Fell in love with a discus. Now What!

First off, don't adjust the pH. Discus like low pH, and a stable pH is always better than unstable. Swings in pH are more likely to kill fish than just low/high pH.

Do you have a nitrate test kit? Discus require very clean water (I'd change 20% at least twice a week) and nitrates are a good indicator of water quality.

I know discus are very warm water fish, so I think raising the temp (gradually) may be in order.

Try feeding them cichlid or discus pellets. They'll really appreciate live/frozen foods. Do a search of this forum for discus foods, I know its been discussed at length in at least one thread.

Do some research as to discus requirements, I'm certainly no expert on discus (I don't even keep them) and can only provide this small amount of info.

Discus

My discus loved live black worms. There easy to keep and they have little "worm keepers" that you can get for them.
Discus are also pretty shy fish, they ike to be in tanks with more than one and they also require a bunch of "dither fish". These are usually a small school (dependgin on your tank size) of tetras such as neons. These act as there warning systems and they are more at ease when these fish are in the tank with them.
DONT touch the PH! Discus love low ph. I always ran Reverse Osmosis water in my Discus tanks and had great success with that.
My tanks were also ususally heavily planted with various live plants. This also seemed to calm the fish. The good thing with discus is that they dont mess with the plants as some cichlids and other species will. Take advantage of this!!
I wouold also ask the store what they were on there, and make sure that they were eating befor you purchase them from now on. Sometimes they can be quite picky.
Hope this helps some!
Lexi

A pH of 6.0 for a discus tank is fine, as long as it is not the result of a lack of maintenance and resulting bio-acidification. What is the pH, GH, and KH of the water coming out of your tap after it has "rested" for a day?

Discus absolutely require the cleanest water and living conditions, as well as a temperature of at least 82F. If you do not give this to them, they will develop internal bacterial infections (which will appear initially as a darkening in color and lack of appetite) and die in fairly short order.

Your tank will require 50% water changes at least once a week. Twice would be better. The gravel will also need to be vacuumed frequently. Just to put this in perspective, people who breed discus commercially and raise the fry for sale change as much as 100% of the water per day (obviously it is pre-treated and heated in a custom-built system, but that shows you how seriously they take this). They also keep their discus in tanks with no decorations or gravel at all, so that they can make sure that no left over food or detritus pollute the water.

Good luck.

There's an article on discus in the articles forum--http://www.aquariacentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=34724 that has lots of info--sort of the culmination of the discus keepers here.

You can't tell me that the only thing that you found out in your research is that they like to school. You are not going to want to hear this but TAKE IT BACK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Discus are the worst fish to buy when you don't know what you are doing and you don't know what your doing. You won't be able to learn quick enough to keep it alive either. First Discus need warmer temps than most fish like (82 to 85), second most serious Discus keepers do water changes EVERY DAY!!! Their tolerances for bad water conditions are significantly lower than most other fish. They can also be incredibly finicky eaters to the point that they will starve to death. Lastly you have terrible tank mates for your Discus. Blue Botias are very aggressive and your Black Tetra's could very well nip its fins. These guys need very peaceful tankmates. Its not easy to make these guys feel secure but if they don't they will always hide and usually won't eat. Your tank is too small for a group of Discus as well. Do your homework next time.

Calm down Karnaaj, it sounds like he/she is doing a pretty good job taking care of that fish. One thing I would make sure to do is test your ph in the day and once at night to see if you are getting any ph swings. Second take out all of the faster moving larger schooling fish as this really can upset them (barbs, I hate those bas^ards). And raise your temperature a bit, and last go to this forum you will learn ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW.

http://www.simplydiscus.com/forum/index.php?

Not to start a huge flame war or anything, but when people start talking about fish that they read on the internet; and have absoultey no first hand about the fish. Then start flaming people because they made a mistake that is a real PITA!

Karnaaj said:

You can't tell me that the only thing that you found out in your research is that they like to school. You are not going to want to hear this but TAKE IT BACK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Discus are the worst fish to buy when you don't know what you are doing and you don't know what your doing. You won't be able to learn quick enough to keep it alive either. First Discus need warmer temps than most fish like (82 to 85), second most serious Discus keepers do water changes EVERY DAY!!! Their tolerances for bad water conditions are significantly lower than most other fish. They can also be incredibly finicky eaters to the point that they will starve to death. Lastly you have terrible tank mates for your Discus. Blue Botias are very aggressive and your Black Tetra's could very well nip its fins. These guys need very peaceful tankmates. Its not easy to make these guys feel secure but if they don't they will always hide and usually won't eat. Your tank is too small for a group of Discus as well. Do your homework next time.

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Just calm down and a take a deep breath Karnaaj

For a group of discus of (which joscadi will DEFINETLEY need), a 60 gallon is awesome, and I would get the discus some more discus companions ASAP, as discus DO NOT like being alone.

These so called "serious discus keepers" that are changing the water every day, why? are they breeding them?, do they have wild caught ones?

Once a week water changes are fine unless it concerns those two reasons above ^!

Do you have wild caught discus joscadi?

Either way though, a temperature of AT LEAST 82F is still a must for discus.

Oh and you don't need to increase the ph of your water because discus actually prefer soft, acidic water anyway, so you are absolutley fine at 6.0!, and with any thing, keep it constant!

I will agree with you though Karnaaj about the blue botias as they are aggressive.

I really dislike how alot of people give so much bad press about discus being impossible to keep as it is not true!

I mean, sure they may need a little more TLC than your average danio or guppy, but they aren't "impossible" to keep.

The number one issue with discus is water quality, but when you have tank raised ones sure it's still very important, but not as much as if you are keeping wilds or even breeding discus.

No Worries

Dont worry joscadi. They are hard fish to keep but not impossible. I was breeding thse fish at 14 years old. Your fish is not "automatically doomed" as others may have you believe. While it is important to know the fish before you have them, at least you seeked help. The fish owners that I have a problem with are the ones that just let there animals wither away because of there lack of effort to learn. 60 gallons is NOT to small for discus. While you wouldnt want to have a BUNCH of them you can easily house a few with your dither fish.
Calm down after reading that hot tempered post from another member, and plan out whats best for your fish. Were all here in this group to help. You need to decide what you want. Are you in love with the discus? If so then you need to get rid of the frantic fish and the fin nippers. In my communtiy discus tanks, I ran with discus, neons, and either synadontis or cory cats for bottom clean up. Fast moving fish will stress discus out. Also, keep a close eye on your water, low ph, and NO ammonia etc. They need good water quality. As for water changes.. Once a day is for the 100% anal fish keepers or the breeders in their baby tanks. water changes that frequently can be stressful to fish especially to delicate fish such as discus. I always change 20-30% weekly. Also, raise the temp, but SLOWLY. The one discus you have is accustome to the lower temp and you dont want to shock him by suddenly having your heater spike way up. Aso I would invest in some plants. The cover will help the fish feel more secure in the tank, and thus, help with stress.
If you have any questions, feel free to ask. Even the most knowlegable of fishkeepers at one time didnt know ANYTHING.. Noone is perfect.

Lexi

I stand behind what I said. The fish should go back to the store. You yourself said that the fish joscadi has are incompatible with her Discus and needs to be gotten rid of. You make it sound like Discus are just as easy to keep as any other fish, instead of being one of the most difficult. To repeat what I said earlier you can't make a worse impulse purchase than to get a Discus when you know absolutely nothing about them.