Discus Start

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Swashbuckler99

Aquarium Advice Apprentice
Joined
Jun 4, 2012
Messages
14
Hello, im looking to get a discus tank started and money is not a problem. The thing is that i dont know where to start!!!
 
Swashbuckler99 said:
Hello, im looking to get a discus tank started and money is not a problem. The thing is that i dont know where to start!!!

First off how big of a aquarium are you thinking about getting, planted or fake plants, sand or gravel? I would first do a lot of research on discus and their care. They do like warm water ( 82* ) and soft water. :) By the way you picked a great fish, discus are my favorite!
 
ive done a pretty good amount of research and figured out how i think ill have it set up. im gunna have heavily planted tank with a sand substrate its gunna have to be a 55 gallon tank.
 
I would go with a larger tank. 75gal minimum as they like to be in medium sized groups
 
i talked to a few good sorces and they all said that small group of 5 and a medium school of up to 10 tetras in a heavily planted tank would make.
 
Discus fish is one of the most beautiful freshwater fish. There are so many hobbyists who want to keep discus and after few days of keeping them they quit from this segment of aqua hobby. They say that their discus fishes are not growing well or have peppering on their bodies etc etc. Here I try to write about general maintenance about discus fish keeping.

We all know that discus moves vertically rather than horizontally, this is because of their body shape. So anybody who wants to keep and raise discus i like to say that keep the tank height of 2 feet. Keep a blue background in a discus aquarium, this enables to show proper colour and disables the pigmentation of discus body.
Regarding sensible issue discus is one of the most sensible among all fishes. This fish reacts even if slight variation of temperature, water parameter, chlorine issue. So maintaining water temperature is vital for discus tank specially in winter. So don’t forget to use a thermostat and should run 24*7. Keep the temperature at 30 degree Celsius. Generally, we use 1-1.2 watts per gallon rule to select the required wattage of thermostat.

Now come to the most controversial question. What is the ideal set up for a discus tank? Bare bottom or planted or biotope. Either we can keep it bare bottomed or keep it with live plants, driftwoods or river sand. You can use either of the 2 options. If you make your discus tank bare bottom, then it will be easier to maintain and easier to clean your aquarium. Moreover, you can also keep driftwoods, live plants and river sand in your discus tank. For such type of decoration, you have to use an external filter for cleaning purpose. You cannot keep sponge filter because it drags sand and for the same reason you cannot use power filter. In addition, you cannot use undergravel filter. So for the new comers in discus keeping I request to all of you to keep discus in a bare bottom tank.

Now come to the feeding part. Feeding of discus is a vital factor for its proper growth. You should feed a variable protein diet for better growth of discus. If you have juvenile discus then you should feed 4-5 times a day and if you have adult size discus then you should feed 2-3 times day. You can feed them hikari discus bio gold, sera discus granules, tetra bits, beef heart mixture, ants egg etc. Also 1 point to say, if you feed BHM or GHM to your discus, don’t forget to do water change after 30-40 minutes of feeding it because ammonia level will go heavily if there is any uneaten BHM or GHM in your aquarium.

Water change is also an important factor of proper discus growth. Juvenile discus needs more partial water change than the adult one. If you raise juvenile discus then i request to perform at least 50% water change daily. And for adult discus you can change 50% in an alternate day. After each water change, you should add some amount of rock salt and chlorine remover (if the water contains chlorine) in your tank. It will be good if you store water for 24 hours in a bucket and treat it with HYPO. It’s a very good chlorine remover.

Now come to the point about the no. of discus that you can keep. if you raise juvenile discus then I request all of you to keep at least 6 discus so that they can form a group, hence minimum of 2.5 feet tank is required to raise 6 juvenile discus. And if you have adult discus the general rule says that one can keep 1 adult discus per 10 gallon of water provided you have good filtration system.
 
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