Discus on Tinker Fish

Discus Food

One of the primary factors in keeping your discus fish healthy is feeding them properly. In my opinion feeding your discus the regular tropical fish flakes isn't enough, I would even recommend not feeding them those flakes at all.

]]> The only dryfood I use, when I run out of stock from my freezer, is special discus granulate. But even this 'special' discus food should not be the main food for discus fish. It is also important to feed your discus several times a day, best with different types of food. All the food I use for my discus fish, and for the other species as well, are frozen blister packages. Be sure to let them defrost before feeding them.

I give my discus Bloodworms, they like those a lot, artemia, beef heart and daphnia, and occasionally white and black mosquito larvae.

The Assassin Method

You wonder how the Asian Breeders breed their discus in large quantities? They use the Assassin Method.

The original brown assassins were usually of the same breed as their cichlid employers. Specifically, they would take care of eggs from other browns. The breeder would typically identify which browns were the more diligent egg layers and which were the most proficient parents. Eggs, as soon as they were laid and fertilized would be transferred to the assassins. Ideally, they would be transferred to an assassin tank that had just laid eggs; but not so many, being inefficient egg producers.

This allowed for a kind of mass production that filled the coffers of many early discus breeders in Thailand. There were those that said, "when the eggs are laid, the money can be counted." Thus at this time, the kind of foster parenting that most often took place, was one of egg care. From this, it evolved into fry care.

Read full article on pompadua.com

Artemia

Artemia is a good food source for both adult and young discus fish. I would not recommend to try to raise the Artemia in to adulthood, adult Artemia is very cheap and widely available in most petshops in blister packages. The Artemia larvea ( the nauplius ) to feed your young discus are only available as eggs, also referred to as cysts.

]]> Feeding the young discus
The first couple of days the young will feed only on the skin secrete of their parents, they will do so, or at least try, for the first couple of weeks. After 6 or 7 days you can start feeding them with Artemia nauplius, these are the just hatched larvae of the Brine Shrimp.

This is the best food source for the young discus, and most other young cichlids as well. You can buy the eggs in most petshops, or order them online. The Brine shrimp is an interesting critter, they live in salt water lakes that seasonally dry out. They can overcome this dry period, which can take years, by producing hard shelled eggs ( the Cysts ). All you need to setup your own Artemia food source are some one or two liter plastic bottles, salt ( seasalt for best results ) and an airpump. And lets don't forget a very fine mazed net, you can buy a special Artemia sieve set. It is very important to clean the nauplius very carefully to get rid of the salt water they hatched in.

Now first prepare the bottle by making a small hole in the lid where the plastic tube of the airpump is fitting in nicely. Put the plastic tube in the lid, all the way to the bottom, and connect it to the airpump. Fill the bottle with one liter of fresh water and put 6 or 7 teaspoons of salt in it. You can setup multiple bottles by making a chain with them, all connected to one single airpump. I will make a drawing of this setup in the future, it seems more difficult than it is, really. Now just put a teaspoon of the Artemia eggs in the bottle, be sure to make the water as turbulent as possible to make the hatching of the nauplius easier. If they are hatched clean them and let the young discus feast on them.

Cardinal Tetras in the discus tank

Nice article about keeping Cardinal Tetras with your discus.

I have noticed a very odd phenomenon, however. Whenever I write about planted Discus show tanks, inevitably I mention Cardinal Tetras (Paracheirodon axelrodi) because most planted Discus show tanks house them. Indeed, all of my show tanks contain cardinals, as they come very close to being my favorite fish (I say "very close" because my passion will always be Discus -- but I also know I would never be happy with JUST a bare tank of Discus fish). One of my favorite things to do in this wonderful hobby is to simply observe my fish. Geek that I am, I like to just watch them and study their behavior - I never get tired of it, and can literally spend hours in front of my favorite tank, just watching.

Reed full article on Wetwebmedia.com

Proper Diet For the Discus Fish

The Discus fish has its habitat in the South American waters of Brazil and Peru. Discus fish are classified as "grazers", and in the wild constantly forage for food. Discus are tall, and have a laterally compressed body. Their swim bladder is located on top of the stomach. They have small stomachs, and short digestive tracts, and with these small stomachs designed to hold small amounts of food, over feeding the Discus can be a problem. Even a minor case of constipation can cause serious problems for the Discus fish.

