quack Posted December 16, 2006 Report Share Posted December 16, 2006 hey i just brought my 2 first discus :bounce: i got them from nzdiscus, a brilent blue and red turq. im just wondering how sensitive are they to there water conditions (pH, hardness, temp and nitrate). how do people keep there pH down, i was thinking peat in the filter but will this stain the water?? at the moment theyre in my ar980 with some other comunity fish, i give them small water changes every day. also im going to buy some ox hart today and mince it up with a bit of garlic in it, what elese can i mix into it?? also just wondering with discus is it better to have them in even grops like 4 or would 3 be ok? they will be moved into a 250l tank soon, the stock will be 2 altum angles, 2 blue rams, 4 panda corys, and 10 cardinals and heavly planted with a 1200lph canister. would 4 discus be to much for this tank? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sharn Posted December 17, 2006 Report Share Posted December 17, 2006 first off you will need another 4 at least which means you need around 200L all up for them (excluding room for other fish, decor etc). discus require at least 40L per fish as adults. they also do much better in larger groups, you will soon find one becomes the boss and the other will become shy and may stop eating. when i had five i still had fighting problems, now that i have more they are definatly much more confident and the squabbles are less. IMO 4 discus wouldnt be too much for that tank if maintence is kept up but i dont think 4 will be happy, you can only try though contrary to popular beleif discus arent all that fussy about their water as long as its clean and stable. you want at least 3dKH to keep the ph stable and the temp around 28-31 (around 30 or so if they are growing). i have heard of people keeping discus in near african conditions and they are fine, it only needs to be lowered for breeding. slightly harder water is better for growing out young fish. dont worry about peat, its a nice addition but not necessary. i prefer (and so do many others) to grow up young discus in barebottoms, its extremely hard work growing them up in tanks with substrate. they will still grow in the planted tank but they probably wont end up being dinner plates :lol: try and do at least 2 50% w/c's a week, i do 40-50% every second day on my barebottom tank with 7 fish (200L tank) because of waste. growing discus need lots of food which means lots of waste :lol: i found beefheart extremely messy and it pollutes the water big time, even in my barebottom i wont feed it unless i can do at least a 70% w/c after. you may have better success with it than me though cause you have other fish to gobble up the leftovers. my discus' diet consists mainly of tetra colour bits, bloodworm, mysis shrimp (one of their natural foods im told), white worms and garden worms (a great treat they really go nuts over). high protein foods will make them grow well. you can put heaps of things in the beefheart, garlic is a great addition. shrimp, prawns, shelled peas, spirulina, baby foods (banana, spinach etc) and so on. heres a great thread of a heap of variations of the discus recipies sorry for the long post :oops: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
quack Posted December 18, 2006 Author Report Share Posted December 18, 2006 thanks sharn. yeah at the mo im doing around 25% water change every day or two. when i get my filter for my other tank i will put them into that tank with a barebottom untill they grow a bit, but that wont be for a month or so yet ok then i think that ill get the 4 discus, the two blue rams, a few corys for clean up crew, around 6 cardinals and a copple of algae eaters. will this be too cramed for a tank 1mx0.5x0.5 with the heavly planted tanks wouldnt the plants help maintain the water by using up the nitrates etc? the two discus are doing fine at the moment they are even eatting colour bits and flake, ive only had them for a few days Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sharn Posted December 18, 2006 Report Share Posted December 18, 2006 that stocking sounds fine for that size tank. the problem with planted tanks is it can take alot of fiddling to get everything in 100% balance so the plants are using up nitrates and waste, i personally found it very hard to acheive. if the tank isnt in balance it means the nitrates and other wastes arent being used up quickly and you will need to do alot of vacuming and w/c's to keep the water clean which upsets the plants as they use the above as ferts. i would definatly move them into a barebottom if you can, i know Antwan saw drastic growth when he moved a few he had a while back into barebottom Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luke* Posted December 18, 2006 Report Share Posted December 18, 2006 5-6 discus are fine, esp once you move them to the 250L. I assume you aren't getting them full grown. 40L/discus is for when they are adults. If you aren't too concerned on having show quality discus don't worry about going BB. I didn't find it hard to get 0ppm nitrate readings consistently on my 4ft planted maybe I was just lucky? It is harder to keep the water clean however the plants will absorb a lot of the toxins. If your water is hard enough 6kh is ideal, then I recommend you add peat as it is more natural to the discus' wild environment and they will love you for it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sharn Posted December 19, 2006 Report Share Posted December 19, 2006 be careful how much peat you use, if you drop the kh too low you may be risking swings or crashes and thatll upset them a bit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Discusguru Posted December 19, 2006 Report Share Posted December 19, 2006 I wouldn't use peat to soften the water when growing small discus. They grow best in hard water. NZ water is already very soft unless you're using ground water. There is no point trying to alter the water to match the natural wild condition (unless you're keeping wild caught discus) because almost all of the discus are domestically bred. You can use peat as a last resort to get them to breed if you desperate, otherwise I would recommend the KISS way of keeping fish. Ron Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
quack Posted January 14, 2007 Author Report Share Posted January 14, 2007 ok i have my 5 discus in my 250l bearbottom tank with a few plants in pots. im running a canister filter and also a small 500lph internal running purgin. they have a few tank mates, baby atum angles and a few dwaf cichilds. im pretty much only feeding them novo bits and bloodworm at the moment. sharn said to feed mysis shrimp, i have freeze dried ones but they float and the discus dont seem to like them. should i get frozen ones? what is the highest i should let the nitrates get before water change, at the moment i have been keeping them lower than 5ppm. any other tips for superfast growth? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Discusguru Posted January 14, 2007 Report Share Posted January 14, 2007 . any other tips for superfast growth? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sharn Posted January 14, 2007 Report Share Posted January 14, 2007 as ronnie said the beefheart will get them going as its packed with protein but it is extremely messy and will need a w/c after every feeding of it- part of the reason why mine only get it a few times a week now. my mysis shrimp are frozen, ive never had much luck with feeding any fish freezedried stuff because it floats and seems to be full of air. i dont let my nitrates get above 10ppm at present (50% w/c's every second day) because mine are still growing. im not sure what the 'rule' is for that though, i would say definatly below 20ppm. if you are keeping yours at 5ppm with ease then i would keep on doing what your doing, they will definatly appreciate it Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luke* Posted January 14, 2007 Report Share Posted January 14, 2007 <10ppm is good <5ppm is ideal. Oxheart's not too bad to clean up depending a lot on how you make the mix too, e.g gelatin, cooking, flake as binder etc. They will graze along the bottom for a while which helps you out too. It's important to feed a variety of frozen, live, and homemade foods for the fastest growth rate. Do the biggest water changes you can too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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