my lfs discus q's

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A

Aphilophus

Fire Eel
MFK Member
Mar 1, 2008
1,051
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Dodge Center,MN
My lfs sells discuc from discus hans theys seem to be verry high quality fish. my question is would you buy these or from local breeder? also my water from tap is ph.8.4 with hardness of 300ppm. would you invest in r/o unite or not?
I have a 75 gallon tank i want to put 7 discus in this tank and a school of corie cats it will be planted with amazon swords and lots of dift wood.
Any advise would be apreciated.
 
be patient you just asked it a couple hours ago. the tap and hardness is high, but I've also heard if you can drink the water and live, then it's good water. just remember to match the temps together, and use a dechlornator like prime or cloram-x.
 
Amazon Swords will likely overgrow a 75 gal, been there, done that. I would put just 4 discus in a 75 only if they were adults, if this tank were planted. Honestly, I wouldn't try to keep discus in any planted tank under 125 gals. because of space and water quality issues. You wouldn't need RO for a fish only tank, but hard water may be rough on your sword plants.
 
Perhaps, but more discus in a small tank feeding high protein food with plants trapping food and waste will quickly degrade water quality. This leads to stressed fish, and decreased immunity to disease long term. If the fish are still growing, they will no doubt stunt, with big eyes, and small skinny bodies. Adult fish would be a better choice, but unless you are willing to do large daily water changes, putting high quality discus is a smallish planted tank is a waste of money IMO. Keeping a planted tank clean enough for discus is a big pain in the butt. I kept a planted 240 gal. discus tank for a year, got totally sick of the upkeep, and tore the whole thing down and put it back together as a fish only tank. This after spending hundreds of dollars making it a planted tank. I think the discus in this tank are healthier for it, and they are around 20 in it at the moment.
 
When I get discus, I always check to see the type of water they're being kept in before buying. My tap is high PH and hardness, so I get discus from similar water conditions.
 
Kratz;3137207; said:
When I get discus, I always check to see the type of water they're being kept in before buying. My tap is high PH and hardness, so I get discus from similar water conditions.
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That's always a good idea, or at least slowly acclimate them. It's not always possible to fully acclimate them before putting them in your tank if they were shipped from somewhere else though. The fish may have been kept in different water conditions than what you have. As soon as you open the shipping bags, ammonia starts to build inside the bag, and we all know ammonia is lethal to discus. For discus that have been shipped, it's most important to get them into clean water as soon as possible, even if the PH or hardness is different. I've used the the "drop and plop" method for shipped fish for years with great success. That's where you take the unopened shipping bag, float it in the tank to allow the temp. to equalize, open the bag, remove the fish, and place in the tank, discarding the shipping water. I've never lost a fish using this method.
 
hillbilly;3137337; said:
That's always a good idea, or at least slowly acclimate them. It's not always possible to fully acclimate them before putting them in your tank if they were shipped from somewhere else though. The fish may have been kept in different water conditions than what you have. As soon as you open the shipping bags, ammonia starts to build inside the bag, and we all know ammonia is lethal to discus. For discus that have been shipped, it's most important to get them into clean water as soon as possible, even if the PH or hardness is different. I've used the the "drop and plop" method for shipped fish for years with great success. That's where you take the unopened shipping bag, float it in the tank to allow the temp. to equalize, open the bag, remove the fish, and place in the tank, discarding the shipping water. I've never lost a fish using this method.
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I usually use the drip method. I put the fish in a large bowl or small bucket. I use airline with a valve on it to control flow. I drip water from the tank into the bowl/bucket. I let it drip at 1-2 drops per second. When I've doubled the amount of water that was in the bowl/bucket, I remove half the water and let it fill up again. This can take up to a few hours to do, but I've always had success with it. I've used it for discus, angels, rams, and other sensitive fish.
 
Kratz;3151558; said:
I usually use the drip method. I put the fish in a large bowl or small bucket. I use airline with a valve on it to control flow. I drip water from the tank into the bowl/bucket. I let it drip at 1-2 drops per second. When I've doubled the amount of water that was in the bowl/bucket, I remove half the water and let it fill up again. This can take up to a few hours to do, but I've always had success with it. I've used it for discus, angels, rams, and other sensitive fish.
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Drip acclimation is an accepted method. I think it is preferred if the fish are only bagged for a couple of hours. If the fish have made an overnight trip in a box, I think it's better to go ahead and get the fish into clean water. As soon as fresh air hits that dirty bag water that's been sealed in for 12 plus hours, ammonia is going to start to build. No way to avoid it. I know I ain't waiting "up to a few hours" to put fish I've paid hundreds of dollars for into fresh water. Most of the discus keepers I know feel the same way. :)
 
hillbilly;3136834; said:
Keeping a planted tank clean enough for discus is a big pain in the butt. I kept a planted 240 gal. discus tank for a year, got totally sick of the upkeep, and tore the whole thing down and put it back together as a fish only tank. This after spending hundreds of dollars making it a planted tank. I think the discus in this tank are healthier for it, and they are around 20 in it at the moment.
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I totally agree about discus in plant tanks. At the end of the day the fish just do better overall in a fish only tank. I think the insane amount of discus misinformation fuels the planted discus tank fire. Many people , including myself years ago, were told the opposite and believed it. That besides being hard to care for period discus NEED a plant tank to thrive. Far from it.

Yeah it looks sweet. Yes discus CAN live in a plant tank. Is it worth the trouble to pull off or fair to the fish. . .IMO hell no.
 
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