Are discus more difficult to raise ?

[Sportsnutim]

I have kept and bred a ton of varieties of fish over the years and in my opinion, discus are just not a fish for the beginning aquarist. It is far easier to learn on a tank full of guppies than a tank full of expensive discus. Get the basics of keeping a tank and keeping fish down before jumping into the discus.

To be successful with discus you need to educate yourself on their requirements and provide them with what they need to thrive and be healthy. That is no different than for any other fish. If you go in to keeping discus thinking you can do it your way and not the way that's good for them, you will not be successful. For instance thinking you don't have to keep the tank temperature above 78. That is no different than for any other fish. Start with healthy, disease-free stock and you're already on your way to success. That is no different than for any other fish. Feed your young, growing babies and juvenile discus an excellent fortified diet and feed them more often while they are rapidly growing to ensure strong, healthy fish. That is no different than for any other fish. When you feed the growing discus more frequently, it will result in more chance of leftover food in the tank and the discus will produce more waste themselves, resulting in the need for frequent water changes. That is no different than for any other fish. With frequent feedings of young growing discus, maintenance is easier acomplished and more thorough in a bare-bottom tank. That is no different than for any other fish.

So this is just a brief example of comparison of discus keeping to other fishkeeping, including angels. Quite a lot of "That is no different than for any other fish." Break some of these basic fishkeeping requirements and you've broken your own success link. And these are basic requirements for many, many types of fish.

Can't agree more, I started out with smaller fish for 6 months between this site and the helpful people, books, breeders I have learned a lot about raising Discus. It's been up and down I am learning all the time: I love Discus. I purchased quite a few books on discus, that has helped.

 

[pitchblack101]

was wondering what you guys' think is the minimum tank requirement for a pair of discus'?

 

[Star_Rider]

a pair as in mated pair?

that is the only way I would ever suggest keeping a pair.

the tank should be no less than a 29. I prefer 29 over 30 as it is taller.

 

[clayt101]

On a discus forum, I posted the question: "Why in my large tank do some discus grow, while others don't?"

No one could give me a definite answer.

I have a 225 gallon tank with 20 discus or so. Some discus from the same batch will grow others will not. For example, I have 2 blue diamonds, one is 5+ inches the other stayed around 3.5 inches and is stunted. The same thing happened with 2 wilds...one grew well, one did not.

Now I will admit that my maintenance is probably not perfect. I change 180 gallons once a week, but I think that should be sufficient. I think my problem is that some discus learn to compete for the food while others do not. Some of my discus are ravenous, while others have trouble eating. Some just have trouble grabbing the food when it is right in front of them.

I also keep some angels in the tank. They have absolutely no trouble eating food when it is right in front of them. I think that competitively eating is a learned behavior....that is why I am going to train my new batch. I did this in the past one time with great success.

 

[Star_Rider]

In another thread
http://www.aquariacentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=205173

well i am interested in the results.

Personally, I think genetics has much to do about the growth of fish.

it can control physical as well as behavior, tho the argument can be made that behavior is learned.

but some are more aggressive than others.

that said, I hear hormones in the water. which could have an impact but what makes some fish in the same genetic line resistant to the 'Impact' these said hormones have?

then I know folks who raise Discus..and I mean a lot of discus.
daily water changes, many meals in a day. the end result is not all the fish will achieve the desired goal. a small percentage will be huge beautiful fish while another % will be small with less color. and the vast majority Average(albeit for the genetic pool they came from).

 

[clayt101]

Personally, I think genetics has much to do about the growth of fish.

Generally, I believe genetics control everything, but then environmental factors set in. For example, if a dog has a bunch of puppies, they should all grow up to be roughly the same size (assuming that one parent is not much smaller than the other, which could lead to some growing large, some growing small, and excluding the runt). This also assumes that they are well fed. Now if you starve some of them, I think that they might stay smaller. Just my own theory.

 

[Star_Rider]

Generally, I believe genetics control everything, but then environmental factors set in. For example, if a dog has a bunch of puppies, they should all grow up to be roughly the same size (assuming that one parent is not much smaller than the other, which could lead to some growing large, some growing small, and excluding the runt). This also assumes that they are well fed. Now if you starve some of them, I think that they might stay smaller. Just my own theory.

in part.. environment does play an important role. however, you would need to know the full genetic background of the animals.. it is possible somewhere in the line there could be something in the genetic line that may be a direct result of the animal being smaller.

it goes ore to the parents of the parent of the parents (if you get the drift)

 

[theredchaser]

I think angelfish are easier than discus having tried them both. The big difference in my opinion is when something goes wrong. Angelfish are much more lenient during stressful times, but discus usually compound the problem by going on a hunger strike. :frog: Angelfish are also much more tolerant in terms of water quality. If preventative measures are taken and everything is smooth sailing, then it is the same, but unfortunately things happen.

Its also much more obvious when a discus is stunted rather than an angelfish (at least I think so). A lot of discus enthusiasts are also perfectionists... which is probably why even slight stunting is unacceptable. This kind of stigma probably adds on to the notion that discus are hard to raise.

From my experience, shape is more due to environment, while size is more due to genetics. If you compare some of the older strains of discus, some may have perfectly round shapes but are not the jumbos you see today. New stronger strains have the capacity to become even bigger, but the limitation is usually on the owner's side of the equation, not the genetics. To put things into perspective, a 50% daily wc for juveniles will still stunt discus. Most of us can't do 100% water changes with 6-10 feedings a day and still keep a job. :bowing:

 

[rob blanks]

I find discus easy to keep, if you get them as adults. If you aren't trying to breed them, adults will tolerate a wide range of parameters and temps from 78+.
But buying adult discus is a pricey proposition.

I find discus are much harder to grow out from 2" to the 5-6" range, in my experience, and you really do need the patience to do lots of massive water changes and keep an eye on temps and invest in a really solid heater that'll keep your temps over 84.

 

[discuspaul]

To GER1023
My experience is that discus fish are not really all that hard to keep - what many find "hard" is the commitment needed to produce & maintain the water quality that discus demand.
Most discus supplier/sources deal only in farm-bred/raised fish (as opposed to wild-caught), and these can generally tolerate PH of 6.8 to 7.5 without any trouble, so long as the PH is maintained consistent/steady. (What is your alkalinity level ?)
As important, if not more so in my opinion, is TEMP - 84 to 88 F as a general rule, and frequent W/C's, ideally more frequent than weekly.
I keep juvie discus in a planted show/growout tank @ 86 F; PH 7.0; 50% W/C's every second day; religious cleansing of tank, substrate, filter media - (rotated), usually weekly. My parameters are always: ammonia/nitrite - 0; nitrate < 5, and the fish eat like pigs & grow like weeds. Was growing out 12 fish - just recently had to downsize to 6.