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Discus Fish Keeping

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Discus Fish Keeping - Taking Care Of Your New Friends

Discus Fish Keeping can be a bit of a challenge and is also an art form in itself. This hobby can be very rewarding as long as you have the proper knowledge going into it. When you have the correct information, you will know how to maintain your tank and have very happy fish. Your new found friends have special needs and you will want to care for them properly. If you are armed with the right information, you will be able to prepare and maintain an environment that your fish will thrive in. Discus fish are a beautiful and exotic species that will make a great addition to your home aquarium.

Contents at a Glance

Discus Fish Keeping And Their Environmen...
Things To Look For When Selecting Your D...
Discus Fish Keeping And Feeding
Discus Fish keeping And Tank Size
Discus Fish Keeping - What You Should Ha...
Discus Fish Keeping

Discus fish are native to the calm warm waters of the Amazon River. Therefore, it is important to mimic their natural environment in order to satisfy their desires. Without the right environmental factors taken care of, Discus fish can become sick, aggressive, or even die for no apparent reason.

These fish are mostly found among dense plants so it is best to have some plants in your tank... make sense? The water in the Amazon River is warm soft and acidic with very little current. The Discus fish flat shape and color pattern is designed to keep them camouflaged in their natural environment. They can usually be found in large groups, and when not spawning are mostly a social creatures. Their natural food consists of aquatic inverts, insects, small fish and fry and any other naturally occurring food that may be available.

Find out how to keep your Discus Fish happy at: Discus Fish Keeping

Things To Look For When Selecting Your Discus Fish

There are a few things to look for when selecting you discus fish. You want to make sure you are getting healthy and happy fish right from the start. This will make your life soooo much easier and set you off on the right foot when starting your new aquarium!

Don't select a discus fish that is shy, aggressive, or antisocial with the other fish in the tank.
Watch the fish swim naturally for at least 10-15 minutes. Do you notice any strange behavior? (sideways swimming, aggression, shyness, etc%u2026)
Healthy discus fish should have a round body. If the shape is long and drawn out, it may be sick or have genetic problems. Discus fish should not have extremely large eyes in proportion to the size of their body.
Sick discus aquarium fish often have very pointy and sharp dorsal fin. They may also have sunken eyes and dull color.
Watch while the shop feeds the fish in front of you. A healthy fish should have a good appetite.
These are five simple things you should look for when selecting your new discus fish. Discus fish keeping can be easy if you have the right knowledge and set things up correctly from the beginning. Choosing the right fish that are healthy will lead to a happy tank and you will run into less problems in the future.

Discus Fish Keeping And Feeding

Lets feed them the proper food

One of the main things you can do in keeping your discus fish healthy and happy is feeding them the proper diet. Feeding your discus the regular tropical fish flakes just isn't enough. A good diet should consist of frozen brine shrimp, blood worm, mysis shrimp, beef heart and black mosquito larvae.

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Discus Fish keeping And Tank Size

Bigger Is Better!

There are 2 things you should note when buying a tank for your new fish - Depth and Volume. Because of your fish's size and swimming habits, a minimum of 18" is needed for tank depth, with deeper being better. For the volume, a good guide you should go by is around 10 gallons of water per each adult discus. Larger tanks are best since it will also give more stable water conditions, I like to have a tank that is 40 gallons, as this will give your fish plenty of room to swim and give them many hiding places. This will keep them very happy.

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Discus Fish Keeping - What You Should Have In Your Tank

Setting up your discus fish tank

You can keep discus in a bare tank, but who would want to look at such an empty aquarium. A thin layer of gravel on the bottom always looks appealing and the fish seem to like it also. You can also add driftwood, plants, or ceramic pots as this will add a nice touch to the tank. If you choose to add plants, make sure they can tolerate the warm water. Your discus fish like the temperature to be around 80 degrees F, so be sure that your plants can handle this level of warmth. For the lighting, a simple fluorescent strip is good and it will give off enough light for the plants, as well as the fish.

Discus Fish Keeping

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clefty Jun 2, 2009 @ 1:36 pm | delete

Great lens! Welcome to the Pet Fish group :) Though your other lenses are great too, we only need one good lens on caring for discus fish in the group. If you write any other lenses on other species, please join the group with those too!