Hi John and Lisa I Love You Guys and I am Very New to this Aquarium Hobby So I really Need Your Help So I Got a 6 Gallon Tank Recently Dimensions Are : 15.74Inches x 9.05Inches x 9.84Inches and I also Got A Good Internal Filter and the Temperatures are also All right as I Live in India my Water Temperature is around 26-28Celcius. And I Wanna Buy A Beautiful Looking And Hardy Fish. So can you suggest Me Fish Please Many Suggested Me Bettas But still I am not sure If I should get bettas or anything else. Which Fish do you Suggest Me? And Thx a Lot😃
I work at a petstore and a customer wanted discus cause her son liked them, she had a 5 gallon tank and complained about having to clean it. Never refused a sale as quickly as that one
Get them as babies. I've never understood paying so much for a creature more than half way through its life span. Buy them young and keep them for even longer as you raise them.
Tell me about it, my Orange Marlboro was almost $100 and my Blue Diamond was $130. . . as babies. But now, as a breeding pair, they are worth at least twice that.
I have a 75g aquarium beside my computer desk with Discus and Angels. Being able to glance left and see those beautiful fish is the greatest thing. Discus are A-holes and bullies but they are the coolest fish ever. BTW I've been raising Discus for 50 years.
Hi Michael Clark, it is so nice when I hear one of my fish hobbyists family house discus. I keep my 90 gallon and 150 gallon discus in my living room in front of my living room couch. I don’t put the t.v. anywhere the tanks. I was told that the constant flashing coming from the t.v. can stress them out. What do you think about that? 50 years...Wow. That’s awesome! Sincerely, Marty Borst 🐠
One thing I’ve noticed about keeping Discus is the more you have the better. I once had three in a tank and the most dominant one killed off the other two. But if you have 6 or more the aggression is distributed out more evenly and not as stressful for the fish, especially the less dominant ones.
Hi Game Changer. Everything you said is accurate in my opinion. I had only 3 discus in a 90 gallon and boy did the dominant one terrorize the 2 less dominant ones. So I set up a 150 gallon 6 foot long with 6 discus and things are going better. I am so tempted to purchase 1 or 2 more. There is still plenty of room for 1 or 2 more. They are constantly spawning. I keep my water parameters good and the temperature at 86 degrees. I also keep my ph steady. It is nice to run into a fellow discus keeper! 🐟😀 Sincerely, Marty Borst
Once we move to our new house that has a 20x40 insulated building I’m doing at least a 300 gallon discus tank. The building is going to be my reptile/fish room. I’ve dreamt about having a room like it for about 30years
You are right about the work! I used to keep and breed discus but I stopped about 8 years ago because of the work and time involved. I think there's just as much enjoyment in other types of fish with far less time and effort.
I love my discus. I only have two tanks and they are discus. 2 in a 90 gallon because they terrorize any other discus I put in there. So I also set up a 150 gallon 6 foot tank that houses 6 discus. They are constantly breeding. I keep their water clean, set the temp at 86 degrees and a steady ph. I got them from Discus Hans. I want to give John and Lisa credit for that since they did a couple interviews with Hans. Lisa, I just adopted another cat that nobody wanted. Great to be back! Sincerely, Marty Borst 😺
Discus are one of my bucket list fish. This video does a great job of putting the most important info about discus keeping in a compact way. I especially appreciate the info about German bred fish. My water is 7.8 pH and 150-200 TDS, so it sounds like German bred fish would be the way to go for me.
Theres a lot of information about when you take Asian discus and German discus and mix them you will get problem. Something about different bacteria. Would be interesting if you could do a show about that.
Beware everyone. I contracted MTS from this channel! I though I was immune. I only had a single 20G tank; then a 36G, then a 40G, but now I must have my 4th tank. Looking for a 75G /w stand.
I’m new to fish keeping and actually look forward to doing water changes, it’s something I enjoy doing. I never thought to dislike water changes, before I got into fish keeping I knew there’s gonna be some work I gotta do to keep a happy and healthy fish.
My discus are 3 years old now and the 2 of them are fine. There isn’t much aggression because my angelfish is the king of the tank and anytime the discus start making a scene he always chases them down and breaks it up.
Angel fish are horrible tank mates for discus they are way too aggressive when dinner time comes discus usually go under fed that's why i wouldn't do it angles be center piece of their own tank rams,tetras for both .but you buy discus they deserve to be center peice fish with smaller dither fish.
Hi guys, this is the video I was waiting for 🙌. I'm from India and my tap water pH level is 8.0 and my discus are happy healthy and growing. So I think pH is not the thing we should be worried about unless you are trying to breed them.
