Why Hobbiest find Discus fish Demanding!

[Colin_T]

Just watch the Chinese algae eater, they are not to be trusted with small fish or discus.

The hill stream loaches normally prefer cooler water than discus. Keep an eye on it and if it looks stressed, move it into a cooler tank.

 

[Mazain]

In my place the room temperature fluctuates between 27 and 33 these days when the sun is out. I don't use a heater for the discus since they were conditioned outdoors. Since the tank is in the coolest place of the house hillstream is doing fine.

 

[plebian]

Your tank is well planted and has substrate and is probably a better tank for them to grow up in compared to a bare bottom tank without plants.

Assuming he can maintain water quality and keep his plants healthy enough without the use of ferts. Therein lies the issue. Plants don't grow in discus habitat. Number one, the water is generally too warm. Number two, there is not enough light. The only plants you see in discus habitat are terrestrial plants submerged during the floods, and all of those are dying as is evidenced by the thick covering of brown algae.

More importantly, the water is nearly free of bacteria and constantly being replenished. If he can replicate these conditions, he can absolutely grow out discus juveniles.

 

[Colin_T]

Water quality isn't hard to maintain, just do big regular water changes and gravel clean the substrate.

You can use aquarium plant fertiliser in a discus tank. We used fertiliser in every discus tank in the shop and never had issues with it. As long as you don't overdose, and don't use a terrestrial plant fertiliser, it's fine to use an aquarium plant fertiliser with discus or any other fish. I even used aquarium plant fertiliser in my marine tanks and it didn't affect corals, shrimp or anything else.

Most aquarium plants grow in the tropics where the water is warm and regularly sits on 30C. I used to grow aquarium plants outdoors and the water hit 40C+ during the day in summer. The plants were fine. The only issue with aquarium plants is if you take them from cold water and put them in warm water, then they can break down and die due to the sudden temperature change. But plants like Amazon swords (some species of Echinodorus) come from the same place as discus.

Discus are found in the flooded Amazonian rain forest during the wet season, which covers half a year, sometimes more. They retreat to the streams during the dry season and live under or around submerged logs and there is a sandy bottom. There are a lot of plants in the Amazon that are marsh plants and these grow aquatic leaves during the wet season and change to terrestrial leaves during the dry season. Wild discus feed on these plants, bark from trees and algae that grows in the water or on items that are submerged in the water.

 

[anewbie]

Assuming he can maintain water quality and keep his plants healthy enough without the use of ferts. Therein lies the issue. Plants don't grow in discus habitat. Number one, the water is generally too warm. Number two, there is not enough light. The only plants you see in discus habitat are terrestrial plants submerged during the floods, and all of those are dying as is evidenced by the thick covering of brown algae.

More importantly, the water is nearly free of bacteria and constantly being replenished. If he can replicate these conditions, he can absolutely grow out discus juveniles.

We've had this discussion before; the plants i have are growing quite well in discus aquarium with minimal care. Please stop repeating a false hood.

As for the discus - i've been feeding mine greens (algae max, bug bite for bottom feeders, ...) mixed with freeze dried black worms and a touch of bio-gold and tetra bite; it took them a couple of days to start eating after i received them and now a month later they never hide or have a problem with the lights or myself (these are wild caught discus - tank raised might be different); they definitely prefer the freeze dried black worms and go after them first but will graze on the other stuff. I try to limit the amount of worms to one cube per feeding (two feedings a day) shared by 10 near adult discus.

Now to be truthful i've only had them for around 2 1/2 months so i can't say i'm a success yet - check back in 5 years but so far things are going well; this is a repeat of the earlier picture and i should take a new one to show the continued plant growth. The plants have been in there for approx 4 months (i set the tank up before i received the discus and populated it with cardinals). It has wild caught blue rams, wild caught a. lineata (only 1 pair), 6 blue rams and one small L204 along with the 10 discus.

I do not claim to be an expert but i have watched the change in discus behavior from extreme nervousness to very typical 'feed me' cichild behavior over the course of time. They can be startled if you do something in the tank while their head is turned; but as long as they can see you and you aren't overly aggressive in your movement they will gladly let you push them over so you can attend to the plants et all.

As for growth not shown in the picture the a. cirpus ( a very good plant for warm waters) has double in height - the purple tint plant on the left.
The vals need occasional pruning to keep them from spreading across the tank (the ones doing better are on the far right) the various species of echinodorus continue to grow and convert from emersed to submersed - this process can take a year - and the anubia has some new leaves.

