Discus breeding pair

Hey everyone! Ok so i have a question and want everyone's opinions and suggestions.

How much will a breeding pair of discus cost? And where can you get a pair?

Any advice will be appreciated.

 

I am assuming you don't already have discus. If my assumption is correct, then I would advise you buy a group and grow them out and get used to keeping them before getting a breeding pair, this should end up providing you with a pair too. If you already have some then you should know where to get more... and that you really should not be trying to buy a breeding pair at highest bid and adding them to your existing fish, that's looking for trouble.

As for the price, it all depends on the strain and quality of discus. I see many people selling breeding pairs on Gumtree for +- R2000 and up, not sure if you can really trust them to be a breeding pair. Best will be to view them while they have fry on them. I also don't know why someone would want to sell a successful breeding pair tbh.

 

Thanks chris appreciate what you said. You are right i have never had discus but they are really appealing. Ultimately i would like to have a discus tank but as you know they are quite expensive. I guess you get what you pay for so a possible solution is to buy them quite young and grow them out. This is definatly what i would like to do but i would rather buy from someone here on TASA instead of commercial shops. I think the quality will be better.. Am i right?

 

As a suggestion, you can get books on Discus keeping, such as Discus World by Chris Ingram, as an ebook on kindle. May be worth your while reading on this topic so you have an idea what you are getting into. It will help you avoid costly mistakes down the line...

 

Thanks for the advice guys really appreciate it. Iv been doing tons of research and actually the best info come from people that are doing what you want to know about. Im definately going to get some discus in the near future and give it a shot.. You guys are helpful, happy to finally be part of the forum after many years in the hobby

 

Sure no problem glad you are asking before diving They are a treat to keep, and although they are much easier now than 10 years ago they are still iffy... just remember, with them water quality comes first, even before feeding habit. When you feed, feed small amounts and mix three or so types of food up at once, like flakes, pellets and some freeze dried food like bloodworm or brine shrimp. Then feed them a couple of times a day with these smaller portions.

Also, buy all the fish you want at the same time and at the same place, mixing discus will introduce them to new parasites etc. which may end up killing some or all of them. You can mix, but it becomes a big deal when you want to do so safely.

 

Yeah my intensions will be to buy them together but you know how it goes with fish .. Sometimes you just see one you love. I could always use one of my other tanks for quarantine just to be extra sure. But it all depends. They are quite pricey to buy all at once..

 

They are, but lets say you buy 5 small ones at R1500 the lot, if you get one later that has just the right disease it may kill off all the other discus. If you do decide to QT then remember that these diseases carry over to tanks via water droplets, so you will have to have double of everything, what goes into the QT must never come near the main tank and vice versa, that includes your hands and arms! After the recommended 6 weeks QT you should add one of each batch you bought together to see how it goes. If they are healthy after two week then it should be safe to mix all the discus, if they get sick in that time then all the other discus will also get sick if you mix them. Best will be to sell them then because chances are, if you keep them separate that at some time you will make a mistake and carry diseases over to the other tanks and some fish may die.

 

Yeah thats a big issue.. Is there any way to pick up when one of them are healthy and disease free? Especially if you buy a whole lot like you suggested? The last thing you want is all of them to get sick right off the bat? Points to look out for?

 

Well, that's the problem with discus, even if you get perfectly healthy discus, when you mix them they can cause each other to get sick. The reason is that when Discus are bred they eat the mucus off of the parent which acts like mothers milk, it has antibodies for the fry. This helps the fry get used to the pathogens in the tank. When they grow up they would only ever know and be tolerant to the pathogens they were born into. Now another breeder has other pathogens in his tanks which his discus are used to. When you mix them up, even though they all seem fine, the pathogens from each other now become a big problem and cause the fish to become sick. When they become sick like this and stress they are prone to normal things like ich and finrot toget them. They turn dark or black and a heavy slime coat surrounds them. This is typically called Discus Plague. Many people either lose many of their fish or decide to cull them all and start over once this happens.

Now, you must ofc. look for healthy fish, things to look for are:
make sure to get them from a reputable breeder
make sure the fish are swimming and comes to the front of the tank, if they hang back and in a corner there is probably an issue
ask the owner to feed them and see how they eat, if they eat like little pigs then it's a good sign
you probably cant really look at color when they are small cause the color only really comes out when they are bigger, but make sure they are not dark or black
check for eye size, eyes that are large vs the body means that the fish is stunted, a general rule is if you can add 4 more eyes in above his eye and the dorsal fin and about two more below the eye to the gill plate edge then the fish is ok
make sure that the fish is nice and round, you don't want a football shaped fish as it is a sign that it's stunted.
then pretty much the same as other fish, make sure that fins aren't clamped and nothing is on the skin and fins like ich etc.