Maintaining stable pH and water parameters during water changes

Simplydiscus is an AWESOME website and the members are very helpful. I read on that site until my eyes bled (well not really but I read all I could). If you follow their advice you will not go wrong. 5 in a 55 is pretty tight - 6 in a 75 just about right. My largest bull was as big as a small dinner plate - beautiful fish. I regret selling them all sometimes - but I have 26 aquariums now w/hundreds of angels and I just added some trios of guppies and 2 pairs of german blue rams. Oh - almost forgot the albino bristlenose pair/babies all over the place. If I ever go back to an aquarium just for fun - discus will be in it. Too much work w/all the other tanks I have.

READ, READ, READ and then READ some more before you get them and you will do fine.
 
After reading up on the SimplyDiscus site I'm feeling a bit uncomfortable about keeping Discus.

Are the rules laid down a guideline or an absolute? Do I have to keep juveniles in a bare bottom tank and do partial water changes daily? The upkeep seems to outweigh the rewards!

I'd be happy to do water changes weekly and would like to keep them in an uncrowded community tank but bare bottom is too much!
 
Discus are best kept with other Discus.Younger ones under 4 inches can easily get sick in communities.Partial daily water changes and plenty of small feedings in a bare bottom they will grow 1 inch every month or two.
 
So you're saying that a single Discus wouldn't be an option either and that I'd have to own my discuss for about a year before I could add it to a tank with a few tetras and sterbai corys. Hmm...

Well, it seems that I just need to save my money for a larger tank and use the 55 gallon for raising my discus to adult size. I do find it odd that discus would have problems in a well established and maintained tank, but what do I know?

When doing such frequent water changes does the tank even have a chance to cycle? No ammonia= no cycle. Not that it matters anyway. Ammonia free water is ammonia free water.

On a side note, will I have a hard time growing live plants in this tank with the frequent water changes and thus a lack of nitrates? You'd think algae would take over the tank.

Again, I'm up for a challenge but it feels like the rewards are slim compared to the difficulty.
 
Juveniles are a major time & effort commitment. Adults are less demanding but I think you're wise to think hard about trying them. I spend as much time on the discus tank as my other 7 tanks combined, almost anyway,lol.

Fish excrete ammonia through their gills all the time so biological filtering is needed unless you can do several 100% daily water changes like some asian breeders do. You can do fishless cycling, fish in cycling is hard on any fish but especially young discus. They need to eat a lot to grow well so they need more attention to cleanliness.
Substrate & plants can make it harder to clean. I had a thin layer of sand with my juvies that I removed after only a week or so. Bare is much easier. Plants can trap uneaten food & waste, I have 2 potted plants that I have to vacuum.

Algae can grow but since you'll need to wipe down the tank surfaces to remove the excess slime it's not a separate issue. (yep, another maintenance chore). I plan on low light slow growing plants for adults but I have another year to decide after my babies grow up. I've yet to try a high tech plant tank, 1 high maintenance tank is enough for now.
 
It depends really on how old and big your fish are when you get them. I knew I could not do daily water changes. So, I bought larger, older discus from a hobbyist in Boston who had already done most of the work!! They were not exactly what I would have picked if I could have everything I want...but what I could do and afford at the time. I do water changes every other day occassionally every 3 days. They are doing well and have grown for me. I don't plan to breed or show so I don't feel I need to have OPTIMUM growth. I really just wnat some pretty fish that are happy and healthy.
Once your fish are full grown or close once a week water changes if you have good filtration are fine. Lots of people do that. Lots of people also have Discus in a community tank...once they have reached adulthood or close.
Most people who have discus in a community tank have a planted tank. Because at that point the frequent water changes are no longer neccesary.

So,
buy the biggest fish you can afford. Check out the sponsors on the simplydiscus sponsors. Several of them have largefish at fairly affordable prices. Also people (hobbysists)regularly sell their stock for new stock. That is how I got mine.
If you need to grow them out...trust me bare bottom will be best. I resisted this and do have some driftwood and larger stones in my tank. It is really just a pain.
Research the tankmates you plan on having with them once they are big enough to place in a community setting. Not all can withstand the higher temps.

It is a lot of work right now. But, they are interesting and beautiful fish that I am personally in love with!!

I recommend doing a thread search on water changes on simplydiscus. You will see lots of people do different things.
 
BagelDog said:
Stephcps- I'm glad everyone made me aware of the aggressive nature of discus fish. I had no idea. I knew they were cichlids but I figured their temperment would be close to that of German Rams.
Click to expand...

