[AndrewJS]

Are there any members that keep discus that may be able to help me with a few questions I have. I really want to keep discus but I've always been told it's extremely hard, there's a most difficult fish to keep, you will lose all your money because they are going to die on you. I want to know what all your water parameters need to be to grow discus healthy. What's the GH of the water needed to be, with the pH need to be, the KH need to be.how often should I do water changes for discus fish. I do water changes on my tanks 50% every week do I need to do more often for discus.
Any help would be great thank you.

 

[keepsmiling]

Hello, I am not a discus expert. but I can see what I can do about finding one for you.

 

[Romad]

Are there any members that keep discus that may be able to help me with a few questions I have. I really want to keep discus but I've always been told it's extremely hard, there's a most difficult fish to keep, you will lose all your money because they are going to die on you. I want to know what all your water parameters need to be to grow discus healthy. What's the GH of the water needed to be, with the pH need to be, the KH need to be.how often should I do water changes for discus fish. I do water changes on my tanks 50% every week do I need to do more often for discus.
Any help would be great thank you.

Have you checked out the profiles yet to get an idea of what their care involves? Here's a link for you if not.

Discus (Symphysodon aequifasciatus) Profile

I haven't kept them myself but I know that the folks who did (or do) swear by keeping the water pristine and would do large water changes at least twice weekly.

 

[luke77]

In my experience their not as hard as what people say. I've kept them with angels and my ph is 8. The wjtdp temp was 82 degrees. I did 2 water changes a week, one a 25% the other a 50%. The hardest part for me was getting them to eat once bringing them home . Also getting them on a varied diet cause the lfs just fed them blood worms. Which is good a few times a del but should not be their staple diet. It also helps if you have good stock to begin with. My water is soft and on the acidic side so the water condition was right for them.

 

[keepsmiling]

Great reply thank you!
But your water is alkaline, not acidic if it is at 8. Acidic is 5.5-6.9;-)

 

[luke77]

Oops my bad I meant alkaline.

 

[AndrewJS]

Thank you so they dont seem as hard to keep as every one says

 

[luke77]

Not to me. I had angels and discus and I ended up just trading my discus for the angels due to the fact if your gonna do a discus tank just do discus. Don't try other fish species it too much of a temp span. Unless it's some sort of small schooling fish that will tolerate the temp. I could only keep my temp at 82 cause of the other fish I had. Even then the discus would hang out by the heater cause the water was a little warmer there. A lot depends on the parameters in which they were raised.

 

[AndrewJS]

Not to me. I had angels and discus and I ended up just trading my discus for the angels due to the fact if your gonna do a discus tank just do discus. Don't try other fish species it too much of a temp span. Unless it's some sort of small schooling fish that will tolerate the temp. I could only keep my temp at 82 cause of the other fish I had. Even then the discus would hang out by the heater cause the water was a little warmer there. A lot depends on the parameters in which they were raised.

I plan to do just set up a Discus tank With some pleco cats .

 

[badxgillen]

Most discus will not live very long lives in too hard of water. I know that you can get away with a high PH especially when the breeder had them breed in a more alkaline water but from what I have seen they don't get the same colors or activity in higher alkalinity\PH.

 

[Agent13]

I don't keep them but I have a friend who does. He swears by a discus only tank but I don't think a couple plecos would be an issue(not common pleco though!). For growing young discus the ideal KH is 5-8 and GH 8-15 PH 6.8-7.5 . And super clean water. Thats about all I know lol.. I never get into much depth about that tank of his since I don't plan to keep them myself.

 

[AndrewJS]

I don't keep them but I have a friend who does. He swears by a discus only tank but I don't think a couple plecos would be an issue(not common pleco though!). For growing young discus the ideal KH is 5-8 and GH 8-15 PH 6.8-7.5 . And super clean water. Thats about all I know lol.. I never get into much depth about that tank of his since I don't plan to keep them myself.

This maybe a stupid question but why not a common plecostomus ?

 

[luke77]

Because a common pleco will get huge. 15 plus inches.

 

[AndrewJS]

Because a common pleco will get huge. 15 plus inches.

Okay for some reason I thought it was some other reason I knew they got big thanks for the information .