DISCUS FISH -Love/Hate 7 Reasons I Don't Keep Discus in My Aquariums
Discus 6 years ago 59,518 views
FRESHWATER AQUARIUM FISH: DISCUS, It's A Love Hate Relationship. Fishtank Video 103. In today's video, I discuss Discus! They are really beautiful fish, but I list off my 7 reasons why I don't keep DISCUS. Drop in the comments your thoughts. Hope you enjoy ;) Support Your Boy, check out our website! https://dustinsfishtanks.com/ Subscribe https://goo.gl/8Sa20Z Most Recent Video https://goo.gl/p4EUdq Most Popular Video https://goo.gl/ZU6YdC Support your Boy - Check out my aquarium plants for sale: https://goo.gl/Bmmm4G Popular Video Playlists Below INSANE FISH ROOM TOURS: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4VDOnZdGE2A&list=PLnw3D5LLGih10emjTgmqODUG8LUfiRyTO SMALL FISH TANK SERIES https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJipyQv-kEA&index=1&list=PLnw3D5LLGih2Of_h9-bSFkA9LU9XfVjJl TOP 5 Fish Videos (Funny :P https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gK6Oirg39x0&index=2&list=PLnw3D5LLGih14KD64PUgEp2JiFOZ1-kZL No Maintenance Aquarium Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cV6qqzZ7e3I&list=PLnw3D5LLGih3ry49t00hLjsktfBV-hG6f Sunday Videos https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJipyQv-kEA&list=PLnw3D5LLGih0Wdi2wtp_CVsfd7QiSr6Gv Aquarium TIPS and Tricks https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aFd0_zyrVP0&index=1&list=PLnw3D5LLGih1KEuNq_Ir6US8Q7A2Fdu3S: aquascaping Videos https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IneqJdh82UY&list=PLnw3D5LLGih1_R4_q_U2nTRfIWjOp_q0v INSANE German Fish Store https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KXZXJYzp71o&list=PLnw3D5LLGih04oeax4uTCfc6buTlsh9aJ Koi and Pond Playlist https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3_5HcRFLxfk&list=PLnw3D5LLGih3ynaEMqIpJ4d7r8hmM78JI SPECIES SUNDAY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JpAdLaqqCn4&list=PL2F4BE1931D73538C Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DustinsFishtanks Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dustinsfishtanks/
10. comment for DISCUS FISH -Love/Hate 7 Reasons I Don't Keep Discus in My Aquariums
Concentrate on giving us info on what you do keep and what experience you have had with the fish you know a lot about like in some of your great videos you have done. This video was unhelpful to those wishing to keep beautiful discus. Expensive? Did you say you keep Koi???
I agree with:
- Wrong water at the tap, don't get them,
- Love plants and need water colder, don't get them.
I don't agree
- Challenging and fragile (or keep getting sick)? not true with the right set up and right food. I, for professional reasons, am away from home for weeks at the time and the tank is alright, no issues.
- Food? I don't feed any worms, live or frozen... maybe that's the reason they don't get sick? I feed good fresh shrimp, lean muscle (turkey and beef heart), vegetables when home and diverse pellet and flakes the rest of the time.
- Spooky? My tank is in my kitchen! busiest place in the house. not an issue at all. They come to get some food and say "hey, how your day man?!"
- Bare bottom? Not true again, I have substrate and drift wood covered in anubias. Changed the substrate once in 10 years from black to white sand.
-Crazy water changes? because of work travelling I probably do one WC every month, fish are active, bright colours, never hiding, come say hello when I get in the room. My WC is done with tap water at temperature, no chem's at all. not even resting. (I live in Europe, my tap water is good) Again, been doing that for 10 years now.
Discus were the second fish I started to keep and never changed.
The one thing I trust is to keep only discus, no community thank BS for me. Just plain healthy Discus.
Dustin has it real, Discus can be challenging if you are not prepared and there is around, a lot of people misleading, sharing the wrong info. Mostly because they breed and sell Discus. it's a business. Expensive fish that you are led to think is fragile that dies in your thank because you over do it and never let them in peace. Stress is a killer for the Discus. Don't get me wrong I had deaths and sick fishes. I had Discus that survived sick for months at my beginning and I managed to treat over time. They are though. With what I wrote above, I haven't had a death in years.
Keep it simple folks.
Regarding the supposed difficulty of keeping discus, most discus are tank-bred for generations and so far removed from wild-caught the nonsense you need to do to keep wild fish isn't relevant. 10% water change a week is enough providing you have good filtration, have not overstocked and don't overfeed.
