Aquarium Discus Fish - Tips and Secrets to Keep Your Discus Fish Happy

The first tip I would like to touch on is aquarium balance. What I mean by aquarium balance is about how many discus you should keep in an aquarium. The general rule of thumb is to only keep one discus fish, per every 10 gallons of water your tank can withhold. Discus like room to roam so use this rule and you will save yourself from overcrowding your fish.

The second tip I would like to share is about tank size and shape. The first tip is regarding tank shape. Discus like a tall sized tank. Let me explain. You want to try to get a tank which is taller rather than longer. For instance if you had a choice between a tank which was 6 feet long and only 18 inches deep you would be better off trying to find a 3 feet tall and 4 feet wide. With this being said if you have a good size tank like the first one I mentioned. I do not suggest you run out and purchase a new tank. These are just tank guidelines. They are not gospel but as a rule you do want to have at least an 18" tank depth. I personally don't recommend anything smaller that a 35 gallon tank. This is just my personal opinion. I don't like to use anything smaller than 35 gallons because the smaller the tank the harder it is to maintain the water. Plus you want to have more than 3 fish don't ya?

The third tip I am going to revel to you is on feeding. Discus are creatures of habit. Before you bring your new discus home be sure to ask the breeder or fish owner what types of food they were feeding them. They do not require any special diet but they do like to eat the food they are used to. You can feed them different types of food in small doses. Do this for a few weeks increasing the dosage. This is a safe and stress free way to change their diet.

The fourth tip in this series is one of the most important tips you need to know. This is about water quality. Keeping your water chemistry clean and stable is a MUST! First you need to keep the water clean by making sure you change it when needed.

Now Let me elaborate on chemistry. Proper water temperature for discus is between 82 and 86 degrees F. You also need to test the water hardness. The water should be soft, between 3 and 15dH. The PH level is next important factor. This needs to be between 5 and 6.5.

PH is probably the biggest factor which most fish keepers have some trouble with. Discus do not like to compromise these PH factors. They will survive in other PH conditions however do not fool yourself in doing so. The fish may live and even will breed. The problem is they will always be stressed and their life span will be compromised. The bottom line is always test your water conditions and make very gradual changes when need be. When you make drastic chemistry changes this puts more harm than good on the fish causing them an abundance of stress.