Caring for Your Discus Fish

BySteven P Martin

Discus are a popular tropical fish species to keep in the home. If looked after they can live for quite a few years but on average it is four to five. There are some key tips for keeping Discus Fish in good condition. Some of these are typical to all tropical fish and some are specific to Discus.

As they are quite a large fish, they need a lot of space and a large tropical fish tank should be used. The size will vary depending on how many fish you intend to keep but a tank of at least 40 gallons should be used.

The temperature needs to be kept at a fairly constant and Discus like it quite hot (about 82-86 deg Fahrenheit). To maintain this temperature, the tank should be kept away from sources of cold and heat such as draughts from windows and external doors, direct sunlight and fires or radiators. A reliable aquarium heater should be used, and if you have a large tank it is worth having more than one to distribute the heat evenly and as a back up.

The first time you fill the fish tank it should be left for two to three weeks for the filters to settle in and the water should be treated with a chemical agent. Any fish tank equipment, ornaments or gravels need to be thoroughly washed a few times, to remove dirt and bacteria, before placing them in the water.

Discus Fish will eat a variety of foods including flakes and frozen shrimp.

The tropical fish tank should be cleaned regularly and as Discus are a large fish, they produce a lot of waste so the water should be changed, or at least partially changed on a weekly basis to ensure a healthy environment. It is also a good idea to use a large and efficient filter to as Discus need very clean water.

Discus are a communal, and generally non-aggressive species and several can be kept together. Ideally if you intend to add any new fish to the aquarium, they should be kept in a separate quarantine tank for a few days and observed for any signs of disease or other issues before introducing them into the main fish tank with other fish. Other tropical fish can be kept in the same tank but it is best to avoid other large fish or fast swimmers. Bottom feeding catfish make an ideal tank companion.

Discus's live on average four to five years but may last longer if you look after them well.

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A Buyers Guide to Choosing the Right Lighting for Your Saltwater Aquarium

Lighting for saltwater aquariums is probably one of the most important decisions you will have to make when creating a tank. What good is creating a visual effect under water when you can't see it properly?

The type of fish that will be kept in a saltwater aquarium will have come from warm shallow seas with a lot of light shining on them. So recreating that original setting is a must for your tank to flourish.

Types Of Tanks

Before you buy the lighting you need to consider first what type of aquarium you will have. Whether it be a fish only tank, fish only with live rock, or a reef tank.

Depending on what you decide will affect the choice of what lighting you will use for your saltwater aquarium. You don't want to underlight it and you don't want to overlight it causing the water to overheat.

Types Of Fish

The next thing to consider before you buy your lighting is what type of fish you will have in your tank. You also need to think about what species can be put together in the same tank and what their needs are. Some species require higher levels of lighting. Also you need to research what the requirements are in a reef tank particularly. Some organisms don't work well together.

What Lighting To Use

For fish only tanks use fluorescent lighting as these aquariums don't require a lot of lighting. Fluorescent lighting is cool in temperature, inexpensive and is evenly spread throughout the tank. This is the lighting you see in offices. The bulbs have a long life. The rule of thumb for lighting with fluorescent lighting is 1W per gallon.

For fish with live rock tanks you might consider power compact fluorescent lighting. This is put basically fluorescent lighting bent in half. They are available in spectrums of Daylight, Actinic Blue and 50/50. This type of lighting will help with coralline algae growth. If you're not too concerned with this algae growth then you can just use fluorescent lighting.

For a reef tank it might be best to consider a more complicated sort of lighting. It may require something with a very high output, (VHO) but the water temperature has to be considered. You may have to think about buying fans and chillers. You can also use metal halide lighting. Halides are usually used for invertebrates and photosynthetic corals. Be sure that comes with an ultra violet filter. Or you could combine with mercury vapour types, they may have to come with reflective mechanisms to direct the light rays. Halide lighting isn't as strong and so it creates a shadow effect on the reef making for a more dramatic appearance.

