Best Water Parameters for Discus!! Talkin Discus Presented by KGTropicals!!
Discus 8 years ago 33,786 views
So you saw Discus at your local pet store or on one of MY videos and you really wanna start a Discus tank but you’ve heard they are really hard to keep because they are very picky about their water parameters, but are they? That’s coming up…. Hey everyone it’s Lisa with kgtropicals.com, Discus aren’t as picky about their water parameters as so many people make them out to be. Are they for the beginner fish keeper? Maybe not but they’re not as fragile as their reputation says they are. Wild Discus come from the Amazon river basins where the water is extremely soft and acidic and when they first made it into the hobby they were extremely fragile. They were fragile because they were either pulled straight from the river and sold to the hobby or they were only a generation or two away from wild fish. Because of this hobbyists back then would go to great lengths to get the water in their Discus aquariums as close to what they would be in in the wild. This isn’t exactly easy to do so the Discus being so finicky over their water conditions would get sick and die. This is where their reputation for being fragile came from. The reality is over the last few decades breeders all over the world have been developing these fish to be more tolerant to water conditions. They’ve been breeding their Discus in water that more closely resembles the water that comes out of our tap rather then the water in the Amazon. Because of this Discus Keepers don’t have to concentrate so hard on trying to match the same water parameters as the Amazon, instead, we focus on CLEAN water. This is why people still to this day label Discus as hard to keep but what really needs to be said is “Discus are hard for LAZY fish keepers to keep”. When you keep Discus you need to keep the water clean for them to thrive. Keeping the water clean doesn’t mean go out and buy a bigger filter, it means taking dirty water out and putting clean water in, how many water changes you need to do and how often you need to do them will totally depend on how many fish you have and how much you’re feeding them. So what does all of this mean. It means that with domestic Discus it’s more important to keep your water clean then it is to kill yourself trying to adjust the PH. If your tap water has a PH of anywhere from 6-7.5 you should be fine BUT check with your supplier and see what they were bred in, if their ph is close to yours you should be fine. If there’s a radical difference (like your tap water is a PH of 7.4 and your supplier says they were raised in a PH of 6.2) you might want to consider a different supplier. Not because they don’t have good fish but because you might struggle getting your fish to adjust to that big of a difference. What if you ask your supplier what type of water they were raised in and they say “I don’t know”? Turn around and run. What about temperature? Discus like warmer water, 82-86 so that’s easy enough but here is a big piece of advice. Discus can be pretty sensitive to temperature so it would be really smart to have a spare heater around cause you never know when yours might malfunction. It never seems to happen at 10 o'clock on a Saturday morning, it’s always more like 9 o'clock on a Sunday. If you are someone who is already keeping Discus I’d love for you to share your experiences with keeping them in the comment section below, maybe together we can talk the people who are scared to keep them off the ledge:-) Discus aren’t for a beginner fish keeper but you don’t need to be someone who has kept fish for 20 years to be able to keep them successfully. You need to have a good plan, know as much as possible about who you’re buying them from and you CAN’T be lazy. Keep their water clean and they will grow to be some of the most impressive fish you’ve ever seen and they’ll reward you every time you look at your tank:-) http://www.kgtropicals.com www.facebook.com/KGTropicals @kgtropicals on Twitter kg_tropicals on instagram Music: http://www.purple-planet.com
10. comment for Best Water Parameters for Discus!! Talkin Discus Presented by KGTropicals!!
Thank you for the video.
20. comment for Best Water Parameters for Discus!! Talkin Discus Presented by KGTropicals!!
I subbed, maybe you could sub back!
however in London UK, they sell these little shits for £75 each to £120 for big Orange red ones!
so if I use tap water and water conditioner, and maybe that ph water softner will they be ok.
I have a 800L aquarium but doing a water change 2 times a week is extreme, how about once a week or every 2 weeks. I want 8 discus, and a few tetras.
30. comment for Best Water Parameters for Discus!! Talkin Discus Presented by KGTropicals!!
The past few days I've been unable to listen to your podcast (which I love and I'm sad you stopped. I hope you pick it up again soon.) did you disable your podcast channel or something?
Hans
Best regards,
Hans