Breeding Discus Fish

It is very common that after you have successfully raised Discus Fish for some time, that you would decide to extend your Discus care to breeding these beautiful fish. The Discus has been referred to as "The King of the Aquarium", and though keeping and breeding them is certainly still a challenge for the inexperienced, the later can be very rewarding indeed.

Breeding discus fish has become an interesting hobby since discus fish are very popular with pet owner as the aquarium fish. For breeding tanks you should up that rate from twice a week to anything up to once a day for the best results when breeding Discus Fish.

The breeding pair will usually clean a vertical spawning site on which the eggs are then laid and fertilised. The first essential to breeding discus fish is to obtain a suitable pair. If you want to keep your discus fish healthy and breeding, you need to know their aspects of preferred living conditions, feeding, and breeding habits. Balanced nutrition, and making sure your fish are actually eating is also critical to the success of breeding discus fish. Feeding is also directly related to water quality, as poor water quality can cause poor appetites. You should do a partial water change every day in the breeding aquarium. The recommended water temperature is 86 degrees F.


A bare bottom twenty or twenty-seven gallon tall tank is ideal for breeding discus. However in the breeding tank, a small water change should be done every day, or every second day. Frequent water changes increase appetite and promote mating activity in discus. Breeding fish with the exception of perhaps common livebearers is a lot of work and experience with keeping the fish is vital to success.

A group of 6-8 Discus fish are raised in the group tank and when they reach about 4 inches in diameter (10 cm) pairs will start to form. Feeding your Discus a varied and nutritious diet and making sure that the fish actually eat it – is imperative if you want to breed Discus.
The free swimming fry will swim up to their parents and start feeding on a special type of nutritious mucus produced by the skin of the parents. Most breeders therefore remove the fry to their own fry aquarium after 2-3 weeks.

If you fail at this, you will most probably end up with anorectic, unhealthy Discus fish that refuses to breed altogether. The same goes for the fry aquarium. The discus also has high-maintenance water-quality needs, which can make them a time-consuming breed. Spawning discus should be fed frozen blood worms, beef heart, Tetra Color Bits, frozen or live brine shrimp, or live white worms.

Discus fish will be much more likely to breed if the water is clean every day. Once a breeding pair has been established, the pair will begin cleaning an area in which to lay eggs. Once this happens, remove the breeding pair from the tank and place them in a breeding tank.The pair is healthy, the male will soon fertilize the eggs.

Once this happens, allow the breeding pair to stay with the eggs. Let the babies stay with the parents until the breeding pair seems to be waiting to breed again.

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How To Get a Pair Of Discus Fish

Although it is hard to distinguish the sex, during breeding season the male will have a more pointed papillae while the female's is rounded. Males may be larger and some males have a more pointed dorsal fin and thicker lips.

There are two ways to go about obtaining a breeding pair of discus. When two discus pair off they will defend a territory in the aquarium against all of their other tank mates. The second way to obtain a breeding pair is to go out and buy one. Sometimes Brown Discus will form a two-female pair, you should watch each pair to ensure that only one member is depositing eggs.

Once a pair has been formed, they will find a territory which they will defend against intruders. These two should now be placed in a separate aquarium. you could provide them with a vertical surface (such as an overturned flowerpot) on which they could deposit their eggs.

A pair of breeding discus will require a 27 gallon tank at the very least. It would be great if A group of 6-8 Discus fish are raised in the group tank and when they reach about 4 inches in diameter (10 cm) pairs will start to form. Distinguishing male and female Discus fish can be quite difficult, adult males may develop a small lump on their foreheads, but this difference is not always reliable. This increases their chances of forming a pair.


You can buy a proven pair of discus from an importer. the last way to get a breeding pair of discus is to buy two or three young adult discus at around 5in size.

If you require your pair fast for whatever reason the way to go is to get a proven pair from a trusted dealer. Sexing Discus Fish can be difficult so start with a number of potential parents but bear in mind that Discus Fish tend to become a bit territorial when breeding, so it is best to breed a well-established pair, or keep a group of young Discus and allow them to pair themselves.

The male, in turn, has a smaller, sharper breeding tube. It has been said that the male discus fish will tend to have a less intense color and more pattern while the female tends to be more colorful but with lesser pattern.

The Dorsal and Anal Fins become (almost) straight after the fins curve down (or up) toward the Caudal Fin...The key to sexing the fish is where the lines cross the Caudal fin.. If they pass through the Caudal Fin, the fish is most likely a female.

Discus Fish Disease

Early treatment is important because the longer it lasts, the harder it is to cure.The Discus Fish Disease that is hazardous to the health of your fish,by identifying problems early and taking action, you will minimize the risk of serious problems. Overall, the best way of reducing the risk of discus disease is to create the proper recommended environment for your fish, which usually means controlling water quality, temperature, and diet.

Discus are a shoaling fish.Make sure there are no large changes in pH, hardness or temperature when changing water.Remember discus are not hard to keep, they just require regular water changes and a good varied diet like most other fish. One of things you must do is keep your discus fish healthy and disease free. The root of the problem is stress, if you cause discus stress there immune system will lower and make them venerable to disease.

