My girlfriend got me an early x-mas present...

[gatotsu77]

Aim at a minimum of 100% water turnaround weekly. More w/c will only help. He does look a little skinny so feed a lot and clean the gravel a lot. Do not worry about the pH and temps more than keeping them consistent. Discus do not like change even current differences will aggravate my fish.

I sternly believe you can keep Discus alone or with other fish; they are kinda boring to watch alone. They will always do better in schools of 6+. You must be careful of disease. Yogias recommends deworming once a month. I do not do this unless my fish begin to look emaciated. All new Discus should be dewormed and watched for illness. Angels are ok with Discus but you must deworm those fish as they do not get affected as bad as Discus and you may not even know they have them.

Currently my show tank has 6 Discus (4 Leopard Snakeskins and 2 reds) 6 corys and 1 bulldog pleco.


OH YEAH! BUY YOUR FISH FROM A BREEDER!!!

What size is your show tank? I was aiming for a MINIMUM of 100% turnover weekly, prefferably 150%. I wish I knew where a discus breeder around here is... this is the only guy I have ever seen with discus, but his fish usually look quite nice. I'm not certain as to whether I'll go with 3 or 4... but I'm slightly inclined to lean towards 3. (hoping there will be no serious aggression... gonna keep cardinals and harlequins and hoping they will help dither)

 

[RedScare]

My tank is a 55 gallon. I have about 70 plants in there. I want to post pics but I'm currently fighting off some hair algae. My tap phosphates are HIGH.

That water change schedule should bring healthy fish but not MONSTERS. One breeder/Discus competitor here does 100% daily! HAHAAa, I'm not gonna do that, but HOT **** you should see his fish; like 10" around. Make mine look like crap and I make LFS look like crap ahha.

Where are you located and ill check the Discus servers/forums for breeders around you.

Well this is my OPINION. If I were you I would buy like 8 2" and cull off the 3 or 4 weakest in about 6 months. A breeder will usually sell their fish for about 10$ an inch. Typically breeders put LFS to shame with Discus.

 

[gatotsu77]

I live in California, in the Irvine/Orange/Anaheim area. Haha... I don't know that I'd have the time or patience for 100% daily, but I can only imagine how the fish must look. I'm interested by your idea... if I can find a breeder, perhaps that's what I'll do. If not, I am likely going to go back and get 2 more of the approx 3" (not including tail) discus that my lfs has. One closely resembles this fish http://www.chensdiscus.co.uk/wp-content/221224.jpg and the other is similar in color to the body of this one http://www.chensdiscus.co.uk/wp-content/Picture0871.jpg but has a slight marbled look. (like full orange body/head with darker red pattern) I'm going to be trading in most of my community fish, and hopefully keeping cory's, harlequin's, cardinals, and possibly even amano/cherry shrimp in this tank. Is 4 going to be a lot more work than 3? Would it be safer for aggression issues?

 

[gatotsu77]

I have some good news. My new discus just ate his first meal in his new home. I defrosted a cube of hikari frozen bloodworms, and he ate pretty close to half of it by himself.

 

[RedScare]

http://www.universaldiscus.com/univ2.htm
http://www.sunrisetropicals.com/index.html

Dang most of the Discus breeders are in San francisco.

I go to Chicago for mine. Unless 1 guy here has them.

 

[gatotsu77]

http://www.universaldiscus.com/univ2.htm
http://www.sunrisetropicals.com/index.html

Dang most of the Discus breeders are in San francisco.

I go to Chicago for mine. Unless 1 guy here has them.

Sadly, San Fransisco is about an 8 hour drive from here... not one I'd want to make to acquire discus. :-| I suppose I'll have to take my chances with the lfs... he's promised me he'll help reimburse me if something goes wrong with them.

 

[gatotsu77]

Well, I'm sad to announce that I took my clown loaches, black skirt tetras, and scissortail rasboras to the lfs and traded them in. I am, however, proud to announce that I am now the owner of 3 discus. Currently they're in my 55g with the discus my gf bought me yesterday, a bamboo shrimp, single swordtail, single killifish, 2 SAE's, and 5 cory's. I'm debating taking the SAE's out of the tank now too... and perhaps getting a few amano shrimp in their place. What do you guys think?

 

[gatotsu77]

Quick question: Are snails a bad thing to have in a discus tank? The plant I bought has what looks like 3-4 baby and a 1/2" ramshorn snail on it. I have not introduced it into the water yet.

 

[RedScare]

OK for a while I thought the pleco/otto/sae thing about eating the slime of Discus was CRAP but I was wrong. I had 5 Ottos and I noticed that they would take an interest in my Discus so I got rid of them. I now have a bulldog/rubberlip pleco in their place and it is a much better choice, not even nearing my Discus.

My Discus would eat Amano Shrimp if I put them in my tank.

 

[Tall Doll]

Merry Christmas!!!

Hope you enjoy your Discus Hunny! Sorry for getting you a gift that inspired you to get rid of some of your favorite fish to switch over to discus. But they are beautiful!!! I hope you enjoy the one I got you!!!!

xoxox
:dance2: