Fish shopping: Discus

[Deleted User]

I have been into koi's for many years and thought I would venture into aquarium type fishes again. Blood Parrots and Discus should be fun. The Blood Parrots are great once they get to know you, else they hide! Anyhow, I recorded some footage of the Discus varities, change to 1080 for much better quality.

Halen

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LeftCoast

That was a blood parrot? Looks like a cross without something else. It's shape resmbles a frontosa more than a blood parrot.

vlam

That's a male flowerhorn, not a blood parrot. Note that they are not usually community fish, it mean it can't live with another fish in the tank.

The discus doesn't look bad for LFS but some don't look too healthy. If you are going with discus, I suggest finding a local breeder in your area.

The Blue Diamond tank discus are sick. The Red melon fish are color enhanced.

[Deleted User]

I did not have any footage of the Blood Parrots in this video. This was a new place that I went to, I heard many people talk about going here. I did not end up buying any fish from this place. I did end up getting 6 Blood Parrots from another place in my part of town.

It does seem like many of these type of fish are color enhanced, generic looking. The ones at this particular location were not bad and my untrained eye was not able to tell. Other places around here, it is very obvious and meant to be done.

Pycroft

Hah, I was going to tell you to contact Vlam because he breeds discus. I guess I'm one step behind.

I used to have a beautful tank of African Cichlids, but the hobby was lost during the last move - I had to the get rid of the tank, and with the dog and baby, just haven't gotten back into it - although I'd like to.

James

thuffman03

Fish tanks are cool. I have had at least one up and running since I was 8yo or so.

LeftCoast

Sick discus? No, you're kidding! lol

It's been a long time since I was in the hobby...15 years plus. Has technology changed much? I used to run Eheim filters for everything and did pretty well. Even mananged to South American cichlids like Microgeophagus Ramrezi thriving.

Has there been much innovation?

If I were to try the hobby again, I think I would attempt to do a Dutch tank.

[Deleted User]

Eheim is a great product, I use many of their products. I am not a fan of Fluval products. I know people that have Discus, but for some reason, they seem hard to maintain(keep alive). I am going to stick with Blood Parrots and Arowanas for now.

newbie308

Just a suggestion, but I've foud that the best way to keep discus is with reverse osmosis water and frequent water changes. I typicaly vacuumed the gravel weekly, and replaced the lost water with more RO water. Annother old wives trick is to put a copper penny in the filter. Copper is lethal to most waterborne bacteria. I have 20+ years experience with cichlids. Discus are beautiful, but they are a lot of work! I now have a Managuinse that is about 14 years old. It is almost completely blind now, but it still recognizes me, and wags its tail like a happy dog when I walk by the tank.

LeftCoast

Best way to keep discus as well:

Bare tank.

Sounds like the hobby hasn't changed much. I don't think I could afford to do it now. lol
Life has changed.

vlam

newbie308 wrote: »

Just a suggestion, but I've foud that the best way to keep discus is with reverse osmosis water and frequent water changes. I typicaly vacuumed the gravel weekly, and replaced the lost water with more RO water. Annother old wives trick is to put a copper penny in the filter. Copper is lethal to most waterborne bacteria. I have 20+ years experience with cichlids. Discus are beautiful, but they are a lot of work! I now have a Managuinse that is about 14 years old. It is almost completely blind now, but it still recognizes me, and wags its tail like a happy dog when I walk by the tank.

Blindly going with RO water for discus is absolutely the worse thing to do. Most LFS will try to sell that idea to you without a clue about your tap water parameters. Domestic discus requires clean stable water and good diet. If someone tell you that the water need to be a certain pH so you need to buy an RO unit.. run away.

LeftCoast: I agree. Keeping the tank barebottom makes it much easier to clean. All my tanks, except for 2 show tank are bare bottom that gets daily or 3 times a week water change.

The "KISS" is really important with keeping discus. Some discus keeper may try to make you believe that keeping discus is a lot harder and complicated than it really is.

