Discus Fish Care

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I recently have been asked what to do if your Discus Fish has an issue with bloat... This can include a blocked intestine or the osmotic properties of the swim bladder of your discus fish to be effected, causing the discus fish to swim unbalanced.

One tried and true method is add 1/2 cup of Epsom salts to 50 gallons of water in your discus fish aquarium. This in most cases will allow the bloat in your discus fish to subside in just one treatment. Dose the discus fish tank as directed and then do a 25% water change the following day.

If the symptoms still persist in your discus fish repeat this treatment up to 3 times. I have found that this method works on about 70% of all cases of discus fish... Keep in mind that sometimes the blockage can be so bad that this treatment just wont work on some discus fish.

Discus Fish are a warm water fish... Temperature is a critical factor in not only keeping discus fish alive but in maintaining a good discus fish growth rate. Optimal temperature for Discus Fish should be between 84-90 deg. Temperatures Below 82 should be avoided.

We keep all of non-breeding discus fish at 88, and breeders at 84... The hatch rate of discus fish eggs greatly diminishes above this temp. The growth rate in younger discus fish raised at 88-90 as opposed to 82-84 is unmistakable. Along with the fact that many pathogenic parasites cannot survive above the 86 threshold in a discus fish aquarium.

It should never be a problem for the discus fish owner to use 1 cup of non-iodized salt (I prefer Morton blue bag water softener salt... 99.5% sodium, no water softner conditoners) per 100 gallons of water and kicking the temp to 90. This will knock the ick into oblivion.

Discus Fish are king of the aquarium... Discus Fish are a Cichlid and have a great amount of intellegence and personality. It is quite common to have your Discus Fish rush to the aquarium surface and greet you... I have numerous customers who tell me of how their discus fish enjoy being "petted".

Once your Discus Fish are acclimated to you and their new discus fish home they will feed right from your hands, and over time they will come to recognize you and approach the aquarium front when only there are owners or family members are present... discus fish really can differentiate between people!

Discus fish are territorial and should be housed in groups that will help reduce aggresion on weaker individual discus fish... I recommend keeping one Discus Fish per 8 gallons of water. It seems the more crowded they are (within reason) the less likely they are to set up and defend territories and it allows them a delay in reaching sexual maturity so that they can grow to be larger discus fish.

Obviously, the more discus fish you have in a tank the more waste is produced requiring more filtration and water changes. Some discus fish owners assume that they will start out with say 4 Discus Fish in a 90 gallon tank and then add more discus fish later, once these 4 discus fish have acclimated in.

Bad idea... generally the first 4 discus fish that have been in the tank will have set up their territories and defend it quite viciously to the new arrivals of discus fish. One way out of this is to reorganize the decorations(territorial markers) in the aquaria before adding the new discus fish. (move a plant here or a piece of driftwood there).

Or just add all of the Discus Fish at the same time to avoid this altogether. There will always be certain Discus Fish that just aren't aggresive as others. Generally these discus fish won't get their fair share of food. I have found that feeding discus fish at both ends of the tank and in the middle will help alleviate this problem.

Discus fish along with other tropical fish are very sensitive to Chlorine and other additives that municipal water companies add to the water to keep us safe... I have a Discus Fish customer in the Florida Keys that made the fatal flaw of using only Sodium Thiosulfate to remove Chlorine from his water that he put into his Discus Fish tank.

This worked fine for him for years until the city started using Chloramine (a bond of chlorine and Ammonia) while this creates a safer drinking water for humans it is deadly to discus fish and other tropical fish species.

The Thiosulfate only removes the chlorine, leaving the ammonia... Sad to say he lost several hundred Angelfish and Discus Fish... The solution?

Use a quality dechlorinator such as Amquel. This product and other like products remove not only chlorine, but also chloramine from your discus fish aquarium. You never know when the city will make a change like this... and the gamble just isn't worth the few dollars saved.

Another big helper is having a low pH in your discus fish aquarium... Ammonia is converted to ammonium at a pH below 7.0, making it far less toxic to Discus fish and other tropical fish species. There are other benefits to this lower pH, the slime coats on Discus Fish is kept thicker making them more resistant to disease.

Bacteria and Virus that are harmful to Discus fish do not reproduce near as abundantly in lower pH's. People often tell me...My local pet shop or local Discus Fish breeder raises their Discus Fish in a pH of 7.5 so they will acclimate into local water easier.

Driftwood also helps naturally lower pH naturally while creating a safehaven for your discus fish to feels secure around... This brings up another aspect in keeping your Discus fish as healthy and happy as possible. Discus and other fish species do not like to be in an undecorated aquarium! They prefer to have hidding spots.

