# My discus fish aquarium



## Harry (Jan 29, 2008)

YouTube - MY DISCUS AQUARIUM


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## Dmaaaaax (Nov 20, 2008)

That is a very nice looking tank! I used to have discus but had to get rid of them during my move ~5yrs ago. I am seriously considering them again, but would like to try and get them in a planted tank, so can I get some numbers/stats from you?

What is your:
pH
kH 
GH
What is your substrate, lighting (watts), do you use CO2...if so, how do you buffer it to keep the kH/GH low so that your pH does not spike and dip? Do you use RO or dionized water or just tap? 

What other fish do you have? I think I noticed some cardinals, black neons, and algae eaters...

Do you use any plant supplements like Flourish, Excel, or any Discus supplements like Discus buffer or Amazon "peat". What do you typically feed them?


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## gunnie (Nov 16, 2008)

Wow! Those are some beautiful fish! Very nice looking tank!


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## saltydad (Jun 27, 2008)

Beautiful tank and some very happy looking fish. Thanks for posting.


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## Harry (Jan 29, 2008)

gunnie said:


> Wow! Those are some beautiful fish! Very nice looking tank!


Thank you very much.


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## Harry (Jan 29, 2008)

Dmaaaaax said:


> That is a very nice looking tank! I used to have discus but had to get rid of them during my move ~5yrs ago. I am seriously considering them again, but would like to try and get them in a planted tank, so can I get some numbers/stats from you?
> 
> What is your:
> pH
> ...


Dear friend,
When I started with discus fish I had all sorts of advice about softening the water and using a number of gadgets to monitor everything or sterilize the water etc.
After three years with my new discus fish I can say that I have these results only with tap water.
These dicsus fish are hybrids and they don't need soft water like the wild discus or when you want to reproduce them which calls for different approaches.
Soft water didn't help my young discus fish to grow well and the same problem had a friend of mine who used to change the water of his tank with R.O.
My tap water has a Ph around 7 and the Gh,Kh are not of the lowest.
The same goes with my gravel an plants.The simpler the better.You can have a look at my threads here and see the advice I gave to a lady asking about the substrate she was going to use.
I usually feed them Tetra bits,some red mosquito larvae (frozen and sterilized) and flakes.
Whenever you feel like I will be happy to answer your questions in more detail or discuss anything you are interested in.


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## Harry (Jan 29, 2008)

Thank you.


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## Fishboydanny1 (Jun 13, 2008)

I wish discus weren't so expensive....... very beautiful!


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## Harry (Jan 29, 2008)

Fishboydanny1 said:


> I wish discus weren't so expensive....... very beautiful!


Thank you,
Discus are not so expensive compared to other fish if you think that they can live up to ten years or more..
Also,you can choose and buy cheap hybrids which can turn into great fish.Pay attention to the shape,the eyes and less to the colour of the body.
The bad shape of a young discus fish will not improve,neither any etched eyes.
My rainbow discus fish was bought from an assortment tank of little ones at the mere price of 17 euros.


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## Fish (Dec 3, 2008)

Those fish are so cool!!!!


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## Dmaaaaax (Nov 20, 2008)

I once found 2 Discus in a Walmart. They did not have a price tag for it an the guy working there thought it was a pacu and sold them to me for ~$4 each! Never seen one there since.


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## Harry (Jan 29, 2008)

Dmaaaaax said:


> I once found 2 Discus in a Walmart. They did not have a price tag for it an the guy working there thought it was a pacu and sold them to me for ~$4 each! Never seen one there since.


He he,this is really good luck.I hope the poor guy wasn't fired after that!
Yes it is true that some times such mistakes happen so keep an eye for good prices and "mistakes"! I have bought a couple of times fish at incredibly low prices because they didn't know what they sold.I think this is a bit of justice since we usually buy fish and aquarium products at incredibly high prices.


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## petlover516 (Nov 12, 2008)

Harry said:


> He he,this is really good luck.I hope the poor guy wasn't fired after that!
> Yes it is true that some times such mistakes happen so keep an eye for good prices and "mistakes"! I have bought a couple of times fish at incredibly low prices because they didn't know what they sold.I think this is a bit of justice since we usually buy fish and aquarium products at incredibly high prices.


i remember one time whene we got a grouper worth $69.99 for $6.99 at petco, as well as a puffer worth $39.99 for $8.99!


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## Sivan (Jun 15, 2008)

Beautiful fishes and a nice looking tank!!


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## OSUJillyBean (Dec 30, 2008)

Wow - those fish are amazing! Absolutely gorgeous.


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## Harry (Jan 29, 2008)

OSUJillyBean said:


> Wow - those fish are amazing! Absolutely gorgeous.


Thank you very much.


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## Harry (Jan 29, 2008)

Sivan said:


> Beautiful fishes and a nice looking tank!!


Thank you,yours is wonderful too!!


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## lagniappe (Jan 11, 2008)

Harry said:


> Dear friend,
> When I started with discus fish I had all sorts of advice about softening the water and using a number of gadgets to monitor everything or sterilize the water etc.
> After three years with my new discus fish I can say that I have these results only with tap water.
> These dicsus fish are hybrids and they don't need soft water like the wild discus or when you want to reproduce them which calls for different approaches.
> ...