[Deleted User]

vlam,

Do you have any pointers if I were to venture into Discus? What are the traits of a nice Discus versus not? Is it along the lines of body shape, pattern, color? Of course for now, those things are not the first things I need to know. Maybe I should start off with only a pair and get the learn on.

pitdogg2

vlam wrote: »

Blindly going with RO water for discus is absolutely the worse thing to do. Most LFS will try to sell that idea to you without a clue about your tap water parameters. Domestic discus requires clean stable water and good diet. If someone tell you that the water need to be a certain pH so you need to buy an RO unit.. run away.

LeftCoast: I agree. Keeping the tank barebottom makes it much easier to clean. All my tanks, except for 2 show tank are bare bottom that gets daily or 3 times a week water change.

The "KISS" is really important with keeping discus. Some discus keeper may try to make you believe that keeping discus is a lot harder and complicated than it really is.

Vlam I back you up on all that you said I too have been in the hobby for 35 yrs. I have had many fish mostly central and south American big bruiser cichlids (Dovii,Tri-Macs,Umbie's) one year i went off the deep end and bought some wild Discus( Tefe Greens) because I was told I couldn't keep them let alone have them breed and raise their young. I kept my AQ clean bare bottom 50% water change every other day they were stressed until the Ph went below 5.0 when it hit 4.5 all hell broke loose they just paired up and started laying eggs. I do not recommend that people try to match the Ph of 4.5 but for mine it worked so well i had hundreds of fry to sell and sell they did. To be truthful I do not like what has happened to the Discus strains in the last 15yrs. The monster breeders have taken a wonderful fish and turned into a Koi or goldfish of sort with all the fake colors they have bred to. Nothing beats a true wild color form of the fish. The Heckles,royal blues, Tefe Green and the reds of wild fish not to mention the plain old brown discus are just plain beautiful. The pigeon bloods with the black, the plain white and others that just look so fake to me are UGLY.

I must say this the copper penny trick just won't go away I hear so many people say "all there is to fish keeping is toss a penny in the tank" Copper doesn't kill bacteria copper kills parasites. If copper killed bacteria your fish would die because you need bacteria to keep fish alive beneficial bacteria of course

vlam

pitdogg2 wrote: »

Vlam I back you up on all that you said I too have been in the hobby for 35 yrs. I have had many fish mostly central and south American big bruiser cichlids (Dovii,Tri-Macs,Umbie's) one year i went off the deep end and bought some wild Discus( Tefe Greens) because I was told I couldn't keep them let alone have them breed and raise their young. I kept my AQ clean bare bottom 50% water change every other day they were stressed until the Ph went below 5.0 when it hit 4.5 all hell broke loose they just paired up and started laying eggs. I do not recommend that people try to match the Ph of 4.5 but for mine it worked so well i had hundreds of fry to sell and sell they did. To be truthful I do not like what has happened to the Discus strains in the last 15yrs. The monster breeders have taken a wonderful fish and turned into a Koi or goldfish of sort with all the fake colors they have bred to. Nothing beats a true wild color form of the fish. The Heckles,royal blues, Tefe Green and the reds of wild fish not to mention the plain old brown discus are just plain beautiful. The pigeon bloods with the black, the plain white and others that just look so fake to me are UGLY.

I must say this the copper penny trick just won't go away I hear so many people say "all there is to fish keeping is toss a penny in the tank" Copper doesn't kill bacteria copper kills parasites. If copper killed bacteria your fish would die because you need bacteria to keep fish alive beneficial bacteria of course

I hear you about domestic versus wild. Most people who get into discus these days are attracted to mutation of the original strains. Only advanced hobbyist see the attractions of the wild. People want colorful fish at the local fish store and you really can't blame them. Most wild that are available at the LFS are not very good wild. You have to pay a premium to get them and there isn't really a market for them. Some of my customers see my royal spotted green and say it's ugly and that it's not a discus.

vlam

halenhoang wrote: »

vlam,

Do you have any pointers if I were to venture into Discus? What are the traits of a nice Discus versus not? Is it along the lines of body shape, pattern, color? Of course for now, those things are not the first things I need to know. Maybe I should start off with only a pair and get the learn on.

Halen,

First off.. discus do well in a group. Never get 1 or 2 discus and put in your tank because they will be misearable. You can have 2 if they are an adult pair but 3 will cause territoral problems. Always start with a group of 5 or more.

