Welcome

[pam333]

Hi! I'm Pam, and I am a Cichlid Addict. I live in Northwest Ga, very close to Chattanooga Tn. I currently have 6 tanks up and running; and now that I have discovered Music City Cichlids- will probably have wall to wall fish tanks before the year is over. Thanks for making this board!

[jon carman]

Glad to hav you Pam, what type of cichlids do you keep?

[jeremyh81]

Welcome to the forums, Pam! If you have any technical questions regarding this board, please feel free to post in the "General" sub-board or PM me directly.

[bjones]

;DHello all, my name is Beverley and I guess you could say I'm fairly new to the hobby. I have only been keeping fish for about4 or 5 years. I currently have a 55 community set up and have a 90 gal. waiting to be set up, hopefully with discus.

[jgentry]

Welcome Beverley, glad you joined. Discus are a great fish and well worth the trouble for a display tank.

[angel]

Hi Beverley! It's great you've joined us! Any particular colors/kinds of discus you're hoping to put in?

[bjones]

As far as the different strains of discus, I'm kinda confused on the names because it seems like every breeder or store that I have visited all have different names. Is this all in my imagination? Anyway I think they are all beautiful, I am looking to purchase a well rounded variety of color ( I do know what I like when I see them, just not sure of the name, sorry). I am also interested in a planted tank, if any one has any suggestions. Aquatic Critter has advised no plants, but I see so many I know it's possible.?.

[angel]

What's in your community? It might be a conflict of fish and plants. Some fish don't get along so well with them. But most of what we consider to be community fish do. I think, and correct me if I'm wrong, JD--discus do get along fine with plants. But the problem is they're so delicate that if you throw off the balance you could lose the discus and they're SO expensive! You'd want plenty of filtration and a well-established tank before adding them IMO. And then add slowly. JD is so great with New Worlds and actually has some discus for sale right now. He'd be able to say for sure whether plants are ok.

[jgentry]

You can do a planted tank with adult discus but I would not recommend it starting out with them. I would get your fish first (you need to decide on buying either a group of juvies or adults) and keep them for at least a year to make sure you are comfortable with there care then you can worry about plants.

You are right about the names. Every breeder/supplier seems to come up with there own names for there strains so you often see 2 very similiar fish named differently.

On a side note I am actually selling off my group of six because I need that tank for a breeding pair and I just can justify keeping them not in a display tank. I have had them all for about 2 years and they are a mix of strains and are healthy and much cheaper then what you would buy adults for at a fish store. If you want something else I can recommend a couple sellers that have excellent stock. The aquattic critter gets a few nice ones in from time to time but they are a bit over priced and if you do not get them quickly after they come in they quickly become stunted. It is extremely important to start with completely healthy fish or you will have a never ending struggle with them.

[bjones]

I would be interested in your group, I guess I have read so much trying to learn what I need my water perimeters to be and everyone has a different answer. My current Community tank houses clown loaches, bala shark, silverdollars, blue rams, corycats, and a pleco. I have wanted to try the plants in that tank but know the silver dollars would destory them. I had planned on getting juvies because of the cost, but I don't want to stunt growth...so alittle confused on where to start. If you could enlighten me on your water and what I would need to do to achieve the same it would be greatly appreciated! Also do you suggest to keep Discus by themselves or with a few tank mates such as rams or some tetras?

[jgentry]

I always recommend to first time discus keepers to buy adults. That is not because I have adults for sale either. To grow juvy discus you have to dedicate a lot of work for 8 months to a year. You will need to do at least 50% water changes every other day with aged tap water. Plus you have to feed 4-5 times a day and still be able to keep your water extremely clean. With adults all you really need is 1-2 good feedings a day and 1 big water change a week with a lightly stocked tank. The only other thing they really require is higher temp so you need to keep the tank at 82-85. So good food and clean warm water is the key.

As far as tankmates all I recommend is a small group of sterbia corys and a BN pleco or 2. I don't really like a lot of other stuff with discus because they only end up competing for food. Some people keep cardinal or rummynose tetras and apisto's with discus but I wouldn't recommend it starting out.

[bjones]

I guess what I'm really concerned about is water hardness. I have tested and mine is moderatly hard. Is that gonna be ok or do I need to invest in R/O set up, which I di nmot know much about! I am aware of the the temp. and that should not be a problem. I have a 90 gal tank with 2 ehiem filters, one is 2213 and a 2215. will that be good enough to filter a discus tank? How many do you think I can keep in this tank without overstocking?

[jgentry]

My tap water is hard as well an generally is about a PH of 7.2 once the CO2 bubbles out. Tank bred strains of discus do fine in our tap water. Wild caughts do not. You will not be able to breed them without an RO system but most people do not mess with that anyway. Most tank bred discus are actually pretty hardy now once they are adults.

You just need to figure out wether you are going to buy adults or Juvies. Just understand the buying juvy discus is at least a 1 year commitment to coming home everyday and doing work on the tank. It is a good accomplishment to successfully raise juvy discus to nice big adults and is an excellent learning experience. With that said I recommend all beginers starting with adults because most people just don't fully understand how much time and work it takes to raise juvies right. People often think that what they are told is overkill and they couldn't possibly need all of that. They end up with stunted sick discus that look like crap to and never keep discus again. The other benefit of buying adults if you can have a decorated tank. With juvies you really need to go barebottom without much decorations so you can keep it spotless. To me adult discus do not get anymore attention then any of my fish. Everything I keep gets at least 1 50% or more water change per week. So they are no big deal to me.

A group of 6-8 dicus would be fine in a 90g with good filtration and at least weekly 50% or more water changes. I would not put more then that though.

[bjones]

Thanks that was what I was thinking, I do not want to overcrowd. I have been reading and studying on discus for about 8 months or so and it is nice to get info from someone who actually has experiance with these beautiful fish. Information even from book to book widely differs, that is why I have been so hesitant. I will get my tank up and cycled, going to Aquatic today to get my filters ready, don't know how quickly you are wanting to rehome your group, but would still be interested. Either way , you have encouraged me to begin with adults and that is what I will do. Will try juvies later as I learn more about this fish and what they really require from first hand . Thanks bunches!!

[jgentry]

Your more then welcome. Mine will be available until March 6th. If they haven't sold by then they will be going to the atlanta auction.

Just make sure your tank is good and cycled and find you some good healthy fish and you will not have any issues. You will also need a good quality flake food, frozen beefheart, and frozen bloodworms on hand at all time to feed them. I found out real quickly that with the amount of time and effort I spent growing out mine that it would have been cheaper in the long run to buy adults.