I picked up my first 2 Discus fish yesterday. One of them is swimming around fine and eating everything I put in the tank. The other will not eat anything and stays in the bushes and doesn't swim around. I thinking of taking him back to the store tomorrow if he doesn't start eating. Both of them are small about 4 inches. One is blue and the other is orange. The blue one had been in the tank for sale for some time. The orange one just came in on a shipment Sunday and I took him home Monday. How long do you think it will take for him to come around and start eating and swimming around? How long should I wait before I take him back to the store? Should I take him back? I started with only 2 to see how I do taking care of them because I've been reading that's its difficult to take care of them. 150 gallon tank and the water is good and the tank mates are good. Any feedback would be much appreciated. There in the tank with 6 Angel fish all smaller then the Discus. 1 dwarf blue gourami, 2 gold rams and 1 small friendly 4 inch bala shark.
I got my first 2 Discus
- Thread starter Silencio
- Start date
need to see pics. but i wouldnt recommend buying discus at local fish stores. unless they specialize or breeders. otherwise ull get the typical bad quality discus that are overpriced and stunted. but as long as ur happy with ur purchased. when u were at the store did they look hungry and active? they should normally eat the same day. if not wait 1-2 max. if not eating def something is wrong.
Darter is right plus discus should never be kept with only two. Like angels and other cichlids they are aggressive with one another. They should be kept with at least 5, 10 is better. One will always end up dominate and with no where to spread the aggression it will beat up others until they die. The one that had not settled in the store only has a very slim chance in your tank, it is too unsettled to get a hold and stabilize with the angels and the settled discus eating discus. The gourami and the Bala shark do not like the acid conditions or the heat 82 degrees minimum that discus require to thrive. The bala shark will get to be 15+ inches and move too much. The best size to purchase discus is 2" . A 4" discus is much harder to acclimate. There are always exceptions but I would bring them both back until you had the proper conditions and room for a proper school of discus. Then they are a joy to keep whether they are tank bred or wild.
1 Discus is hard to see because hes hiding in the coral. But he's the same size as the one in the picture. But he's orange with black stripes. I will take a pic of him when he comes out. But the blue chases him back in when he comes out.My blue Discus in the picture swims around with the Angels and doesn't seem to be bothered by the other fish he also is eating everything I put in the tank Tetra pallets, Flakes, Brine Shrimp and frozen blood worms. My Gourami seems to be doing good also because since I've turned up the heat to 84 he's starting spitting water out of the tank when I put the tip of my finger in the water which he's never done before. Its pretty cool to see that. Yeah I know my bala is going to get big and stress the discus out and I'll put him in my 55 gallon when that happens because I don't want to get rid of him. Also hes soooo hard to catch...
Its kinda dark but the first pic is of my Gourami spitting water out of my tank. He was under the leaves floating on top.I don't have any local breeders of Discus fish to purchase from. All I can find is internet orders. Is it safe to order fish from the internet? I'm in Southern California and the nearest breeder from me is in Northern California about 500 miles from me. I've been getting my fish from a place near me in Ontario about 20 miles from me its called Global Aquatics. Its a really big place and not a normal small fish store. Its like a small warehouse size. I have another place in Riverside called Fish Fantasy and thats like a typical fish store. The only have about 15 large adult size Discus in 1 maybe 50 gallon tank. The warehouse place has about 30 small to medium Discus in a 250 gallon tank swimming with about 20 Angel fish. What are your thoughts. I've been purchasing my fish from the warehouse. Accept for the first fish I got when I started I got at petsmart. But I'm not going there because most of them have since died. The remainders are in my 55 gallon now.
So I think your saying that I should only get Discus fish if I get at least 5 to start with? I only wanting one to start with but I couldn't resist buying the other Tiger striped one also. I just wanted to see If I could keep them alive before I spent more money on them because the small ones are 30 bucks each. Anyway I will eventually end up with more little by little. I just learned that my orange tiger strip only comes out if the lights are off. I just turned them off and he started swimming around, so I rush to defrost some blood worms and sure enough he started eating!!! YEEEAAAHHH!!! Even though the blue one chased him around he just went somewhere else and scavenged the floor.
The other reason I didn't buy more is because they only had a few types to choose from and I want some red ones. They had solid orange and cobalt blue. Which I wasn't impressed with and they had the blue grey strip design one which I bought and the orange tiger strip which I bought. I'm thinking of going back to look again today. But I don't want to buy colors I don't want. Anyway I'll do it if you think that my Discus will kill each other with only two in the tank.
