My 3 year discus journal.

Just thought I’d document my journey with keeping discus this time around. A lot has changed since I stoped in 2004. Some is still the same. So in 2019 after being here for 2yrs and reading hundreds of “I saved this betta” threads I decided to up the stakes. With all these bettas getting saved I decided to save a pair of discus

Now I’d been looking at them for about a month. And they were not growing. They are about the size of a quarter here. I had a ram tank running at the top me at about 80*. So I slowly uped it to 84. Than picked these 2 up.

And as this hobby is addicting. About a week later the store got in these guys.
Now these just came in so I knew they were healthy. They were called creamsicle.lol. I got 2 more a few weeks later. Now I’ve got these guys in a 45g ram tank that is nw over stocked. So I got a 125 and began this discus journey. These six fish are now around 5+”

these are the 2 blues in the bag. Top one is 5.5 and grew nicely over the years. The bottom grew but not like it should of. The month in the pet store took its toll on the fish. It’s maybe 3.5”. Took me over a month to get it to start eating. So I did save these 2 discus . Next is my creamsicle discus. This was them about a month after I got them
and this is them now

theyve both grown to 5.5”. Nice looking fish with a very odd coloration. It’s believed they are a mix of a pigeon blood and a turquoise.the last 2 of this group are below.

the first of these died after eating beef heart. I believe it just couldn’t digest it. I fed them BH for the first time and it was dead 2 days later. Sad because it was the best looking of the original 6. It’s partner in the next pic is similar but always show the black lines. These surviving 5 discus have been strong healthy fish since entering the 125. All still alive now. So now I got these guys going and have been involved in the thread Discus gang updates here. I’ve been learning a lot and am now willing to order fish online . My next 6 I ordered from Hans Discus. Probably one of the best places to get discus.

 

Guess i didn't realize you got out of discus for that long!

 

I am definitely following

 

Following! I always look at discus at the lfs they are so pretty.

 

Discus are one of those fish I always want to keep but just never have. I see them as the weird round cousin of the angel!

 

So after putting my first 6 into the 125 I got the next 6 from Hans. These went into the now vacant 45. Yes everything in the 45 went into the 125

pictures we’re rotated . Bottom is the 45 top the 125.
And the Hans arrived
these guys came in a cooler. Arrived in great shape and within 20min of receiving them I got a phone call from Hans asking if all was good. Great service and a pleasure to deal with! Now these guys are 2.5”. I ordered 2 blue 2 silver and 2 red. And after 3 years I did get the blues . The others well they’re different. Now this can very easily happen. When I got the 6 they all looked the same. Kind of hard for the seller to get them right at that size. So if you want the exact fish buy larger 4-5”. So these 6 all grew with 3 getting to the 6” size one at 5.5” and 2 4-4.5”. Again when buying at 2.5 no guarantee they will all get to 6”. These guys now. First the blues these are flachen blues

both of these grew well the second did take a good 6 months longer to reach its full size 5.5” the next 2 were supposed to be red snake skins.

as you can see they are pigeon snake skins. The first is 6+” and to me a great looking discus the second is only 4” and just didn’t grow as it should have.
The next 2 we’re supposed to be silver pigeon bloods but grew into into dark angels.

Nice looking discus. First is huge close to 7” the second also didn’t grow as big. It’s maybe 4.5.
So my lesson learned is when you buy small nothing is guaranteed. All in I still very happy with this group. They were fun to grow out and even though all didn’t grow big they’ve all been healthy. And with the original 5 I’ve had no aggression at all in the tank. With everything going this good what else could I do . Yes I ordered 2 more. These 2 were ordered at the 5” size from uncle sams.

 

I love the Cobalt Blue Discus - I'd love to get some at some point. Beautiful fish!

