Discus Fish Care And Breeding

Discus Fish Care And Proper Tank Size

Size can make a difference!

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For the proper tank size there are 2 main things to look for: Tank depth and volume. Because of their size and swimming habits, a minimum of 18 inches is needed for tank depth, with deeper always being best. Tank selection is always the first thing to consider when starting your new hobby. You can get away with 15 inches although 18 inches is a much better choice. For the tank volume I would go with a 30 gallon tank, they do need plenty of space to be happy. Discus can grow quite large and so they need quite a bit of space.

Water Conditions & Quality When You Care For And Breed Your Discus Fish

Lets keep it clean and at the correct levels

Water conditions for general keeping should have a pH of 5.8-7.4 with 6.3-6.9 an
optimum for most varieties. Water hardness is just as important as pH in your tank. A kH of 1-6 and gH of 2-11 are good levels to keep your tank at. The fish may live in harder water, but for long term they need soft to medium water to thrive and stay happy.

Water quality is very important part of maintaining your tank. as well. The higher the quality, the better off your fish will be. Tanks must be mature and stable, with 0 ammonia / nitrite, and nitrates and DOC's as low as possible, with 20ppm as an upper limit. Trying to keep the water as free of metals, phosphates and other contaminants will also help. Large weekly water changes should be done also for happy fish.

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Breeding And Caring for Your Discus Fish

Doing it correctly

Breeding discus as a hobby has become very popular among aquariums all over the world. It Is best to keep the breeding tanks simple and to have good air powered filtration, spawning sites (terracotta cones, broad leafed plants or slate) and no substrate. The water needs to be very soft so the eggs can develop properly. Breeding discus fish can be an expensive hobby and some breeders even like to turn their hobby into a business. But without knowing the best conditions and how the experts breed and care for discus fish, you will feel like you will be lost in the weeds. I found a great resource that can help you with this problem.

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The Different Species Of Discus Fish

Heckel Discus

Heckel Discus Symphysodon Discus - Found in mostly Brazil's Rio Negro, this fish has a distinguishing dark "fifth" stripe and has both red and blue varieties. It's named after ichthyologist Johann Jacob Heckel and is the most difficult discus to keep, because it likes somewhat softer (and lower pH) and warmer water than the other species. It has two subspecies, the Blue Head Symphysodon Discus Discus - which has a blue head (obviously!), and the Symphysodon Discus Willischwartzi.

Brown Discus

Brown Discus Symphysodon Aequifasciatus Axelrodi - Found near Belem and Rio Urubu, this fish used to be the most common discus species available to hobbyists. It has a nice brown body with the brown ranging from a yellowy-brown to a rusty reddish-brown and it has colorful streaks in it's fins and often times on it's head too. Many hobbyists believe the Brown discus is the easiest to keep and breed in captivity.

Green Discus

Green Discus Symphysodon Aequifasciatus Aequifasciatus - Found in Lake Tefe', the Coari' , Nanay, and the Japura regions of the Peruvian and Brazilian Amazon, this fish has a wide range in color, varying from a yellowish green to an olive green to a solid green to a light brownish tan. Many have noticeable green stripes (known as "Royal" Green) and several have red spots on the sides of their bodies

Blue Discus

Blue Discus Symphysodon Aequifasciatus Haraldi - can be found in near Manaus, the Purus River and Manacapuru in Brazil as well as Leticia, Peru. This fish has a wide variety of "blueness", some appear to be more colorful versions of the Brown Discus, while others, (designated "Royal Blue") have blue stripes/ striations on their bodies, head, and fins.

Blue Turquoise Discus

Blue Turquoise Discus These beautiful blue fish are usually entirely blue with red patterns/ striations on the body, dorsal and anal fins, and on the gill covers. Many of these were originally developed in the United States by Jack Wattley from several crossings of wild and tank raised blue and green discus. There are some "high bodied", "solid blue", "red striated", and "high finned" varieties.

Red Turquoise Discus

Red Turquoise Discus This red fish has a turquoise striations running horizontally from head to the base of it's tail. There are also several varieties of this strain; some have yellowish bodies (with turquoise and red stripes) while others have been crossed with red spotted greens to create broken line patterns on the sides. Many of these were orginally developed in Germany by Dr. Edward Schmidt-Focke.

