Clear up some stuff Wattley preaches, please.
- Thread starter lujor
- Start date
http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=276365 has some pics of stunted vs healthy juveniles. Personally I'd pay extra to get adults to avoid maybe ending up with football shaped discus, they are pretty delicate when young.
Agreed. If you start with adults you can skip the fragile stage and just have a nice tank right away. The tough part is finding an adult healthy discus for sale.
Also, much of the discus lore circulating today concerns the original wild caught types. Standard, high-quality care will suffice for most captive strains.
Also, much of the discus lore circulating today concerns the original wild caught types. Standard, high-quality care will suffice for most captive strains.
In the last 24hrs or so I have talked myself out of discus and into Malawi Cichlids. I want to be able to start with young ones and know I can go out of town for a few days when I want to. Discus are going on the back burner with the saltwater tank I've always wanted. Maybe when my kids are grown up and out of the house. Thanks for all the advice. Maybe u guys can help me out when I start posting for advice with the Malawan/Malawian/Malawin/? tank.
2x 50% water changes a week?? i read on here that people change their waters very frequent. is the water youre putting in the tank cycled water? filtered water? fish need bacteria in the water for them to be ok right...? thats why we cycle our tanks for weeks, even months so we can put our favorite specimen in our show tanks
When we cycle our tanks what we are cycling is the gravel for the most part not neccesarily the water itself although aged water is beneficial for many fish. The bacteria your referring to live in the gravel bed and filter of your tank. I've never even heard of using "cycled water" for a water change. Many people use water that has been filtered through a reverse osmosis water filter and I'm sure there a few other types of water filter that are used but these filters are not intended for use on or in an aquarium. They are the type used to produce clean pure drinking water.
You also must understand that the fish being discussed requires very clean water. The same methods may not be required for your particular fish.
That being said, all fish should have at least 25%-30% of their water changed weekly if you do not they may not die but they may not thrive (or breed) either.
Water changes depend on your tank size and how many fish you're keeping. It's different for everyone. I will tell you that with discus, the more water you change, the better. Also, as someone else stated, you're feeding juvenile fish a lot of food, which is one of the reasons you need more water changes.
Juvenile discus are no more fragile than any other cichlid if you buy healthy stock from a reputable breeder. Keep the water warm (84 - 86F for young fish, you can bump it back down to 82 - 84F once they're older), feed them a variety of good quality foods, and keep up with the water changes. It's all you really need. I raise all my discus out in a bare-bottom 55 gallon tank with sponge filters and an AquaClear 110. I squeeze the sponges out maybe once a month in a bucket of tank water just to clean the gunk out of them. You'll also need to wipe the inside glass once a week or so because discus produce a lot of slime coat and it ends up on everything. I do a 50 - 75% daily water change on young discus. Refilling is done straight from the tap -- I add some dechlorinator to the tank and fill. You have to make sure the new water is the same temperature and pH as the tank water. If your pH swings drastically one way or the other after it has aged (because of CO2 off-gassing and whatnot), you'd obviously need to age the water in a barrel or something first. Otherwise you'll stress out your fish.
Discus are easily stunted if they don't get proper care as young fish. It's true that large eyes are a sign of a stunted fish. This is why I mentioned getting stock from a reputable breeder. Most LFS discus will already be in questionable shape when you get them. This doesn't apply to all LFS, as I'm sure some have nice stock, but I've personally never seen a healthy discus for sale locally.
Once the fish have reached sub-adult stage, around 5", you can cut back on the feedings and heavy water changes. If you have an adequately sized tank with good filtration, you could probably get away with one large water change a week for adults, which is what I do for most of my other cichlids anyway.
They're a bit more maintenance, but I wouldn't call them fragile or difficult. It's just knowing what they need and providing it to them. The tank-bred strains don't require soft, acidic water like the books all state. There's no need for RO units or messing with your water chemistry unless you're planning to breed the fish. Discus eggs tend to not hatch in hard water.
I think a lot of the myths that surround discus come from people who bought low-quality, sickly LFS stock and had problems from the beginning. If you don't start with a healthy fish, you're pretty much doomed right out of the gate. Also, a lot of people don't understand what a discus requires and they attempt to keep them as they would an angelfish or a severum. The fish get stressed or sick because the conditions aren't ideal and people write them off as fussy or difficult.
Juvenile discus are no more fragile than any other cichlid if you buy healthy stock from a reputable breeder. Keep the water warm (84 - 86F for young fish, you can bump it back down to 82 - 84F once they're older), feed them a variety of good quality foods, and keep up with the water changes. It's all you really need. I raise all my discus out in a bare-bottom 55 gallon tank with sponge filters and an AquaClear 110. I squeeze the sponges out maybe once a month in a bucket of tank water just to clean the gunk out of them. You'll also need to wipe the inside glass once a week or so because discus produce a lot of slime coat and it ends up on everything. I do a 50 - 75% daily water change on young discus. Refilling is done straight from the tap -- I add some dechlorinator to the tank and fill. You have to make sure the new water is the same temperature and pH as the tank water. If your pH swings drastically one way or the other after it has aged (because of CO2 off-gassing and whatnot), you'd obviously need to age the water in a barrel or something first. Otherwise you'll stress out your fish.
Discus are easily stunted if they don't get proper care as young fish. It's true that large eyes are a sign of a stunted fish. This is why I mentioned getting stock from a reputable breeder. Most LFS discus will already be in questionable shape when you get them. This doesn't apply to all LFS, as I'm sure some have nice stock, but I've personally never seen a healthy discus for sale locally.
Once the fish have reached sub-adult stage, around 5", you can cut back on the feedings and heavy water changes. If you have an adequately sized tank with good filtration, you could probably get away with one large water change a week for adults, which is what I do for most of my other cichlids anyway.
They're a bit more maintenance, but I wouldn't call them fragile or difficult. It's just knowing what they need and providing it to them. The tank-bred strains don't require soft, acidic water like the books all state. There's no need for RO units or messing with your water chemistry unless you're planning to breed the fish. Discus eggs tend to not hatch in hard water.
I think a lot of the myths that surround discus come from people who bought low-quality, sickly LFS stock and had problems from the beginning. If you don't start with a healthy fish, you're pretty much doomed right out of the gate. Also, a lot of people don't understand what a discus requires and they attempt to keep them as they would an angelfish or a severum. The fish get stressed or sick because the conditions aren't ideal and people write them off as fussy or difficult.