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All About the Angelfish

Angelfish are one of the most popular freshwater fish for aquarium owners. They have an elegant appearance, have a mild disposition. Other interesting information on Angelfish is that they swim up to the glass when being observed by people. They are easy to keep due to their hardiness and can withstand a wide range of water conditions and are able to feed on a range of foods.

Species and Strains

Freshwater Angelfish come from the Cichlidae family named Pterophyllum ("winged leaf"). There are three species in this family, the P. Altum, P. Leopoli and P. Scalare. The P. Scalare is the most popular and is what you will see in most aquariums. Even though it is referred to as P. Scalare, it is in fact the culmination of generations of selective breeding and cross breeding and mutations that now give us such fish as Silver, Gold, Zebra, Black Lace, Zebra Lace, Smokey, Chocolate, Halfblack, Koi, Leopard, Blue Blushing, Silver Gold Marble, Ghost and more.

History

Talked about in 1824 by Lichtenstein, then later bred in captivity in the 1920s and 1930s in the United States. They originate from the Amazon River, Orinoco River and Essequibo River in South America.

Description

Described as a "silver angel" the Angelfish is not like other cichlids, they have a flat body with a triangular shaped dorsal and anal fin. Angelfish in the sea will often have stripes to help camouflage it. Angelfish will grow to 4 inches in length and up to 8 inches in height.

Aquarium Requirements

Angelfish like to be kept in warm aquariums around 80F (27C). You should not put more than 8 breeding size angelfish in a 50 gallon tank. When a breeding pair has been established they can have a 20 gallon tank of their own. Angelfish should not be kept with aggressive fish because they are mild natured and tend to get their fins nipped.

Diet
Angelfish do well on a mixture of flakes, frozen and live food. Be careful to not overfeed them though because they will not stop feeding and this may cause their death. Their favorite foods are blood worms, white worms, tubifex worms and brine shrimp. They can still thrive if not given live foods.

Breeding

Angelfish like to select their own mates and because of this are unlike other chiclids. It is best to introduce around 6 juveniles into a tank and let them grow up together. Just before a year old they will force other fish away from their section of the tank. At this stage it is best to give them their own tank.

Diseases

Regularly maintaining your tank is a good way to prevent sickness with your Angelfish. The common diseases with Angelfish are bacterial and parasitic. Bacterial diseases are cotton wool disease, dropsy, bleeding or red streaks on skin and fish TB. Parasitic diseases are hexamita, ich or white spot disease and velvet disease.

With this information on Angelfish you can't go wrong when introducing these popular chiclids to your fresh water aquarium.

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Can You Overdose Chlorine Remover? - Tip 8 in the Water Series

It is extremely difficult to overdose chlorine remover. The active ingredient for most chlorine removers is sodium thiosulphate. It is a chemical that, when used in a reasonable manner, will not cause any damage to the fish or other living organisms in the aquarium. This is true especially when using a commercial preparation to remove the chlorine from the water before it is added to the tank. In cases such as these, ten or even more times the dosage will not cause any harm. Although sodium thiosulphate can be purchased in bulk, we do not recommend trying to add the pure chemical to the water. The dosage would be quite high in this concentrated form. But, even in circumstances such as these, it rare to experience any problems from overdosage when used for the removal of chlorine.

The use of this chlorine remover results in a chemical reaction, the chlorine is neutralized and a white precipitate is formed. In most cases normal water maintenance with a gravel cleaner will pull this precipitate out of the tank and there is no chance of any further reactions and prevent any overdose chlorine remover from occurring. There is one case, however, where the use of chlorine remover has been seen to cause serious problems within the habitat. It is extremely rare; and requires some very specific conditions. When they are met, however, the chemical reaction reverses and chlorine is freed back into the aquarium, often killing the fish in the process.