 

So now I’m ordering my first big discus . These guys are coming from uncle sams out of California. Hans is out of Maryland so much closer. So the US discus are shipped the same way. Next day delivery. But the shipping is a disaster!! I mean the worst I’ve had to date. The bags the discus are in leak and UPS doesn’t deliver wet boxes. Go figure! Also they write it off as I refused delivery! After hours of tracking these fish and talking to people in India I finally find out where the fish are. I go to the UPS station find the box (yes it’s wet) but the fish are still alive . Shipping box was terrible. Even though the fish are fine I’d wouldn’t buy from them again. If you are local and can go to them yes I’d get there discus.
One is a green but it’s brown. I knew this buying it. The other is a red cover. Yes this discus is red. Great fish but bought at 5 and 5.5 they hardly grew after that.

great looking discus. So hard to get a good pic of the red. It’s like the camera just can’t focus on it. So this is my first 125. This is what it looks like at this time
my 125 is 60” not the standard 6’ tank. These discus grew with the plants. A planted discus tank is a harder tank to run for discus. Young discus will grow bigger fast in smaller bare bottom tanks. I’m now a little over a year in and have been involved with whatever discus info I can get. The discus gang thread has been a huge home run. Just great all the info that came in here. All of us had just started and we’re learning as we went. What I’ve read at this time is young discus need much more than what I was doing. I was doing 50% water changes every other day. In a 125 it was a lot of water. So the 45 is still here. Empty . So it’s time to try again. Back to Hans . 8 more 2.5” discus. 2 checkerboards 2 leopards 2 white leopards and 2 German wonders.

Guess i didn't realize you got out of discus for that long!

Yeah I had a 200g glass tank with a school of 14 discus in a planted tank. The tank broke. Wrecked my basement. With my kids growing and life getting in the way . I stopped discus. Kept smaller tanks the whole time but just 2 community tanks.

 

I have always wanted discus. But I hear they are very fragile. So not yet. I was watching a video on a journal of their discus and after months of having them, she stirred up a lot of detritus and it killed them. Yeah...not quite ready for that level of fragility. For now I'll just adore my angels. But one day...one day...

 

Ok back . Next came 8 more Hans discus.
2 checkerboards 2 German wonders 2 leopards 2 white leopards. Again outstanding shipping and healthy great looking discus.
Now when you start with this many at this size thing happen!! To me though I have no proof. Hormones come into play. The white leopards grew first they were the biggest. The German wonders weren’t growing. Next one stopped eating so moved it into a qt tank I was grow out some dither fish in. 15g clean new water and he was eating within an hour. Complete turn around. Left him in there and than moved the other wonder in with him. Second got better but never grew big. Now the six in the 45 we’re doing good but the 2 biggest growers just stoped growing and never picked up again. 3” is all they grew. The 2 checkerboards were growing huge and the regular leopards were growing. Bought a 75g to move them all into. Once up and running I moved the wonders in first with the dither fish than the rest a few days later. The wonders were growing as were the rest. Except the white leopards. Next the checkerboards turned out to be one checkerboard the other a pigeon blood. Both still growin and at 6” now. One of the white leopards died. Both are runts. These are now a little over a year old. The biggest first the checkerboard
andbthe pigeon blood.
These are 6” now. Next are leopards

these 2 are at 4-4.5”. Hoping they are late growers. Next are the wonders. 1st is the same as these
but the second is at 3.5” so nothing great but they may be late growers. These fish grow for 1.5 yrs to 2 yrs.
now the last of this group started as the fastest grower than just stoped. He’s a runt I I do not expect any more growth.
It’s a shame too because he’s a great looking fish. It’s more red than orange. A look at the difference.
that’s him top middle. The other 3 came with him.
So out of this group of 8 one died one runt 2 on the smaller side 3 normal and 2 big. 5 still may grow bigger.

Next I bought 4 from Kennys discus.
These are 2 red tigers at 4” and 2 blue tigers at 4.5.
the red are super bright red with horizontal stripes. The blues are blue turqs. The only horizontal strips are the black stress bars. Seems no mater what they are always showing.

About a month later

The blues. Great body shape but stress bars.
reds are getting darker.
Of these the red grow large 6+ for the male 5.5 for the female. And yes they’re a confirmed pair I got fry . They ate them but fry none the less. They lays eggs every 14 days. The blues. They grew some maybe 5” but shy fish. Always showing stress bars and usually dark in color. Nothing special and in no way tigers. Just blue turqs. Pics now. Reds first

these are great looking discus. Would love to have a successful breed. Will attempt this latter in the year. These are probably just a year old. Next the blues. I didn’t even have a picture of these. I had to go take them. That’s how much they just blend in. Nothing to see here. Lol

so with this group I got 2 really nice discus but look nothing like what they came as. They were bright red when I got them. I fed them red enhanced foods but they still darkened. As to the blues good body shape but never leaving stress bars and just average fish.

