Why Hobbiest find Discus fish Demanding!

[Fishfunn]

5 months old discus eating floating food.

Hello, what food are they eating?

 

[Mazain]

Hello, what food are they eating?

I feed them Hikari Discus Bio gold and a homemade discus mix.

 

[Mazain]

From the Discus fish I'm caring for over the past 5 months they have established a pecking order in the aquarium. In a community tank with Discus, feeding fish with floating pellets or sinking pellets has a growth inhibiting or exhibiting culture. The Discus i got shows resptiveness for food based on activity happening in the tank (other fish feeding frenzy on pellet foods). The dominant alphas usually do not feed on the Discus food at this time and the less dominant ones seems to be opportunist at this time. Funny thing even "Discus got pride" and they tag along with the less dominant feeding frenzy. I guess the reason it's hard for discus to change their food once grown big is due to the dominant starins calling the shot.

 

[Mazain]

This would certainly indicate why discus fed beef-heart grow larger and faster but i'd like to know the actual impact on longevity and overall health.

They grow fast since most barebottom tanks Discus burn less energy.

 

[Fishfunn]

They grow fast since most barebottom tanks Discus burn less energy.

When I fed beefheart and diligently kept their tank water pristine wirh daily water changes, my discus grew super fast and big. I saw discus fed with a homemade beefheart mixture to grow the size of dinner plates.

 

[Mazain]

Discus headaches and hyper realistic tanks go hand in hand for artist that are talented and blessed. Over the past year my tank has transformed from nano-stomus fish to hemi-stomus and drawn me to the king of the aquarium (please don't eat my fish).
The tank has got cultured to a diversified dansion barb pair along with some Rainbows and lemons. Lost a few tetra types and didn't want to fill the schools since they just weren't making it in my tank. A friend said they aren't "insync" and it stayed.
Now that the discus are doing fine and healthy I'm planning on getting another discus school to while away more time and to stare at it.
So I really don't know which strains would insync with my Mellons and give me a return for my money spent.
The plan for now is turquoise, snakeskin or heckles and see where it gets me for the next 6 months.

 

[anewbie]

Discus headaches and hyper realistic tanks go hand in hand for artist that are talented and blessed. Over the past year my tank has transformed from nano-stomus fish to hemi-stomus and drawn me to the king of the aquarium (please don't eat my fish).
The tank has got cultured to a diversified dansion barb pair along with some Rainbows and lemons. Lost a few tetra types and didn't want to fill the schools since they just weren't making it in my tank. A friend said they aren't "insync" and it stayed.
Now that the discus are doing fine and healthy I'm planning on getting another discus school to while away more time and to stare at it.
So I really don't know which strains would insync with my Mellons and give me a return for my money spent.
The plan for now is turquoise, snakeskin or heckles and see where it gets me for the next 6 months.

Are you keeping all these schoolers (barbs, rainbows and lemon (tetra?) at 84-86 degree ?

 

[Mazain]

Are you keeping all these schoolers (barbs, rainbows and lemon (tetra?) at 84-86 degree ?

My Discus are doing quite well at 26°C to 31°C. I dewormed all schoolers a week back with metronidazole. Since I got live plants the temp is at room temperature.

 

[Fishfunn]

My Discus are doing quite well at 26°C to 31°C. I dewormed all schoolers a week back with metronidazole. Since I got live plants the temp is at room temperature.

I have read that unless you have wild discus, keeping them at room temperature like other tropical fish is okay. Modern-day discus are raised in lower temperatures and harder water than wild discus, so they do well.

 

[Mazain]

Modern-day discus are raised in lower temperatures and harder water than wild discus, so they do well.

I agree Fishburn, Thanks to the Internet discus keepers are more knowledgeable. If I get my hands on wild discus I still think they would do just fine in my setup.

 

[Colin_T]

My Discus are doing quite well at 26°C to 31°C. I dewormed all schoolers a week back with metronidazole. Since I got live plants the temp is at room temperature.

Metronidazole does not treat worms in fish. It's an antibiotic that kills internal protozoan infections and Hexamita in fish.

Levamisole treats round/ threads worms in fish.
Praziquantel treats tape/ flat worms in fish.
Flubendazole treats both round and flat worms in fish.

 

[anewbie]

I have read that unless you have wild discus, keeping them at room temperature like other tropical fish is okay. Modern-day discus are raised in lower temperatures and harder water than wild discus, so they do well.

That must be my problem; mine are wild caught and tried lowering the temp slowly but when it goes below 82 or 81 they get really pissed off and upset. So i keep it between 82 and 84.

 

[Mazain]

That must be my problem; mine are wild caught and tried lowering the temp slowly but when it goes below 82 or 81 they get really pissed off and upset. So i keep it between 82 and 84.

Since you keep them with plants how often do you clean the substrate and change the water.

 

[anewbie]

Since you keep them with plants how often do you clean the substrate and change the water.

I answered this already in the thread - i have a drip system of 2 gph (probably a little less); and i do a few out of band 40 gallon water changes (40 gallon since that is the size of the rubber maid pail i use - well probably closer to 37 or 38). As for the substrate not much seem to get into it - but the other thing is i don't feed them very dirty beef heart or similar - they do get a bit of freeze dried blood worms and a lot of veggie based food. One of the issue a lot of discus keeper have is they feed a ton of very fatty meat food at warm temps (i realize your tank is a bit cooler) and that stuff really pollute the water. Anyway i poked a bit in the substrate when i do water changes and I don't see any real problem. Conversely i've only had them for about 6 months maybe i'll sing a different story in 2 years.

 

[Mazain]

New discus acclimated to established fishtank.