Finally trying discus. Maybe.

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there is no debate about peppering. it is cause by dark subatrate and/or background. this only occurs in discus with pigeonblood genes. I agree that discus keeping is not as hard as people think, but raising discus from juvie size is not easy. can you raise them in a planted tank? of course you can and it's been done many times. the problem is you are stacking the odds against you from the start. most discus tanks that fail are because of this. juvies need to be fed many times per day and planted tanks are much harder to keep clean than a bb. that is a fact. I would never have a bare tank in my home. I don't like the sterile look but I also did'nt start out with juvies. you don't need to buy 6 or 7 inch fish. 4 - 5 inch fish will work fine without all the work needed for juvies. just because someone raised some juvies in a planted tank, does'nt mean those fish are at thier best. they could be stunted and less colorful but perfectly healthy. again, discus can be raised in a planted tank, but it's a lot more work and imo not the best way.
 
no point in giving you advice anymore since you "seem" to know what youre doing.

but this is for the lurkers

water change alone isnt enough you need to go barebottom to remove ALL the gunk that is at the bottom of the tank. overtime food crap and other things gets trap under the gravel/mixes with the sand and before you know it your 2 inch discus is still at 2 inch and looks more like a football than a discus.

edit: if you hate the way bare bottom looks buy 6 inch shw discus if you dont want to safe your money and the fish life and dont try keeping discus
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So you're telling me that decaying organic matter, poop, food, whatever, is more harmful in the gravel than it is in the filter? What it magically stops producing ammonia? I do water changes twice a week for all my fish, and spot clean every two days or sometimes even more frequently. I have never seen an ammonia, nitrite or nitrate reading in any of my tanks, even my snakehead. I agree bare bottom may be better, but keep your passive aggressive comments to yourself. Just because I don't already have discus, doesn't mean I don't know a lot about them. I have researched them for close to 3 years. I started a thread because it doesn't hurt to have a second opinion, or third. But get off your pedistal. You\re not the god of fish keeping.
 
its your tank do as you wish but dont get offensive when you come back posting pictures of stunt discus and we tell you their stunted. 2 times a week means NOTHING to juvie discus....

researching for 3 years and you dont even understand the basic. if you as for an opinion dont get mad when you recieve one that isnt what you wanted.
 
Two water changes a week and daily spot cleaning isn't enough? Why? The discus count? I have never ever seen any nitrate reading. So if my nitrates are zero, how is that not enough? If I do 5 water changes a week my nitrates will still be zero. Increasing water changes doesn't help if your water is already perfect.
 
How is your water at 0 nirates with only 2 water change a week?

Doesn't matter. Fresh water has minerals and oxygen. With gravelly it is IMPOSSIBLE to clean all the crap out.
 
Im in one month at growing out juvies in a 55. Started in a planted tank. Plants are gone, in the process of removing substrate. They are like newborn humans..eat and poo all day. I feed at least 6 times a day, do daily 75-90% wc, I skipped 2 wc in a row bc I was sick, had stressed discus. The reason there are so many HELP SICK.DISCUS threads is because they are very delicate. I also bought from a reliable source, feed variety of flake, frozen, pellet nls, and freeze dried blackworms (theire favorite). Simply discus is a wealth of info, my fish would have probably been sick by now without them! I even have four one-inchers thriving. Hth, good luck! Discus are great, mine love to hand feed :-)
 
How is your water at 0 nirates with only 2 water change a week?

Doesn't matter. Fresh water has minerals and oxygen. With gravelly it is IMPOSSIBLE to clean all the crap out.
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I explained that..... how are you confused? 50% water changes TWICE A WEEK with DAILY SPOT CLEANING. Plus bamboo keeps nitrates down. Thanks for informing me fresh water has minerals and oxygen. I never knew. :clap

And no, it isn't hard to clean poo out of large gravel at all. It's called spot cleaning. Which I already mentioned multiple times that I do daily.
 
Younglin said:
I explained that..... how are you confused? 50% water changes TWICE A WEEK with DAILY SPOT CLEANING. Plus bamboo keeps nitrates down. Thanks for informing me fresh water has minerals and oxygen. I never knew. :clap

And no, it isn't hard to clean poo out of large gravel at all. It's called spot cleaning. Which I already mentioned multiple times that I do daily.
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i give up on this theres a reason we recomend bare bottom if you dont like the look of it i hope you like the look of stunt discus.

all i can say is good luck trying to grow them out in a gravel tank youre gonna need it
 
If you decide to use gavel wit your juvies stir up the gavel on the third day and see what all comes up! If you gonna go every 3 to 4days with water changes you better off with sub adults or adults!

Lots of good discussion here about keeping discus. I have a few rules.

1. If you want discus that grow and thrive in your tank, raise them in barebottom tanks. No gravel, no plants.

2. If you want discus to grow, change 50% - 100% of the water every week. But if you break rule #1, then rule #2 makes no difference.

3. Keep you discus at 84F - 88F and don't use crappy, cheap, used heaters.

4. Frozen meaty food is better than flakes, but it doesn't matter if you don't follow rules #1 through 3. I've seen nice discus raised solely on flakes.

5. Discus are very easy to raise (if you follow rules #1 through #3).

Plenty of people break rules #1 through #3 and raise discus. However, most discus I've seen are stunted or worse. These are large fish and stunted many people who pay $40 - $60 for small to medium size fish and are never heard again because their fish died. Don't drop this kind of money if rules #1 through #3 are not doable.

The nice discus I see are raised by many of people who follow rules #1 through #3. Discus are considered to be challenging -- only if you ignore these rules.

Bottom line is, For healthy and Happy Discus It all comes down to PRISTINE WATER CONDITIONS, QUALITY FOOD and a little TLC.
This is what I do and it works for me For Juvies, I like to raise them in a 29g or a 30g and I do 50 to 80% water changes daily and for the adults I use 75's and only change the water out every 2-3 days at 50%.
 
fattubwhale said:
If you decide to use gavel wit your juvies stir up the gavel on the third day and see what all comes up! If you gonna go every 3 to 4days with water changes you better off with sub adults or adults!

Lots of good discussion here about keeping discus. I have a few rules.

1. If you want discus that grow and thrive in your tank, raise them in barebottom tanks. No gravel, no plants.

2. If you want discus to grow, change 50% - 100% of the water every week. But if you break rule #1, then rule #2 makes no difference.

3. Keep you discus at 84F - 88F and don't use crappy, cheap, used heaters.

4. Frozen meaty food is better than flakes, but it doesn't matter if you don't follow rules #1 through 3. I've seen nice discus raised solely on flakes.

5. Discus are very easy to raise (if you follow rules #1 through #3).

Plenty of people break rules #1 through #3 and raise discus. However, most discus I've seen are stunted or worse. These are large fish and stunted many people who pay $40 - $60 for small to medium size fish and are never heard again because their fish died. Don't drop this kind of money if rules #1 through #3 are not doable.

The nice discus I see are raised by many of people who follow rules #1 through #3. Discus are considered to be challenging -- only if you ignore these rules.

Bottom line is, For healthy and Happy Discus It all comes down to PRISTINE WATER CONDITIONS, QUALITY FOOD and a little TLC.
This is what I do and it works for me For Juvies, I like to raise them in a 29g or a 30g and I do 50 to 80% water changes daily and for the adults I use 75's and only change the water out every 2-3 days at 50%.
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Very informative post indeed...
Thanks to you & the others, I wont risk the life of any Discus... I'll stick to angels instead... :-)
 
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