Tropical Fish Discus Forum Questions Answered!

I am a novice at breeding and have just started setting up a separate breeding tank for my discus pair after several spawning in a show tank has proven to be disastrous. My question is can I feed discus fry with liquid food such as Interpet Ltd’s Liquifry No. 1? Secondly, where can I get brine shrimp eggs to cultivate brine shrimp for discus fry? Thanks for your help.

Reply:
I used Liquifry for the fries almost 30 years ago.
Now it is not easy to get.

You don’t use Liquifry for discus fish.
In fact you don’t have to worry about the fries after free swimming. The fries will get food from their parents. You only need to feed the parents.
The best baby food is newly hatched brine shrimps. If you can feed them with brine shrimps, they will grow fast. Otherwise you can feed them with
daphnia.

The shrimp eggs come in a tin of 435 grams. You can ask the aquarium shop to order for you.

I would like to know if i can keep two small discus with my 6 inch arowana?

Reply:
Do you know what does Arowana eat?
Your discus fish will be disappear next day.

I have a ten gallon aquarium with a 10-20 filter by regent, aqua-tech. I had a population of 12 fish and the aerobic pad in the aquarium was very discolored due to the # of bacteria. Well I had to treat the water with an algaecide (which did not work by the way), and since then, 2 fish have died (one was constipated I believe and the other one was pregnant and her eggs exploded in her womb and caused her to bleed to death). The aerobic pad is now the same color it was when i purchased it w/ only a few dark spots. Could 2 fish being removed cause the bacteria to die like that, or could it be the stress zyme that I am using? or could it be the algaecide?

Reply:

Algaecide is very poisonous.
Light dosage cannot kill the algae.
Stronger dosage you will kill the fish.
Algaecide must be handling very carefully.

There are shadows in the breeding tanks. How do I position the light and the tanks so that the discus pairs do not eat the fries ? They take care of the fries for a few days and then eat them or some times they eat the eggs on the second or the third day.

Reply:

Discus fish are very sensitive to shadows. They feel scare if shadows fall on them they start jumpy. They eat up the eggs or babies. Actually they want to swallow them into the mouth to protect them then accidentally they . . . . . .

If the location of the tank is not right and you don’t have any other better locations then you can fix an overhead lighting on to your tank. Minimize the activities or movements near the tank.

The discus fish works so hard to choose a location, clean it , lay eggs on it, guide the eggs, fan the eggs almost for 24 hours, the urge of wanting babies is so great, how can they eat their babies. There must be a very strong reason for them to do it. Could it be the human factor?

I am trying to get my discus pair to spawn. Whenever the female lays eggs though, the male follows right behind her eating the eggs as they come out. Some never even make onto the slate. Do you have a remedy that will encourage the male to fertilize them instead of eating them?

Reply:
It is really a big headache to teach the male to fertilize the eggs.
By instinct they know what to do.
If she does not do it, it must be a reason.
Could be she is a female.
Could be she is not mature.

I have 2 mature pigeon blood discus (male & female) and a week ago the female had what looked like a clear tube (2 inches) protruding from underneath her. After 4 days she rubbed it off and now she is very sick and will not eat. I’m not sure if the tube was a worm or possibly her egg tube and I’m not sure how to treat her. The male started picking on her, so I put a divider in the tank. What should I do next? She seems to want to survive.

Discus fish hobbyists often ask:
a) Why my discus fish won’t eat?
b) Why my discus fish eats but won’t grow?
c) Why my discus fish color very dull?

a) Why discus fish refuse to eat? Most of the time people often say. They don’t like this food. They like that food. Actually healthy discus fish eat anything you give, when they are hungry. If they don’t eat, there must be something wrong. Its the fish, not the food. Then what happens to the fish? They have no appetite to eat. What makes them no appetite? The parasites. The internal parasites. WORM

b) Why the discus fish eat but they don’t grow. When the fish eats the food, the food turns into nutrition for the fish to grow. But they eat and do not grow. Where has the food gone to? I think we should blame the worm.

c) My discus fish look very dull. The color doesn’t look attractive. They eat and grow. Even we enhance them. It doesn’t have much improvement. Why? There is a block. Who is responsible for it? I think we should blame the worm.

I keep dogs. Every month I treat them worm table. If I don’t do so, she will slow down in eating. Sometimes she refuses to eat. She loses weight. She becomes moody and not active. Her fur looks dull. She will recover after treating them worm tables. Every three months, I treat them with heartworm tablet too.

So, we should treat the discus fish the same. We must de worm them every month. The fish eat tubifex worm and bloodworm. There is no ways to avoid the parasite grows. I used to treat all my fish and get rids of worms every month. They eat and grow. They look attractive.

Reply:
The white faeces show internal parasites.
Treat them either antibiotic or metronidazole.
Increase the salt content in the water.

I just added discus to my 60 gallon tank. They all have black vertical lines on them. The lines look like natural markings, but I was told that they are a sign of stress. Which is it? What should I do?

Reply:
The vertical bar is originated from wild discus fish.
They are called stress bars.
They will be disappeared or sometimes very clearly shown.
It responds to their environment.
It is normal.

How can I get my discus in its maximum size have already keep them for about 2yrs but still looks small about 4inch but my friends looks bigger than mine..teach me pls

Reply:
Eat and grow.
If you can eat a lot you will grow.
You will grow big and fat.

How to make them eat?
Feed what they like to eat best.
Keep the water in good condition.
Frequent change water.

Hello, two days ago I bought two new discus. When I purchased them, they both looked healthy and swam right up to the front, looking eager for food. Now they are in the tank at home and only one comes to the front to eat, the other always hides behind things until I turn the light out at night. Should I feed them at night? I am afraid that the hiding fish won’t get enough food because he is still scared to come out to eat with the others.

Reply:
Yes. You can feed them at night.
In fact you can feed them at any time.
As long as you don’t overfeed them.
They are hiding at a corner. It could be caused by the environment factors.
Please refer to our web site: Guide Care.

If your discus is always hiding, staying in a corner, easily frighten and not going for food when feeding, most likely they are not happy with its surroundings.

Can you give me some advice? My discus some of them have gone dark they look weak and fins close to body. Do you give discus
vitamins or any other tonics can you give tips on keeping discus fit and healthy.

Reply:
They are not feeling well.
It could be bacteria infection.
Apply antibiotic or acriflavine solution plus salt.

Yes. We include vitamin in the diet.
Please refer to our website on Care Guide.
There are a lot of tips in keeping discus fish.