You don't need 30c (86F) temperatures either. In some biotopes in the wild, discus live at 25c which is 77F but they've been found between 25c and 31c which suggests an ability to tolerate differences. The main thing being as long as any change is gradual but that's the same with any fish.
I kept mine at 27c which is 80.6F, not a problem and two of them paired up and bred. I could grow plants at that temperature, I only did 10-20% water changes a week and didn't have to do anything to the water aside from using a dechlorinator and bringing it up to tank temperature before the change.
My discus ate anything you threw at them from flake to pellets to dried 'live' foods to live food. Also, it's not right when people say you need to feed them several times a day. There's a guy I'm subscribed to on Youtube and he has discus in his main tank. He went away on vacation for a week, he doesn't use auto-feeders or get people to feed his fish when he's away and when he came back, the fish were absolutely fine.
When you think about it, if any species was as delicate as some people make out, they'd never have survived as a species. So the basics are, try and keep things stable, good filtration, 10-20% water change a week and don't overstock or overfeed.
20. comment for DISCUS FISH -Love/Hate 7 Reasons I Don't Keep Discus in My Aquariums
Water changes, frequent, and large (80-90%).
Freeze dried black worms or very very high quality flake (beef heart or black worm) food.
Warm water, 82-86 degrees.
Never had the problems spoken about here.
Buy adults and they can more easily adapt to tap water.
I use a Python to remove water and add water from tap. I measure the temp of fresh water going in to match the old water temp.
Use Seachem Safe to remove chlorine and chloramines from tap water.
It’s really not that hard.
I like fish with extreme personality and are Conan the Barbarian fish.
Discus are pretty but have the personality of lollipops on a rack at the gas station.
Too much work for a bunch of cotton candy colored sensitive snowflakes.
30. comment for DISCUS FISH -Love/Hate 7 Reasons I Don't Keep Discus in My Aquariums
1. You do not need to feed them live food. My discus eat flakefood from tetramin... But they love frozen beefheart or bloodworms... Whats so hard about feeding them food you can buy in petsmart ?
2. They arent as picky with water perams as you think.. I used to keep my discus in temps like 82-86f like people said... I one day unpligged my 2 300w heaters in my 135g tank and the temps went to about 78f. All my discus are fine and not one has died.. none got sick.. In fact in the amazon there have recordings of them being in cooler waters. Also i have live plants like you do.. Name a plant you have that cant handle 80+ All plants will adapt over time.. You have nothing special in your 200g tank.. Mostly easy to grow plants that require nothing.. You dont need dirt for what you have either.. Telenthara renekie an easy to grow red plant.. mine thrived in 84f.. Java fern did fine in 84f. I had water lillies the size of my palm growing in 84f. Watersprite and anubias species as well as amazon swords. I havent had One damn issue with my plants in my 135g tank with temps at 84-86f
3. Again they can live in hard or soft water.. I live in Northern va.. i bet my water is much harder then yours. My ph is 8.4 my discus are fine. in fact we have tons of local breeders here who breed discus in tap water. You dont need to do RO and keep 100 gallon barrels in your house.
4. They only get spooled when they are new to your tank. All my discus swim right up to me when i walk in the room.. Flipping on or off lights does nothing to them.. They only did that when i first got them.
5. I will agree on diseases.. I had a discus whome i bought from petco who had the discus plague. He was fine.. wasnt sick.. never got sick.. the minute i took him out of quaruntine and put him in my main tank.. Within 3 days all my discus were sick.. in 5 days they all died. Ive also had issues where they suddenly just stop eating and waste away over a month period.. Nothing i did helped them BUT this problem only happened with juvies.
I stopped buying baby discus.. Its better to just buy the fully grown adults they usually never get sick and they can adapt pretty easily to water conditions and they usually arent pickey eaters like young discus.
However, discus are fish who definitely have personality, when I enter my discus room they are focussing on me (do we get food etc..), moreover you argue that discus are hiding in tanks. If a discus is hiding, he is not feeling well (eg. bad water quality), or discus are with a too small group (<6 pieces) .
Keeping discus requires more work than other fishes ( more food when they are young etc) that is partly true in my opinion. When discus are young you feed them a lot (>6 times a day and you clean the tank 1 time a day) when they become bigger (>10 cm) you can feed them less 3-4 times a day and clean less.
The higher costs of discus I do not fully agree. Of course when you go to a general aquarium store the price is high. When you go to a local discus breeder the prices for the own breed discus fish will be lower and the quality will be the same or higher than the discus you buy at a general auarium shop, if that local breeder is good.
