Discus

[nicky b]

Reallly noway thats cool my dad said the water around where we live is pretty hard but i will just have to wait and see till i can test the GH & KH, i have already tested my PH of my tap water witch is 7.5

 

[leigh83]

Ive kept discus for a while now and to be honest its just good husbandry ,good water, good food (i make my own so i know what goes into it). they aren't as difficult to keep as people say, of course you can go over the top with all the water changes and so on but I've found that a weekly water change of around 50% seems to keep them happy. and I've always keep assassin snails in my tank and never have to clean out any left over food. other fish in the tank are angels (that i have bred myself)tetras, bristle nose,harlequin rasboroughs,and pepper Cory's all get on well and have never had any problems ....my water Ph is around 7 ...and i did make sure when i bought my fish that they came from a good breeder and that they where European bred as opposed to Asian as they seem to tolerate a higher Ph around 7 - 7.5 hope this is a help to you
PS if you would like to know how to make your own discus food drop me an e mail and i woud be happy to help you out

 

[nicky b]

i was at my LFS today and i ask the woman what ph she keeps her discus in and she said between 7, then i ask would 7.5 be ok and she said well if your using tap water then no ? she said she never uses tap water with her discus soo what kind of water would she use lol, then she also said one of the discus was 2 years old but it was the size of a 50p and heres me thinking they grow up to 10inches

 

[DevotedToDiscus]

i was at my LFS today and i ask the woman what ph she keeps her discus in and she said between 7, then i ask would 7.5 be ok and she said well if your using tap water then no ? she said she never uses tap water with her discus soo what kind of water would she use lol, then she also said one of the discus was 2 years old but it was the size of a 50p and heres me thinking they grow up to 10inches

Nicky, I am never one to talk out of turn about anyone, but I am afraid that the woman at you LFS is talking a load of old drivel! If she was so knowledgeable why would she have such stunted fish? Well looked after Discus can reach full size in a little over a year. OK, some fish, like all animials, grow bigger than others, but if that fish is that small after 2 years it is probably full of parasites from suffering a poor diet.

I would not recommend getting Discus from your average LFS, try to source them from a specialist breeder/supplier. That way you will know you are getting good fish. Discus will be absolutely fine kept in water with a pH of 7.5(mine are). As Liegh83 said "It's just good husbandry".

I have kept and studied these fish for several years, and unfortunately they suffer a stigma of being very difficult to care for, and this is not the case. Somewhat true for wild strains, but if you stick with the artificial strains you should have no problems.

Best of luck

 

[leigh83]

sorry mate but i have to agree with DTD a fish as big as a fifty pence piece and two years old, never seen one and if thats true then dont touch it ...as ive told you go to a reputable breeder ...dont be put of by prices that you hear you can get young fish at a greatly reduced price and you have the joy of watching them grow, when i first started, mine where afout 4-5"and now the biggest is at least 8"...trust me there is a lot of rot talked about discus and a lot i must admit comes from old books that are mow well out of date ...keeping fish like most things moves on and as we find out more about the needs of the fish and there natural habitat the thinking on how we keep and treat our fish changes...but for some reason discus have a bad press when it comes to keeping them ......after all its just a fish and like most fish, clean water,good diet,and if you come across any problems act fast and if you can have a hospital tank at the ready ...doesnt have to be anything special or costly just something you can isolate your fish from the main tank.but hopefully you will never have to use
hope this helps mate

 

[DevotedToDiscus]

sorry mate but i have to agree with DTD a fish as big as a fifty pence piece and two years old, never seen one and if thats true then dont touch it ...as ive told you go to a reputable breeder ...dont be put of by prices that you hear you can get young fish at a greatly reduced price and you have the joy of watching them grow, when i first started, mine where afout 4-5"and now the biggest is at least 8"...trust me there is a lot of rot talked about discus and a lot i must admit comes from old books that are mow well out of date ...keeping fish like most things moves on and as we find out more about the needs of the fish and there natural habitat the thinking on how we keep and treat our fish changes...but for some reason discus have a bad press when it comes to keeping them ......after all its just a fish and like most fish, clean water,good diet,and if you come across any problems act fast and if you can have a hospital tank at the ready ...doesnt have to be anything special or costly just something you can isolate your fish from the main tank.but hopefully you will never have to use
hope this helps mate

I concur ++++

 

[nicky b]

Thanks leigh83 and thanks DevotedToDiscus i agree with the both of you the next thing on my list is to try and find a good breeder near by if i go to my LFS again and the discus is still there i will try and take a snap shot of this fish and you can have a look for your selfs thanks for you help guys

 

[DevotedToDiscus]

Why would any shop have a fish for 2 years? I think that says something. Have a search on the internet, some good breeders will even deliver fish to you. If you can find one then you can call them and have a good chat about what you need. Is much easier than back and forth posts/emails, etc. Any good breeder will be delighted to chat about their fish for ages..... I know I am!

Love talking about them.

 

[nicky b]

yeah im just having a look around now to see if i can find any breeders lol about 4 year ago when i keep koi carp and golden tench my LFS was really good and they knew what they was doing, but then they moved away to devon and left there two kids who worked in there to run it and ever since its just gone down hill the fish in there are crap you ask them something and there like oh im not sure or its bull S**t it makes me angry when i need to know something and there just like oh i don't know well they should know there running a fish shop for god sake anyways im sorry for moaning about that but i needed to tell someone who understands

 

[DevotedToDiscus]

yeah im just having a look around now to see if i can find any breeders lol about 4 year ago when i keep koi carp and golden tench my LFS was really good and they knew what they was doing, but then they moved away to devon and left there two kids who worked in there to run it and ever since its just gone down hill the fish in there are crap you ask them something and there like oh im not sure or its bull S**t it makes me angry when i need to know something and there just like oh i don't know well they should know there running a fish shop for god sake anyways im sorry for moaning about that but i needed to tell someone who understands

I know the feeling, been through it all before when I lived in the north of Scotland..... Now I am super lucky and am very good friends with the owner of a Discus farm. Though it makes me crazy at how "matter of fact" that they breed them, while I work so hard at it! Lovely fish to keep though. Mine are so tame it is comedy. They behave like a pet with a brain ten times the size

 

[nicky b]

Yaaay good news I have found a breeder near by he had got red discus I have forgot the right name for them they are price up at 25 pounds and he's got some normal ones like a blue kind of colour priced at 22 pounds are these good prices ?

 

[nicky b]

this is the discus i was going on about when the women said to me it was 2years old

 

[Balloons&killies]

this is the discus i was going on about when the women said to me it was 2years old

if that discus is 2 years old its horribly stunted. Are those Fish from the women you are planning to buy from?

 

[nicky b]

I was going to by them from her but I'm not now I have found a breeder and the woman in my LFS don't know what she is on about she also said she don't keep her discus in tap water and the PH was 7 then I was in there today and I was talking the bloke who runs the shop to and I was talking about the discus and I asked him what PH they was in and what kind of water and he said they are in a PH of 7.5 and the water is normal tap water what's been filtered the a RO system hahahaha

 

[onidrase]

I was going to by them from her but I'm not now I have found a breeder and the woman in my LFS don't know what she is on about she also said she don't keep her discus in tap water and the PH was 7 then I was in there today and I was talking the bloke who runs the shop to and I was talking about the discus and I asked him what PH they was in and what kind of water and he said they are in a PH of 7.5 and the water is normal tap water what's been filtered the a RO system hahahaha

You have to have a low pH to urge discus to breed. If you get tank bred discus, they'll be fine in higher levels as long as you keep the water in good quality and properly adjust them to any changes in water perimeters.