Now not every plant has done well a couple of species of echinodorus did die (I think 2) whether it was due to heat or just bad plants i could care less - i have htat issue in every aquarium from 74 to 84.

Of course there are plants that won't do well @ 84 and i don't claim every plant does well. Also the frogbit and red root floaters at the top have double to triple density (which is max out as i remove it as it get denser); of course the discus don't object to the clouds.

 

[Colin_T]

Are they wild caught or are they captive bred? I thought they were captive bred.

If they are wild caught, (or only a few generations from being wild caught) make sure the pH is below 7.0 and the GH is below 100ppm and preferably below 50ppm.

 

[anewbie]

Are they wild caught or are they captive bred? I thought they were captive bred.

If they are wild caught, (or only a few generations from being wild caught) make sure the pH is below 7.0 and the GH is below 100ppm and preferably below 50ppm.

Mine are wild caught the person with eating issues are likely tank raised; my aquarium has an ec of around 40 and ph around 5.5

 

[Mazain]

Thanks guys for the indepth information on the thread.
I got some good news for all Discus keepers. If your looking for genetically high grade Discus from the batches you bring home, groom them in planted tank setups with suitable water conditions, varied diets and good health and you would get pairouts at a very young age.
The ones I got are 1.5 to 2 inches and the dominant male chases off all the other discus except one. So I'll have to see how the pair goes and find if the eggs would stick together like matured discus pairs (captive 12 to 18, wild 24 months) or if the juvis would have nonadesive eggs scattered around till insemination.

 

[anewbie]

Updated picture of my discus this morning - the time lapse between the two pictures is approx one month; you can see the crispus has nearly double in height. The picture is taking from the end with the wall on the opposite end since the front is too reflective and it will remain too reflective until either i get a polarizer or winter.

I'm really happy with how the plants are doing across the aquarium; i did have a concern since some folks complain about heat being an issue and did select plants that were prone to doing well in warm waters but they do seem to be doing better than the ones i have in cooler aquariums - stuff like amazon sword and so forth.

 

[Mazain]

Updated picture of my discus this morning - the time lapse between the two pictures is approx one month; you can see the crispus has nearly double in height. The picture is taking from the end with the wall on the opposite end since the front is too reflective and it will remain too reflective until either i get a polarizer or winter.

View attachment 339944

I'm really happy with how the plants are doing across the aquarium; i did have a concern since some folks complain about heat being an issue and did select plants that were prone to doing well in warm waters but they do seem to be doing better than the ones i have in cooler aquariums - stuff like amazon sword and so forth.

The tank looks a natural eco-system with soft and hard scapes. Have you gota breeding pair out from this batch. That's tells alot about the checklist we follow on keeping Discus schooling tanks. However, if they haven't may be cos in the wild they take more than 24 months or more. So your setup looks great.

 

[anewbie]

The tank looks a natural eco-system with soft and hard scapes. Have you gota breeding pair out from this batch. That's tells alot about the checklist we follow on keeping Discus schooling tanks. However, if they haven't may be cos in the wild they take more than 24 months or more. So your setup looks great.

I've not yet noticed any specific breeding behavior but i believe wc have distinct breeding seasons they tend to follow; also i'm unsure of their actual age though they are around 5 inch i'm unsure at what point wc discus entice breeding. Last but least i'm unsure if they are actually mix sexes. After all while perhaps unlikely they could all be males or females.

 

[Colin_T]

If you have a group of 8 or more cichlids bought at the same time, there's a very good chance you have both sexes.

All discus can breed when 4 inches in diameter.

Discus born one year will breed the following year, when they are roughly 12 months old..

 

[Mazain]

Is Discus Eggs safe when layed on BogWood with Red Algae (Black Hair Algae) growing on it.

 

[Colin_T]

Is Discus Eggs safe when layed on BogWood with Red Algae (Black Hair Algae) growing on it.

The fish will lay their eggs where they think it's safe and driftwood is normally fine. If there's algae in the way, the parents normally remove it before laying eggs.

 

[Mazain]

The fish will lay their eggs where they think it's safe and driftwood is normally fine. If there's algae in the way, the parents normally remove it before laying eggs.

Thanks colin_T, I thought it had to be a clean surface.