Most people complained about how difficult and tedious it is to keep discus fish. Following the tips and tricks as listed below will certainly help hobbyists to enjoy the life of keeping discus fish.
1. What is the suitable water temperature?
The suitable temperature is 28 to 30 degree Celsius. In Malaysia, a tropical climate country, we do not use heater if we keep the fish indoor. For outdoor, we do need to apply heater, if not, the fish will lost appetite and feel sick.
2. What to do if the fish become sick?
When the fish is sick, it will hide in one corner and the best solution is to apply methylene blue and change the water after 1 to 2 days. Installing a heater will be necessary too.
3. Do we need to change water everyday?
For hobbyists who are busy, changing water is unnecessary since the fish are fed less frequently. With a simple water filter system installed, water changing is to be done only once a couple of weeks. For retirees who feed the fish very often, water changing is done twice a day.
4. What is the best diet for discus?
The best diet is certainly minced beef heart. It is advised not to feed discus with live food since it can cause sickness.
5. Why discus grow too slowly?
There is a stage where discus get to grow slowly from 3″ to 4″. In order to improve the growth rate, treatment with 1000mg metronidazole could be done for 5 days.
6. How to improve the color of discus?
In order to enhance the discus color, most discus farms and exporters feed the fish with coloring agent which is quite expensive. The color agent used is normally astaxanthin which promote reddish color in just a few days.
7. Why people give up keeping discus?
The most common reason are slow growth rate and no time allocated to this hobby.