I just wanted to say that this behavior is juvenile behavior. They act like little kids....I'm getting to the food first, you're not....get outta here and go hide in the corner or I'm gonna chase you again.......
Get the idea? Once they reach adulthood, they are very peaceful giants. You'll see a big change in their attitude before they are a year old. With the little ones it's pecking and chasing and big man in town pushing attitudes. They are not out to kill each other or harm any other fish in the tank. As adults you may see some chasing aggression begin in a community tank if spawning is imminent. It's harmless and meant to keep the others away from the spot the male and female have picked. And pretty much the females are the big stinkers at this time.

Don't let all the overwhelming opinions get you down. It is not just discus babies that require frequent feedings of premium foods which in turn necessitates a lot more tank maintenance and water changes. It's all baby fish, it's a commitment if you want to do it right and want the fish to be healthy and reach their full potential. Some fish reach adult size well before others. You never see comments about size differences in other fish like you do with the discus....it's much more noticeable in discus. But there's a lot of hobbyists out there just about starving their baby fish to adulthood. When I was raising CPD fry they were big enough to be shipped by 2 months of age, yet I read on another forum where someone thought they grew terribly slow and still hadn't reached adult size within 6 months.

Read and read and read as much as you can. If you go for the discus, it is much easier to keep sub-adults and adults over juvies. Mine are all adults now and I do one large 75-80% water change weekly. They are in a planted tank and are healthy and beautiful. There is a reward at the end of growing baby fish out! Especially discus. What you see as a juvenile is far from the glorious fish you'll see as an adult.
 
Thanks guys!

I think that may have been the pat on the back I needed to keep me headed toward a discus tank. I do have a 55 gallon bare bottom setup right now. Do you think I could cram in 5-6 juvenile discus in the bare bottom 55g or am I better off establishing the planted tank and putting only one adult discus or a mated pair of discus in there?

The tank cohabitants I had planned on are:
Geophagus Jurupari (2X)
Sterbai Corydoras (6 minimum)
A school of Tetras- Rummynose or other high temp approved fish (10-15X)
And possibly some German Rams (mated pair)

From what I've read, all of these fish seem to agree with the 84ish Fahrenheit temperature. And again, the Rams are kind of an after thought. If the tank looks well stocked I'll leave it just as it sits.
 
Discus are schooling fish - one would be a pretty lonely little fella. I would get 5 or 6 juvies and learn as you go. I am going to throw a bit of a curve ball here but I hate bare bottom tanks so I didn't have my discus in a BB tank. I put pool filter sand in all my tanks and I love it. I had 18 juvies in a 75 gallon (I only wanted 12 but the breeder just kept throwing them in the bags ;)). Several were runts and I lost some but I learned a lot. The info on simply discus is great but you have to decide what you want your tank to look like. I would wait on plants and tank mates until later - just focus on raising the discus and keeping them healthy. I like the pool filter sand because you can see the poo and stuff and just vacuum it off the bottom daily (when you are growing them out). On tank maintenance - I had bristlenose plecos and giant ramshorn snails in w/the discus so I didn't have to wipe the sides very often. I did daily w/c's, frozen BW, frozen BS, Omega One flake, 86 degree water and I had drift wood siliconed to the sides and bottom. If you don't have a python - get one, it will become your best friend. Once mine were established and approaching adulthood - I was able to take some out for pairs and the others (8) stayed in the 75. I did w/c's twice a week - one at about 25% the other at about 40%. As an earlier poster said - they are a lot of work in the beginning BUT they are stunning and worth the effort.

HTH,
 
With a group of 5-6 discus in a 55G tank, you will be pretty well stocked to the limit when the are grown adding only some smaller schooling fish and/or cories. I wasn't familiar with the Geophagus Jurupari, but looks like they get to be 10"? If that's true they are definitely not for that tank with the discus. 6 Sterbai cories would be great for the bottom. But barebottom tanks growing biofilm on the glass eats the cories barbels away. I also think the tank is too small to put a pair of rams in there. Rams are feisty little buggers when breeding and the 55G tank doesn't have a lot of width to it. The rams would have all the discus holed up down at one end of the tank, afraid to move. I've seen them come out and whack the poor unsuspected big discus right on the head for getting too close the the spawning site. Rummynose possibly but more like 8-10.

I don't like the barebottom either....not at all. What I would do is put a thin layer of gravel down, add a pieces of driftwood and a couple of potted plants while they are growing out. The cories could go in without barbel issues. The substrate is thin so is easily cleaned with the python. And as pondering said....concentrate on growing out the discus first.
 
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