 

Next I went back to where I started . Yes the pet store. I had ordered 4 new discus from Dennis discus but covid had stopped all deliveries. So these new guys took a few months to get. While waiting my local place had these tiny quarter sized discus that they advertised as super red. So I bought 2 while waiting for the others to arrive.
well all those other discus I bought without a problem these guys changed my luck . Within days these guys contaminated both my tanks. Even though they were in there own tank in another room. Somehow whatever they had moved on my hands into both my tanks.

The news guys showed no problems. But if thinking of getting into discus this is a major problem. So be prepared for problems when mixing discus.
A week after I got through this problem the other discus arrive. Yes I was busy .
and the other 2 were growing
both of these sets of discus being from different places are in different tanks qt ing.

 

All doing good!!

 

Lol about july 17 I went back to work . Been busy. So some of what gone on and some forgotten info. The 4 I got from Dennis discus were 3 red raffleisa and 1 yellow (for my wife).
These guys came in at 3.5” all in great shape. But the reds weren’t really red more orange. Pigeon bloods. Thought they were suppose to be red. Called about this but got no good reply. Not to happy . The yellow is cool though .
Around this time one discus dies in the first tank. No reason I can figure. Of course it’s the red cover. But at first I can’t figure out what it was. Looked totally different dead. It’s last pic.
a real surprise. I got to figure it had something to do with wherever it was grown out. Possible hormones to make it redder. I read about this. So another problem with uncle sams.
Now all the new guys are growing good. The DD guys have a great shape and are becoming nice looking fish (though not red)
this is about amonth and half later and they’ve grown a full inch. The raffleisa look like 2 pandas and an orange one. Oh yeah where’d the yellow guy go???
Yeah yellow didn’t last long. If you want yellow you got to feed it food without red coloring. Oh well it still looks good! Almost like an orange Raffleisa. As a matter of fact it’s closest to the raffleisa look. Go figure!
The 2 pet store guys are growing too
the first is a full 5” the other around 3.5.
Well I’ve started adding these guys to the big tanks. The 3 orange guys went into the second 125. They fit right in. The 2 blues from Kenny I went to move into the original 125 but could only catch one. Gave up on the other. Those 2 blues have both paired off with in the second 125 one of the new oranges. Been laying eggs regularly. The other paired up with the yellow in the original 125. It lightened up as soon as it went into this tank. Still shows stress bars (almost think they were bred for the bars and reason named tigers).


and theyellow and pet store have moved into the first tank. The other pet store is still in the 50 growing.
yes that’s th3 yellow the second orange from left. It too is now looking like a panda.

 

2 minutes of my tanks .

 

Very Nice!
I like the rectangle planters your using.

 

View attachment 818917

Very Nice!
I like the rectangle planters your using.

Thanks I got them at Home Depot. Made out of concrete. Look better than the plastic things I was using.

 

Well I broke some of my rules this weekend. I thought I was going to check out some discus for someone. Wasn’t expecting anything good and was thinking to tell them to stay away. But I was shocked at the discus this place had. But hey I know enough not to buy from a local fish store. I just saw what the problem could be!! So I was walking out but stopped and thought one more look. What could go wrong.6” red leopard. Yeah I’ve got no stamina!


I don’t even have a tank set up for him. So I give away most of the bosemani and move 2 of the discs out of my 50. I left the little guy. He’s been my hero fish for the year now and the new guy could use a friend. In he goes.
Lost some color in the trip but all in all he’s looking good.
Next day he’s looking better and eating!! Even the little guy looks fine and there both paling around the tank

plus he’s showing more color. Day 3 he’s eating like a pig and looks stunning. I’m just shocked! I swore I’d never buy from a shop again. Especially if I’d never been there before! But **** I wish I bought 2!!

