Chapter 1 - Discus Keeping theory
Chapter 3 - Tank size and Filtration
Chapter 2 - Tank set-up
Since I can only tell you what I have discovered myself with discus, I am only going to tell you what I found out about my plan in keeping discus. Plan? Yes you will need to plan extensively, long before you buy your first fish. So then it is only fair to tell you what my plan is before we move on. You may have a different plan to my own simply because you have different conditions, circumstances etc.
When planning for a tank setup, approach it from a goal point of view. What do you wan to do? Are you aiming for a large show tank? A few medium sized tanks strategically located to match your decor? Are you aiming to breed your fish? Either eventually or right away? Basically a person that is starting up on discus usually has a "start off small and grow from there after seeing how I go" attitude. My advice is not to think too small. If your budget only permits you to go half way with discus, meaning you will have to cut corners on certain things, then it is probably not a good idea. If you are going to put one foot in the door then you are better off going the full mile, and you will be more likely to succeed. Success with discus is not isolated to just buying the fish. In fact the fish themselves are only a fraction of total plan as a whole. Usually the most money will be spent in maintenance, then on the equipment and lastly the fish themselves.
Head Start
Ideally a good start for a new hobbyist is 6-8 juvenile fish in no smaller than a 30gallon tank with adequate filtration. The bigger the tank the better. This is because it takes longer for larger bodies of water to change in parameters than it is for a small body of water to change parameters. Also discus need space as they grow and need places to hide from bullying by larger tank mates (after all discus are cichlids). 6-8 fish is also advantageous for curbing bully behavior by spreading out the bullying amongst other tank mates. Usually one fish, often the largest, most colorful, usually the one not showing stress bars and most likely a male will bully the rest, establishing himself as the alpha fish who eats first, is the bravest and usually grows the fastest. 6-8 fish is also a good number to increase the odds of getting an established breeding pair when they pair up a bit after they are 12 months old. Discus are also schooling fish and solitary discus will usually not do very well on it’s own.
For these fish a bare bottom tank to grow them out to adult size is probably best. This is because juveniles require copious amounts of food, up to 5-6 times a day. A bare bottom tank is also easier to clean and is generally more hygienic than graveled tanks. Also high protein foods that juveniles require such as beef heart mix is extremely hard on water quality and in my honest opinion would be a nightmare to clean if they were kept in a graveled tank.
My Plan
So my plan then set up as a hobbyist with no real intention to breed. I will set up a show tank and plan so that I can accommodate breeding at a later stage but I am not building a fish room (space restrictions more than anything else) and I am not trying to become a renown breeder. I want a nice tank in the living room of my home and perhaps a breeders rack of 3 x 3ft tanks to “backup” my show piece. So my general plan is to have a 180gal (72"x24"x24") show tank, perhaps with a nice wooden cabinet. Planted preferably as it is going to be a show tank and I will have trouble convincing my wife that a bare bottom tank is "nice" where I would 10-14 adult discus. With that and only that in mind I will go into the details of what I should keep in this tank, how many discus I will keep and what support equipment I will need to buy. To this set up I will aim to have a 3 tiered breeder’s rack of 3ft tanks which I will use for quarantine, grow out and perhaps breeding later on. Lastly I live in Sydney and in blessed Sydney the water out of the tap is of quite good quality. PH is acceptable at around 7.5PH after aerating it for 24hours, GH is a tad over 8 degrees, Kh is 2 degrees, and most of all the conditions of the water are extremely stable and don't fluctuate much if at all. I will aim to only keep only 2, perhaps 3 species in this community, Discus, one type of corydora and bristlenose plecos.
I will also set up a bare bottom quarantine tank that I will use to acclimate and medicate newly acquired fish. For this I will set up a 33 gallon (3ftx2ftx2ft) on the bottom tier with it's own filters, heaters and support equipment. Also I will set-up another bare bottom 30gal for growing out of discus (most likely middle tier). This, I think, is important as juvenile fish need lots of clean water and lots of high protein food, and need to be fed very often. This will be difficult in a large show tank, especially to keep clean so I will be raising juveniles until they are at least 5-6inches in size. This could and should take about 6 months to a year (depending on the size that they were acquired at) before migrating them to the show tank to live out the rest of their lives. There they can be fed on a regular basis such as 3 times per day as apposed to every time they will eat when they are juveniles.