Even in our breeding tanks we keep 2 clay bricks, for the adult breeder Discus to not only use as breeding locations, but to also use to hide behind if something spooks them or if they are fighting they can evade each other. Young Disus fish also prefer hiding spots... lots of them. Driftwood, aquatic plants, etc. will help them feel much more comfortable in there aquarium home. This will meke them feed more robustly and show brighter colors.

Tetra fish, rasboras and other schooling fish also help the discus fish feel more comfortable in their aquaria. These fish are generally at the bottom of the food chain, so psychologically to the discus... if these fish aren't being eating, I more than likely am safe also.

So not only do these schooling fish make the discus feel more at ease, they add a blast of color to the aquarium... a school af galaxia rasboras with there vibrant orange background and beautiful yellow galaxy like spots or a school of brillant blue and red cardinals make any aquarium much more entertaining.

In order for Discus Fish to breed, you need the right water temperature... Water temperature is a key component to stimulating discus fish into breeding. Drop the temperature down from 86 to 82 with a water change of 30-40%... use replacement water that is around 78 to achive this... this helps to simulate a strong rainstorm that would occur in nature where your discus fish live in the wild.

You can also lower the pH on this water a few points, say from 6.5 to a 6.2 or so. Keep in mind not to change the pH value to rapidly as pH shock can be fatal... no more than a .5 change is advisable. If you can coinside your water changes right before a Thunderstorm is scheduled to hit your area this can greatly increase your odds. The dropping of the barometeric pressure and the charged atmosphere has a deffinate affect on discus fish.

Seperating the pair of discus fish into two seperate community tanks for several weeks also can help the discus fish to re-establish their breeding pattern. Keep in mind if you place the discus fish together in a community tank, they may bully every other discus to the point of danger. One (secret) that we use is placing our discus fish breeding tanks side by side so that the discus fish can see each other...

Salt is also great for newly recieved discus fish or discus fish that have any fin nips, tears etc... Salt will speed up the discus fish healing process greatly and prevent almost all bacterial and fungal problems on your discus fish... I had an adult Uaru jump out of a 125 to find himself 5 feet down on concrete. Fortunaltely for him I found him before time ran out.

Long story short, I didn't add salt right away and within 36 hrs his entire side was covered in fungus... 1.5 cups of salt and 36 hrs later all of the fungus was gone, 2 weeks later no signs of the mishap were visable(excluding a better hood on the tank). Salt treatments in your discus fish aquarium can be repeated after 48 hrs followed by a water change. I have used the 1 cup per 100 dose on numerous planted discus fish tanks with no problems. Salt is poured away from plant bases, but directly in the discus fish tank.

Keep in mind some plants are salt sensitive and use at your own risk. When acclimating your new discus fish to the aquaria, occasionally their fins may be torn from being sloshed around in the bags during shipping or abrasions from the bags or nets may have occured.. this should be of no concern. Use the salt treatment and the Discus Fish fins will heal in a matter of 24-48 hours.

How to get your discus fish into breeding condition... Live Black worms, mosquito larvae (live), live red worms, live Daphnia and live bloodworms all work magic in getting the discus fish into breeding condition. Mosquito larva along with daphnia are quite easy to raise... just sit out a tub of water with some organic matter in it and at least with mosquito's, nature will do the rest. MAKE SURE TO HARVEST DAILY, if not West Nile and angry neighbors may become all to common!

How to lower the pH in your Discus Fish Aquarium? There are many good products on the market for this... Check with your local tropical fish store and ask for there recommendations. It is quite often necessary to add quite a bit of these products to reach the desired pH level of say a 6.5 in your discus fish aquarium.

KEEP IN MIND*** DO NOT ADD THESE pH BUFFERS DIRECTLY TO AN AQUARIUM WITH DISCUS FISH OR OTHER TROPICAL FISH! pH SWINGS OF MORE THAN .3-.5 CAN BE FATAL TO SENSITIVE FISH SPECIES LIKE DISCUS FISH. Add these products to your water change water before it goes into your aquarium, and slowly (over time) bring the pH down. Or preferably add them to an empty tank, to get your pH where you want it BEFORE you purchase your discus.

One other note to mention, I have noticed that most of the pigeon blood Discus color morphs (Marlboros, rainbow dragons, tangerines, Apricots etc.) will exhibit much more peppering(black spotting) at higher pH's. Another reason for the lower pH.

Other Types of Discus Fish Foods... Daphnia, needs a bit more work... search on line under raising live Daphnia for all the tricks. The easiest live food to keep is Blackworms. To raise blackworms you simply purchase the amount you need 1/2 or 1 lb portions.