 

Group photo while doing water change

 

Liked that fish so much I got another and a white one to go with them

 

These 3 have done well and are into the bigger tanks. The white I put into my second tank. It struggled a bit with eating. I think even though it’s a big fish it’s still young. Has a problem with eye to mouth eating. Keeps trying but missing the food. I’ve seen this before in young discus. So I’ve been hand feeding him.
that’s him on the left. Probably should have split them up. The other 2 went into my first tank. They’re doing good in there and eating from day one.

but a problem has come up n that tank. Not sure what’s causing it. But I’m thinking it’s just lasting effects of the cross contamination and the meds used to fight it. I’ve lost 4 discus from this tank. Hoping it doesn’t become a wipeout. Seems the Hans discus get it the worst. I’ve got a store bought I’ve been medicating with different med for about a month now. No great results and I’m now trying erythromycin. But this fish is still alive and eating. While the other four looked good one day and dead the next. The other tank has had no problems. Hard to figure.

 

Well I’m into my 4th year keeping discus. Last years cross contamination has effected many of those discus. Seems like the Hans fish took it the worst. Of the first 6 only one is still alive of the second 8 4 are still alive. Seems the cc did a number on them. Not sure why. It’s like their immunity failed. Some just died for no reason and others suffered through some strange ailments. Went through most meds on them but only one came through it. These discus were great till the cc. Grew nicely without a problem in a planted tank. Of the 6 store bought ones I’ve got 2 left. So I’m not really sure it was the cc or old age. They say they can live for 10 yrs. But I’ve lost these guys within a year all just past 3 yrs.
What I’m learning is these fish have problems . Got to say I havnt lost a fish in my regular tanks.
In the 125 that started the cc first I used lots of salt and the rid-ich. All survived the original outbreak but 10 have since died within a year and a half. The second tank that just had the rid ich I’ve lost 4. So the meds in the second caused less stress. The 4 from Dennis discus have grown out to 6” and the 2 from the pet store are at 6” and 4”. The last 3 I bought 2 are doing great and the second blue one passed.
Will put up some pics of where I am now.

 

So some pics: first is the Dennis ones.



these guys are all at least 6”. No problems with them. They never showed any signs of the cc and I got them just after. The second one is the yellow one .
Next is the ones I bought from Monster. I bought these guys big so hard to tell how much they grew. The 2 blues did catch a bit of the cc so I’m guessing what’s left of mine are immune to the cc but do still have it. One of the blues died. But the other was chasing it and keeping it from eating. So stress too could have been the problem. Again these fish have problems!!



ok all in all these guys have been good. The white guy is a little thin. Because it’s an albino it’s eyesight is not that good so I have to hang feed it. Next the last one the red/orange one I got from another keeper who was getting out of discus. Big beautiful fish that I’ve had for around 2 weeks now. But it hasn’t eaten and it’s a bully. Thinking the bully part may be why the guy got rid of it.
These guys I bought from a local place south river aquarium. These you have to buy the week they come in. Like all my fish (but that red/orange guy) I qt for at least 4-6 weeks. First I bought 2 and one jumped. Only discus I ever had jump .
this is the other. It does look just like 2 of the Dennis fish. Bought at4” and quickly grew to 6”. So I went back in March when they got there next shipment and bought 3 more. Of these 3 one just never ate. Still alive but I never see it eating. I moved it out of main tank and added it to a community tank but I still never see it eat. The other 2 have been fine.


At this time I bought a 180g tank so I needed more fish . So I bought 3 more. These guys I got from golden state discus. Got these a week after the last 3. So ended up with 6 in qt. Expecting the worst it all worked out well all looked good and showed no illness for 6 weeks. Yes the one wasn’t eating but still looked healthy and at that time I figured it was eating off the bottom. So 6-8 weeks later I started adding these guys to the 180. Local guys first than the GSD. The 3 local guys did well even the non eater mated with another and laid eggs the first week in. In went the GSD.
Now these guys entered fine and ate well. Got them at about 3.5 and was hoping for some nice growth. They got many rave reviews. Well that’s them when I got them and that’s as far as that went. The 2 local guys grew well in the same tank. The white calico stoped eating about a month in. I noticed white poo and removed it and the non eating local. Both the other 2 GSD also showed white poo and stoped eating. But both without any meds came back from it started eating and no more white poo. But of course the Hans discus who can’t turn away any illness started showing white poo. This is the 4 in the 180. So that’s where that tank is now.
The other tank the 125 has 7 discus in it. So at this time the qt is empty and all is well in the 180 so I order 2 more discus from a kind of local place Discus Madness. I get these 2 at 3.5” but they did look smaller. Nice color but I believe this place is another place where you have to go and pick out what you buy. I didn’t and had them shipped.
One in the front is stunted. Eye bigger than the body. Had them for 2 weeks and that one seemed to get a disease called whirling. Lucky me. I’ve read about it but never seen it. Well that one died quickly . Again these fish aren’t easy. So these last 2 places I won’t order from again. The second discus from DM is doing fine and was added to the 125.
it’s grown some and is doing well.
So as of now I’ve got a total of 28 discus in 3 tanks.

