New Discus how to look after.

i baught a Discus on Sun, and he is smallish and he is terqwious, sorry, cant spell.

i got a discus buffer and my boss said that would be fine to house the discus in hardy water as the water at work is nt that soft, and use the buffer at the same time, ok, so everything is going fine..........

i was told they like blood worm, so im feeding it that, and these ones were into flake a littl bit, what else can i feed him and what common desease do i need to look out for? etc?
how long do they live?
Thank you.


amy. x

 

I am by no means an expert on discus, but I do know they are nutorious for being very sensitive to water quality so you have to really keep up with your water changes and the bigger the tank you have them in, the easier that will be to accomplish. They are also social fish so you should keep them in a group which means an even larger tank.

This site appears to have a lot of good info on keeping discus:
http://www.simplydiscus.com/library/index.shtml

-Chelle

 

i only have one. but dont they get on with angels, same family???

 

Yes they're in the same family as angels (but so are red devils, oscars, severums, green terrors, african cichilds, etc)

I think the angels might be a little too aggressive to keep with discus. But even if there wasn't any aggression problems, I don't think they would school with angels (ie you can't substitute more discus with angels).

-Chelle

 

iv noticed stan does ahve a big of an aggression problem, but he hasnt gone for the discus, its a tad bigger than stan! its a female also, my boss showed me how to sex them! yay! she ate dried daphnia last nite and a bit of dried blood worm, if too many fish invade his space he swims away!
so i have to put the food right under his nose!

 

The main thing that kills discus is water hardness. They prefer soft water just like the angel fish. Find out if the place that you bought the discus uses soft water. Many treat their tanks with peat that they add to their cannister filters. It is sold in special bags especially made for aquariums and will cause your water to look dark. Lots of long plants will also help it feel more at home.
Hope that helps!