Discus Health: Three Important Points

Discus are very intelligent, sociable, personal beings. When you have a discus fish, you have to feed it on time, frequently change its water, provide a good aquarium, provide it with company, and interact with your fish.

1. FEED YOUR DISCUS A BALANCED DIET 

There are many foods available on the market; however, there is no specific food for them. Like many other pets, keeping them requires you to provide them with a varying diet.  Here are some of their typical foods:

Dry Food: These include flakes, bits, pellets, and granules, and they come in many different shapes, cuts, and sizes. This is the most common food because it is affordable and rich in essential nutrients.

Frozen Food: These are available in the form of beef, turkey, fish filet, and brine shrimps. These flavors can be mixed and blended together, making it another good source of nutrients for discus.

Live Fish Food: Bloodworms can be an excellent live food. Live food may pose as a challenge, however, because putting live food in the tank may contaminate it with pathogens and other viruses. So when feeding your pet with live food, be sure to remove any leftover food to prevent it from spreading germs into your tank.

2. CLEAN THE TANK REGULARLY

Replicate the water conditions of their natural Amazon habitat as closely as possible. Understanding the chemistry inside of the aquarium is very important in keeping them alive and healthy.

The water must be soft and have a pH close to 6.5 to keep them happy and healthy. The tank must also be large enough for them to freely swim inside of it. You should also use a minimum amount of decorations because excessive decorations can crowd the tank and prevent your discus from swimming freely.

In keeping them, remember that the filters of your tank will only serve as a media to remove toxins from your tank. Don’t ever rely on them to do the entire cleaning for you. As a pet owner, you must change some of the water once or twice a week to keep your tank clean enough for your discus.

3. GIVE THEM COMPANY

Discus can get lonely at times, just as humans and other animals do. Obviously, no one can spend twenty-four hours a day with them, so it is important to purchase other discus and other species to help keep each other company. However, you do need to make sure that the tank is not overcrowded with other species because those species can dominate the discus when it is time to eat, as they are more of a docile, passive fish.

QUESTIONS

• What are key points about feeding discus?
• How can you keep your discus’ tank clean?
• How will you make sure that your discus remains around other fish?