These are the 2 main tanks and I’ve bought 4 more 2 weeks ago from Pingco. These new guys I bought at 4.5” and so far are all doing well. A pair has allready formed and laid eggs twice.

that’s where I’m at now . And won’t be buying any more hopefully for awhile now. My oldest are looking kind of old. But only 4yrs old.

 

These are my oldest discus all about 4 yrs old

these are my oldest and the first ones. Both store bought at about 1.5” red guy is about 5” the blue 4”
this one is the last of the first Hans. Really had a hard time this last yr. But seems to be fine now. It’s kind of faded in color.
And this guy is a mystery. It’s from uncle sams. I bought a red cover and a brown. One passed with the cc and Ithought it was the red one. Most times this one is brown but every so often it turns red. Possibly from the cc? But it’s doing fine too.

 

It's a shame you ran into the cross contamination issue. Good to here the discus you got from Dennis are still doing well.
Thanks for sharing your trials not many here do they only share their tribulations.
I along with others have learned so much from your posts.
Even though I have moved on from Discus, I am still>>



4 years and still going, wishing you continued success...

 

Thanks Jmaldo I do tell it how it is. I find with my water which I think is great for any fish keeping. These discus are still hard to keep. I’ve never used any meds on my other fish but these guys are really prone to disease’s. I’ve read a lot about how easy these fish are and than never heard from the poster again. Just seems these fish are bred only to sell. Nobody’s breeding to keep. The discus sites are ALL about breeding NONE about keeping. Seems German’s bred their fish to handle many different water conditions and were successful. But the problem became you couldn’t mix with the Asains. The Germans just get sick. They may have continued trying to breed stronger fish but the Asian market has pretty much put them out of business just like the American market.

 

update . As of now all is well.
180 now has 15 discus. All of the GSD have passed. Also lost the white albino. It just couldn’t see and finally just stopped eatin. From the cc in 21 only 4 left. The GSD discus came with flagellates. These are an internal parasite. Most discus come with them and don’t have a problem. Stress brings them out and their number grow. This was too much for the ones who had the cc. All were treated. Some recovered only to get it again. They just couldn’t shake it. As of now the tank is clear and all fish are doing well and eating everything. I’ve started adding metro to their food every 6 months. This hopefully will keep them healthy.
125 with my oldest fish is still doing good. Won’t add any more to this tank.
2 of my originals and one US are in here and all about 5 yrs old. The last Hans is here.

So with the loses I was just planning to let the tanks run as is. But went to Monster aquarium to look at some zebra plecos. The day before they got in a discus shipment. Came out with 3. Really didn’t want to. Had nothing set up. But just couldn’t pass them up. Got to pick out the best.
Set up qt with tank water and media from established tanks. Well guess what these fish cross contaminated. The 2 up front got the cc guy in the back was ok. So guess he gave it . But I recognized it right away. Hit them with the rid-ich and just a little salt and they started getting better. Finished that treatment and gave them a week off . Than tried para guard. Gave them 3 treatments of this. I’m very happy with the results. All came back to when I got them. Gave them 2 more weeks in qt and one more treatment of rid-ich the day before adding to main tank. Added them and all is well. Hoping for the best now .

 

Just another pic of the new guys. They were all together.

 

Wow, they’re beautiful! And so are the rest of them. Love the tank too.

 

Amazing! I always wanted discus because 1. They are good to breed for profit 2. They look awesome!

 

Thank you! But they are hard to breed! And even harder to make a profit. You may never make back the money spent on breeding them. That’s the equipment, food and time it’s going to take to successfully grow them to a size to sell. Next being nobody knows you who are you selling too? Never get into fish to breed and sell!