Posted by Sarah on March 24, 2008
We noticed the discus acting funny yesterday – and realized that they were getting ready to lay eggs.
They were chasing the third discus in the tank, and the bushynose plecos in the tank away from their corner of the tank, and pecking at the filter intake tube.
After a while of pecking I noticed the female making passes across the tube, and I saw that her egg tube was out.
Since the discus are so skittish I was trying to sit close enough to see what was going on, without sitting close enough to upset them.
Finally I looked and noticed discus eggs!
I was excited, Jeff was excited.
But unfortunately the excitement didn’t last very long.
The eggs disappeared within an hour.
I’m pretty sure the parents ate their eggs, but it could have been the other discus or one of the four bushynose plecos in the tank.
After we noticed that the eggs were gone the discus were acting like they normally do – hanging out in their corner of the tank, and letting the third male come hang out with them, instead of chasing him and everyone else out of their territory and hanging out near thetube where they laid the eggs.
The discus were laying eggs every 8 days before we got them, so hopefully they will continue with that schedule, and get things right soon.
I think we are going to move the plecos just in case they were eating the eggs, or in case they are stressing the discus out enough that they ate the eggs.
I figured we might as well make things as calm as possible for them.
Posted by Jeff on March 13, 2008
People have been asking me what you need in order to keep Discus happy, and before I bought my Discus I asked the same questions.
Here is my list of things that are needed for a Discus tank.
#1 Discus are very particular about maintaining the proper PH level.
To help with this and keep my PH from jumping around I use Seachem Neutral Regulator 1 kg
.
#2 This is a product that I use in all of my aquariums during water changes.
Prime 250 ml
#3
I use the emperor bio wheel filters in all of my aquariums and have nothing but great things to say about them. This is a product you definitely want to buy online since I have seen the 400 at a local pet store for more then $100 and you can get it online for under $50
Emperor BIO-Wheel Powerfilters Emperor 400
#4
Okay to be honest things can go wrong and if you are going to ask someone for help they are going to ask you about your water so you have to have a good test kit. Of course regular testing of the water quality is always a good idea. I recommend the Tetra Deluxe Laborett Test Kit
It has about everything you need and you will find most fish keepers use Tetra as the standard.
#5
Okay now its time to get serious if you want your fish to be happy you are going to have to break down and buy an RO/DI filter. I bought one about 2 months ago and have seen better colors in my fish and had higher percentage of fry survival then ever before. I recommend getting the Pinnacle+ Series Replacement Membrane 100 gpd – mfg #3022
#6
Discus are pretty picky about temperature so I am picky about my heater. I use the Top Light Heaters 200W
This is simple to set you just set it to the temperature you want and that’s it. I believe these are on clearance right now which reminds me I should buy a couple more. One of the other great things about this heater is I use the 200W in all different size tanks but since it is so accurate it does not matter if it is a 75 gallon or a 10 it keeps perfect temperature.
#7
Well the last thing is not something to buy but it is probably the thing that will take most of your time water changes. I do a 50% water change 2 times a week so if you do not like water changes Discus may not be the fish for you.
A word about Discus in summary
Overall I love my Discus but they do take a lot of care. I have heard some people start a Discus tank as a get rich quick idea but it is a lot of work, and unless you are dedicated to giving you fish what they need to thrive you are destine to fail.
