As Much Info As Possible Pleases - Discus

[TigerOscar11]

Hi Guys,
 
Ok, Within the next tweve months i will hopefully have a 6 foot tank and i want to put discus in it.
 
From as much as i have read, i know the basics, but i want to hear any and all opinions on people who have had disucs to answer the following points..
 
- Substrate
- Tankmates
- Decor
- Water type
etc etc
 
Please help me out, i wat as much info as needed!

 

[sawickib]

http/www.seriouslyfish.com/species/symphysodon-aequifasciatus/

 

[Electric Warrior]

There are so many different answers/opinions on discus, but IMO:  (BTW, this is al based on the chance that you are being grown out, adult fish, because if you are planning on buying juvi's, they really need to be grown out in a bare bottomed tank with daily w/c's).
 
substrate: sand.  a light in colour sand if you have any pigeon based discus, as they will pepper if you are using a dark substrate.  Also being cichlids, they often graze of the sand to eat.  Mine eat more off the sand then they do from the water column.
 
tankmates:  personally, I have mine with hatchetfish, tetras (cardinals & rummy nose), and a bristlenose pleco.  I did have a few rams, but they passed away.  Other good tank mates could be other dwarf cichlid species, ottos, pencil fish, corydoras, etc.  I depends on what your temp will be at really, as not a lot of fish can handle discus temps.  Some people have reported them eating some tetras, but larger, more wide-bodied species are usually okay.  I did see one eat a cardinal of mine, but it was during feeding time and I think it just got over excited as it spit him out right away.  The cardinal didn't make it though as there was a chuck taken out of him.  That's the only incident I have experienced with mine that I have witnessed.  They generally leave everything alone.
 
Decor:  Plants and wood.  They can be quite shy so they do like a place to hide sometimes if they get spooked.  If you are going for a biotope type thing, you will see that most people use only wood, as a lot of their natural habitat only contains wood and not much plant life.  I think that they look great in a planted tank and that is how I have mine.
 
Water type:  Soft and acidic.  A lot of tank bred discus are pretty hearty these days, but they need soft, acidic water in order to thrive.  They might do okay in harder more alkaline water, but if they do, their life span will be significantly shorter.  A lot of people use RO water if their water is on the harder side, whereas I don't because I have very soft water where I live.  My tank ph is 6.0 and dKH is between 2-3.  

 

[sawickib]

Ive also heard, if your tank is large enough you can grow a baby fire eel up, they have been reported to not eat fish they grow up with no matter the size.

 

[snowflake311]

Grow your discus out first then get tank mates. Discus do best with fish that are smaller then them but not too small that they can eat them. Tetras are good take mates dwarf cichlds are good too. 

 

[bsilverfox]

I started a 90 gal tank with the intention of Keeping Discus back in Feb or March. I have never had Discus previously although a few years back I had 180 gal and 55 gal freshwater tanks. And they were great and I had few problems of any kind except with running 4 Fluval 404 Cannister Filters and getting the siphon restarted after I serviced them. That problem has been eliminated with the new models. I had a variety of fish but mostly tri-color bala sharks and Clown Loaches along with tetras and cory cats.
Right now I have 6 Discus and just recently added 6 Sterbai Cory Catfish. (1/1/2 inches ea) From my experience to date I would provide the following info: I bought all but 1 of my Discus from Discus Hans and they were all 3 ". They are healthy and growing. I bought 1 "Fire Red" and it was my mistake as there were only a few fish in the tank and they were classified as 3" but I don't think they were. Anyway, the fish NEVER came out to eat. I made every effort to feed him and make sure he had access to the food with frozen food from Hans and Cobalt flake food. He lasted about 7 weeks. Never would swim with the other fish--just hung out near the top or the bottom of the tank from the day I bought him home. A Pigeon Blue I bought the same day is doing fine.
I believe these fish I have were all tank born and raised. My PH is 7.6 and temp is 85-86* I started with 4 fish. Again--mistake. Bio load too much and I had to do daily water changes to keep the Ammonia below 1.0. You can't hurry the nitrogen cycle was my experience in spite of my using Nite-Out ll as recommended by Discus Hans and Aquarium shops. Take it slow and easy in adding fish and getting through the cycle. It will happen - it just takes time. I could have saved a lot of money following that advice. Now I have 7 Discus-3 of which are now at least 4" and the others growing well and all are active and appear healthy. However, Going by the rule of 1" of fish per gallon, I am way under stocked and still having a problem keeping nitrates at a reasonable level--under 40PPM by the API Test Kit. I do not have live plants. I don't like them. I have small gravel for substrate. I had a serious algae problem and cut my light on time from 10 hours to 4 hours and that seems to have taken care of it and brought it to a more manageable level. I have 10PPM of Nitrate in my tap water. Not willing to go the R/O route. Right now I am doing 2 - 50% water changes  a week to try and keep the nitrates under control. I don't know what will happen as I add more fish. I would like to get a school of compatible tetras. I am going to stick this our for a while and see what happens--the fish are interesting, colorful and active but if I have to continue these huge water changes (smaller ones-25% didn't help at all) and continue to have the high nitrate problem,  I will probably find a good home for the Discus and abandon them for  easier to care for varieties. One contributor suggested Discus are "crap" machines. I think that is the way he put it. This may be the problem if it is really so. Good luck to you in your upcoming endeavor. I think you are doing the right thing by checking it out thoroughly prior to starting out on this adventure. I hope some of the above may be helpful.