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Discus fish

The fish are doing really great, 80-90% water change per day, beef heart mix, 2 sponge filters seems to work well for me.
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Beautiful fish and very enjoyable videos. Agree that the first video would be better with quieter music, but found it interesting and enjoyed nonetheless. Sorry so hear about the bleach problem. Thanks for sharing your experiences!

I will keep Discus myself one day...not really a suited species for the low maintenance heavily stocked planted tanks I set up for clients (despite Discus being very frequently requested), but maybe in the future with hardy captive strains.

Is the only filtration in this tank air-powered sponge filters? What power/model air pump do you use? It seems your relying 100% on biological filtration, do you not use any easy floating plants to help? Plants may help with fish boredom too ;).

Also curious about what your feeding them? Beautiful fish :thumbup:.
 
@three-fingers
I only use sponge filters only because of the daily water changes which can take a few hours in winter (cold water needs to get heated in the tank so I poor it in veeeeery slowly) and external filters could have some trouble in keeping bacteria alive. I also rely on big water changes every day. The air pump is some Chinese product without a name, but is works.
I am thinking of placing some wood in the tank with some plants on it, but I'm still unsure about this as this could also give problems.
My discus are being fed 4 times per day in total; 2x beef heart mix, 1x Tropica D-50 and 1x dried or frozen brine shrimp. The beef heart is their main food, it will make them grow fast and healthy, but I do mix in some pallets just to make it stick better and to add vitamins.

Having Discus fish in a planted tank is a challenge but not impossible, you need to clean the filter more often as Discus are messy eaters and food will go to waste in the filter, a sump would be my first choice, simply because it's easier to maintain than a canister filter.
 
Why not using external with sponge pre-filter. You can clean the pre-filter sponges in the same way one cleans a sponge filter but with the benefit of more powerful filtration...I have sponges on all my filter intakes because whether you keep discus or not, the food will get in there if you have big externals, and also lost of the detritus which isn't ideal for the bio-bacs.
 
Martin in China said:
@three-fingers
I only use sponge filters only because of the daily water changes which can take a few hours in winter (cold water needs to get heated in the tank so I poor it in veeeeery slowly) and external filters could have some trouble in keeping bacteria alive. I also rely on big water changes every day.
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How about just putting the external filter inlet literally on the tank floor? That way water can still flow though it, even if you do a 80% water change? An external inlet shouldn't be as tall as a discus anyway. Unless the filter is turned off for hours every day, I cant see how there would be an issue keeping bacteria alive in an external filter vs. air powered sponge? The water extra water circulation from a proper pump and mechanical filtration can only help :).

Having Discus fish in a planted tank is a challenge but not impossible, you need to clean the filter more often as Discus are messy eaters and food will go to waste in the filter, a sump would be my first choice, simply because it's easier to maintain than a canister filter.
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Indeed, it's certainly not impossible, there are loads of examples of beautiful planted discus aquariums :D. Personally I've not noticed that discus are particularly messy eaters compared to other similar fish like angels though? I can think of much more messy fish commonly kept in planted tanks anyway :lol:. Many strains are particularly sensitive to water conditions however, so any "mess" is definitely more of an issue for them. Given that you are already doing fantastically with limited mechanical filtration from just air-powered filters (due to water changes), I can only see plants and wood as beneficial to water conditions :).

What are your tap water stats like there? (Other than very, very cold sounding!)
 
I think the problem with discus is that they've been kept in sterile conditions for so many generations in captivity that their immune system is really weak..Plants, substrate, dritwood, all harbour micro-organisms which discus can't cope with...They do come from soft/acidic water and soft water is not a friendly environment for a lot of pathogens we deal with in aquariums. Once exposed to fish tanks, discus get sick from what not....And no one has tried to breed them for immunity and breed just fish that have overcome certain diseases and have perhaps build up immunity against those pathogens. These fish are normally not the best looking because perhaps their growth rate was affected from the disease, so they get destroyed. And instead the "beautiful" ones are bred. There are plenty of soft water fish that were not babysitted like that and are now thriving in normal tap water...without too much fuss...
 
I think to some degree with what you say is true except to say all my Discus, Wild as well as tank bred, are in planted tanks with driftwood, even my breeding pair & the fry are raised in the same sort of set up.
The wood I use is Twisted Hazel from my own garden & the tanks are planted with mainly Echinodorus.


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three-fingers said:
What are your tap water stats like there?
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As I'm living in south China the water here is nice soft with a pH of 7 and no chlorine or chloramine added (except once a year to clean the pipes). I've got my fish from Hong Kong, which is 10 minutes from my home and they have the same water parameters, this makes it a lot easier on keeping my Discus.

The choice for my setup like this is that I want to grow out the fish first, see which once are male and female, and see if I can get a nice breeding couple. This is the same setup as Wayne Ng is using, so way change a good thing...hehe... The Discus grow out tank is not a display tank, thus no real need for decoration.
The "left over" fish will probably go into my planted tank.
 
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