Most cases of discus fish disease can be prevented in the first place by regular water changes, a clean diet, and quarantine methods. However, if your discus fish become sick it is important to take action immediately.


When inspecting your fish for Discus Fish Disease, look also for little white dots This common parasite is called Ich which is short for Ichthyophthirius Although quite common, this disease can kill all your fish if not treated in time.

Bacterial infections usually occur in aquariums with less than ideal conditions, but they can also happen in well maintained tanks as well. In order to avoid this discus fish disease, change the water regularly and avoid over-crowding the tank.

It would be impossible to identify every possible type of discus disease bacteria here without access to a laboratory, but fish stores can supply you with broad spectrum antibiotics that will treat a number of different infections. Make sure to follow the directions closely, so as not to overdose your fish. In many cases, a significant improvement can be seen within 8 hours.

Hole in the Head is a common discus disease. Left untreated, your discus fish will die. Gill flukes are a type of discus disease involving external parasites that infect the gills and cause heavy breathing and erratic swimming. One common method to treat Hole in the Head disease is to raise the water temperature to about 36 degrees C for 8-10 days. Gill flukes are a type of discus disease involving external parasites that infect the gills and cause heavy breathing and erratic swimming.

Gill flukes are an especially bad problem for discus fry since their immune system is not strong enough to fight the infection compared to adult discus. Gill flukes can be treated with medication, but the best practice is to isolate discus fry into their own tank as soon as they are big enough to eat external food. This way, they won’t be infected in the first place by the adults.

The symptoms of this discus tropical fish disease include red and swollen gills and the fish staying at the water surface gasping for air. Diseases don’t keep to themselves so the Discus Fish Disease can at times be found in fish that have fin rot.Similar to any other fish, discus disease can strike your tank if you are not paying attention.

How To Keep Discus Fish

Before keeping discus fish, it is important to know what a discus fish should look like when they are healthy and fully grown, as well as the various different colors that discus fish can come in so that you are able to keep discus fish happy and healthy, and they can be a rewarding fish for your aquarium.

They can grow quite big which is why when keeping discus fish you should have a tank large enough for them. Referance books have been compliled over the years about keeping discus fish and how to breed them more than any other exotic fish, the reason is because they are very popular with home pet owners. Keeping discus fish in groups also increases the confidence of the group members and lower the risk of "community" misbehavior. When keeping discus tropical fish you have to respect their habits.

Keeping discus tropical fish that go through the discus fish breeding process is best achieved in a separate tank especially prepared for the purpose. Discus tropical fish prepare the perimeter were they are going to have their babies by cleaning it first and defending it throughout the whole period.


Once you have fry, you’ll be surprised that discus tropical fish feed their young alone. After three or six weeks at the maximum, keeping discus exotic fish together with their fry is not at all recommended. Discus is a native of the calm and warm Amazon River Keeping discus fish requires the pet owner to have the right information about what to expect and what to offer them to make these exotic creatures happy. Discus fish keeps changing their behaviour according to the environmental factors.
Discus fish are shy but if you plan the correct way to keep them, you will find that they can become aggresive to each other, the reason for this is because they like to protect there breeding territory and keeping discus fish can be hard work but the rewards are just as equal.

Keep your discus fish aquarium away from doors. Whenever discus are around doors, the movement cause them to stress. And remember, discus fish get sick from stress. So, place their aquariums away from any doors.Which is the main problem of them getting sick. When they get sick, it's because of stress.

Keeping discus fish can bring lots of challenges and rewards at the same time too. A separate tank will be needed for mating purposes, If you are keeping discus fish in couples together with the rest of your aquatic pets, you risk having some nasty violent behaviour because of territorial claims. Once you have your fry, you'll be surprised that discus fish feed their young alone.

Discus fish immune system decrease whenever you cause them stress, which makes them get diseases easily. You will want to keep your tank away from windows, drafty doorways, and high-traffic areas.
Aquarium water needs to be clean and free from chlorine and heavy metals. A good way of keeping your discus aquarium clean is to use an RO unit, water purifier, or good quality tape water.

When cleaning the aquarium, make sure there aren't any large changes in pH or temperature.These are the tips on keeping your discus fish healthy.If you have very hard water with a high pH, you might need to blend softened water with your tap water to achieve the best water for your discus.

Discus Fish Secrets

Feeding Discus Fish

Discus fish will recognize and inter act with you. Discus fish are very aware of what goes on around them. Discus fish will quickly endear themselves to you. Discus fish are considered king of all aquarium tropical fish and rightfully so. Adult discus fish take their time eating, as if to savor the moment. Feeding Discus Fish. The last basic discus fish care tip is feeding your discus. Make sure you feed adult discus once a day and young discus fish three times a day.

Feeding your Discus a varied and nutritious diet – and making sure that the fish actually eat it – is imperative if you want to breed Discus. Poor water quality can cause poor appetite in Discus and must therefore be avoided at all costs.

