Keeping Discus Fish & Breeding Discus Fish

admin — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 04:20:21 +0000

The last few years have seen more and more being written about keeping discus fish than most other fish species. Anyone who is thinking about keeping discus fish in their home aquarium should of course get all the information they need before actually buying any of them. They are thought of as royal fish, they are native to the warm and calm Amazon waters that charm through their behavior. Keeping discus fish does require a bit of knowledge on their background, about what to offer to make such pets happy and also what to expect from them. Discus fish are considered fish of changing habits that manifest personality.

When first keeping discus fish you will find that they are shy and very calm in general, but when they start making couples they can often become a little bit aggressive due to breeding territory protection. Keeping discus fish will bring lots of rewards but it will also give you a few challenges as well. First off, as you will see with most groups of any type of fish, within a group it is not uncommon that the weakest discus will get bullied; this is something that can unfortunately result in death. Keeping discus fish in groups in a minimum of six individuals is thought of as ideal. By doing this you will increase the confidence of the group members and you lower the risk of group misbehavior.

When you are keeping discus fish, you will have to respect their habits. For example mating are matters of their own personal choice do not try to force two together. Therefore if you do plan to breed your discus as said you cannot match make and expect them to breed, you will have to let them choose their own partner. When you are keeping discus fish that are about to go through the breeding process it is always best to separate them into a different tank specially prepared for the purpose. If you are keeping discus fish that are about to breed together with the rest of your aquatic pets, you will run the risk of having some violent behavior due to the territorial claims of the breeding pair. Discus fish prepare their area that they are going to use to have their babies by cleaning it first and defending it throughout the whole process.

You will find that discus feed their young by secreting food for them from in between their scales. After about a week the fry will be big enough for you to help with the feeding by giving some baby brine shrimp or even just some flaked food will do. When you are certain that the fry have stopped feeding from the parents it will be safe for you to remove them from the tank into their own. Use a separate tank for the fry feed them well to support the accelerated growth rate. If everything has been done correctly they should grow well and at around 12 weeks they should have grown to about the 2 inch diameter mark. At that size you will be able to start to sell your baby discus fish.

Discus Fish – What You Need to Know Before Keeping Discus Fish

admin — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 04:21:42 +0000

With a compressed rounded body shape and gorgeous colors of green, red, brown and blue, (There are 4 ‘real’ discus variants, with their own Latin name. The rest of the color variants are captive bred and the list of these color variants is nearly endless. They have exotic names like, ‘White Diamond’, ‘Blue Diamond’ ‘Snake Skin’, etc… ) discus fish are among the most popular aquarium freshwater fish in the world. Native from the Amazon River, Wild caught discus fish first started to appeared in the 1920s, discus fish are spread all over the world being part of true industries in Asia, for instance. When they reach adulthood, discus fish are no bigger than eight to ten inches and they make great pets, bringing an excellent array of lively color to your house. Make sure you know everything about the needs of this fish breed before even thinking about keeping them, though discus fish are not very fragile, they still require a lot of care.

Discus fish make excellent aquarium inhabitants and they can be combined with other species in the habitat, the best choices would be the uaru or the tetras species. Normally discus fish are very serene creatures; they are a bit sensitive to stress and a disturbing environment but most fish are. However it is not too great an idea to combine them with fish that are quite a bit smaller, as the discus fish may eat them. It is also totally unadvisable to combine any variety of discus fish with catfish since you might find you just end up with fat catfish and no discus. Like all aquarium creatures, discus fish require optimal living conditions; otherwise they are exposed to disease and may die.

As the natural water temperature the discus fish are used to, is around 26-31 degrees Celsius ( 79 to 88 °F ), you will have to recreate and maintain very similar conditions. The hardness of the water ranges from 3 to 10° dGH. Additionally, in the wild, the environment discus fish live in is slightly acid, so make sure you adjust the pH values to such coordinates, between 5.5 and 6.5 the pH is completely friendly to your pets. If the discus fish were bred in captivity they may just as well adapt to higher pH values, but not during the mating season when you really have to provide optimal conditions.

Keep in mind that discus fish are very clean animals, and the water you put in their tank has to be really clean, without the any trace of pollution whatsoever. You need to use a high capacity filter to cycle the water constantly.

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Keeping Discus Fish & Breeding Discus Fish

Discus Fish – What You Need to Know Before Keeping Discus Fish