Discus - Are They Hard To Keep

[Anna]

Hi, I have a 3ft tank with angels, gouramis and the usual catfish, and tetras but I want a discus as my 'wow' fish. Everything I read says that tanks have to be established about 1 year and Discus are really fussy with Ph and temps,acidity etc. Are they really that hard to keep and can I have 2 small ones in a 3ft tank?? :biggrin:

[volenti]

I'll give you the low down on why discus are tricky to keep. They are adapted to water conditions so acidic most bacteria can't live in it, they also produce a thick modified slime coat that's nutritious enough for their young to feed off for the first week of life.

This makes them swimming petri dishes, and when you put them in a normal aquarium all the resident bacteria go "lunch!".

So you either have to keep them extremely clean conditions or keep them in water so acidic that bio filters won't work and severely limits what fish you can keep with them.

So basically no you can't just put 2 small ones in with your other fish and expect them to be happy or even live very long. Sorry to say.

[joz]

Hi Fin,I've been keeping and breeding Dicus for what seems forever.

Firstly they are more tricky than the usual bunch of your community types.
IMO do not keep them with angels at all.

Bare bottomed tanks are the easiest way to start.If you see rubbish in the tank ,syphon it out.

A PH of about 6.2-6.6 is suggested,tho they can go down to about 5.5.But that'll introduce some other difficulties.

Temp of about 28-30 is the go,some people sware by 32d C.

Clean water with the less chemicals the better,a good clean bio filter is a must.

I used to set up a tank and within an hour were housing discus,but there are things to follow to do this successfully.Not just tap water with conditioner!


Lots of stories about discus,many myths.
But still they are ver temperamental.
Even when doing everything right things go wrong with them sometimes.