Pigeon Blood Discus

Pigeon Blood Discus This "man-made" fish usually has a creamy yellowish - orange base color, highlighted by bright red eyes and trimmed off in black stripes and spots. The tails of pigeon blood discus are almost always black. Some of the varieties of this strain have more or less straitions/ black spotting and/or creamier body coloring. This strain was developed by Kitti Phanaitthi in 1991 from a mutation in Thailand. It's been said if you can grow these pigeon blood discus out in bright lights, the black spots, "peppering", will be less.

Blue Diamond Discus

Blue Diamond Discus Around 1990, a few breeders from Malaysia (including Kheng Huat, Hock, Phang Teck Beng, and Lee Koon Yen) and Hong Kong (including Sunny Lo Wing Yat) had noticed that several of their blue turquoise discus fry were transparent in color and when these fry grew out, they became a solid blue color, lacking patterns on the gill covers, fins, and stress bars (the colbalts and blue turquoise will have patterns and stress bars). A good quality blue diamond discus will continue to have the solid blue color in addition to red eyes. Some blue diamonds will have a slight yellow coloring on the caudal (tail) fin and some will have finer sized scales.

Leopard Skin Discus

Leopard Skin Discus Unlike most of the "man made strains", the leopard skin discus is a result of selective breeding from two types of wild red spotted green discus originating from different areas and not a genetic mutation. This was done by Hong Kong breeders, Sunny Lo Wing-Yat and Rocky Ng, over the course of eight years. They were available in the marketplace in 1993. Variations of the leopard skin discus are the size of the spots with some having rings as well as spots and "rings within rings" - those which have blue highlights within the red rings.

Snakeskin Discus

Snakeskin Discus Back in 1994, two breeders in Malaysia Ronnie Teoh and Ah Liang, as well as some other breeders in other parts of the world, discovered that they had discus which showed 14 stress bars (instead of the usual 9). Unlike the 9 bar discus, these would pass on the very fine striation pattern and the 14 bars. These fish were cross bred with other strains to produce the wide variety of snakeskin crosses that exist today: blue snakeskin, red snakeskin, pigeon snakeskin, solid snakeskin, red spotted, golden snakeskin, and recently, abino snakeskin.

Leopard Snakeskin Discus

Leopard Snakeskin Discus During the middle 1990's, many breeders were crossing snakeskins with several other strains of discus. One of the Malaysian breeders, Teoh Beng Chye successfully crossed some leopard skins with snakeskins and introduced these in 1997. Leopard Snakeskins are among the top strains in popularity right now. Variations include sizes of spots, spots on the gill covers, webpatterns on face, and some have a golden base coloring.

Snow White Discus

Snow White Discus One of the earliest information as to the origin of this strain comes from Robert Chin of Malaysia back in 1995. He had purchased several wild brown discus for breeding and had noticed that the fry produced from one pair were transparent. When these fish grew up, they became colorless including their eyes. Contrary to belief, the origins of this strain are from the brown discus and not a ghost strain. Sometime later, the red white variety was created by crossing a snow white with a sold red discus.

Golden Discus

Golden Discus The original gold discus was the result of a breeding of brown discus by Malaysian breeder, Kim Keng How. Interestingly,"Kim" is the Chinese character for "gold". The original fry grew up to become fish with a golden base, white stripes covering the front half of the body, and red eyes. Later refinements developed golden discus with less white markings. Golden discus are often cross bred with pigeon blood discus to eliminate the black 'peppering' on the bodies and the black fins of the pigeon blood - a true golden will have a transparent pectoral and caudal (tail) fins.

San Merah Discus

San Merah Discus Back in 1992, Singaporean breeder, See Chow San (Ah San), began crossing wild Ica brown discus which were a reddish brown fish with a 5th bar (like the heckel discus). The word "Merah" means "red" in Malay. His goal was to create a strain of solid red discus without stripes or patterns on the body. Two years later, he was able to remove the blue striations on the forehead and about 5 generations later, he was able to have his fish produce fry which grew up lacking the stress bar. Later, he improved the intensity of the red coloration.

Albino Discus

Albino Discus Making a first appearance in 2000, the albino originally was a mutation of a wild alenquer. Since then, breeders have created several albino strains, such as albino turquoise, albino blue diamonds, albino snakeskins, albino leopard snakeskins, etc...