]]> Diet for the Discus should be varied and contain the nutritional value that they need to survive. In a discussion with our breeder, Nick Lockhart of Perfection Discus, I asked him what he would recommend for the daily diet.

Nick feeds our Discus twice a day. He feeds live white worms generally twice per week. The white worms are cultured on site, and are kept refrigerated in a small apartment sized fridge, and temperature controlled by a device that uses a probe to maintain a temperature of approximately 55 to 65 degrees for best results.

Nick also uses bloodworms, plankton, white worms, Emerald Entree, mysis shrimp, and white mosquito larvae to give a varied diet. Emerald Entree is a good choice for Discus fish. Although originally formulated for marine fish, it has proven to be an excellent diet for freshwater fish. Emerald Entrée is fortified with omega-3 fatty acids such as EPA and DHA, which are proven to be important for optimal growth and disease prevention.

Discus fish and a lot of African cichlids eat a lot of blue green algae in the wild. Spirulina is a blue green algae, and has a special protein called Phycocyanin not found in another algae or terrestrial plants. Spirulina powder is readily available through most pet shops. Japanese scientists have linked Phycocyanin to improved kidney and liver function. Japanese fish farmers make extensive use of Spirulina, due to its positive effects on their fish.

Because good hygiene is of the utmost importance in the Discus tank, one should never feed more than the Discus can consume in approximately five minutes. As they are grazers, they tend to eat a bit slowly, so a little more time is needed to allow them to get their fill. I have read that it is good to allow a Discus to "fast" on occasion for up to two days, allowing them to get toxins flushed from the system. Nick has also stated that a fish can go two weeks without food, so skipping a day here and there is not really detrimental to the fish. Of course, you will not want to drive them to the point of starvation, but it will never harm the Discus to go for a day or two without food. It is much better to underfeed them a little than to over feed.

If care is taken, the discus will thrive in the aquarium. Much information is available for the potential Discus breeder, and a little common sense thrown in along the way wouldn't hurt either. As Discus are long-lived, the aquarist can have the enjoyment of these friendly fish for ten to twelve years.

Alden Smith is a published author, and has achieved Expert Author status. Alden has been marketing on the internet for 7 years. His website, King Discus, is an active gathering place for discus breeders and lovers of discus fish. His wife Betsy is the administrator of All The Best Recipes a site rich in online recipes and cookbooks.

By Alden Smith

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Sexing Discus Fish

Do you have some adult discus fish and want to know whether they are male or female. In this article I’m going to share with you some of the tips and techniques you can use to determine the gender of your discus or those you wish to buy.

]]> First of all, know that these are only guides and they are not always 100% correct as in some circumstances females have male characteristics and males have female ones.

Here are ways to determine the sex of your discus

1, The dorsal and anal fins

Take a good look at the dorsal and anal fins of your discus. Are they rounded or are they pointed. Males tend to have pointed dorsal and anal fins or sometimes have extended growth on the end rear of the dorsal fin. Females tend to have rounds rear fins.

2, The colour and pattern of your discus

Please look at the colour and pattern of your discus fish, compare them to one another in the tank. Some fish will hopefully have more intense colour and some discus will have more pattern. Male discus fish tend to have less intense colour but have more pattern while the female tends to be more colourful but with lesser pattern.

3, Size of the discus

Compare the size of your discus. Male discus tend to be bigger than the females but the size can also depend on whether the fish was stunted or are just small in genetic make up.

I hope these three tips have helped you to sex your discus and will help you when selecting adult discus fish from a shop or dealer.

If you liked this information and want to learn more about discus fish care and breeding discus please check out my website discus-fish-secrets.com

Rob owns Discus Fish Secrets website helping begginners and advanced fishkeepers with discus problems including keeping and breeding them. Please visit the site for more information on breeding discus.

