Discus

Beauties from the Amazon

The Discus fish (Symphysodon) is in mine opion the king amongst the freshwater aquarium fish. They are gracefull to see and they have lovely colors. They are also not easy to keep and they are more for the more experienced aquarium fan.
The habitat of the Discus fish is in the rainforest of Brazil, from the rivers Rio Negro and the Orinoco in the amazon area. They live in smooth streams, clear and somewhat low acid water. The Ph (acid rate) should be around 5. They are peacefull, calm fish how swim gracefull and slow. They are not comfortable in the company of busy and fast swimming fish. The best way for the Discus is to combine them with Characidae, Corydora's, Apistogramma's and Moonfish.

Fish to keep with the Discus

Characidae are tetra's, like the Cardinal, Neon, Emperor tetra. These fish also live in the habitat of the Discus. The tetra's swim in the middle of your aquarium and they hardly go to the bottom of your fishtank. Corydora's are little catfish, they live on the bottom and swim around scraping the left overs together that other fish forgot to eat. These fish are also nice to see. They are easy to keep and they don't need special care unlike the Discus.

Dwarfchichlids

The Apistogramma (Dwarfchichlids) is also excellent to combine with Discus. They to can get along perfectly with the Discus. I had them myself when i had the Discus in my fishtank, i also had the Cardinal tetra as companion fish. The Cardinal tetra is my favorite, unfortunatly not easy to breed, but cheap in the aquarium shop. It will be not for long though, because the Cardinal tetra are catched alot and their numbers are decrease rapidly.

What does a Discus fish need?

Back to the Discus, the Discus is not a small fish to can grow up to 25 centimeters. So, if you are going to decide to keep the Discus you have to consider that they need a large fishtank. They need at least 50 liters of water per fish and it's a school of fish to. You need to buy at least 5 Discus fish, when you just keep to they will feel miserable and they will get sick much faster. The Discus fish is not a cheap fish to buy, some will cost, depends wich species you want to keep, around 150 dollars per pare, thats the prize in the Netherlands. The Discus pollute his enviroment pretty well, so you will need a good working filter. Few years ago i had some Discus fish in my fishtank, i had also installed an extra filter (external).

Temperature, food, plants and decoration

The fishtank should be decorated with driftwood, amazon, plants and on the bottom you have to put sand. Under the sand you can place some peat. The peat will keep the Ph low. The temperature needs to be around 27 degrees Celsius. It's also necessary to refresh the water on a regular base. The Discus likes live prey alot, it keeps them busy and it will be good for the fish it's activity. The Discus needs varied food, so every day you have to feed them something else, live prey, dry food, or blisters. You can buy these kind of food in the aquarium store and its not so expensive to buy the food.

Ending

There is alot to tell about the Discus fish, for now i will keep it with this blog. I will add some more info about these beautifull fish in another blog.
Happy reading and take care.

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