Discus Myth #1

OK this thread has gone off the rail again. Perhaps Prof Dirk can also contribute his experience and the issues you are likely to face when keeping discus in a planted tank. I am absolutely convinced that you cannot grow out young discus in a planted tank, purely because you need to feed so much and syphon so much. But mature adults may be a different case, as proved by Zafgak and others.

 

i think its safe to say everyone can keep discus if they keep thier tank parameters constant. i mean if it were so extremly hard to keep then there would only be wild discus and species in labs etc. everyone has to start somewhere, this might sound mean from my side but u would have to experiment for yourself to actually get it right, ppl dont just wake up one morning and become fish keeping experts we all need to learn, and some the hard way.

 

+1

 

Something tells me Slo's malawi tank is gonna become a reformed Discus tank...

 

im sorry, but a 3ft tank is just to small for discus, they need to be kept in a group of atleast 6 and a 3ft tank is simply to small for that, you would need a tank of atleast 200L for that...

 

Like 1.8 Meter?
How many Discus can i keep in such a tank?What tankmates will be ideal?

 

lol, i knew it

 

90cm tank = 162litres
litres per discus = between 40 and 50
162/40 = 4 discus for a 90cm or 3ft tank
So 4 discus in a 90 is OK - keep good filtration and keep up the water changes.
WHEN the fish get bigger transfer them to a 1.2

 

by Zaf's math, i'd think the answer is eight?

how many tiny fish can one then have along for the ride?

 

Remember the calculation is for adult discus - you could easily put in 20 rummynose and 10 cory's

 

Prof Dirk can correct me on this. My experience is that discus do best in groups of no less than 6. In fact I would go for around 10 to minimise dominance issues and allow for true discus behaviour. I have also found that discus of different sizes do not do exceptionally well when kept together due to the dominance, especially at feeding time of the larger, more settled ones, which in turn leads to others not getting enough food, becoming stunted etc.
Keeping small discus means you need to be able to feed at least four to five times per day with good quality nutritional food, not just bloodworm which they love, as it does not cater for their development due to its lower nutritional value, when compared to brine shrimp, good beef heart etc. When one is feeding at this kind of rate, you need to be able to water change excessively to not only remove detritus, but also excess food, not eaten. Allowing this matter to stay in the tank will not only cause ammonia issues over time, but also drop your pH. But discus need a low pH you say. In the wild, baby discus are born during the rainy season when the run-off from the Andes and the associated rains cause the pH of the Amazon to increase slightly. They believe this increase in pH and general water hardness to be beneficial for the discus babies skeletal development. This is probably also why small discus kept with larger discus tend not to flourish as the needs of the larger fish are generally catered for.
I guess its one of those cases of survive or thrive...

 

Thanks Rowland for the great explanation. I agree, as mentioned in a previous post, that you are going to battle to grow out young discus in a planted tank. In fact, it might be near impossible. Unless stunted growth is acceptable to you. But with a little bit of work and care, you can keep adult discus successfully in a planted tank.

 

could not agree more with laure and rowland, so please dont try to keep discus in a 3ft display tank, and dont buy the "king of the aquarium" if you are not 100% commited.

 

I promised photos so here goes - This is the first tank

 

here is tank 2 - these discus were saved from being culled due to problems in raising them..