Discus Tank

Buying suitable equipment and setting up your Discus Tank correctly will be crucial to your success with keeping discus fish. Discus have been known to cause much heartbreak to inexperienced fish hobbyists who, with an assumption that discus fish needs are the same as other aquarium fish needs, take on these beautiful exotic fish, only to find that their new fish become ill.

Being well prepared and by doing your homework there is no reason why you too can keep and even breed the King of the Aquarium.

My suggestion to you before you spend any money buying your discus tank, filters, heaters or before you purchase your discus fish, is to buy or borrow a good discus fish book or two. I’ve recommended one at the end of this article which will certainly put you on the right track!

The Discus Tank

You should aim for a discus tank to have at least 2.5 gallons for every inch of discus fish. The larger the tank the better! Small tanks will stunt fish growth and require a lot more monitoring and maintenance. As a guide, a 55 gallon discus tank could take about 6-8 adult aquarium discus fish.

Run a couple of sponge rubber filters and a canister filter with activated carbon in it. Avoid underground filters as they can build up with waste material and when churned up pollute the water. Many aquarium discus fish keepers believe having a bare bottom tank is best as it is easy to keep waste away. This is not essential and having a thin layer of fine gravel can still be cleaned easily. A fluorescent strip light is adequate enough for your fish.

Add driftwood covered with Java Fern and plants in clay ceramic pots. Also include floating plants such as Water Sprite or Water Wisteria as these will filter the bright fluorescent light. Keep water flow to a minimum.

It is very important to cycle the discus tank, and have a filter running and cultured with beneficial bacteria before adding fish! Click the link to learn more about cycling an aquarium.

Water Parameters

Although they are a cichlid, aquarium discus requirements are not always the same as other cichlids. Water qualit Discus Tank y, temperature, health and feeding are significant factors which must be diligently observed and monitored for there to be any success in keeping these beautiful fish.

Keep your aquarium at a temperature of between 82-86 degrees Fahrenheit. This temperature may be a little high for other species of aquarium fish within a communal tank. Where tank temperature becomes too low, discus fish will stress and be susceptible to disease and parasites (intestinal flagellates).

Tap water should be fine for the discus tank (fine as long as you are happy to drink it!). Ensure you remove chlorine and chloramine and check and adjust pH. It is advisable to house new discus fish in pH that they are used to, then gradually make the changes to pH. PH should be at around 6.5, although it can be quite a bit lower.

There are many products available to lower pH; however, it is very important that you check your pH test monitor can accurately test low pH readings, as many off the shelf pH monitors don’t do this accurately.
Discus Tank
Fully grown discus require a water change of between 30-40%, of total tank water, once a week. When adding new water it is best to have it cycled. This can be done by running another tank, without the fish and add the wat er from it to your discus tank.

A trick to red ucing the necessity for very regular water changes is to run your discus aquarium water through your filter into a large aerated concealed storage tank, then cycle the water back into the discus tank. By doing this you are significantly increasing the volume of water that you keep you fish in and therefore don’t need to change water quite so regularly.

Discus Compatibility

Aquarium discus will do best housed in their own tank; however, this does not mean they can’t be kept in communal aquariums. Discus are passive fish, perfect for a peaceful community aquarium. They will swim at all water levels watching other aquarium fish intently. Housing them with non aggressive fish that don’t compete for their food will ensure your discus are relaxed and happy. The best companions would include tetras and the smaller varieties of catfish. Catfish are helpful cleaners and will eat leftover food.

The downside of keeping discus fish in communal aquariums is that they may pick up diseases and parasites from the other fish, of which discus are more susceptible to.

Remember happy aquarium discus will have a strong immune system that fights off disease.

Breeding Discus

The discus tank set up for breeding discus fish differs from when simply keeping them as pets. Visit this link to learn more about Breeding Discus.

Now I have only covered the very basics on discus tank and water parameters. To fully understand these striking fish and their needs, I strongly suggest you continue your learning. One book well worth a look at is “Discus Fish Secrets" written by an expert discus fish keeper and breeder, Rob Clark.