The problem I am discussing requires an aquarium situated in a location where the water supply is treated with chloramine - not chlorine, since this requires at least a double dose of chlorine remover to break the original chlorine-ammonia bond.

The second condition needed for a reverse reaction is that the tank is poorly maintained, if at all. This is where partial water changes are non-existant, and water replaced only when the level of evaporation becomes too great.

The third condition is that the chlorine remover is heavily overdosed whenever new water is added. The need for chloramine removal often results in strongly overdosing the replacement water with the chlorine remover. Over time the precipitate will build up in the substrate, since regular gravel cleaning is not done to groom it.

After about a year or two of this neglect, and strong overdosage of chlorine remover, the phenomenon where the chemical reaction suddenly reverses may occur. Instead of chlorine being neutralized by the addition of a water conditioner, chlorine is actually released. In this extraordinary case, chlorine accumulates rather than dissipates and no amount of chlorine treatment will eliminate it.

At this point, it most often best to do some serious maintenance in the aquarium, before it will once again support life.

Steve Pond
Blueram Group

Visit our website, http://www.freshwater-tropical-fish-tanks.com for our extensive Aquarium Tips and FAQ section to view the video versions of these tips on water and other topics designed to help any aquarist understand the environment that you have created. Freshwater Tropical Fish Tanks is dedicated to providing the information required to be a successful novice aquarist.

Keep tropical fish alive and thriving in your first aquarium through the critical first six week period after installation and beyond. Visit the BlueRam Group's website Freshwater Tropical Fish Tanks for detailed information on all aspects of the beginning and advanced aquarium.

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Controlling Changes in Water - Tip 10 in the Water Series

Controlling the gradual changes in water of both its chemistry and characteristics in the aquarium water as time goes by is important. This entire series of tips on the water used in the aquarium is meant to heighten your awareness of the ever changing qualities of water. It is a liquid that is not stable or steady,it changes as time goes by. Since it is the universal solvent, it is continuously dissolving compounds in the aquarium and changing its characteristics over time. The amount of life that it supports also changes the compounds and characteristics over time as well.

Most life processes will create acid by-products, creating some large changes in water. These compounds are also added to the chemical soup that fish find themselves kept in. The bacteria responsible for decay and which work on all organic material also create more acids as they do their work.

Gradually, over time, if there is nothing done to prevent it, the water will tend to get more and more acid in nature. If there are compounds that can be dissolved by this acid in the substrate or decorations; alkalinity is created which may help to balance those acidifying effects - but you should never count on that. In most cases the aquarium pH will be gradually lowered over time

The removal and replacement of water (NOT the simple replacement of evaporated loss) will help greatly in maintaining an even and safe level of pH and hardness over time. If evaporation only is replaced, the water will continue to concentrate many hardening elements and nitrate and acidifying agents will not be diluted. As time goes by, any new water added will be more and more different from the water in the tank, especially as the set-up matures and ages. Regular maintenance of the water through partial contents removal using a gravel cleaner, and replacement with conditioned tap water helps to dilute a lot of compounds, most notably nitrate, which doesn't go away any other way.

Standard maintenance also keeps the tank from getting too hard or losing its buffer which could allow sudden varying of pH in wide swings. Regular water changes stably maintain a number of the characteristics that fish require for their ongoing good health.

Without even and consistent water characteristics, the fish will become severely stressed and lose their ability to ward off the effects of changes, even gradual changes, in their habitat.

Steve Pond
Blueram Group

Visit our website, http://www.freshwater-tropical-fish-tanks.com for our extensive Aquarium Tips and FAQ section to view the video versions of these tips on water and other topics designed to help any aquarist understand the environment that you have created. Freshwater Tropical Fish Tanks is dedicated to providing the information required to be a successful novice aquarist.

Keep tropical fish alive and thriving in your first aquarium through the critical first six week period after installation and beyond. Visit the BlueRam Group's website Freshwater Tropical Fish Tanks for detailed information on all aspects of the beginning and advanced aquarium.

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