Place them in a rubber made container of a 12-16 inch diameter with a 4 inch height with around 2.5 inches of cool (60-75) degree de- chlorinated water. Some people keep them in the fridge, I on the other hand keep them in a cool shaded area outdoors. The worms will need to be rinsed off every day or so with freshwater.

This greatly depends on the water temp and amount of worms you have. To rinse them, simply tilt the container at an angle so that all of the worms conglomerate together then pour off the old water and add new fresh water. These worms will last for weeks with no food necessary for them.

If you do have them for an extended period or want to fortify them, you can feed them a small amount of fish food in the flake or pellet form, organic material such as spinach leaves or romaine also works.

Just be careful to feed sparingly as you are likely to foul the water and jeopardize the health of the worms...The blackworms we carry are farm raised and are not loaded with bacteria and other harmful pathogens that can be found in sub standard suppliers.

Reverse Osmosis(RO) water filtration will also give you a safe (chlorine free) water... With a pH of neutral(7.0) or lower These filtration units will strip over 98% of the contaminants out of your tap water creating ideal discus fish water. The spectra pure units that we sell use a solid block carbon filter that is good for up to 20,000 gallons, making it one of the best on the market. These units are extremely easy to setup, using a snap conector that will literally hook up in seconds.

I recommend having a water storage vessel (55 gal drum or in our case 1,870 gallons) to store this water in... this allows you to adjust it's temperature, pH levels etc. When you are ready for a water change it is as easy as vaccuming your aquarium down to the level you want (20% water changeor so) switching a pump on that is conected to a hose leading from your water storage to your aquaria and filling it up.

No buckets to carry... Water change amounts and frequencey depends on your aquariums bioload(how many fish are in it) In say a 75 gallon aquarium with 8 or 9 discus fish (we recommend 1 per 8 gallons as this cuts down on territorial fighting) 2-3 water changes of 20-30% are recommend per week for optimal growth and health. We do not agree with massive water changes daily as we feel that it stresses the discus fish, is lots of work and the benifits do not outweight the input.

Filtration of your aquarium also plays a factor into the amount of discus fish you can keep in the aquarium along with the amount of water changes needed. Feedings of 3-4 times a day in smaller quanties is also recommend for optimal growth rates for your discus fish...

Alternate your discus fish's meals with say pellet food first meal, frozen Chiclid delight, frozen bloodworms and then a final meal in the evening of live blackworms... go from there least favorite food to their favorite, this will get them to eat all of the previous meal if any is left over.

What to do if you have small worms (1/4 inch or so) in your discus fish aquarium... these are a type of flat worm that feeds on excess organic matter in the tank. They are harmless to the fish and are not of a major concern.

To cut their numbers substantially, add a group of Corydoras catfish to the tank to help cleanup excess food. Also increase your water changes to reduce the bioload. If the Worms persists add 1 cup of salt per 100 gallons and this will greatly reduce their numbers. Loaches and Botias also will help eat these unwelcome visitors.

What to do if you have snails in your discus fish tank and don't want them... Add smaller clown loaches in the 2-3 inch size. Clown loaches and other species of Loaches along with Botias consider snails to be be among their favorite foods.

On the other hand if you are trying to keep snails, even the larger apple snails it is a bad idea to mix them with Botias or Loaches for this very reason...

Tips on acclimating your new discus fish... When you receive your new discus fish, you should remove the rubber bands from their bag and add approximately 2 inches of water to the bag that your discus fish are in from your aquarium.

Allow the bag to float upright in the aquarium for around 10 minutes with the discus fish in it and then add another 2 inches of water... repeat this procedure until the bag is 3/4 of the way full of water. Once you have done this pour the discus fish and water from the shipping bag into their new home in your discus fish aquarium.

This will allow the temperature, pH and waters hardness to gradually adjust, helping your new discus fish to acclimate to their new home in a stable manner.Once the discus fish are adjusted to there new home(usually 1-2 hours) go ahead and feed them.

Generally live blackworms are the easiest to get discus fish to eat. Frozen bloodworms are another great first food for new discus fish. I also recommend leaving the aquarium lights on not off for your new discus fish's first entry into the tank... imagine yourself being placed in a strange new house. Wouldn't you feel more comfortable if you could see your surroundings?

Treating Discus Diseases with High Water Temps... Hexamita and numerous other ciliates cannot take high temps. Treatments of 90+ may need to occur for 2+ weeks, but if you kick the temp up when you first notice a problem (white/clear feces, loss of color/ appetite etc.) and keep the fish eating (live foods help here) they will recover with no meds needed.