Hey John, can you tell us "Why" you have a preference for the German species over the Asian other options? Also, can you tell us why you personally wouldn't mix the discus from different origins? Assuming buyers are doing their due diligence and quarantining them fish prior to adding them to the school/shoal, they should have adapted to your water parameters by the time they go into the main tank. What am I missing here? As always, thanks for the info. You can never get too much, especially when it's coming from people who are successfully keeping them.
I'm just guessing, but I have a feeling it is due to them being raised differently. Lisa mentions that German bred Discus are typically raised in harder water than Asian bred Discus.
I built my way up to keeping discus. I did research and found that Angel Fish are cousins to the Discus and are a little easier to keep, I started out with 6 quarter size Angels and kept them for about 8 years with great success.... I was very afraid of the price if I missed stepped with the Discus. So after keeping those 6 Angles successfully for over 8 years I went out and got a new tank and 6 discus almost 2 years ago, got 3 and then waited a few weeks and got 3 more. All of them about 2.5 to 3 inches long (2 red pigeon blood, 1 yellow pigeon blood, 1 cobalt blue, 1 red checker, and 1 red eagle) I first fed them 4 times a day and then have now cut back to 3 times a day. I do 1 water change a week at 20% and change the filter once a month. I have just added 3 panda cory's and 3 otocinclus cats and 1 hillstream loach to keep the bottom clean. (Discus are very slow and messy eaters).
I would argue that its not that people are too lazy, but for beginners its too difficult to get the perfect water parameters that a discus needs. Maintenance is obviously a huge part of it, but just cleaning the filters and doing water changes wont keep them in the water conditions they need. You should do the same amount of maintenance as you would with any other fish, but granted i am saying all this assuming the person ISNT lazy.
If we keep discus fish on pellet diet & limit no of fishes to 6 in a 100 gallon setup then we don't need to do frequent water changes. Would once a week water change would do?
I’ve had one for about three months now and he’s happy and healthy with my angelfish and tetras. Keep them HOT, keep your water super clean, and feed them well. They aren’t that hard.
@@MichaelClark-uw7ex True! And the captive bred ones are really tolerant of almost any PH so that’s a big plus, I have relatively hard water and mine is doing great in just plain tap.
@@TCS_Aquatics Back when I started raising Discus in the 1970s it was much tougher to keep them because so few were captive bred so they were a lot less tolerant of water conditions and food. Back then it was beefheart or nothing, now today they will eat almost anything, my Discus will even eat Tetramin flakes but their favorite is live blackworms.
@@MichaelClark-uw7ex Mine loves Omega One sinking pellets! Let me ask you this, what in the wild were they eating that beef heart was a natural substitute for? I’ve always really scratched my head at that.
@@TCS_Aquatics To be honest, that has always bothered me as well. In the wild they eat small crustaceans, copepods, mosquito larvae, baby fish, insects, that sort of thing. I have no idea how the collectors/early breeders came up with the idea to try beefheart. I heard about it from Dr. Herbert Axelrod's books
While I love looking at Lisa's and other people's Discus - I don't think I'll ever own any. The temperature requirements for keeping Discus happy wouldn't work well with the aquariums I have: planted community tanks😎 Thank you John and Lisa, great information about gorgeous fish💕👍
Some great points love the discus clips in the video. Can’t wait till I get mine I’ve got the tank but got to wait to the new floor to be done before I set everything up but filters all ready running on other tank. Excited 🙂
I have to dispute Discus is hard work and they must be kept in over 28 degrees! If you look at the Discus kept @ over 28, their gills are working overtime.
Hi John and Lisa I Love You Guys and I am Very New to this Aquarium Hobby So I really Need Your Help So I Got a 6 Gallon Tank Recently Dimensions Are : 15.74Inches x 9.05Inches x 9.84Inches and I also Got A Good Internal Filter and the Temperatures are also All right as I Live in India my Water Temperature is around 26-28Celcius. And I Wanna Buy A Beautiful Looking And Hardy Fish. So can you suggest Me Fish Please Many Suggested Me Bettas But still I am not sure If I should get bettas or anything else. Which Fish do you Suggest Me? And Thx a Lot😃
@@totothespitz5890 I Am From Tamil Nadu Chennai and Yah i Tried Neon Tetras But nah they arent hardy at all. So im Looking for A Hardy And Beautiful Fish. btw which state are you from in India?
