Discus Fish Care and Breed Varieties

Discus fish are among the toughest freshwater aquariums to keep, and having the know how to keep a fish that is thirty dollars each will help to keep that investment being a sound one.  Get yourself a good book on Discus and do some researching before you set up your tank.  You will definitely reap the benefit of this in the money saved over dead fishes.

If you are looking at Discus fish, you can be pretty sure that you are looking at one of two species, the Common Discus, and the Heckel Discus. The Heckel is different because it has bars and stripes going down the body. They can get up to five inches long and ten or more inches tall. These are great fishes to watch, and come in more colors than you would ever believe. Go online and have a peek at some of the varieties, the wide array of them will blow your mind.

They are a member of the cichlid family, and special food can (and should) be purchased for these fishes.  Discus will breed fairly easily if allowed, and a smooth floor in a spawning aquarium will be all you need to get them going.  The female should be removed when the fry hatch so as to prevent her eating them.  The male will usually do a darn good job of taking care of the little ones until they get going.  When that happens he also should be removed, and they should be fed a special diet.  They will actually feed on the skin slime produced by the parents, and water additives can be added to the tank water to give the male a boost in this department.  Keep an eye on tank temperature and PH levels, and do not use tap water for your aquarium.  I buy my water at the grocery store, and you can even have water delivery, which is probably the very best of ideas.  This insures that the water your fishes are breathing and living with is the best possible environment you can give them.

The most bitter part of the cost of Discus fish is waking up one morning to find out all of your fishes are dead, due to equipment malfunction or Ick, or fungus, or what have you. Diseases the attentive aquarist will see coming in many cases, and often you can correct the problem should you catch it fast enough. However, I had a heater fry my tank once and let me tell you, I was seriously bent about it. Now, these weren’t forty dollar a piece Discus (they were six dollar Oscar Fish) but they meant lots to me, and I was broken hearted when they died. Bear that in mind when purchasing second hand heaters and cheaper equipment in general.