February 21, 2008
Discus Fish Care - How to Care For Discus Fish
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People often say that Discus fish care is very difficult! Well that might be true if you don’t apply the basics care techniques right from the start. Once you have understanding of the characteristics of how to care for discus fish and put into practice what you know, I think, is quite easy to keep any Discus fish, wild or tank bred.
Water Quality
If during breeding, your Discus fish fall ill or you have a problem with their health, the root cause is certainly as always the water quality. You know, the natural water habitat of discus fish in amazon river, Brazil is soft and acidic. So it is important to replicate the same type of water environment in our home aquarium. You should also bear in mind that a larger volume of water is easier to keep stable than a smaller volume, hence when choosing your fish tank, in other words get the largest tank you possibly can.
With the understanding you are familiar with the Nitrogen Cycle (if not you need to fully understand this). Discus fish will not tolerate any amount of Ammonia or Nitrite, and only the bare minimum Nitrate. Therefore, make sure the detritus is removed daily together with any uneaten food, as this often quickly form Ammonia. Anytime you intend to feed beefheart to discus fish always feed them at day time, not at night, as there are usually fatty bits that don’t get eaten up and you don’t want that to be left in the tank overnight. Ph is of course very important to discus fish care, as it is the measure of acidity and alkalinity. Ph of 7 is neutral, that is between acid and alkaline.
Discus fish like the Ph between 5.5 and 6.8 and will tolerate Ph between 7.0 to 7.4. While Heckles like it between 5.0 to 5.5. General water hardness should be between 2 and 8. Conductivity should be about 10ms. If you happen to live in a hard water area, you will need to bring down the hardness and probably the Ph as well.
Reverse Osmosis filter, which strips everything from the water and in the process lower the Ph and the hardness is highly recommended; this will of course depends on alkaline and how hard the water was to start with, you can then mix back a percentage of filtered tap water to acquire the correct Ph, hardness and conductivity. To accomplish this use a filter which removes heavy metals and chlorine, the filter will not alter the Ph or hardness of the water passing through it. All this basic simple steps will help you a great deal on how to care for your discus fish.
Feeding
The frequency of feeding, the quality and the amount of food given is very important for discus fish care. For example, for adult discus fish, feed them 2 to 3 times a day, do not overfeed them as the food will quickly pollute the water. Feeding should be high quality flake, Prima, beefheart, (make your own if you can, as it is well worth it in the long run), high protein foods, live food like white worms or small earth worms (make sure they are washed and purged 24 hours in advance on shredded newspapers before feeding). Do not feed Tubifix, Bloodworm, or any processed frozen foods that are not gamma radiated, or over the counter frozen food, because you can’t tell if it has not thawed out on route to the retailer? This often cause major problems, it’s better to use your own homemade beefheart.
Water Changes
Do regular water changes every week. Discus fish like constant water parameters, so 25% water change every week is excellent. If you follow these simple basic discus fish care approach you should have trouble free healthy Discus fish for years to come. Goodluck with your pet fish.
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