Discus are not hard to keep

First topic message reminder :

Hello My name is Jon ,(TxRedneck)
I have been on this site watchin and postin some times
and some people say that Discus are hard to keep
Here's some pics of mine
My breeder tanks

Spawnin

breeder with babies


little ones

its not hard

You will want to grow them up in a larger tank than that. If you want 8" fish you need a big tank, if you are content with 5" fish than that is what you will get keeping them in a 29g.
They get stunted very easily.

Just so I can do the Math in my head... Going back 30 years or so, I recall a rule of thumb that 1 gallon of water for each inch of fish (all fish combined)... so two 7 inch discus in a 29 would be 2 gallons of water per inch. But what I'm reading is that the problem would be having the 6 - 1.5 inchers in the 29 would stunt all of them and that ideally I'd wait for the effort until I get at least a 55 set-up and ready for the 6 youngsters.. Bill in Richmond.
p.s. Gotta wait till I find a "steal" on a 55 set-up due to the state of my employment (wife wouldn't understand at all of an expenditure like that at this time)..

Yes. Discus need as much water as you can give them when they are young.
The inch rule is mostly for the tropical community fish like tetras and such anymore.

I do have 2 5" discus in a 29g but they are a breeding pair and are as big as they are going to get (stunted)

Is stunting a bad thing though? If they are breeding like Fern's are I'd say no harm done. Fern just found the Pygmy Discus

williemcd: Craigslist may have some freebie setups, might wanna look there. If you find one, please don't send your wife to kill me; one tank is never enough!

I used to have Discus, the dinner plate sized (8 in a 125 gal, 6 in a 100gal). They were starting to pair off and a few laid eggs a couple of times. Unfortunately they ALL died in during move; the electric went out in the new place and the heat plummeted in their temporary moving container. Haven't had discus since

Yes stunting is bad as their outside quites growing but not the inside so you lessen the life of the fish dramatically.

Yes stunting is very very bad. I have one named Tiny Tim, she is 4" severely stunted with a messed up fin. Almost lost her a few times..... she was a pity buy....

oh. that sucks! I thought of getting a couple of discus in my 29gal bowfront, maybe not....

Discus really should be in a group of 6 or more to reduce stress. So at the least a 55 to start.

I have found that discus are easy to keep as well they are a lot like tetras and the dwarf cichlids that I keep they want warm water clean water and lots of either bloodworms or brine shrimp.I have to admit breeding discus is still something I have yet to figure out but I will say that in the last year I have spent so much time trying to get my dwarf cichlids to breed I have not spent much time with my discus but I will as soon as I have the tank space.I have 2 pairs of grenn discus that I will try to spawn soon. they are wild caught so it should be interesting for sure.

Iama have to come and visit you one of these days.... I can't even keep Angels alive.... for more than a month....

Petersmonkey wrote:

Iama have to come and visit you one of these days.... I can't even keep Angels alive.... for more than a month....

Well just come on over and I will show you how I do it

I would take up jon, on the offer.. jon knows his stuff, trust me I would say jon was my teacher, plus I would love to see my discus we one from me... I guess those orange discus just need some tlc from you jon. HA HA./

Angels are cichlids they can be hard to keep as well but like I said keep there water clean warm and the PH low like with discus you should be able to keep them

super cool. low ph in texas is not easy lol.

You can always send them here to VA my PH is stable at 6 in 3 tanks. 1 55 I finally stabilized at 8.4 for africans. Anyone have any nice Africans near Richmond?

looks like tex has the ticket not hard just need to know how ph isnt as important as with the wild discus i keep mine in 7.0 no problem keep them warm and change your water

That is so true. Discus are like angels were in the 1930's now anyone can raise angels. More and more Discus are being kept in higher PH levels.

i have extremely high PH... i would be adjusting the water all the time.. dam not gonna work here...

My tap water ph is 8.2 I dont think discus would like that.

It's amazing how driftwood and leaves will keep your PH low and stable. Also you can get a RO/DI unit.

i have 15 in my 55 but will be moved as soon as i can get my 100 in a lower ph and my crazy cories(thanks fern) and dojo from pulling up my plants. plus this piece of wood i got from cajun mounted with a piece of slate. lol i do need to get amove on though i just have no time. i feed them well and clean their water weekly unless they look unhappy then i do it( showing stress, a little darking). i have that seems to stress out after i cleaned out some plants bc it was over running it but ive started to turn the lights and he seems better.

oh will they grow if their still under a year old if their sort of stunted and would be in a larger tank fed well? just curious

FishVixen wrote:

It's amazing how driftwood and leaves will keep your PH low and stable.

Can agree with this, but if doing large water changes daily seems moot.

aged water in 55 gal buckets.

I'm going to ignore my own advise here "Tis far better to be thought the fool than to open one's mouth and remove all doubt".. but...
I was thinking that when my 55 is ready.. the ph is low.. 6.5 or so.. I'd be taking out 5 gal every other day.. net about 45% per week.. the slow introduction should allow my tap of 7.5 to moderate in the 48 hrs between add's due to the drift wood.. and the oak leaves submerged... But.. is that "incremental water change" too subtle? or oK? Next up.. my home RO system I think only processes a few gallons a day (Vix.. ya still have the manual on it?) So was thinking about setting up a rain barrel with a feed/collection from some fiberglass awning.. (This is taking me back 30 years when I used peat moss in the filters!).. Aren't the current crop of discus more tolerant of higher PH's? Gettin cunfused... Typo intended...

pillierox1 wrote:

i have 15 in my 55 but will be moved as soon as i can get my 100 in a lower ph and my crazy cories(thanks fern) and dojo from pulling up my plants. plus this piece of wood i got from cajun mounted with a piece of slate. lol i do need to get amove on though i just have no time. i feed them well and clean their water weekly unless they look unhappy then i do it( showing stress, a little darking). i have that seems to stress out after i cleaned out some plants bc it was over running it but ive started to turn the lights and he seems better.

oh will they grow if their still under a year old if their sort of stunted and would be in a larger tank fed well? just curious

15 Discus in a 55g is overload IMO.. 1 fish per 10 gallon.... What is your tap waters PH? Discus like fresh constant water changes, I do a 30-50% daily not to say thats requred, but they like it...


If they are dark, they are sick/not healthy...

hes stressed, hes purking back up eating, i moved alot of , got rid alot plants and that stressed them out. i never had any problem, it 6.0ph but my 100 is 7.8 bc of the argonite sand