If the fish still are having problems after 2 weeks, add Metronidazol directly to the fishes food... (following dosages on metro). Keep in mind that several weeks (up to 6 or more) of quarantine for new fish being added to your existing tanks is the best and ultimate way to keep your existing fish healthy from potential disasters

Discus Fish foods should consist of bloodworms (fresh or frozen), brineshrimp, high protein sinking pellet foods (above 50% protein), beefheart mixes, mysis shrimp, and high protein flake foods... Blackworms, Earthworms and whiteworms are another excellent food. Stay away from tubifex and as they are likely to harbor parasites and harmful bacteria since they come from duck ponds. Waterfowl are the intermediary host for numerous parasites.

We currently feed black worms to our fish, in recent years black worms have been pond raised and are an excellent food. Try to verify that they are farm raised to reduce the risk of picking up some nasty bacteria for your fish. Also feed these worms sparingly so that the discus dont get spoiled on this food and will not touch any of there other food...

Same goes for the white worms! Since introducing the blackworms into our fishes diet, the spawing, vigor and growth rates are hands down far better than without the blackworms. To this day (8 months) I have not seen one ill effect from this great food source. Just keep in mind how addictive they are for your discus, so feed only every 3rd or 5th meal.

Another great food source (especially for getting females to spawn) is live mosquito larva. Just make sure to harvest at least every couple of days unless you and your neighbor get a nice bought with West Nile! De worming your fish is as simple as going to your vet, purchase Droncit for dogs 34-mg. Tabs. Smash tablet into powder add to 4 oz of thawed bloodworms and refreeze.

Feed this to all of your fish and repeat once again in 10- 14 days. Repeat every year or so as needed. I have seen studies done on Droncit (pratzequantil) and fear not it is a very non-toxic drug to your fishes.

Feeding your Discus Fish and the frequency in which to clean the discus fish aquairum... The more often you feed your discus fish the faster they will grow. Consequently they will also produce more waste with more food. Feedings of 2-4 times a day are suggested with a weekly or twice weekly water change to remove all buildup of detritus from the bottom of the tank. This is a minimum for water changes unless it is a heavily planted tank or you just aren’t set on having full size fish.

The planted tank provides natural filtration and natural buffering for the aquarium. We do water changes at least every other day of 20%+ with a daily cleaning of all profilers. Cleaning of the filter material is also very important in keeping your fish healthy. Check the filters on a regular basis and keep them as clean as possible. Filtration may be achieved though numerous methods.

On a community aquarium of 55 gal. Or more, I would recommend the Marineland Emperor 400 filter. They are very easy to clean and they do a great job for their cost.

Check your filter inserts on a weekly basis at first and ascertain a cleaning schedule once your tank has settled in on exactly how often to clean them. Remember that the more debris on the filter the more dissolved solids. We like to maintain the TDS at >100 ppm. For breeding tank a sponge filter will do just fine. With a good rinse in non-chlorinated water as needed.

You may either keep a bare bottom tank (very cleanly) of you may chose a substrate for plants and other decorations. Sand is the ideal substrate as it will not allow detritus to work its way down into it and it provides an excellent medium for growing aquatic plants in.

Mixing Fluorite gravel and other additives for plants works wonders. Swords and other large rooted plants will reward you with lush growth. One secret I have found in having lush plants is power compact lighting systems! One 96-watt pc can give off the lumens of 5 40-watt fluorescents!

I have kept discus for years in highly lit (4-7watts per gallon) with no ill effects... as long as they have objects (plants, driftwood,rocks etc.)they are fine. It is moving shadows that bother them most. I actually have a 1000 watt HPS above several tanks in my basement.

So the therory that discus can't handle high lighting is a bit off. We do however normally keep our discus under lower lighting (1-2 watts per gallon), but in a planted tank don't hold back on the lighting...Co2 is another must have if you desire the lushness you have always seen in those books.

A Co2 system is worthless without getting the gas into the water … use a reaction chamber with your system! 3-5 bubbles per second is usually a good rate of flow for safe healthy levels. Observe your fish and make sure they are breathing normally and if in doubt get a co2 test kit. Having some decoration in the tank is important to give the fish a since of security.

The decorations can be as simple as 2 clay bricks or a fully planted tank with rocks and driftwood. These decorations also provide territorial markers to lessen aggression from more dominant fish. Keep in mind when you place your new discus in their tank to have plenty of decorations... it doesn't matter if it's real plants, artificial plants, driftwood,spawing cones, bricks etc.

What does matter is that you have at least 2 or 3 if not 5 or more structures for the fish to feel secure. This will help them acclimate much faster and be less skiddish.

Call or email if you have any questions,

812 333 7999

Tom Meador

rfidiscus@sbcglobal.net