Just Been Given A Discus.... (Now With Pics)

[mattlee]

ok thanks for your help and advice. ill look for the largest i can find and maybe get 1 more smaller sized to keep any bullying down....
when the fish shows its stripes is that a good or a bad thing? as he sometimes has really dark stripes and sometimes really faint!
im so tempted to rehome all my fish and just have discus...... im hooked already

I started out with a 50 gallon, now I have a 90 gallon, 45 gallon, and a 29g QT/Breeding tank (when the time comes) and I could easily get more if time and space allowed. LOL. Amazingly addictive fish.

The stripes you are talking about are stress bars. As long as they are not really dark all the time, it's not a huge issue. Sometimes mine show their stress bars more predominantly when I skip or miss a water change.

fish really are adictive... i only bought a small 90L 2 foot tank for my daughter to enjoy and now i have 9 tanks running and 3 waiting!!!!
if i see a fish for sale with really dark stripes should i avoid it as its stressed or is it because its possibly overcrowded etc?

 

[taffy92]

hi mattlee i,ve been keeping discus on and off for 30 years now if you have a 2" fish he,s going to need a couple of mates really you should be able to pick them up for about £10 each you need to find a good place to bye them from but visit it a few times before you bye any just to see if a lot of people bye from them your water needs to be on the soft side realy ph 6.5 amonia 0 nitrite 0 nitrate 0 for fish to be happy this is what i,ve kept mine in and never had aa problem wouldnt get bigger fish then they will get bullied hope this helps you enjoy

 

[mattlee]

hi mattlee i,ve been keeping discus on and off for 30 years now if you have a 2" fish he,s going to need a couple of mates really you should be able to pick them up for about £10 each you need to find a good place to bye them from but visit it a few times before you bye any just to see if a lot of people bye from them your water needs to be on the soft side realy ph 6.5 amonia 0 nitrite 0 nitrate 0 for fish to be happy this is what i,ve kept mine in and never had aa problem wouldnt get bigger fish then they will get bullied hope this helps you enjoy

i bought him a mate today from a very reputable shop, the new discus is slighlty larger but not massively. i am going to midland discus tomorrow to look at their stock, from what they have told me and shown me in pics they look very good and alot cheaper than lfs.
the only reason i have never kept these wonderfull fish before is because of my water hardness and pH but ive been told by a few people that it should be ok, i dont really want to start adding chemicals etc to the tank if possible

 

[DiscusKeeper403]

your water needs to be on the soft side realy ph 6.5

How come my Discus are all fine, laying eggs and thriving in a pH of 7.5+ ? How come most Asian breeders choose to raise their fish in basic water, due to the benefits of the minerals in the water? If you can drink the water, your Discus will be fine in it. My oldest Discus is almost three years old, and been in my water for over two years with no problems.

 

[roadmaster]

Have also kept Discus in moderately hard water with pH around7.4 and indeed they layed eggs frequently but eggs did not hatch.With ph of 8.0 as was mentioned by original poster, I would wait a considerable amount of time before I began adding fish and I would quarantine all fish for two to three weeks.
I would want to be sure that the fish was adapting to my water before I spent the money on more of these beautiful fish. If I were seeing the fish turn dark,stress bars visible, excess slime coating,labored breathing, and or laying in horizontal posistion on bottom of the tank after the first week,, I would be aprehensive with regards to how it is adapting.Would always keep in mind that these fish do not ALWAYS adapt to hard alkaline waters or many more folks would keep them. Some do, some don't.IMHO

 

[mattlee]

Have also kept Discus in moderately hard water with pH around7.4 and indeed they layed eggs frequently but eggs did not hatch.With ph of 8.0 as was mentioned by original poster, I would wait a considerable amount of time before I began adding fish and I would quarantine all fish for two to three weeks.
I would want to be sure that the fish was adapting to my water before I spent the money on more of these beautiful fish. If I were seeing the fish turn dark,stress bars visible, excess slime coating,labored breathing, and or laying in horizontal posistion on bottom of the tank after the first week,, I would be aprehensive with regards to how it is adapting.Would always keep in mind that these fish do not ALWAYS adapt to hard alkaline waters or many more folks would keep them. Some do, some don't.IMHO

well both discus seem to be fine for now. the smallest has been is for 7 days now and seems ok, he is showing black bars most of the time but my mate said he has always looked like this... my only issue seems to be trying to get them to eat more. they both go for blood worms but wont touch prima, flake etc and the other fish seem to gobble it up pretty fast not leaving any for the discus. the greedy fish are the 3 polkadot loaches, the 3 platys and the 2 angels. i dont mind removing the platys and loaches and the angels are a breeding pair that were put back in here as i needed the room for my breeding corys so they can be placed in another breeding tank if needed. the angels do get quite territorial sometimes and may not be helping the discus with the slight aggression. if i was to remove these fish it would leave me with 1x small spotted perch, 2x SAE and the discus.
my intentions are not to breed the discus just to keep them in a show tank in my house as im too busy with my corys breeding and if i remove the angels they will also keep me busy as they spawn anywhere and have raised fry....

do all discus have the stress bars? the reason i ask is that the yellow one bought yesterday doesnt show any at all and the one i have been given shows them pretty much all the while.... could they just be part of his markings...? or is he stressed out to the max?