And again: do not yell the whole video :-) my speakers are well.
and aren't shy! Trust me they won't leave you alone when doing tank maintenance! They are so inquisitive. Put you hand fully into tank every feeding time and won't be long b4 you can catch any one with just your hand! Re your water, buy Stendker! They love hard water. I've kept Discus for nearly 30 years and today's fish as way easier to keep... all mine are at 27.5c so plenty of plant options too and if you think they still lack personality then add a few S.A dwarfs into their tank. The real trick with Discus is initial purchase. Buy healthy fish and as long as you have good basic knowledge of fish keeping and tank husbandry they are easy. I haven't had to worm or medicate a Discus fish in years. Try and buy from a good breeder, i personally have found the strongest fish tend to be from your average fish keeping enthusiast who's Discus have bred, and not the large commercial discus specialists. This also massively applies to gbr's.
You really should try them at some point in your fish keeping career, they are great fish.
Keep up the great vids and hi from the UK!
50. comment for DISCUS FISH -Love/Hate 7 Reasons I Don't Keep Discus in My Aquariums
And about discus speaking from my experience, I have discus fish in a planted tank and they ate not challenging as everybody thinks they are.
I feed them once every two or three days and I make water changes about 75%every second or third week.
They always feed from my hand and they are living happy and I'm not having any problems .. I have my water temperature at 29°and I have plants that adjust to this temps.
Everyone says u got to feed them every them 3 times and change water every second day but that is not the case.
Again speaking from my experience.
I used beefheart. tubiflex.. redworms..all that.
yep.Unless you want them in a bare breeder tank with the only lighting being a small window at the end of the room.Discus are probably not for very long term in a community tank.
I could be wrong, times change...but many Discus in the great youtube vids? I can spot the dark bars and thin build of a future typhoid Mary...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ItWO1eae3U&index=74&list=PL2F4BE1931D73538C
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TymMwmH0kzw&list=PLnw3D5LLGih14KD64PUgEp2JiFOZ1-kZL&index=23
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L8e-OpqBb30&list=PLnw3D5LLGih14KD64PUgEp2JiFOZ1-kZL&index=21
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ZUlrYWa_nM&index=20&list=PLnw3D5LLGih14KD64PUgEp2JiFOZ1-kZL
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YkUMzI8oy4M&list=PLnw3D5LLGih14KD64PUgEp2JiFOZ1-kZL&index=19
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lzTsVLoBrOw&list=PLnw3D5LLGih14KD64PUgEp2JiFOZ1-kZL&index=18
100. comment for DISCUS FISH -Love/Hate 7 Reasons I Don't Keep Discus in My Aquariums
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=azn-_B1IVTg&list=PLnw3D5LLGih14KD64PUgEp2JiFOZ1-kZL&index=14
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3y64BJuIwLk&list=PLnw3D5LLGih33lDwobY2yglHtscbUO9-l&index=5
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cbT_J52TxuI&index=4&list=PLnw3D5LLGih33lDwobY2yglHtscbUO9-l
I am 12 and i am keeping discus for 3 years
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4jFOBWhwMfA&list=PL2F4BE1931D73538C&index=68
They are not the easiest either but easier than Discus ? I think yes.. But I also like how they look (the Angelfish I mean)
If you go Angelfish please bring diversity.. not aII Iooking fuII black or silver as an example :))
The male of my breeding pair attacked my hand today while I was doing a water change lmao.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5mdBEBmXvG8&index=21&list=PLnw3D5LLGih3ry49t00hLjsktfBV-hG6f
I've kept and bred them in a community tank alongside a large 250 strong colony of black neons.
Most south American plants should be ok above 28°
Mine were kept in a planted tank and fed tetra prima as a staple and bloodworm once a week by hand.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4D7-aL-0j24&list=PLnw3D5LLGih3ZfFk5Zef3oYKWAKyDBMjp
my discus will let me pet them... I can stick my hands in the water and they wont run away.. When i walk in my bedroom all my discus come right to the glass.
In fact when i have company over my discus are peeping toms and my girl notices how they all come up to the glass and watch us. The only time discus run away and hide is when they are juvies and new to your tank.. aka the 25$ ones.. Buy an adult for 60$ and watch.. It wont run away once it gets acclimated.
I dunno if youll read my comment but im more then willing to make a video and show you how i can stick my hands in the tank and they wont run behind a rock
but they love flake good and discus granule. They grow fast and the colours are intense. They come to the front of the tank to say hello, and beg for food. I live in a soft water area, with a low ph, so they live in that very happily', the babies of the wild ones which came from RO water. All my tanks are fully planted and kept at 84c. Sorry but I must tell it as I see it from my own discus experience. My other two 350 liter tanks are both Amazon fishes angles and such. I add catappa leaves to every tank.
