New to discus and nearly killed them already! Please help!!!

[vishnooked]

Hi there,
We are avid fish lovers who have 3 tropical tanks in the house- One is a 6' and the other two are 2'. We recently decided to try keeping discus and so far we are really bad at it. We didn't really do some serious research and we placed them in a tank with a ph of 7.6 Anyway, we have been slowly bringing the ph down using ph lower liquid and I have been doing a small water change each day. The discus are quite dark in colour but seem to be swimming around okay. The hardness is 80ppm at the moment and the temperature is around 27degrees. They are beginning to eat which is promising. My questions are:
1) What do you recommend the ph should be? We have a scorpion and a snakeskin at the moment.
2) Is there anything I can do to make the discus happier faster
3) One discus seems to give a little jitter, or shudder every now and then- is this normal?
4) Has anyone else gone through a similar process?

I'd really appreciate your advice as we are extreme beginners!!! :ezpi_wink1:

[Lady Hobbs]

First thing that comes to mind is if the tank was cycled before the fish went in? If not, you will constantly be testing the water and doing water changes as these are tender fish and can not tolerate ammonia or nitrites.

Personally (and I am not a discus owner) I would not mess with the pH. The fluctuations of it raising and you constantly lowering it is worse for the fish than letting them get used to what you have instead of it jumping around.
pH changes should never be more than .4 in any 24 hour period.

If you are looking for a softer water and a lower pH, if anything I would run peat thru your filter which will soften it naturally. It may darken the water some but that's fine and it's what discus like. They are a warmer bodied fish and like temps in the higher range.

Others have mentioned that "shudder" you've seen. I don't know much about discus but I know my angels do it now and then. It's a show of dominance for them but for your discus, I don't know.

Good luck with your new friends. Please make sure you keep their water very clean with changes every week.

[salman]

Hi there,
We are avid fish lovers who have 3 tropical tanks in the house- One is a 6' and the other two are 2'. We recently decided to try keeping discus and so far we are really bad at it. We didn't really do some serious research and we placed them in a tank with a ph of 7.6 Anyway, we have been slowly bringing the ph down using ph lower liquid and I have been doing a small water change each day. The discus are quite dark in colour but seem to be swimming around okay. The hardness is 80ppm at the moment and the temperature is around 27degrees. They are beginning to eat which is promising. My questions are:
1) What do you recommend the ph should be? We have a scorpion and a snakeskin at the moment.
2) Is there anything I can do to make the discus happier faster
3) One discus seems to give a little jitter, or shudder every now and then- is this normal?
4) Has anyone else gone through a similar process?

I'd really appreciate your advice as we are extreme beginners!!! :ezpi_wink1:


1) Your pH is fine as long as its stable, although your hardness is really high.
2) There are stress conditioners i've heard of. Some said it helped their fish feel like they were at home.
3) Mine had the same problem, its usualy a sign of a disease called Gill Fluke. Are they breathing heavily? And do they breathe from one gill only? If this is the case, they will probably sell Gill Fluke medicine in your LFS. You should treat before it gets too serious.
4) Yes, i started hating my discus. But, i've gotten over it.

[Cal Discus]

40% daily w/c's and make sure tank is cycled. Leave the Ph alone, its fine. Clean water, good varied foods and clean water and discus are easy to keep. The problem is people think they have to make all these huge changes to keep discus. They are just like other fish accept they require cleaner water which equals larger and more frequent w/c's. Cleaner water equals less chance of parasites and illness.

Simplydiscus.com

[Lady Hobbs]

Discus don't mind a bit of peat run thru the filter. Gives the amazon tank, lowers the ph a bit and makes water softer.

[Cal Discus]

You would need a lot of peat to make a difference and the stuff can get messy plus it needs to be changed often. Not worth the work IMO. Drop a large piece of driftwood (bogwood) in the tank and it will work just the same but easier. The tannins from the wood will soften the water and give it a tea look if that is what you are after.

[SoCalxPiranhaxKing]

But I wouldn’t tell a beginner to use peat moss or driftwood as a buffer. Its hard to keep stable and tannins leeching from driftwood can also be toxic to fish. Not to mention that pleasant fart odor of wet peat HeHeHe. As for that "shudder" I think most cichlids shake/vibrate there tails to communicate one thing or another but most commonly its a threat display.

[cocoa_pleco]

lol, this is a old thread and vishnooked didnt return to the forum after he asked the question

[Incredulous_Ed]

lol, I thought something was up when I saw a post by Salman.