 

[mattlee]

can anyone help me and tell me what strains these discus are please....?
i was told the yellow is a pigeon blood and the other is either a blue or red turk.... is this correct?

 

[stiffler69]

Pidgeon blood and red turqouise at guess very nice examples at that, also did you say yellow it could well just be your camera but that certainly looks orange to me.

 

[DiscusKeeper403]

As said above, pigeon and red turq. I'd suggest taking out the Angels if they are getting aggressive, and also keep a close eye that the S.A.Es are not eating the slime coat off the sides of the Discus. Not all Discus will show stress bars, Pigeons for example will show "peppering" (tiny black dots) all over their body instead.

You will have to ween the fish onto other foods, it will be much better for them in the long run. There are are a few methods to get them onto other foods, the least stressful being feeding them Tetra prima (and the foods they don't like) first thing in the morning when they are most hungry. If they don't eat then you can feed them what they do like (blood worms in your case.) If this method doesn't work, mix tetra prima into a dish with a little bit of water and blood worms. Let them soak together and then feed. Start with a small ratio of prima to blood worms, and slowly up the amount until they are taking plain tetra prima readily.

If that method doesn't work, you will have to fast them for 24-48hrs, and then feed the food.

Adding Garlic Guard can help too, as this will increase palatibilty in the foods.

 

[mattlee]

As said above, pigeon and red turq. I'd suggest taking out the Angels if they are getting aggressive, and also keep a close eye that the S.A.Es are not eating the slime coat off the sides of the Discus. Not all Discus will show stress bars, Pigeons for example will show "peppering" (tiny black dots) all over their body instead.

You will have to ween the fish onto other foods, it will be much better for them in the long run. There are are a few methods to get them onto other foods, the least stressful being feeding them Tetra prima (and the foods they don't like) first thing in the morning when they are most hungry. If they don't eat then you can feed them what they do like (blood worms in your case.) If this method doesn't work, mix tetra prima into a dish with a little bit of water and blood worms. Let them soak together and then feed. Start with a small ratio of prima to blood worms, and slowly up the amount until they are taking plain tetra prima readily.

If that method doesn't work, you will have to fast them for 24-48hrs, and then feed the food.

Adding Garlic Guard can help too, as this will increase palatibilty in the foods.

Thanks again Connor
ive been to midland discus today and bought a penang eruption slightly gigger than th eyellow one and a large albino pigeon blood i couldnt resist him he is gorgeous and i got a good price too
ive also moved my angels back to the breeding tank for now until i can decide what i want to do with them as i didnt want the discus being any more stressed by the chasing.
ill post a few pics of the new ones soon when they are settled.

 

[Bluetooth]

Nice discus you have there, i dont know what the smaller yellow one is although it certainly has some PB in it, i have a similar PB but mine is a pigeon checkerboard/red dragon.

The other you have is a certain red turqouise, dont be worried about those bars, the red turqs always show their bars, i have a couple of them and their bars never disappear.

lovely fish, plenty of protein, bit of veg, and clean water is all you need for your discus to survive.

 

[DiscusKeeper403]

Thanks again Connor
ive been to midland discus today and bought a penang eruption slightly gigger than th eyellow one and a large albino pigeon blood i couldnt resist him he is gorgeous and i got a good price too
ive also moved my angels back to the breeding tank for now until i can decide what i want to do with them as i didnt want the discus being any more stressed by the chasing.
ill post a few pics of the new ones soon when they are settled.

Sounds like you got some nice strains there. I really like the Penang Eruptions, but my favorite has to be the classic leopard. Looking forward to picture of the albino (these will never show peppering!)

 

[mattlee]

Thanks again Connor
ive been to midland discus today and bought a penang eruption slightly gigger than th eyellow one and a large albino pigeon blood i couldnt resist him he is gorgeous and i got a good price too
ive also moved my angels back to the breeding tank for now until i can decide what i want to do with them as i didnt want the discus being any more stressed by the chasing.
ill post a few pics of the new ones soon when they are settled.

Sounds like you got some nice strains there. I really like the Penang Eruptions, but my favorite has to be the classic leopard. Looking forward to picture of the albino (these will never show peppering!)

well here they are, so beautifull

im going back for 2 more next week, possibly another albino and a red panda

 

[DiscusKeeper403]

Looks like you got some really good ones there! High quality fish. Still have a little growing to do too by the looks of it. Keep em' well fed. I really recommend Australian Blackworms. http/www.blackworms.com.au/TA/ The freeze dried cubes are in my stable diet for my growout Discus. 66.35% Protien and 13.87% fat, but less mess then beefheart!! All my fish took them readily (even when they had never had them before in their lives.) Might be a good addition into their diet, and they should take it readily like blood worms

 

[Balloons&killies]

Wow! reealy nice discus!!!
Wish i had a big enough tank