discus

[cblife]

I have to agree that the secret to having discuss is the water. I used to do every other day water change and did not have any problem raising them.

 

[DyaniBGud]

For everyday water change, you can change up to 40% with aged water. Otherwise, a weekly 20% should do.

 

[shekes]

Discus are not as sensitive to water quality as some people say and they aren't difficult to keep.
My first fish were discus. I bought two of them with their tank "used" online. The guy delivered his tank (45 gallons), filled it up with water (not really warm, no de-chlorinator, nothing) dropped in the discus, and they were fine! Apart from the gravel there was no filter in the tank, I had no idea what a pH value or a cycle was, didn't change water for the first 4 months - the fish were fine! One time there was an electrical blackout that lasted some 40 hours, the temperature in the tank dropped to 42 degrees - the fish were fine. One time, one discus jumped out of the tank, spent over an hour on the floor - he was fine 24 hours later!

For about a month I had 16 discus in a 45g. Then I had to deal with water issues. One discus developped an eye problem that persists today.

I still keep 8 discus and 20+ neons in a 60g with UGF as its only filtration and I change the water once a month. The discus are healthy and eat a lot.

It seems that once discus reach 3" they are pretty hardy.
Wild discus are a totally different story.

 

[phreakyfaerie]

i keep discus myself and i love them, the only real problem i have ever had was internal parasites, gel-tek makes a med for that and it only took 3 days to fix. i keep the temp at 84 and the ph at 6.6, bi weekly water changes of 25%, feed them brine shrimp flakes and bloodworms and they do well, they are more hardy after 2-3 in. i check the ph twice a week now. when i first got them i had heard alot of hype about them being hard to keep so i was a little overzealous in caring for them because i was afraid to lose them, i have since learned that they do better if you don't worry about them too much.

 

[DeLgAdO]

My experience is exactly the opposite for simply keeping Discus as pets....after all, wilds are not inbred for 50 generations nor do they have the weak immune systems associated with most domestic varieties. Wilds are more complex to get breeding. They come from a pristine environment with incredibly pure water.

yep yep

wait a sec, i thought it was the wild strain that are more delicate.

and the domestic being the hardier

dang jack wattley....

 

[Pangong_ilong]

yep yep

wait a sec, i thought it was the wild strain that are more delicate.

and the domestic being the hardier

dang jack wattley....

I thought so too. You learn something everyday. I always wanted to get 2 of those.

 

[Dkarc]

JW is a great guy and a real pioneer but sometimes he comes out with some odd stuff.
A while back he released a bunch of his domestics into a lake in Suriname and wrote an article in Diskus Brief about it....but these days he totally denies it ( realizing it was a dumb thing to do)...but ...there it is in writing by his own hand....
Anyway, these days he has very little to do with the biz that is in his name, it is run by Gabe in Miami and many of their fish are actually imports and not bred by them.

Yup, Gabe bought the JW trademark name and is using it for his business...gabe doesnt even breed anymore...despite having the breeding tanks setup and everything...Last time I was there, he did actually have a spawn of Blue Diamonds...but it was a whopping 15 fry, lol. All the fish he sells either comes from a big farm in Indonesia or from a local breeder in Clear Water, FL. Basically, gabe has turned the JW name into a joke. A lot of fish in the facility are hormoned, despite gabe's claim that he doesnt use hormones...LOL, of course he doesnt use them...the farm he buys them from uses them. And the prices he charges...lol, dont get me started on the prices for some of the fish he has there.

-Ryan

 

[Wjugolfer99]

Yup, Gabe bought the JW trademark name and is using it for his business...gabe doesnt even breed anymore...despite having the breeding tanks setup and everything...Last time I was there, he did actually have a spawn of Blue Diamonds...but it was a whopping 15 fry, lol. All the fish he sells either comes from a big farm in Indonesia or from a local breeder in Clear Water, FL. Basically, gabe has turned the JW name into a joke. A lot of fish in the facility are hormoned, despite gabe's claim that he doesnt use hormones...LOL, of course he doesnt use them...the farm he buys them from uses them. And the prices he charges...lol, dont get me started on the prices for some of the fish he has there.

-Ryan

Is this is still true?