as low as you can manage without having the pH in constant swing. Somewhere between 2 and 4 German degrees of carbonate hardness would be about right Get the KH back up to tap water levels soon after spawning though, it boost fry growth rates when higher

HTH
Rabbut

 

[tenohfive]

Discus are not for beginers as you state correctly, they need a mature tank and prefect water qality all the time to do well, but hard they are not. Advanced due to specialist needs, maybe, but hard, no

Spot the contradiction. Keeping perfect water quality is hard - not mentally taxing, granted, but it is hard work. Bigger and/or more regular water changes, more frequent testing itself etc...its basics no doubt, but it takes time and that is something that people find difficult to keep up. Something I've picked up from here though is that discus need that constant water quality and don't suffer slip ups well...I could be wrong mind, I'm repeating second hand information

I guess that what I'm getting at is that keeping water quality perfect isn't easy. For old fashioned people like me who use a bucket and pipe for water changes anyhow

 

[rabbut]

Hose, life becomes far easier with one I do 50% twice a week on the Discus, takes me about 2-3 minutes of messing about (mainly coiling the hose away at the end) and the rest of the time I can be doinf other stuff while gravity drains or water pressure fill the tank for me Not difficult at all, I don't even manage to get a free workout lifting buckets of water