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Ingolds Fish Pages
: General Layout Information
: Species Tank for Discus Fish
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| Discus with their Fry |
The majestic and increasingly popular discus fish in the genus Symphysodon are another group that deserve a specially laid out species tank. Here the challenge is to recreate the calm waters along the shores of the shallow creeks, pools, lakes and network of small tributaries from the rain forest of the Amazon Basin.
The discus lives peacefully among the dark shadows of the impenetrable off shore vegetation and where the gnarled roots grow down into the soft, warm water, rich in humus, regularly replenished by the draining of the rain forest and providing a wide variety of animal food.
The virtually impossibility of recreating such an environment is probably why keeping and breeding discus fish has so often been disappointing. However, the disappointments of the past have provided the experience on which it is possible to attempt to layout a species tank which meets the requirements of these fish to some extent, and which may even encourage them to breed successfully.
The tank must be at least 100 x 50 x 50 cm: ideally it should be 200 x 60 x 80 cm. The sides may be covered with cork bark prepared as suggested in the walls section. The tank must not dominated by a profusion of beautiful plants: they are not found in the natural environment of discus fish: they destroy the special character of the tank and provide unnecessary hiding places for the fish, which will thus be lost view.
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| Discus Photo By Jean Opsomer |
The dark bed of sand and peat has to be handled imaginatively, otherwise the largely unplanted tank will look too bare. The be should rise steeply from the front to the back, supported by asymmetric terraces, built up with layers of peat, bogwood, or even cork bark. Flat stones can also be used, but they do not usually look quite natural.
The dominate decoration should be bogwood: a large number of big pieces of interesting shapes should be piled up, from the front , where the pile will be fairly low, to the back where the pile should virtually reach the water level. This will give the fish enough retreats. The bogwood and some of the cork wall can be overgrown with attractive moss: there may be the occasional plant, such as the Amazon swordplant, Echinodorus horizontails, and here there are clump of Echinodorus Tenellis. However, discus like a large part of the sandy bed to remain bare.
The overhead lighting can be filtered through a few floating plants and it should be limited to a few light bulbs, or if there is a lighting cover, some neon tubes with a very soft illumination. The fish will be regularly seen swimming about at the front of the tank if the light is subdued.
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| Blue Face Discus |
The composition of the water is extremely important: it must be very soft. the fish can be put in when the tank has stood for two weeks. The fish should preferably be half grown, and different colour varieties can only really be kept together in a large aquarium even then a vigilant watch has to be maintained to avoid crossbreeding, if indeed the fish mate.
The temperature should be kept constant at 28° - 30° C: the soft water should be constantly filtered through an efficient biological filter which does not contain any materials that might increase the DH value For more information see the Krib site.
Last modified: Thursday, 17 April 1997
Peter Champas
