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First ever Discus


thegatti

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I took the plunge and have bought my first Discus :fish:

I should be getting a larger tank when I move house so I can get some more. Has anyone had any Discus experience before?

I would love to get some other tank mates. Any ideas? I guess cichlids are out of the question..?

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Most fish are not comfortable at the temperatures Discus like.Rams are a good choice they love the heat but often carry disease so quarantine well.Cardinal tetras are good as well.Corydoras are recommended but I found they didnt like the heat that much,there may be more heat tolerant corys than bronze and peppered.Good luck,discus are not that difficult as long as your stock is healthy and you are prepared for the 2-3x/week water changes.Discus are hard work(too much for me now)

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Well, I do have a bronze catfish in there now. I have no clue what type he is. Small discus is what it said on the tank. I went to another pet shop and they were in the expensive category with expensive names eg. snakeskin...etc

I have a question about feeding him. He is still adjusting but how can I encourage him to eat? I feed flake and frozen brine shrimp (flake one day and bs the next). I haven't watched him eating yet, but I get worried cause his stomach in thin.

I just want to make sure I am doing everything right

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I would worm him if you haven't already. I find that some discus are destined not to do well. I have 4 at the moment, they're all piggies. For new discus, I get 2 square of frozen bloodworm. I hold in the first square on one side (furthest away from the discus that's not eating), and most of the fish swim to that and start eating, then on the other side I put the hold the other block in sometimes it just floats past them, and other times they start coming and munching from the block.

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The reason why your Discus may not be eating is because they are fish that prefer to be in a colony of at least of 3 or more discus . They do not do very well as solitary fish and need a tank of at least 4 ft or larger. As for cardinals /Neons tetras they are apart of a discus menu in the wild. You need to get at least 1 more if not 2 more discus to make sure his happy and feels secure . Hope you enjoy your discus his a beauty . below is a pic of the discus l had for 2 yrs .

http://i223.photobucket.com/albums/dd73/Li...TankRescape.jpg

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One day out of the blue there was amassive ammonia spike and it burnt the eyes of my discus outand they slwly died after the space of a mth ....2 yrs of no problems what so ever and bamm all 3 discus dead in 1 mth..... it broke my heart and as each fish died .. l buried them in a plant pot otuside and apologised to them. As l said it broke my heart it still does now. I really want some more but not right now. And they are so smart, they could see my refrigerator from the tank and the freezer and they knew when l opened the freezer door that dinner was coming and they would swim to the front right hand corner of the tank and wait just like dogs.

And they were such sticky noses if l was doing something beside the tank they would swim over and watch what l was doing. One time l was tidying up beside the tank and one swam over to see what was going on its face right up against the glass of the tank it cracked me up so l swung around and put my face against the glass looking back at him ...roflol he got the fright of his life and flew across to the other side of the tank it was so funny.

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Thanks for all the replies.

I have caught the cheeky guy eating brine shrimp:) he is one of the lazy fellas that wait for the food to come to him! He could just be too shy to look for food cause I do have two clown loaches in there as well and they are pretty fast :rofl:

Worming.........dogs and now fish......wow.

Ok, I'm new to that part of fish keeping. I suppose you get fish wormer from the LFS? I know they don't come in liver flavour :D

I'm going to do a 25% water change today. My last w/c was on Saturday. I'm gonna check ph levels and see what changes the drift wood has done. My water is a nice tea colour thanks to the wood :)

I am planning to get a bigger tank when I move and then I will stock it with Discus. I LOVE THIS HOBBY/ADDICTION!

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HI Betta girl, your fish a a blue turquoise and only a young one at that. He looks in pretty good condition to me and doesn't look as if he has worms. I could write an essay right now on keeping and caring for discus but I would suggest you find a discus forum to have a good good look at as these guys do require A LOT of work. Is that a bala shark in there with him??? Discus really do need to be kept in a group of at least 4 for them to be happy and at a temp of 28 plus ( i keep mine an nothing lower than 30) At lower temps they have a greater chance of falling ill. For your fellow to continue to stay in the good condition it is and continue growing you will need to feed him 4-6 times a day and with that much food chances of ammonia spikes are very high so water changes need to be very frequent. I do nothing less than 33% 3 times a week. Once they are fully grown then you don't feed as much. That will do for now and please do all the research you can. Discus are truely a magnificent fish, my favourite.

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I have found out his favourite food is frozen brine shrimp which he gets every second day. 4-6 feeds hmm? I know that fish can be a guts but wow !! :) I bought some Discus bits that I will feed him the 'other' times.

I'm gonna get another one very soon. I don't like him being lonely either.

As for the shark.....I know he is a silver shark.

Does anyone know of a good discus forum? there are a lot to choose from.

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  • 4 weeks later...

I got your pm about the forums. I have joined one of them but I haven't posted anything yet.

Sorry I haven't been on here for a while, but I have just moved house and had to spend weeks without the internet (arrrrggghhh!!!)

Moving house meant moving fish too. Not a thing I recommend if you can help it. It was a NIGHTMARE!!!

We had to leave them till the last day and all fish survived except for my brother's beautiful and expensive marine fish!! All of his fish died:rant:

My first discus has become more confident but my smaller one is really shy. He hides in the corner all day and then comes out when I'm not watching.

He is eating and his tummy looks quite full, but he has been doing white poos and I think my big guy is pushing him around. Could it be possible that I have a bully discus in the tank?

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  • 2 weeks later...

my discus

my most recent vid of em. Since that video I have remove all decor except for the driftwood. My bigger one looks great and colourful but the smaller one is dark brown most of the time. they have turns picking on eachother. One gets bullied the first day, then he becomes the bully the second. Weird huh?

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