Tips on Sexing Discus Fish
By Rob Mellor

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Sponge filter cycling

I have a small Discus hatchery with 3 20 gallon tanks with breeding pairs, one 75 gallon tank, 2 60 gallon tanks, and two 30 gallon tanks. I use the "Rainbow" brand double sponge filters (each sponge is about 6 inches x 2 inches. My large tanks have two filters (4 sponges) in them and the small tanks have one (2 sponges). I moved to a new home almost two months ago and I tried to preserve the biological cycling on the aged sponge filters by packing them in 5 gallons cans with aquarium water. When I setup my tanks in the new location I discovered 4+PPM of ammonia in all my tanks. It seems all my sponges had un cycled. I had to use a triple dose of Amquel daily to remove the Ammonia and all the fish became very lethargic. I recognized that they were under extreme stress.

Read full article on CLC Discus

Nutrition for Discus Fish

Read full article on King Discus

Water Chemistry

An in depth article about water Chemistry for the Discus tank.

Much has been written about the Discus, or Symphysodon aequifasciatus, its Latin name. The Discus has always been given a bad rap for being hard to raise and difficult to keep. Actually, these long-lived fishes are easy to keep as long as certain guidelines are followed. Here, we discuss the different water parameter that MUST be followed if we are to insure that our Discus friends are kept happy and healthy.

Read full article on King Discus

Parasites in Discus

An interesting read about internal parasites in Discus, I only disagree with the author on preventive medications.

Discus Worm, Symptoms of internal parasites in Discus

a) not eating
b) not growing
c) dull color

Why discus fish refuse to eat?
Healthy discus fish eat anything you give, when they are hungry. If they do not eat, there must be something wrong the fish and not the food. They have no appetite to eat because of internal parasites.

Read full article on CLC Discus

Plants in the discus tank

In short, most plants need three things to survive/thrive:

correct lighting and water temperature
gravel/substrate (unless they are floating plants)
food of some sort

All three of these needs must be met and must be balanced for planted aquaria to thrive. The reality of Plant Success 101 is that all things need to be correct, in balance, and constant. Without that foundation, you'll eventually end up with dead plants, algae gone wild, and a spouse insisting you "take down that eyesore right now!"

Read full article on Wetwebmedia

Discus Breeding

Breeding discus is still quite an achievement for the aquarium hobbyist but also one of the most interesting aspects of keeping this beautiful fish. The view of a couple of mature discus fish swimming around with their offspring is really fascinating. The discus has an unique way of feeding their young, they produce a skin secrete that is the only food source in the first couple of days. Right after the young fish are swimming free they start to graze their parents, if one of the parents is consumed, well the skin secrete, they well be transferred to the other parent. But before you see these wonderful youngsters and their parents swimming around there are a few guidelines to take care of.

]]> Partner selection
In my opinion it is best to start with a group of semi-adult fish and let a couple select themselves, don't believe the couples for sale in a lot of petshops. Often they are just two mature fish and a discus couple is really something different, discus are very picky when it comes to their partner choice. That's quite normal in the animal world when a couple have to depend on one an other in raising their young, and discus are no exception. When a couple is formed within a group of discus fish the change of getting a successful breeding couple is much better.

Water conditions
For discus breeding the water hardness and PH value are very important, be sure to keep the values as close as possible to the optimum, otherwise the discus will spawn but the eggs will not develop correctly.

The optimum water conditions for breeding are:
Temperature: 31°C ( 88°F )
Hardness: 3-10° dGH
Ph: 5.5-6

A breeding tank?
If you need a special breeding tank depends on a lot of factors. Are the discus kept by themselves or do they have other species as tankmates. You can imagine that if other species of fish are present they can disturb the couple and/or feed on the young. The discus will try to protect their young but in the limited space of an aquarium that is hard to achieve. If there are only discus fish present and the tank is not overcrowded you have a good change a couple can raise the young within the tank.

If you want to raise as much of the young as possible and want more control on the water values and other variables, a special breeding tank is the preferable. This way the couple can solely concentrate on their care of the young and it makes the feeding and cleaning for the hobbyist much easier. I personally like the more 'natural' breeding method within the regular discus tank. You will probably loose some of the young, but the behavior of a breeding couple within the group is worth it.

