Discus Question

[Ps3Steveo]

I went to my lfs the other day and was talking to the owner about discus bred and then kept for life in hard water successfully. Anyone heard of this? If so where in this country can you get them? My lfs owner said they were being bred this way in Germany but I can't seem to find any here, I'm doing this because I'm setting up a very heavily planted 450l Discus and Tetra tank and most of the plants I want to keep are much better off in harder water.

 

[walkers101]

a lot of places do mate midland discus do but the guy is an idiot i would ring around and ask

 

[Ps3Steveo]

Well I've phoned pretty much everyone in a close enough distance to not want a drive too long for them to be sat in a bag for lol.

 

[Monty-2010]

whereabouts are you? people manage this in their home aquariums (with varying degrees of success mind you)

 

[MBOU]

I dont think that hardness is necessarily the problems, I happily kept discus in hard water (it was tap water) with a very high pH as i lived below the chalk downs in bedfordshire. The pH wasnt the problem but keeping the nitrates VERY low when using tap water without prefiltering is more or less impossible, in most places the tap waters Nitrate levels is already hitting 50ppm which is already too high! If you are going to prefilter water you may was well just use RO and save a LOT of troubles.

Personally, i found the discus from Singapore/Malaysia had a FAR higher tolerance against diseases, water quality issues and hard water. With the dutch and german discus, i found them to be beautiful... but small, extortionately expensive and tempermental with different water parameters.

 

[mattlee]

a lot of places do mate midland discus do but the guy is an idiot i would ring around and ask

ill second that.......

 

[Ps3Steveo]

Hmmm we'll see, I can't use RO water as its to soft for the plants in the scape.

 

[amy1994]

My discus are kept in tap water and they're fine, ask some breeders if their discus will be alright

http/www.aquarist-classifieds.co.uk/php/index_cat49.php

 

[Ps3Steveo]

cool thanks, where did you get yours?

 

[roadmaster]

I might also consider temperature with respect to plant's in aquarium with Discus and warm water the Discus need.I kept Discus at 84-86 degrees F and found that swords,crypts,anubia,and vallisneria were a few that didn't simply wilt under the heat.

 

[amy1994]

Got 2 from a local breeder, 2 with my tank + getting 2 from david lai

Where do you live?

 

[Ps3Steveo]

Southeast, plants shouldn't be a problem as Discus can be kept in temps as low as 28c - 29c and most plants do well at around 24c - 26c but will do just fine in 29c.

 

[MBOU]

Personally, all my discus were kept at 26-27 deg Celsius. I only raised the temperature up to 29-30 dec Celsius when i seperated out a spawning pair. Discus don't really need to be kept at such high temperatures, so long as its on the warm side of tropical...

 

[simonas]

Personally, all my discus were kept at 26-27 deg Celsius. I only raised the temperature up to 29-30 dec Celsius when i seperated out a spawning pair. Discus don't really need to be kept at such high temperatures, so long as its on the warm side of tropical...

thats true and in the wintert I struggled to keep my temps up but my own discus appear so much happier at 30 than they do at 26.They are just more active and bold in the tank

 

[Squidward]

German bred Discus are probably Stendkers.
Have a look here: http/www.diskuszucht-stendker.de/gb/

The UK supplier of Stenkers is Mark Evanden @ Devotedly Discus: http/www.devotedly-discus.co.uk/

Mark is very knowledgable, and helpful and as far as I am aware, he couriers fish.