Trying Discus

kevinjames

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After one of my tanks becoming available I'm thinking of trying out discus with the view of maybe moving them onto my larger tank. I live in teesside and know my water is soft but I'm unsure if my tap water enough would be good enough for discus. Does anyone local to me who keep these lovely fish use RO water or just our soft tap water. I've done some research and from what I've found my current husbandry is more than adequate for the challenges of keeping discus. So can anyone offer me any advice that they think a beginner would find useful.
 
Discus are actually surprisingly adaptable to different hardness and pH water.

One of the key things is the nitrate concentration in your tap water. If it's much about 10ppm then personally I wouldn't even attempt discus in it.

You should be able to find accurate information from your water board's website on the concentration of all sorts of stuff in your tap water. Alternatively, a test on your tap water will give you an indication, although nitrtae tests in pretty much all the major water test makes are not hugely reliable.
 
Ok so I sort of bought 4 discus already. I got a good deal on some red Turks of around 2-4 inches and didn't want to miss out. They had been tank bred by a local dealer who doesn't use an RO unit so I'm confident i be able to manage well with them. He does use a carbon filter but I don't understand this concept. Has anyone got any info on these please?
 
dont worry . your tap water will be fine . they are not as sensitive/delicate as they are made out to be . as hamfist says they wont like high nitrates , but can certainly handle levels higher than 10ppm no problems. just keep your water clean , do plenty of regular waterchanges and your discus should be absolutely fine .
 
dont worry . your tap water will be fine . they are not as sensitive/delicate as they are made out to be . as hamfist says they wont like high nitrates , but can certainly handle levels higher than 10ppm no problems. just keep your water clean , do plenty of regular waterchanges and your discus should be absolutely fine .

thank for the advice, i know that it sounds like i just jumped in feet first but these fish were only £7 each so i couldnt pass it up
 
What size tank is it? Because if you are going to keep discus do it right and get 6 at least. 4 is not the best number for them the more the better and that's one reason I love keeping them so much.

Your water should be fine. Do you have other fish?
 
dont worry . your tap water will be fine . they are not as sensitive/delicate as they are made out to be . as hamfist says they wont like high nitrates , but can certainly handle levels higher than 10ppm no problems. just keep your water clean , do plenty of regular waterchanges and your discus should be absolutely fine .

I can second this with my own experience concerning discus and nitrates. In the fall unusually heavy and prolonged rains caused our tap levels to spike above legal limits, to 50ppm or so. When I became aware of this I was extremely concerned, but the discus by that point had already been living with it for perhaps a week or two. During the period of elevated nitrates (ended up being a over a month before the rains abated and it normalized) they suffered no ill effects whatsoever, continuing to eat like pigs and grow well. In fact, the only thing that stressed them out was me upping the water changes to attempt to keep it from getting any higher. This is kind of an extreme case and was a one-off thing- we got more than our annual rainfall in a matter of weeks, which is unheard of here- but it's a good example of their resilience.

After researching it of course I discovered that nitrates actually have to be pretty darn high to harm fish (even those deemed "sensitive"), but it still had me stressed even if it didn't bother them! They're a lot hardier than people give them credit for. :good:
 
dont worry . your tap water will be fine . they are not as sensitive/delicate as they are made out to be . as hamfist says they wont like high nitrates , but can certainly handle levels higher than 10ppm no problems. just keep your water clean , do plenty of regular waterchanges and your discus should be absolutely fine .

I can second this with my own experience concerning discus and nitrates. In the fall unusually heavy and prolonged rains caused our tap levels to spike above legal limits, to 50ppm or so. When I became aware of this I was extremely concerned, but the discus by that point had already been living with it for perhaps a week or two. During the period of elevated nitrates (ended up being a over a month before the rains abated and it normalized) they suffered no ill effects whatsoever, continuing to eat like pigs and grow well. In fact, the only thing that stressed them out was me upping the water changes to attempt to keep it from getting any higher. This is kind of an extreme case and was a one-off thing- we got more than our annual rainfall in a matter of weeks, which is unheard of here- but it's a good example of their resilience.