The eggs
The discus couple will find a suitable place ( plants, aquarium window or any other vertical place ) to deposit their clutch of eggs, the amount of eggs ( 50 to 200 ) depends on the size of the female discus. They start cleaning the place very carefully and often the surroundings as well, this is part of their mating behavior. While cleaning the place, they shake their heads and often are aggressive to curious tankmates. When al the cleaning and shaking and stuff is done the female will start laying her first row of eggs, the male discus follows behind her to fertilize the eggs. The eggs will hatch in about 60 hours.

To raise the young discus you need to start you own little Artemia factory, more information about artemia as a food source here.

Discus Fish colors

There are 4 'real' discus variants, with their own Latin name. The rest of the color variants are captive bred and the list of these color variants is nearly endless. They have exotic names like, 'Snake Skin', 'White Diamond', 'Blue Diamond' etc... The color variants displayed here are just a few examples, more will be added in the future.

]]>

Brown Discus
Symphysodon Aequifasciatus Axelrodi

Blue Discus
Symphysodon Aequifasciatus Haraldi

Green Discus
Symphysodon Aequifasciatus Aequifasciatus

Heckel Discus
Symphysodon Discus

Discus "Red Ruby"

Discus "Blue Snakeskin"

Discus "Yellow"

Water conditions

Discus fish come originally from the Amazon river, this water is soft acidic and has a brownish color. The water generally has a temperature between 26 and 31 °C ( 79 to 88 °F ) and a PH range of 5.5 to 6. The hardness of the water ranges from 3 to 10° dGH.

]]> For the aquarium it is not necessary to imitate these values exactly, except for wildcaught animals that are recently imported. They are very fragile when in comes to water quality and the hardness of the water, captive bred fish are much more tolerant. I would recommend to try to keep the water conditions as follow:

Hardness: between 3 to 15° dGH
PH: Between 5.5 and 7
Temperature: around 30°C (86° F)

To lower the hardness of the water I would not recommend to use the supplements offered in petshops. The main reason for this is that the effect will not last very long because of the regular water changes. In my own tanks I use peat in my filter to lower the hardness. But there are other methods as well, which I will discuss at a later point.

Nitrate and nitrite levels
Besides the hardness of the water it is very important to keep the nitrate and nitrite levels within an acceptable range. I would not let the nitrate value come above 20 and the nitrite level is ideally not measurable. This is achievable by using a good filtering method, the right amount of fish and a regular change of 1/3 of the water. For my own tanks I change about 1/3 of the water two times a week. I use normal drinking water for this purpose, but I am lucky to live in an area where the water values are within an acceptable range.

Oxygen and CO2
When it comes to discus fish and temperature there is one last issue to mention. When you keep your fish at lower temperatures they become more susceptible to diseases. Because warmer water contains less oxygen it is important to have enough water surface movement. This way the water can better absorb the oxygen and get rid of waste products like CO2, 'real' waterplants like Vallisneria, and Ceratophyllum also have a positive effect on the oxygen/CO2 levels. If you like you can also use an Airstone, in combination with an air pump.

Aquarium filtering

Talking about water conditions, to keep the water clear and healthy a good filter is needed. There are several ways to filter the aquarium water. The best filtering method is a biological filter, but that's not always an option, depending on where and how the aquarium is placed.

]]> A biological filter is basically a smaller tank under the actual aquarium. In this 'filter' tank the water goes through several compartments with filtering substrate, where large colonies of cleaning bacteria will develop. Besides the positive effect of the bacteria a biological filter larges the overall volume of the water, which makes the water quality more stable. The effect bacteria have on the water quality is not limited to a biological filter, all filters will contain the positive bacteria over time, but because of its larger size the effect is just better.

There are two other kind of filters often used in our modern aquariums, for smaller tank sizes there are often small inside filters used. They have a rather small capacity and can over time become a problem because the waste products are remaining inside the water. I would only recommend these inside filters for temporary usage, like for a breeding tank or a quarantine tank.

The most used filter is an external one. If you buy one with enough overcapacity it is a good filtering method. Be sure to clean the filter substrate every two months by washing it out with water of the same temperature ( more or less ) as the aquarium water. This way you will get rid of the waste products without loosing all the bacteria.