Discuss Discus

[gliebig]

I spent the day tearing down my office 125gal reef tank. Right now, I'm leaning towards making it a discus tank.

I used to have a few way back in the day in my old 55, but don't remember much about their needs. Any helpful hints you guys could give me regarding water parameters, food, temp, ph, aquascape, etc...anything I should know before starting.

How many should I keep in a 125gal? I was thinking discus and some tetras.

 

[gliebig]

If I put this in the wrong forum, could you please move to the correct one?

Thanks,
Greg

 

[chris_todd]

Dang, hit save too early.

Sounds like fun, I'm jealous! I'm no Discus expert, but below is what I've learned.

If you get Discus from Hans (and why wouldn't you?), he raises them in Baltimore city tap water. So no special needs there.

82* F seems to be the optimal temp, so you need to pick tank mates that can handle that.

You can feed lots of different things, from blood worms to beefheart to flake to cichlid pellets (or at least, I have), but you should feed small quantities and more frequently than other tanks, because Discus have small bellies. Tank mate choice can be important there, too; don't pick fish that will out compete the Discus.

Frequent large water changes are also common. I wouldn't do less than 50% weekly, and 75% twice weekly shouldn't get too much argument from other Discus keepers.

I've always kept my Discus in planted tanks, but that's because I like planted tanks. Bare bottomed tanks can be good so you can easily remove uneaten food and other detritus.

Those are the basics of what I've learned, for what that's worth. As always, YMMV.

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[gliebig]

I should've done discus in my 240 and mbuna in the 125, oh well. Maybe I can talk my way into a bigger tank at the office. :-D

 

[chris_todd]

Yeah, that 240 would be an awesome Discus tank!

You asked about how many. General recommendations are for at least 10 gallons per Discus, so no more than 12 in a 125 with other fish is probably your max. Still, a group of 10 with about 50 cardinals and a dozen cories would be a very nice tank.


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[gliebig]

Ok, I didn't think I could have that many. I would probably do less than 10. I was thinking 6 or so. I'll see how it goes. I still have a lot of coraline and salty mess to clean up. Ugghh, what a pain.

 

[YSS]

A good source for discus is simplydiscus.com. I recommend reading some before deciding on how to move forward. Yes, that 240G would have been a great tank for discus, but it is a great tank for most any fish.

One thing I recommend is get full grown adult fish. Bigger fish cost a lot more, but a lot easier to maintain. Good luck!

 

[gliebig]

A good source for discus is simplydiscus.com. I recommend reading some before deciding on how to move forward. Yes, that 240G would have been a great tank for discus, but it is a great tank for most any fish.

One thing I recommend is get full grown adult fish. Bigger fish cost a lot more, but a lot easier to maintain. Good luck!

I'll check out that site. It'll give me something to do at work today. :lol:

 

[gliebig]

I want to have a few plants in there to give the tank some color. I was just going to reuse my 150watt halides, but from what i am reading, that is too much light. I don't mind changing, but I love the shimmer effect. What else could I use that would give me the shimmer? LED'S?, the curly CFL bulbs?

 

[mdlnewman]

I want to have a few plants in there to give the tank some color. I was just going to reuse my 150watt halides, but from what i am reading, that is too much light. I don't mind changing, but I love the shimmer effect. What else could I use that would give me the shimmer? LED'S?, the curly CFL bulbs?

LED will shimmer no on the cfls for shimmer

 

[mdlnewman]

I have 5 Discus in a 65 currently. It is planted and their tank mates are a swarm of neon/cardinals, 8 sterbai, 2 ABN and one L333
Need to find me some new apistos to put in with
I use straight up Glen Burnie tap a cap of prime, 50% weekly, feeding twice daily.

 

[Tony]

+1 on getting discus from Hans.

Having just started keeping some myself lately, I can tell you that it's easier than I thought it would be. Give them clean and warm water, along with quality food and they'll thrive.

 

[gliebig]

I ordered some manzanita driftwood for the tank and finished all the plumbing this weekend. Nobody carries pot scrubbies anymore. I tried EVERYWHERE. I then called around to the local LFS's for bioballs and they were all sold out. Arrrgh. So I drove up to That Pet Place yesterday and picked up some bioballs.

I would like to add a couple plants, nothing crazy, but I've been struggling with my lighting choice. I want to keep the shimmer of halides so I thought LED's or lower wattage halides. I got in 2 36" Marineland double bright fixtures the other day. I just don't think they are going to cut it over a 125gal. It's only a total of 32watts. (The blues are useless). So I also ordered 3x70watt 8k halides. That's less than 2watt/gallon, but is that too strong of light?

 

[gliebig]

+1 on getting discus from Hans.

Having just started keeping some myself lately, I can tell you that it's easier than I thought it would be. Give them clean and warm water, along with quality food and they'll thrive.

Tony,
Do you age your water b4 changing it? Seems like that's what people recommend on the discus forums. With my malawi tank, I just drain 1/2 out and pump back in and throw in some Prime while it's filling up. I put a thermometer by the python so I match the temp pretty close. Will that method work with Discus or should I fill up a container the day b4?

 

[YSS]

Tony,
Do you age your water b4 changing it? Seems like that's what people recommend on the discus forums. With my malawi tank, I just drain 1/2 out and pump back in and throw in some Prime while it's filling up. I put a thermometer by the python so I match the temp pretty close. Will that method work with Discus or should I fill up a container the day b4?

Aging is highly recommended and you should if you can. But I can't and I do what you do. It's worked for me.

 

[Tony]

I do water straight out of the Python, then add Safe/Prime. I change out about 75% once a week. Everyone seems to be doing just fine.

 

[mdlnewman]

Yup straight from the tap here also and the fishies are all happy.

 

[mdlnewman]

If you read alot the most common trend would be clean water not perfect water.

 

[gliebig]

Discus really have that clean of water in the wild? I always figured mostly all rivers and lakes are polluted as hell. Maybe that's just my view from living around the Ches Bay all my life.

 

[DiscusnAfricans]

Discus really have that clean of water in the wild? I always figured mostly all rivers and lakes are polluted as hell. Maybe that's just my view from living around the Ches Bay all my life.

The Amazon has an average discharge rate of 209,000 cubic meters of water per second. Thats a lot of water turnover. Having a forest growing out of it keeps any nitrates/ammonia in check. Clean water is much more vital for wild caught fish, as tank-raised fish are acclimated to aquarium living.