Depending on your budget, the way to go is to start out with a group of 2.5"-3" from a reputable breeder or importer. It's always important to have a good idea of their age. Discus around that size shouldn't be more than 4-5 months old. A tell tale sign that a discus is older than it's size is large eyes, football shape and colorful discus at that size. At that age, most discus should have too much color unless color enhancer were used.

I have nothing against discus at local fish. The only problem is that most stores are not equiped to feed and change the water in their discus tanks. Perfectly healthy fish arriving at the store will deteriorate in no time. Worse yet, discus don't belly up and die. They get stressed and become sick. Once that occurred, they get other fish sick and before long all the tanks has sick fish.

GoBigBlue

I had better luck with discus in a bare tank. Oddly, I think it's more aesthetically pleasing, too. Saltwater is the way to go, though. I could buy several LSi series set ups with the money I have invested in saltwater fish.

[Deleted User]

vlam,

Any chance you could post some pictures of your Discus? I remember going to several auctions in the past and they had Discus going around the 400-500 dollar range. I am not familiar with these guys and the price range for show quality ones. Being new to Discus, I would hate to spend that amount on several only to have them die on me. I have spent a great deal on Koi's, true Japanese koi's and the yard looks great. Thought I may add more to the fish collection but indoors. I went to Scotland recently and had someone look after my Blood Parrots(several were bigger than a fist) only to come back with them all dead! I was livid! I just picked up 6 new Blood Parrots and have them in one 130 gallon tank. The Arowana is now in a different 75 gallon tank. I have a 50 gallon with nothing in it currently. Do you have any suggestions for reputable online dealers for Discus? Thanks in advance.

Halen

[Deleted User]

This is the location that I went to over the weekend. I have never bought from the place, but visited due to many recommendations.

http://www.youtube.com/user/aquaticwonderland

Halen

vlam

Halen,

Here are photo/video of some of my discus that I have/had. I have quite a few new ones that are not in here. I've been so busy with just maintaining the tanks so no more time for pictures. I have a total of about 800 gallons of discus tanks (about 12 tanks running)

Discus could get expensive and maintaining them is expensive as well. Cost me about $300/month just for food, water and electric. I am almost completely out of the Audio/HT, just no time at all.

Enjoy!

vlam

Halen: Feel free to email me if you have any specific questions regarding discus. I am mostly into discus, planted tank and high end pleco such as the Zebra Pleco (L46). If you thought discus was expensive, look up L46. They are about $100-$150 per inch. Luckily they don't get bigger than 3".

vlam168@gmail.com

Van

LeftCoast

vlam

With the set up you have, 300 bucks a month isn't bad. I dunno...Seeing this, I may try it again at some point. But the ht I will set up might just upset the fish. lol

I was going to ask you about dither fish (I think I remember that term correctly).

Schooling maybe some cardinals or rummy noses in a tank.

What size tanks are you keeping your mated pairs in?

I would do it that way if I started again: a few bare tanks, then a show tank.

You have alot of water to change out, but your plants must look great lol

Do you know anything about the dutch tank set ups?

vlam

LeftCoast wrote: »

vlam

With the set up you have, 300 bucks a month isn't bad. I dunno...Seeing this, I may try it again at some point. But the ht I will set up might just upset the fish. lol

I was going to ask you about dither fish (I think I remember that term correctly).

Schooling maybe some cardinals or rummy noses in a tank.

What size tanks are you keeping your mated pairs in?

I would do it that way if I started again: a few bare tanks, then a show tank.

You have alot of water to change out, but your plants must look great lol

Do you know anything about the dutch tank set ups?

$300/month and a few hours a day. I think the audio hobby was cheaper.

I use rummy nose, cardinals and neons in my planted tank. The tank actually only get WC once a week and I only have Heckels in there now. It's a fully automated tank that is hooked up to a controller that I can control with the IPhone. The only thing I didn't trust was automating water change.

My breeders tank are just 20gal high. I only use sponge filters in them. For my larger pairs, I use 40 gal tank.

They go through about 2lbs of homemade beefheart a week.