 It's great to read of someone else keeping discus this way!
I bred mine in tap water, despite my fearing that the osmotic pressure would be too great for the eggs. I also keep crushed coral in my fry tanks to ensure calcium for their little spines to form correctly.


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## Harry (Jan 29, 2008)

Your fish look great!Do you breed discus fish in tap water?I have never succeeded in breeding any discus fry.I only have one pair but they kept on eating their eggs or the eggs were infertile etc.


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## lagniappe (Jan 11, 2008)

I did. I thought my water would be too hard for the eggs to survive, but they did fine. I had a few pair that refused to stop eating their eggs(nearly all my fish would for the first few batches then just quite eating them....weird), so I spoke with another breeder about it. I tried to raise the fry artificially but they do far better feeding on the parents mucus. Finally, after speaking with him, I learned to use pvc instead of cones, and place a cylinder of coated hardware cloth over it once the eggs were laid. With this, the parents can still observe the eggs and fan them but are unable to gobble them up. Once they hatch, the parents take care in spitting them back toward the tube without swallowing them.


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## Dmaaaaax (Nov 20, 2008)

What temp do you all keep your discus? I have seen ranges from 76-90F.


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## Harry (Jan 29, 2008)

Dmaaaaax said:


> What temp do you all keep your discus? I have seen ranges from 76-90F.


I keep my fish on a temperature of 29 degrees Celcius which in winter can turn into 28 for some days.It is fine for them and the plants are not destroyed.However I would like to hear from other friends about it.


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## Dmaaaaax (Nov 20, 2008)

Harry said:


> I keep my fish on a temperature of 29 degrees Celcius which in winter can turn into 28 for some days.It is fine for them and the plants are not destroyed.However I would like to hear from other friends about it.


Cool...that equals ~84C which is right were I have my tank currently. I'd like to here from others as well.


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## Marty (Jan 1, 2009)

Awesome that is a beautiful tank and beautiful fish...


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## plchacker (Jan 17, 2009)

Great tank and fish Hary. You have convinced me to try discus. 

I added more plants this past weekend, and I found a UV filter on discount, so I bought it and installed it too.

The closest LFS had a good selection of 3-4 inch discus. They seemed to be in good shape. $60.00 ea. I'll be watching them closely to see how they do.

Great Video.


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## Harry (Jan 29, 2008)

Marty said:


> Awesome that is a beautiful tank and beautiful fish...


Thank you.Keep on taking good care of your fish!


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## Harry (Jan 29, 2008)

plchacker said:


> Great tank and fish Hary. You have convinced me to try discus.
> 
> I added more plants this past weekend, and I found a UV filter on discount, so I bought it and installed it too.
> 
> ...


I am happy to have induced you a bit into the discus world.:fish-in-a-bag:You will enjoy the beauty and some times the difficulties that might appear but it's worth it.Always ask for a discount,particularly if you buy more than one discus or other relatively expensive fish.


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## plchacker (Jan 17, 2009)

Harry said:


> I am happy to have induced you a bit into the discus world.:fish-in-a-bag:You will enjoy the beauty and some times the difficulties that might appear but it's worth it.Always ask for a discount,particularly if you buy more than one discus or other relatively expensive fish.


Harry,

I bought fish today. 4 discus, 2 bristle nose pleco's and a school of red eye tetras. 

The discus fish hid for an hour or so, but are out and about now. One looks a bit stunted, but it was buy one get one free. They only had four, and that was my target number, so I bought all four. I do have quite a bit more plants than in the photo's. Also driftwood. All is well so far. 

I'll start a new thread when I get photos.


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## iz513 (Jun 24, 2009)

thats cool to hear that discus dont always need the softest purest water mine is a little hard cause im on a well and all this softwater talk has kept me from getting them if i add driftwood my water shuld soften pretty good right? and not be at an extreme for a discus


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## Harry (Jan 29, 2008)

iz513 said:


> thats cool to hear that discus dont always need the softest purest water mine is a little hard cause im on a well and all this softwater talk has kept me from getting them if i add driftwood my water shuld soften pretty good right? and not be at an extreme for a discus


There are test kits to see how much hard the water you are going to use is.
If it is around 7,preferably no more than that,things are easy for you.An 8 wouldn't be a good number at all.
Yes some driftwood is very good because it helps to soften it a bit and is absolutely necessary for the plecos of the aquarium.Plecos without any driftwood soon or later will die.
However,the driftwood after a few days or a couple of months stops releasing the substances we need to soften it so another solution is to filter the water with black peat or add black water extracts which can be bought from the stores in plastic bottles.(I think "Kent" black extracts are very good.)
If you want a cheap solution you can buy an ion- exchanger (not from an aquarium store) but from a commercial store,one that uses cartridges with resins to soften the water.Ask for the one that will give you the ph you want,again stay at around 7 if you want to keep hybrids.
I would be happy to see your aquarium pics here and try to give you any advice you need.


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## spawn (Sep 21, 2009)

nice discus...


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