Discus questions

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blackhawkpowers

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Nov 6, 2008
29
0
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Georgia
Alright about 5 years ago I held discus and attempted to breed them with no success so i'm here to ask for some help. I'm not trying to do this for a living just as a hobby to see what sort of offspring I can yield. I'm thinking of putting them in my 125G tank dimensions are 84"L x 19"W x 21"H. For substrate I will have some sand along with a few pieces of my favorite driftwood. Filtration I have a 30G sump turning about 800gph and an additional 2 aquatech 30-60s. I love my live plants but the types are up to discretion of this forum. Now for the question, what to stock how many, and what are the optimum water conditions.

Also if anyone has had any luck purchasing the discus online I would like a good vendor as my LFS here are terrible.
 
if you get atleast 6 that gives good odds that youll get a pair unless you buy a proven pair which is expensive now to breed and growout the young bare bottom tanks are much easier to work with
 
blackhawkpowers;2590046; said:
Alright about 5 years ago I held discus and attempted to breed them with no success so i'm here to ask for some help. I'm not trying to do this for a living just as a hobby to see what sort of offspring I can yield. I'm thinking of putting them in my 125G tank dimensions are 84"L x 19"W x 21"H. For substrate I will have some sand along with a few pieces of my favorite driftwood. Filtration I have a 30G sump turning about 800gph and an additional 2 aquatech 30-60s. I love my live plants but the types are up to discretion of this forum. Now for the question, what to stock how many, and what are the optimum water conditions.

Also if anyone has had any luck purchasing the discus online I would like a good vendor as my LFS here are terrible.
Click to expand...

You can easily fit 12 discus in a 125 gallon tank. If you want to breed them, I'd stock the tank with the same strain.

These discus sellers have been around for at least 2 decades, so they must be doing something right.

http://www.wattleydiscus.com/
http://www.discushatchery.com/
http://www.rockymountaindiscus.com/
http://www.macsdiscus.com/
 
Hi there..Congrats on wanting to do discus..They are great fish but do take a bit more care than your average tropical especially if you want to breed them. Wish You had decided to do this before I sold all of mine a few months ago including a proven pair.. Oh well.

Anyhows don't know what part of Georgia you are in but there was a breeder down by Athens and then one in Atlanta (He no longer sells them I don't think).You can also check the simplydiscus site for lots more info and their sponsors. While MFK is a great site with lots of experienced folks, and I don't mean to take away anything from them, simply is a site dedicated to discus with tons of hobbyists and breeders specializing in discus. And since you are planning on breeding you want the most info you can get. And as with opinions they are varied but there are some constants as to care and breeding.
They also have a forum part for feedback on their sponsors and vendors..

I've found, in my experience, the main thing with discus (tank raised ones) is water conditions.. ie water changes and vacuming.. therefore young ones really do best in BB tank (it can have a thin layer of pool filter sand and plants in pots or some driftwood) so you can control these factors..When they are young they need lots of feedings and therefore lots of waterchanges.. Once they are 4+inches then a planted tank looks beautiful and you can take any that pair up and put them in a breeder tank if you want babies.. If you leave them in a community tank, trust me.. the eggs/wigglers/free swimmers will get eaten.. They also do best in high temps around 84 and a lot of plants and other types of fish don't like that.
So alot depends on your plans.. Breeding is fairly easy it's the raising them up that requires alot of work and of course additional tanks..:ROFL: So read read read as much as you can.. get all your discus at the same time from the same person, pick a kind you really love, qt any new arrivals, try to buy from breeders rather than lfs and have fun with them.. they are truly magnificent fish..
I had 8 in a 4x2x2 (temp 84 ph 6.8.. soft water, w./c twice a week when they were about 3 inches))and ended up with 2 pairs out of the bunch and they were all fine together... Each pair picked a filter inlet tube to spawn on.. I have one on each side of the tank so the rest of the fish had the middle of the tank..:ROFL: They were great to watch.. Since your tank is longer you could easily do 11 or so depending on your plans and your maintenance scheduling... They are much hardier than most folks think and if you are comited to them they will be very rewarding. Good luck with your project I'll be watching for updates.:popcorn:
HTH sue:D
 
Hi again. Had a "blonde moment" before and couldn't remember Ken's name etc. The guy near Athens Ga is in Statham...It's Ken Davis... Fishfarm USA.. You can see his site at Fishfarm.home.mindspring.com..Nice fellow and everyone that I know of has been very happy with his fish. HTH Sue
 
For a 125 gal. (I have a couple of these) I would get a dozen to 15 little ones, around 3" or so, and grow them out until they start to pair off. I would then remove the pairs, and place a pair in their own tank. Why so many you ask? You have a six foot tank, and for small fish, that looks like miles. A small number of small fish will huddle together and not be very active. You want them active, so that they will always be hungry, eat a lot, and grow rapidly. Sounds like you've got filtration covered, although you may not need the additional circulation pumps on a 125 for discus. I use one Eheim 1260 pump hooked to 1" tubing on my 125s, and it's plenty. A different brand pump may yield a different result, as pump ratings can be greatly exaggerated by the mfg. Also, I would recommend you buy your fish directly from a breeder or reseller or an importer. Most LFS get their fish from their regular fish distributor. These fish are almost always culls, with poor shape, bad genetics, and often have been kept in poor water conditions, and sold at inflated prices. Reputable breeders destroy such fish, LFS sell them to novice keepers who don't know the difference. In their defence, the LFS is trying to sell fish that they were sold. Keep discus is addicting. They have "personality", and healthy ones act like puppies. You got to love that! :D Almost forgot, skip the live plants unless you have adult fish. It's about cleanliness for growing fish. Decorate with some sand, driftwood, and a few, fake plants if you must. Unless your faucet pours liquid rock, don't mess with your water. It'll be fine. Stability is key. You don't won't to be constantly fiddling with a Ph you can never hold. The fish don't like that.
 
Great info, thanks for all the help as of right now my new tank has a leak and i'll be resealing it this weekend but after that I'll be getting rid of all the babies I currently have and once that's done my 125 will be free for my discus. right now I'll plan a dozen for the tank with a white sand bottom and 3 pieces of driftwood. I'll throw a some peat moss into the w/d and we'll see what happens.
 
Ok my first post here. But thought I would chime in here. I have kept discus off and on for many years When younger I was fortunate to live just up the street from Carrol Friswold, one of the early discus pioneers and the one whom I blame for the discus bug I have. After not having discus for quite a while due to space constraints I recently, (a little over a year ago) got some more discus. I admit i have been labeled a snob or elitist because I will only own wild types, and would never own one of todays tank raised forms. Yuck. That said The "domestic" discus do have a place in the aquarium in that they tend to be much more adaptable than the wild fish are, so water conditions are usually less of an issue for them.

My blues
bluetank1.jpg


bluetank2.jpg


My greens
greentank1.jpg


and my heckles
heckletank1.jpg



My water universally is pretty much striaght R/O giving me a ph of about 6.5, hardness runs about 75ppm give or take a bit, my nitrates do tend to run a bit on the high side. The blues are in 100 gallon with a rena xp3 filters, the greens and heckels are in 60 gallon tanks with rena xp 2 filters, I feed these primarily live black worms alternating with frozen blood worms and a commercial flake food.
Will post some close ups of the fish shortly.
 
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