Discus Fish Blog

Return To; Discus Fish Disease and Treatments *I’m frequently asked. My fish have stopped eating, what medicine should I use to treat them?More often than not, all that’s initially needed is to do a water change, clean the filter including new carbon. Normally this will stimulate appetite and get them feeding again. If the fish do not start feeding after this tank and filter cleaning, then simply raising the tank temperature will get them eating again. By raising the heat stimulate app …

Return To: How to Care for a Discus Fish Tank While Away *The answer to this question will come as a surprise to many. I would like to categorize two sizes of Discus, an adult 6-inch and juvenile 3-inch, also that the Discus fish which stopped eating were healthy and eating before they began their hunger strike.Discus which stops eating will start to shut down in order to burn fewer calories. They do not move much and at the latter stages become lethargic and even disoriented. In the wild, …

Return To; Wild Discus in Your Aquarium  *Discus fish have fairly simple dietary habits. They are omnivores and will eat both meat and plants. An assorted diet that offers both will ensure that they get all of the nutrients they need to color up and be healthy. I feed all of my Discus Hakari frozen bloodworms and either Formula One or Omega One flake to enhance their natural colors. You can also include spirulina flake and freeze-dried krill, which is also good for growth and colo …

Return To; How to Set Up a Discus Fish Tank   *In my endeavor to gain knowledge in keeping Discus fish healthy, whenever I altered my water chemistry it would always come back to bite me. After many years of trial and a lot of errors I came to the realization that these fish did not need me to prepare special water conditions for them. There is much written about how they require acidic, dark tannin colored, soft tropical water, as this is their natural environmental conditions in …

Return To; Discus Fish Aquarium Getting Started  *I’m a firm believer, the single most important secret to keeping Discus fish healthy is, “HEAT”, I can’t emphasize enough that this will ultimately determine your long-term success or failure.Heat, stimulate their appetite encouraging them to eat more, which translates to fast uniform growth and overall health. I keep small Discus (fry to 4 inches), at a temperature between 87 to 90 degrees. The higher temperature revs up their met …

Return To; Water Parameters  *Discus are beautiful vertically swimming pancake shaped freshwater tropical fish from the Amazon River. They bring vibrant colors and personality to any home aquarium. Before buying some of these round colorful beauties, you need to know how to properly care for them. Many people ask, what is the best tank size to keep a group of Discus and how many should be kept together? I find Discus grow faster and larger in smaller tanks; 30-to-50-gallon tanks …

Return To: Best Filter for a Discus Fish Tank Aquarium filters are an essential piece of equipment for any ornamental fish tank. They work to break down and remove all the waste produced by the fish as well as any other organic or food waste. The filter will also provide area in which beneficial oxidizing bacteria will grow, these bacteria are essential in keeping the aquarium water clean and free of harmful toxins. Without a filter, harmful toxic waste will build up in the tank and p …

Return To: Water Filtration for an Ornamental Fish Aquarium Everyone needs a vacation now and then, and when we do leave, we are faced with the problem, how to feed and take care of the Discus fish tank while away? In this post I will let you know what I do and has worked great for me when I’m away. Simply put, it is better to underfeed than to overfeed which pollutes the tank killing a fish which triggers a spiraling downward chain of negative events. Then coming home to a disaster i …

Return To: How to Treat White Spots on Discus Fish  The best way to reduce Pigeonblood freckling also referred to as “peppering” is to keep the aquarium background and bottom light. The lighter the color the less freckles the Pigeonblood Discus will display. This is also true with other Discus, if you want them to show off their brighter colors keep them in light surroundings. If you want them to display a darker color, then keep the bottom and background colors dark to black. Nature h …

Return To: How to Treat Black Spots on Discus Fish Pigeonblood is a strain of Discus fish and does not apply to all Discus. In early 1991 I brought into the hatchery my first Pigeonblood Discus fish. This was a new strain, which the world had not seen or heard of yet. They were sold to me from a not so well-known breeder at the time as Pigeonblood Discus, I paid handsomely for them, about U.S.$100 a piece for 1-1/2 inch babies. When I bought them, they were described to me as a, “new …

Return To: Why Are Discus Fish Called Pigeonblood In the early 1990’s Pigeonblood Discus fish were introduced to the world and our aquariums. In the beginning this new Discus fish when entered into Asian fish shows, was accused of being highly hormone, or unreal and was therefore disqualified from competitions. In time, due to its unique look these new Discus fish, which began from morphed Red Turquoise originating in Thailand, quickly exploded, spreading around the world and became th …

Return To: What Are Pigeonblood Discus Fish Black spots on Discus fish, also referred to as peppering, was introduced with the arrival of a new strain named Pigeonblood Discus in the early 90’s. Until this strain appeared, Discus fish naturally had nine vertical black bars which mother nature gave them as a means to camouflage, or blend in with the vertical reeds and grasses in their natural habitat. This new mutation of a Red Turquoise did not have the standard nine bars, but instead …

Return To: Why Do Discus Fish Have Black Spots (Peppering) I am asked this question often and before I give an answer, I always ask how often the person changes the water and cleans the tank. Getting the answer to this question is important for accurate feedback. Aquarium population and cleaning on a regular program will determine how many Discus fish can be safely added to an aquarium.Discus fish belong to the freshwater South American cichlid family and therefore display a natural ci …

Return To: How Many Discus Fish Can I Put in a 100 or 55 Gallon Tank My experience growing discus fish is that they grow faster in smaller aquariums rather than large aquariums. My reasoning is simply, they burn fewer calories in a smaller tank due to lack of area to swim in. Therefore one may ask, why do they grow so large in the wild? My answer is that they have an abundant supply of fresh water and food which in an aquarium environment could not be simulated without polluting the ta …

Return To; Discus Fish Grow Faster in a Smaller Aquarium  Discus fish, also known as Symphysodon Discus Fish are named after their distinctive round disk like shape. Discus fish can grow up to 6 - 8 inches in size. They are a fresh water fish native to the slow moving, warm tropical Amazon River basin and its tributaries. It is widely accepted that there are four sub species of discus fish found in their wild habitat, they are the Brown, Blue, Green and Heckel or true discus fish. Thes …