@@Covid--be6pi oh ok...then you can try guppies...coz there are so many varieties of guppys in the market and they do fine with bettas most of the time...if u don't want a betta you can make it a guppy only tank.... What's ur opinion about guppys? And I live in Kerala...😁
Sounds like the hardest part would be having room for A large enough tank and also the electric bill for heating!!! Maybe someday ill have them, for now ill stick with the shrimp and neon tetras haha
Great video here is a topic for you. Do you really need to climatise your fish over long periods depending on the fish. I have discus fish always got them from the same place when I get the home put bag in the tank water for 10 minutes then scoop them out the bag straight in the tank no issues none of this acclimatise for an hour or so.Just look at how fish are caught in the wild the water parameters are constantly changing from being caught from sea for example to holding tanks then put in bags for shipping you got wee in the bags maybe poo in the bags all this is altering the water parameters then they go to the shop. It's an extremely stressful process. Personally all this about climitising your fish dont make sense considering there journey. Personally as long as your own water parameters are in the range for the fish your keeping I don't see the need. There are people that will disagree but it's common sense.
Great and true video as always, I have to admit I did chuckle when you said I can't remember ever a fish owner looking forward to doing water changes and cleaning filters let alone new fish keepers. I must be on my own in this regard because when I first got into aquatics that is one thing I was looking forward too aswell as water testing, discus where my first fish and they breed well admittly with a few loses at first of the fry.
One day I'd love to have a discus tank. I am not ready yet. Not afraid of the work, I do a lot of work with 9 tanks and a pond lol, just afraid of messing up with that expensive of a fish 🙈
Get them as babies! Raise them in a 20 gallon bare bottom. Up to 4 inches then place them in the appropriate tank and watch em grow to their full potential 👍🏽
@@CHAISOICY exactly what im doing bought 3 at 3/4 cm in size , water change everyday , ive never had a bare bottom before but this way i KNOW its clean , water temp at 32 , got 5 more coming this week , once i know they are healthy they will go in together to grow :)
Just do you're homework. Lots of it.. You have 9 tanks so you are obviously more than experienced enough. They are a lot tougher than people make out. If something isn't right trust me they'll let you know. Then just you tube Gabe Sapada at jack wattle discus and he will tell you what to do. He's Mr discus. Good luck. Just go for it. They are the Kings of the aquarium. 👍🤞🐠🐠🐠🐠🇬🇧
@@Slayer-xc1ug I agree they are strong little guys 💪🏽 I had an unknown ammonia spike in my 75 and my discus suffered heavy ammonia poisoning but long story short they are slowly recovering one by one!
I was always skeptical to get discuss as i thought it is sensitive. 6 month ago i want give a try and bought 4x 2" discuss put into comnunity tank where got rainbows, congo tetra, severum and geos. They are really doing great and active. Now i setup a 150gal tank with 12 beautifull 8" discuss. My water is 6.5ph and temperature maintain between 28-30degC
Fantastic content as always. Your right John, I asked my local discus breeder, an discus produce a special slime coat when breeding fascinating isn't it, nature is awesome ❤️❤️
Honestly, i have a 110 community aquarium with Discus, Angels, Tiger Barbs and Bueno's Aires Tetra's (all fin nippers) and they're fine. The key that I've found is to get the stocking right, most fin nippers are projecting stress and interspecies behavior onto other species in your tank. You need to make sure you're fin nippers have a large enough population to keep that interspecies behavior contained to their group (in my experience thats 9+ tiger barbs, and 7+ Bueno's Aires. You also need to make sure they have room to escape and places to hide, so they don't stress nip, if your tank is too overstocked, fish get stressed and will be more likely to nip.
Im looking at putting a couple in with my anglefish. Update have not found any discus yet but they will be happy because I keep all my aquariums at 82-84
Discuses have no particular environment other than the tank itself. Where they are located is adaptable to your situation. Discus can adapt to almost any environment as long as that environment has consistent elements of traffic, noise and your interaction with your fish. Maintenance, Water changes and feeding are all import activities that build trust. If you are netting your fish and scaring them more than necessary, each time you approach the tank your fish will be suspect about why. If you make the experience a good one you build trust. Plan long term for your fish so that they can continue throughout their life cycle to experience the same environment and not disrupt their life experiences and patterns. This is True with all Tropical fish but some more than others. Discus fish are in that category where great care in planning a safe and stable environment yields the best results. They are not that fragile, they just need your trust. Good Luck!
Temp at 82.5-83.2 with angelfish have no problems thay don't Require 86+ Temps to be happy... tank size, flourishing plants and water quality 83 temp is just fine
