First Time Owning Discus. Help!

[irodri25]

This is he first time I've kept Discus and I have read alot about them for almost a year now . I only have one because I wanted to see if my water was good enough for him or her. It is a blue diamond discus. As far as water quality Ammonia is at 0 Nitrites at 0 Nitrates are on the safe zone and PH is about 7.4  and my water is soft . I have a Fluval canister filter and a UV sterilizer I do 25 percent water changes everyday. It is in a densely planted tank  with sand and floramax mixed together and laterite. I also have a circulation pump that helps disperse nutrients all over the tank. As far as temperature it is at about 82 degrees at the moment. When I first got my Discus he was just hiding at the bottom for a few days but since day one he has been eating I just had to throw some bloodworms his way and he would eat. Now he is actively swimming about in the tank. When he sees me he gets excited because he is always hungry. I feed him small portions of food 3 times a day . He seems to be terrified of feeding tongs so i stopped using those. I feed bloodworms, live blackworms, beefheart, krill, daphnia, and brine shrimp. He only really like the bloodworms and blackworms. I have tried flakes but he wont eat them I know variety is key to a healthy Discus . BTW my tank size is a 55 gallon tank. Anything else I might be missing or any pointers that might be good since I am a beginner and still learning . Any help will be greatly apppreciated. oh and before I forget he is about 3 to 4 inches in size.

 

[Electric Warrior]

Firstly, you need to get more discus, in turn, a bigger tank. You really cannot keep a single discus unfortunately. A single one will not fare well tbh, and will eventually get stressed, Ill, etc. They are a very social species, and should only be kept in groups of 5-6, OR, as a mated pair. You could definitely keep a mated pair in a 55, but that could be pushing it for a group of 6+ tbh... If it is still only 3-4 inches, it is still a juvenile really, so you should be doing daily water changes of at least 90%, and feeding 4-6 times a day. If not, stunting is highly likely. What else is in the tank with it, and is it planted, bare bottomed, etc.? Sorry to seem so negative but that's really just the way it is if you want to be successful at keeping them.

Sorry, just saw that you said its densely planted. Not really good tbh. There is a big topic on another discus forum about someone that raised a group of juveniles in a planted tank, but it was quite difficult, and cost him a lot time and mistakes. I have a planted tank and have an adult mated pair and its fine as long as you keep on top of everything religiously. adults can do just fine in planted, but you will see that almost all of the time, juveniles are raised in bare bottom tanks due to ease of cleaning and keeping clear water. If I were you and you really want discus, I would try to get rid of the one you have now and buy adults from a reputable dealer, so someone has already done the hard work for you. It won't be cheap but will probably save you a lot of stress in the end. Adults can go with two 40% or so wc's a week.