Discus questions....

[icebear]

Just wanted to ask a few q's about them. I generally like them and would consider getting some down the road if i could provide the proper conditions.

Besides husbandry, what other stuff is good to know?
Like how large a group are they happiest in, is it ok to mix colors~ as in the asthetics of keeping multiple color types (i'm mostly asking about the Hobby culture, kinda like Wine snobs....what do Discus snobs think?)... what is the favorable discus shape- as round as possible or some prominent features may be more or less interesting. What colors and body shapes to stay away from?

What illness are they prone to and how to prevent?

Colors.... what lighting brings out the color to their best- like do soft yellow lights bring out the greens in some and actinics bring out the blue in others, do they look almost colorless in some aquarium lighting?

Oh and tank size?

Stuff like that.

[Stang69]

Like how large a group are they happiest in,

When I initially set mine up they recomended buying 8 for my 110 but these were juviniles and were about 4 inches around eventually you will be able to tell who is going to pair off and who will beat on who so it will take some thinning IMO but it works

is it ok to mix colors~

Yes it is fine but to keep a pure bood line.... (if Breeding happens)
They will cross breed like platies do (they arent racial heheeh)

what is the favorable discus shape

As they mature I have found they get better with age finage gets longer as in most cichlids. Im sure in some of the "Discus World" there are standards in shows like for dogs or cats but I like them because they relaxed me and were fun to watch.

Colors.... what lighting brings out the color to their best

Most like a dimmer light but will aclimate to bright given enuff time. They startle easily and have been known to slam the sides and fromt of the tanks if startled. But to answer your question I think Flor lights bring out the colors in them

Oh and tank size?

IMO in a 30 like yours you could keep 2 or 3 juviniles until they reached maturity. I had 2 breeding pair of adults in a 110 and at times they were battling for territory. But Mine were 9 to 10 inchs from nose to tail too

[alaskaknucklehead]

Stang 69 bout summed it all up... good job!

Both mine had mild HLLE when I got em (hole-in-head-lateral-line-ero) removed my carbon, fed vitamen enriched food, performed 25% waterchanges every other day for about 4 weeks, then went to weekly, I also use a very small amount of a blackwater extract this cleared it right up.... wheeew... BTW those were the last fish I ever bought from from that store and everytime I stop in there I see there discus clammped finned in the corners of the tank and black as can be sad, sad, sad.
O yeah temp... warm, I keep my tank at 86 degrees and have read some keep em even warmer, also they dont like a strong current.

[Stang69]

I never kept mine that warm but knew some that did. I usually kept mine at about 83 to 84

Jeff

[alaskaknucklehead]

Jeff Ive heard as high as 92 was OK but seems way to high to me I am amazed how much warmer 84-86 feels to the touch compared to say just 70-80

[Casey]

I love them real pretty but am scared all I hear is hole in the head and death.

[Stang69]

Casey IMO hole in the head most times it comes from bad water quality and poor diet. If you feed the discus live blood worms use them sparingly. I had better luck feeding them formula II

Jeff

[Casey]

Humm live blood worms cant be found here no where what are my other options?

[Stang69]

Like I said abve mine also liked Formula II but here is a link that may help also. Beefheart is great for growth but is terrible on water conditions if not all eaten

http://www.geocities.com/kennyk6/foodNfeeding.htm
http://world.std.com/~enjolras/faqfood.htm


Here is a recipe copied from a site that seemed to work well also. It took me forever to find it. I had it bookmarked along time ago and lost it due to a reformat DOH!!!

HEART MEAT FOOD FORMULA

Ingredients:

4 kg of heart meat (without veins & cartilages)
500 g of de-shelled prawns or mussel meat
1 gram of multivitamin with minerals (powder form)
1gram of Calcium Lactate
Optional red or yellow colour enhancer (non-hormone)



Procedures:

Add the multivitamin & minerals powder to the fine powder and mix well.

Cut the heart meat (beef heart or pig heart) into about half inch pieces.
Blend the heart meat pieces and prawns in a blender until they are roughly fine. Do not overblend the meat.
Decant off the excess water and filter the blended meat to remove the excess water.
Mix the above multivitamin & minerals powders into the blended meat.
Pack the meat into zipper plastic bags about 2mm thick.
Freeze the meat preparation.
Break of small potions, defrost the meat preparation prior to feeding.
Optional Green spinach lightly cooked or Spiralina can be added
If you need to add any other supplements or medications to the food you can mix them into the defrosted meat before feeding. Medications should ideally be mixed into the defrosted meat for greater effect as some medications will loose its potency if kept in the meat mixture for long period of time.


Hope this helps

Jeff

ps Plus a little eye candy

[Reefdude5]

Pretty! how many could be happy in a 50. Also, would dual 175 Mh be too much, i want to make it a planted tank.

[alaskaknucklehead]

Jeff,

Eyecandy FOR SURE! Beeeeeeuuutiful!!!!


Ive been feeding supplemental brineshrimp(frozen) I turn off my filters, dice it up, and enjoy the feeding frenzy, I leave the filters off while they clean up the leftovers and as long as I keep it as "supllemental" it seems to have no effect on water quality....

if over fed I imagine it would be a very bad thing....... eewww what a mess.... discus are soooo sensitive to water quality.

My primary food is Omega-One FW flake, I dunno if you guys can get it down there but it's made right here in Alaska (Sitka) and the stuff is premo!!

[alaskaknucklehead]

So jeff is that a breeding tank??

[Reefdude5]

It's okay, i know, i don't exist.....

[Stang69]

Originally posted by Reefdude5
It's okay, i know, i don't exist.....

Yes you edo exist I was away for the morning. In a 50 you could start out with a half doz juv. and cull them out until you have 4 that should be pleanty for a 50. The light would be ok if you had pleanty of cover for them as they arent too fond of bright lights until used to it.


Jeff

[Stang69]

Originally posted by alaskaknucklehead
So jeff is that a breeding tank??

I believe it is a rearing tank for juviniles. That is actuall a pic from another site however I wish it was mine.

Jeff