Top 7 things you need to keep Discus happy

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

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

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.

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

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.

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.

Filed Under: Discus, Freshwater Fish

Sarah said,

Thanks for the post Jeff, and congratulations on your first blog post!

I’m looking forward to reading lots more posts from you, and having to do less work myself of course
Mystical Beauty’s Musings » Blog Archive » Weekend Beauty Reads said,

[...] if you’re tired of beauty, you can check out Jeff’s post Top 7 things you need to keep Discus happy on the Northern Lights Aquatics Blog, or Snakes, The Easiest Pets at Northern Lights Reptiles Blog. [...]
Laurie said,

Good post!!! Very informative–you obviously love your fish.
Sarah M. said,

Congratulations, Jeff! What great information you provided!!! You must have very happy Discus!
DamionKutaeff said,

Hello everybody, my name is Damion, and I’m glad to join your conmunity,
and wish to assit as far as possible.
Sarah said,

Thanks for your comments Laurie, Sarah M, and Damion.

I can only hope that we have happy Discus.
Jeff said,

Thanks for the comments on the Discus blog and welcome all. I hope to get the chance to write many more post.
Sue P. said,

Haw anyone else had problems with heaters that won’t go high enough, or won’t maintain a consistant temperature? I’m on my 3rd one now, and I’ll be taking it back today to try a different brand, and maybe a higher wattage.
Love the discus information you shared Jeff. I might try Top Light for my heater.
Sarah said,

Sue P welcome. We haven’t had too many problems with heaters, but we did have a Top Fin heater go from it’s normal temperature of 78F to 86F a couple of months ago.

Fortunately all of the fish were fine, but our pair of Bushynose plecos hasn’t bred since then, and I read that higher temperature can make them stop breeding. Hopefully they won’t stop forever.

We already had one Top Light heater at that time, and since Jeff was really happy with it he bought several more to replace the other ones we have.

We do have an older Neptune heater in one of our tanks, and we’ve just been trying to increase the temperature for a day or two, but it hasn’t gone past 78 degrees yet – so we probably do have a heater that doesn’t go high enough, but I didn’t notice it until now because we’ve always had that heater around 72.
jeff said,

Actually we have had troubles with a few heaters but I am very happy with the top light. I have 200w top lights in 5 of my aquariums and might order some more and get them for all of my aquariums. They are very easy to set and it clicks for each degree you turn it up or down and it also tells you the temp it is set at. It takes a lot of the guess work out of setting a temperature and as i mentioned they are still on clearance at doctors foster and smith. Who I have always been very happy with. I have actually even used their return system twice and it is very easy to do.
Sarah said,

I guess I should add that as soon as we stopped doing so many water changes we got discus eggs – so you might have to play around with your discus to determine how much of a water change they like if you’re looking for discus fry.
AquaDaily said,

*sigh* Get rich quick breeding discus – do you really find people who still think that? I think the days of getting rich quick from any fish breeding are long gone unless you own a fish farm in South East Asia and even there I doubt it’s ‘quick’!

Nice article. do you keep your discus with plants or in bare aquariums? (I prefer the former, personally.) Perhaps I’ll find out as I browse about some more!
Jeff said,

I agree with you on the get rich quick part. We have spent a lot more on our fish then we have ever made on the few that we have sold.

Of course we are in the hobby becuase we like it and not becuase we want to get rich. All though I have to admit selling some fish would be nice so I could buy more fish supplies

I keep my discus in bare tanks now and they lay eggs about every 8 days. I have one tank of babies that are about quarter size now and plan on moving them to a planted 75 gallon tank soon.

We could probably have a lot more babies with as often as they breed but I figured I would wait and see if anyone is interested in some from the first couple spawns.

Not that I do not love Discus but I only have so much room.