It's generally known and acceptedthat many new hobbyists, if not most, and even some with previous experience, launch themselves into fish-keepingwithout doing much research on the type of fish they want to keep, nor thebasics of proper aquarium maintenance, and do not overly concern themselvesmuch with the size, age, and health of the fish they are buying, nor the sourcewhere they are getting them.
Over the years this has led to manyserious disappointments, or outright failures.
Many unknowingly buy small, young fishfrom big box pet stores, or mom & pop LFS's, whose staff honestly do nothave the experience they should have to properly advise their customers, and whose tank conditions and maintenancepractices are far from ideal.
The result is often bringing homeunhealthy fish to quickly lose them, oreventually losing healthy fish to poor aquarium maintenance & cleansingpractices.
Sad, but true. However, the bottomline is that most tropical fish, especially the young ones (whose immunesystems are not yet well-developed) which are usually sold at LFS's or thelarge pet chains, are relatively inexpensive - and quite frankly, who cares ifa few or a lot of them don't survive long - you can just go out & buy somemore ! And that's just what a heck of a lot of hobbyists do on a regular basis.
So, how does that tie into keepingdiscus successfully. Well, the greatest factor in discus-keeping of course isthe cost, which on average, as many of you know, is 10 + times higher than thatof many other fish species.
That's a huge deterrent to gettinginto discus because of our mindset on what is usually experienced, particularlyby the newcomer hobbyist, and leads many to conclude that discus are delicate,not hardy, and difficult to keep - so the caution is: just stay away from spending that kind of$$$.
The very young fish of most, if notall, fish species are in fact generally more prone to developing fatal healthissues than older, more mature specimens. Same holds true for discus.
Even older, larger, more maturehealthy fish of all species will succumbto health issues and perish if kept for any length of time under poor tankconditions and poor water quality. Same holds true for discus, except thatdiscus have a lower tolerance for poor water & conditions than most otherfish species, which can at times tolerate far less than ideal conditions &still survive. Not so for discus, which need plenty of fresh, clean water tothrive, along with squeaky clean tank conditions.
So what are we to learn from all ofthis which will avoid, or significantly reduce, the risks of keeping discus,and save hobbyists lot of $$$ in the long run ?
It is simply this:
If thinking about getting into discusand doing it properly, one's mindset must be altered somewhat.
- First, one must accept that it'sparamount to do a lot of advance research before delving into discus.
- One must also accept that discusneed to be treated a little differently - in that the usual once or twicemonthly water change that we did with that tank of guppies we had before, just won't work with discus. One needs to adopt a non-wavering regime oflarge, frequent water changes, and good tank & filter cleansing approach.
- It also means not buying discusfrom sources which are not experienced at keeping discus properly (most LFS'sfall into that category, sadly.) Nor should one be tempted to buy small,immature fish which are readily prone to health issues, in order to lessen theoverall cost - that's false economy. Stock of reasonable size and age shouldonly be bought from known experienced breeders, or reputable, experiencedsuppliers of healthy fish of high quality.
That's the basic low-down on beingsuccessful keeping discus.
Hope this has helped to open up someminds, at least a bit.
