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How to keep Discus

People often say Discus are very difficult to keep! Well that might be true if you don't get the basics right to start with. Once you have understood and put into practice what you know, it is I think, very easy to keep any Discus, wild or tank bred.

Water Quality
If your Discus are ill or you have a problem with them, the root cause is nearly always the water quality. The native waters from which the Discus are from, in Brazil is soft and acidic. So it is understandable that we need to replicate this type of water in our home aquarium. A larger volume of water is easier to keep stable than a smaller volume, bear this in mind when you are choosing your tank, in other words get the largest one you possibly can.

I assume the reader is familiar with the Nitrogen Cycle (if not you really need to understand this fully). Discus will not tolerate Ammonia or Nitrite in any amount, and only the bare minimum Nitrate. Make sure the detritus is removed on a daily basis together with any uneaten food, as this will quickly form Ammonia. If you feed beefheart always feed day time, never at night, as there are always some fatty bits that do not get eaten and you don't want that in the tank overnight. Ph is of course very important, as this is the measure of acidity and alkalinity. Ph of 7 is neutral, that is between acid and alkaline.

Discus like the Ph between 5.5 and 6.8 and will tolerate 7.0 to 7.4. Heckles like it 5.0 to 5.5. General Hardness should be between 2 and 8. Conductivity should be about than 10ms. If you are unlucky enough to live in a hard water area, you will need to bring down the hardness and probably the Ph as well.

I would recommend a Reverse Osmosis filter, which strips everything from the water and will in the process lower the Ph and the hardness; this depends on how alkaline and hard the water was to start with, you can then mix back a percentage of filtered tap water to acquire the correct Ph, Hardness and Conductivity. To do this use a filter which removes heavy metals and chlorine, this filter will not alter the Ph or hardness of the water passing through it.

Feeding
For adult fish feed 2 or 3 times a day, do not overfeed as the food will pollute the water quickly. Feed should be high quality flake, Prima, beefheart (make your own, it's worth it in the long run), high protein foods, live food like white worms or small earth worms (make sure these are washed and purged 24 hours on shredded newspapers before feeding). Do not feed Bloodworm, Tubifix or any frozen processed foods that are not gamma radiated, or better still no ‘over the counter' frozen food, because how do you know it has not thawed out on route to the retailer? This can cause major problems, it's better to stick to your own homemade beefheart.

Water Changes
Stick to regular water changes every week. Discus like constant water parameters, so a 25% water change every week is best.

f you follow these guide lines you should have trouble free healthy Discus for many years.

Article by Bristol Discus