After researching it of course I discovered that nitrates actually have to be pretty darn high to harm fish (even those deemed "sensitive"), but it still had me stressed even if it didn't bother them! They're a lot hardier than people give them credit for. :good:

That's really interesting.

I've only tried keeping discus once in my local tapwater. They really did not like it at all, despite my very best efforts and WC schedule. The nitrates in the tap water are about 30ppm. I put the failure down to this but, of course, one never knows absolutely what the problem with the water was. In reality it could possibly have been any one of a number of dissolved substances. I just always considered nitrates as the number one suspect.
 
thanks for all your advice and from the comments here and that of the breeder i bought them from im less nervous and more than confident now of not letting these lovely fish down.

the fish i bought were 2 red turquoise at around 3-4 inches and 2 others ( of which ive forgot there name!!!) a bit smaller. after researching these im prepared to be doing numerous water changes per week and feeding quite often. this is were id like some advice please, what would you guys recommend for me feeding these fish. ill start by offering a mix of frozen foods including bloodworm, brineshrimp and tubifex. i plan on getting a whiteworm culture started asap and a staple of tetra prima. is there anything im missing here and should include???
 
i didnt see that you only have 4 , i agree with snowflake here get at least another 2 , preferably more depending on your tank size .
 
i keep them in london tap water.. with sera black water extract...

they r doing very well then the dicus setup i used to have in pure RO and carefully measured trace elements that matches the amazon.


i think there is some sort of monopoly game going on with discus.. lol

i do 25% wc every week...

my discus love mussels, prowns, dried, blood worms... and peas.
 
Try and get then too eat a high in protien flake food. Then also offer then algea
waffers of over veggie type food. Beefhears are all the rage in the discus comunity. Many make a beef heart mix with other sea food really nasty stuff. You can buy frozen beef hearts for fish they LOVE it. Blood worms should be a treat they are like junk food for fish. The flake food of today has everything they need but it's best to give lots of differant kinds of food too.

When I get up I fees them beefhearts. During the day I feed some flakes and dry seaweed along with some frozen bloodworms shrimp mix. The flake I use are by Ocean Nutrition and they are made for discus. They have 45% protien that's high and there are all kinds of vitamines in them too. All but one of my newer fish LOVES the flakes. I am sure the picky guy will warm up to it.

I love to feed the dry seaweed it just floats around the tank and they graze on it till it's gone. It's a great sorce of greens that they need.

On days I work my fish get fed 3 times a day. When I am home I feed the all day it seems. Like every 4 hours till the tank light is off. Then when I am feeding more I do more wc. That's the key.
 
thanks for all the advice. i have my 4 discus all settled now and they seem to be going ok. they are feeding a bit but dont seem to have a large appetite. they dont seem interested in flake food or bloodworms, they had a bit of brineshrimp though. ive started a whiteworm culture but that wont be ready yet. the problem seems to be the speed they move for the food, they just seem to potter over to the food and everything else in there gets it first.

another concern i have is there fins and colour. i understand these fish arent good at settling in to new environments but they just seem dull. also their fins are quite tatty, they were like this when i got them. shall i just see if it worsens before getting too worried. i plan on every other day water changes so hopefully this will help a lot. i know these are symptons of stress but they are all over the tank and greeting me when i enter the room, they are definately showing no signs of sulking etc.
 
congrats on getting discus

I have 6 I keep in tapwater although we;re lucky in north west with the quality of our water

Your main concern is to make sure you get them eating straight away and regularly because if they don;t eat they can be frustrating as anything. Lovely fish that I would second are not as difficult as people make out

get some pics up :good:
 
congrats on getting discus

I have 6 I keep in tapwater although we;re lucky in north west with the quality of our water

Your main concern is to make sure you get them eating straight away and regularly because if they don;t eat they can be frustrating as anything. Lovely fish that I would second are not as difficult as people make out

get some pics up :good:


I'll get some pics up when they colour up a bit better.

Can I bend your ear regarding your tap water. I live on the north east and I've checked my water online and I've found it to be soft. The problem is I'm unsure if its still ok and I don't understand the scale it measures it by. It just says 31 for its softness.
 

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