Discus need huge water changes
Great funny video
My discuss greets me everyday and goes nuts till I feed him, he did of course kill the other discuss I put in with him, leaving only one other hat hasn’t grown at all...
From what I know about them the water parameters are Krazy and must be kept or they die ,I like fish that I can throw in my tank and enjoy afterwords .not something I have to take water parameters and adjust daily
1. 50% Daily water changes - I do about 25% water changes 3 or sometimes 4 times a week. The guys at my local fish store have a really nice planted Discus display tank with full size Discus, and they claim to only do 1 30-40% water change every week. The guy at the store says it's more about having an "established tank" than doing the water changes, and that Discus should only be put into a tank that's been up for at least 1.5 - 2 years.
2. Discus are skittish - I have found this to not really be true. Yes, they are skittish for the first couple of weeks, but mine are never hiding and always at the tank looking for food whenever anyone comes into the room. I even have a breeding pair of Kibs that probably shouldn't be in there with the Discus but they really don't seem to mind and will "fight back" against the Kribs if they are getting too aggressive.
3. Water too warm for planted tanks - Maybe this is true for some plants, but if you notice in my video linked below, plants are doing ok in my tank. I keep it at about 84 F.
4. Water parameters and PH - The PH in my city's tap water, the last time I checked, comes out at 8.0. I don't even check it anymore because it's so discouraging, lol. I don't do anything to the PH. The Discus, however, don't seem to mind for some reason. There are several fish stores in my city that have Discus, and the guys that I've talked to just run tap water like me. I have heard that the reason for this is that "modern" Discus have been bred in captivity for so long that they are now used to the higher PH, and that the "PH issue" is now kind of dated, but would probably still apply to wild Discus.
Other than that, I will say they are picky as hell eaters. Out of the 5 Discus I have, 2 will occasionally nibble on flakes, the others will only eat bloodworms. I haven't seen any parasites yet but I do keep an eye on that, and don't want to "knock on wood" there.
Anyways, just trying to maybe dispel some rumors...these rumors are the same ones that scared me away from keeping Discus for so long, so maybe if someone's reading this and is on the fence hopefully I can be of some help. Please feel free to ask if you have any questions, and of course, "tank on".
Thanks Dustin for another great video, you and your channel rock. Here is my tank:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5cXOvtFY9ok
To any discus fanatic, sit down because this will shock you
I had discus in a community tank, with rummynoses, corys and ancistrus. Planted riparium it was too. Temperature? 27 Celsius (approx 80 Fahrenheit).
Did about 50% water changes once a month.
Result?
they successfully spawned in the community tank, and by successfully I mean I sold the little ones to the local fish shop.
I've grown to believe that discus are so delicate because of how they're kept by these fanatics: boring blank tanks, too hot with constant water changes.
I feed the them real lean beef tips with garlic and spirulina all ran through a meat grinder then rolled flat in one gallon freezer bags.
My fish don't hide...
Discus are not picky eater. All my discus are fed frozen food, such as mysis shrimp and beef heart mixture.
Discus are not picky about ph and hardness. They will do well as long as the water is clean. You just need to accumate them to your tap water and they will be fine.
Algae problem can be solve by daily water change.
Discus are not shy at all. They only hide when they are sick. My discus actually swim up and try to see if I feed them anything. They are some curious fish.
The discus that does not survive a week a likely from some questionable fish farm. They have been living in medicine fill water all their lives and the shipping and such weaken them and then they just die and it is not even the new owner's fault.
There are plenty of medicine for every kind of discus disease as they just use the same medicine for other fishes. For example, your local fish store should carry medicine that treat internal parasites and that would work for discus as well.
Hope my information helps. I would like to see you and others try to keep discus. The whole "discus is hard to keep" myth is because of those bad quality fish from questionable fish farms. Get your hand on ones that are healthy and you should have success. Your best bet would be getting your fish from your local breeder.
Once you get the hang of keeping discus, it is actually one of the easiest fish to keep. I actually found it harder to keep neon tetra alive lol.
Very hard to come out and say, but Discus are a bit boring too.
Can be super colourful, and I kind of like them, but all those 7 reasons sum it up for me too. Not a fish high on my list.
Wilds are harder than commercially bred varieties.
Mine were kept in treated tap water. Water changes once a week of approximately 40% they do require mega filtration though. It's all about water quality and quality fish.