Discus: what are your thoughts?

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AaronW

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Joined
Oct 1, 2012
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Simple as that. Please discuss anything discus related. There's a lot of different opinions about them. I'd like to hear from you guys!
 
My friend had a $200 pair of melon colored discus. They died before too long. They were really beautiful fish though. No idea why they didn't make it because he is a very experienced hobbyist.
 
Maybe, they were fairly small too. I know the water they came from and his water are different because different areas.
 
That's strange. Maybe a temp drop? I'm very disappointed to hear that. A saltwater reefer could do a discus tank in their sleep.
 
You know I will have to ask him about it. This was a few years ago. And yeah he has several 100+gallon tanks for marine. Lucky for me he got out of fresh water completely in the last few months so I inherited tons of stuff and a few tanks!
 
I ventured out to try discus myself recently. I got a group of 8 for my 125. Thing looked bad at first. The group stayed hidden all the time and would not eat. As time went on I noticed a lot of picking and nipping. The group was at this point divided into a group of dark blues and a group of striped. The striped crew were the aggressors and stressed two of the blues to death. They lfs gave me a red pidgeon bliss to replace one of the blues and now that seems to be the equalizer. Everyone is getting along now and I have seen little to no aggression. I had my doubts on whether or not I was gone continue on with them but things have started to look up and I'm pleased with them now. They are out of hiding and are growing on me more and more.
 
So would you consider them to be hard fish or an eat fish to care for?

they are on the hard spectrum of the fish you can keep from the FW side. they need regular maintenance and are easily stressed out. when considering tankmates, make sure you get those that are known to be peaceful.
 
So would you consider them to be hard fish or an eat fish to care for?

Honestly I have not treated them with any special care or any different than any of my other South American fish. I think the myth behind them being hard to keep came from years past when more wild caught specimen where around. The discus these days are mostly tank raised and captive bred so they are more hardy. I keep mine with red head tapajos, winemilleri, severums, tetras and plecos with a weekly 50-70% water change.
 
Aren't Severums aggressive for discus? Anyway do you use an RO/DI system for your discus tank?
 
Aren't Severums aggressive for discus? Anyway do you use an RO/DI system for your discus tank?

I am taking a little bit of a risk but my sevs are smaller than the discus so we'll see how it goes.

I do not use RO/DI in any of my tanks. Just tap water and prime.
 
I've always wanted to try discus, but from everything I've read about them and heard from others experiences it makes me really wary of trying them.

They seem so fragile and require immaculate water conditions. And to top it off, are so expensive that unless I was going to try breeding, which is even more complicated from what I understand, I don't think they'd be worth it. Atleast at the moment.

They are some very gorgeous fish and I'd definitely like to have them one day, but probably only when I have less tanks, more money, and more time to devote to them.
 
Not true. Discus are far more demanding than a reef. I have both, and the discus are the most time consuming and sensitive.

That interesting. I've heard alot of reefers talk about discus and they somewhat joke about discus being "hard". But I don't doubt you.
 
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