Live food such as white worms and bloodworms is certainly recommended, but be careful with live food that you do not cultivate yourself since it might introduce disease. You can supplement live food with high quality prepared foods to make sure that your fish receives all necessary vitamins.


Feeding Discus Fish can be a challenge. They have no unique nutritional needs and can be raised on most high-protein fish food. However, their cautious nature and reluctance to adapt to new foods and surroundings creates problems. Feeding Discus Fish. The last basic discus fish care tip is feeding your discus. Make sure you feed adult discus once a day and young discus fish three times a day.

You can always introduce new food at a later time by slowly mixing the new food with for familiar food and thereby weaning them from the old while helping them to grow accustomed to the new diet.
Feed young discus fish, around 5 cm in length, four to five times daily. Growing fish need more nutrients, and will take in less food during each feeding.Add live or frozen food to the diet of the discus fish. In the wild, discus fish sometimes live in areas where food is in short supply.

Filtration For The Discus Tanks

Filtration is essential, Filtration is the life support system of the aquarium. In the aquarium, beneficial bacteria. Mechanical filtration removes the uneaten food, waste products and acumulated plant waste from the tank. Filtering using chemical filtration takes place at the molecular level. What discus want is: excellent water quality, free of toxins like chlorine, ammonia, nitrite, phosphate, etc.; correct water chemistry, pH and water hardness; and proper temperature, between 82 and 86F. The most commonly used medium is activated charcoal.

If your tap water is overly high in phosphates or nitrates, there is the chance that your fish won't do well until you pretreat the water with activated charcoal or other specific resins. Mechanical and chemical filtration results can be seen visibly - the tank just looks cleaner. Even though chemical filtration does remove some of the toxic materials from the water, it takes biofiltration to make the water safe for habitation.
Diatom and micron filters are used to capture super fine particles of dirt. The use of these materials for fine filtration is excellent for discus and their water.


Usually mechanical filtration is confused with biological filtration because the same media is sometimes incorrectly used for both types of filtration .When cleaning the media, use only tank water. Never use hot water or fresh tap water to clean the sponges or media, but instead gently rinse and carefully wring out excess water in a pail of tank water.

Activated carbon is not meant to be used as filter media in biological filters. It is often combined with filter floss and left in the filter for an indeterminate period of time.
Many Discus lovers have nothing but a few large sponge filters in their tanks. Sponge filters are driven by air pumps that draw water through a sponge.There are many types of biological filters. The sponge filter is gently squeezed in a bucket of tank water once a week and the resident nitrobacters do a fine job of converting the ammonia and nitrite.

They are poor for mechanical filtration. With regular rinsing of the sponge, a sponge filter will provide a little mechanical filtration without endangering the baby fish. Sponge filters are excellent for biological filtration.As many different types of biological filter as there are, there are more types of media. Biological filtration is critical to the health of your fish.Simple filter floss is very inexpensive and effective. Sponge filters have no chemical filtration capability.

It may be that you use a small sponge filter on the intake tube of your power or canister filter. Some filters have special chambers for prefiltration media. Even the old-fashioned box filter with a layer of gravel and some filter floss will perform effective mechanical filtration. These fine materials trap the dirt as the water passes through them. Mechanical filters must be changed or cleaned weekly. Just wash, rinse, or replace that mechanical filter media as often as possible.

Water For Discus Fish

Initially, you will need to test for chloramine and chlorine, pH, and alkalinity. Although some base water is quite good for the discus with little or no buffering, some water will need extensive conditioning before the first Discus can be introduced into the tank. Once you know the levels of PH and alkalinity, water chemistry tests should be conducted on a regular basis.Test on a regular basis.Toxins in the Water Supply.

It has been debated a lot about whether to keep discus fish in hard water or soft water. Here's the first rule I use when buying and importing discus fish;Match the water conditions of your supplier.

The softer water will be easier to adjust the ph to the desired range for the discus fish.
Young discus fish should not be kept in very soft water as there aren't the right minerals present for good growth. They should be raised in slightly hard water with a natural ph. In this water they should grow quickly and healthy.


Adult Discus For my adult discus I again use tap water filter through carbon and left to stand but I also add aquarium peat. This softens the water a little and is fine because of the tap water I have. You may have to use RO water mixed with filtered tap water.

Aging the water through carbon filtration (mechanical), aging the water, and proper aeration will be of benefit. Constant water changes in the Discus tank will only leach these buffers, and then you are unsure of where your water chemistry is at. The process of RO with fine tuned filtration of the RO water will remove virtually all toxins, but one must be aware that Discus cannot live in pure RO water, and steps must again be taken to insure proper levels of acidity/PH in the RO water.

Because it is imperative that discus fish have optimal water conditions, much has been written about this subject, This is the plan put in place to insure proper PH water levels in our hatchery. The breeder to let them acclimate to the new tank water by "floating" the bags containing the fish for approximately one hour to equalize the temperatures, and to add a cup of water to the bag from the tank to equalize PH levels.

Discus Fish Secrets