Discus Keeping the Learning Expierence

[macman7010]

Since BrianNY was able to help a lot of people with discus keeping by starting an ongoing thread about Discus in general, I thought I would aspire to do the same by starting one as well. Here we can talk about things we have learned while keeping Discus, both what has made our time with these fish more successful and what didnt work out well for us. Hopefully everyone will learn a technique or idea that will help them in thier adventure. I'll kick it off...

The first thing I learned about Discus when I started keeping them is patience. Discus are very shy and timid fish, (partly because they are more intellegent than other tropical fish), and thier behaviors are sometimes frustrating and worriesome but in time these fish will adjust to thier new home.

 

[greenmaji]

Good luck with your thread macman7010
I dont know if I can help out much in this one.. I have never owned Discus..
Im better at the question asking part of the discussion..LOL

 

[BrianNY]

I'll tack on to your thread here macman.

This is a public service announcement! I just clicked on the amazon.com banner at the top of this page. They are selling the book "Discus Health" for $14.99. I paid $75 for the same book from them. IMO, it is the definitive manual on discus keeping and I urge anyone thinking of keeping discus to buy this book at this price.

 

[africamonk]

$14.99 ?? .... new or old print ???

 

[greenmaji]

Im assuming its the new print coming in from the publisher that I warned everyone about a few weeks ago..LOL.
And BrianNY... From my understanding this is a good book for anyone that is interested in the heath of any cichlid, from what Ive read about it, I was wondering since you have the book do you think it would be a good buy for people who keep cichlids in general?

 

[BrianNY]

Hmmm. I would say the information in the book would apply to any soft water cichlid. The book is really discus specific. It covers everything except breeding.

Being that macman titled this thread "The learning experience", I wanted to post this here. Keeping discus is neither difficult or a mystery. There is simply much more to learn. The book covers the discus aquarium environment which is paramount to to health, and then is best resource I've found for diagnosing and treating diseases which are unique to discus.

$14.99 is for a used copy.

 

[macman7010]

Sorry for not getting back, I have been on a camping trip all weekend. The Discus health book I have not read but I plan to order a copy from Amazon since $14.99 is really cheap for a good fish resource book. I paid $50 for my copy of Bob Fenner's book, "The Concientus Marine Aquarist."

The one book I really did enjoy about Discus keeping was Jack Wattley's older "Handbook of Discus." This book though is rather outdated and many of the techniques described in it, while functional, are nearly obsolete today in the hobby. It even has an interesting chapter on Discus collection. Although it can be found for very cheap and is a book of interest.

Thanks Brain for coming along. The tip you gave me about daily 30% water changes has really paid off, Im getting a lot better behavior and health out of my fish. Ive never done daily changes before but with the Python system it really is a breeze. Another thing I have done is quit adding any additives with the exception of a decholoranator to the water. This seems to have helped out with fish beahavior as well.

 

[macman7010]

One thing I would recommend for Discus keepers and potential discus keepers alike is the use of the large, in-expensive sponge filters. These are the weighted sponges that either suction onto the glass or sit at the bottom of the tank, that have an air hose hooked into them from your air pump. I have personally used the Hydro Sponge brand and think them to be a bit superior to other systems.

What I like about these filters is even when you are performing a water change you can leave your air pump running so that the bacteria within the colonized sponge filter never is distubred, and your new water will be colonzied hopefully quicker because of that.

 

[tiptoptank]

BrianNY started my understanding and really kicked off my yerning to learn about these fish. Over the last 5 months I have learned an ungody amount of info about the fish and had just about everything go wronge with my fish. I used the power of the internet and pretty much learned about every single nasty that can attack discus and there cures. I have battled flukes, tapeworms, nematodes, hex..ect..


All I can say is discus owning isn't for some one who like set it and forget it type things. It's for the challenge hungy, and this is why I love owning them.

Here are some good rules if you want to get started.

1. W/C, W/C, W/C!! I do 50% W/C on my planted tank 2 times a week and I still feel like thats not enough.

2. Learn about praziquental, metro powered, and formlin. THese are your soldiers on the battle field.

3. Learn how to see if your fish are sick. I see at the top that macman say these fish are shy. This is only true in sick fish. Every time anyone goes up to my tank the fish do the nose to the glass dance.

4. Buy GOOD fish. I have only gone to 1 store in my whole life that had decent fish. ONLY 1! THere are way to many LFS that sell discus and don't know the first time about owning discus. GRRR that makes me mad. 8). Anyway find some one that had a succesfull brude of fish near you or have fish ship in from a good dealer like Great lake discus, or rocky MT discus, or gulf coast discus, or even Brewmaster15 on www.Simplydiscus.com he sell awesome wilds. I have spent to much money on saveing sickly fish from stores only to get stunted discus.

5. Don't be afriad to ask questions. www.simplydiscus.com is a very friendly and inteligent commuity. Any question at all will be answered promtly and correctly. IMO this is the most important because some of these illnesses can kill quick with out treatment.



6. PM me or brianny, with any question any time. I hang out more on simplydiscus then here but either way I should get back to you quickly.

 

[BrianNY]

Thanks for the accolades guys . JMO but one of the things that make keeping discus somewhat unique to FW fish is the price you'll pay per fish. When you've invested over $100 on a fish and it dies, it has a different impact then a fish you paid $2.99 for. If you've got a tank full of these beauties, it stands to reason you'll do more to protect your investment.

Yes, there is more to know and learn about discus than most other FW fish. But keeping them healthy and happy isn't a mystery of difficult. In fact I've found them more hardy then most other fish. I've had them bounce back from what looked like certain death. I've never seen that with any other species.

I'm going to add to your list tiptoptank.

1. If you don't properly QT new arrivals you're asking for much more trouble than you want. Even the most healthy robust fish can bring something unwanted into your tank.

2. Don't buy your discus from a variety of places. Stick with one. Even proper QT won't prevent the discus plague.

3. Have a seeded sponge filter and a spare 20g ready to be put in use at a moments notice. I've needed this on many occasions for a fish that is obviously being tormented by its tankmates.

4. Don't panic and don't blindly accept the advise of experts if you suspect something is wrong. Unless they are actually seeing your fish it's too easy to jump to conclusions.

5. WC, WC, WC. This can't be said enough. Merely keeping the water quality up will ward off a host of problems.

 

[macman7010]

tiptoptank thanks for the simplydiscus link. Somehow I have managed to skim passed this site while browsing the internet. W/C are one of the most important aspects to keeping and breeding discus. Though I disagree that an initially shy disposition is the sign of a sick fish. In over 4 years of keeping Discus I have never had a "new" arrival come out and be social before they had been in the aquarium for at least one week.

Some of these fish took closer to a month to become social and all grew into nice adults that lived long healthy lives in both my tanks and friends discus tanks.

 

[tiptoptank]

O. I thought you meant shyness as a permantent trate. My bad. Of course, new fish get alittle shy in new enviroments especially when there are already established fish in the tank.