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Discus tank

Wild Discus may be a bit more sensitive to GH,KH, so may want to store water to ensure stability before use, and replace R/O membranes on regular basis.
Domestic Discus,much more forgiving with regard's to water chemistry.IMHO
 
I wouldn't suggest going for Wild Discus yet, as Roadmaster said they are a lot less forgiving. Given your questions regarding tank mates/ water etc, i would say your almost guaranteed to have a exceptionally expensive flop that will probably put you off having Discus in the future.
My advice would be to be find a quality local Discus supplier (Not chain stores) and buy all your Discus from one guy, not only will you get much better quality, they will be a ton cheaper. For example my local Pet shop and chain stores sell small Discus for around £40-50 quid a fish, my local specialist sells the same size but better quality for around a tenner. There can also be issues mixing strains bred from different areas ie German/Czech/Asian and i would imagine adding Wild into the mix only complicates things further which isn't something i'd recommend for someone getting the hang of things.
 
Great replies, I guess I'll stick to domestic bred, then I don't need to mess about with an RO filter; just the HMA filter.

I've been looking online and there were very few domestic strains that I like. I'm not up to scratch on discus names but I've seen some deep oranges with vertical banding, deep blue with vertical banding and solid yellow/gold ones that I like. Everything else will probably send me and my missus into a fit from all the bright colours. I had a look at discosmodo's wild strains and instantly fell in love with the Rio Japura and Tefe Green. Just wow. If there was a domestic strain of something like that, I would snap it up in an instant.

Chens discus are ridiculously priced, I've found. Any reputable breeders recommended?
 
SimplyDiscus .com ,there are some trusted sources there.(Kenny)
 
Try to find a place where they are kept in water similar to your tap water. Then you won't have issues and it's a great idea buying them all from one place too, so you don't cross contaminate them in case you don't get lucky with one. I am living in Ireland but around here it's quite easy to find a breeder for decent prices and good quality too. I wouldn't buy from chain store.

I don't know what these are called, but I love their colour. They seem to be still babies.
b112165.jpg
 
Its strange to hear that Chen's are expensive, that's where all my Discus originally came from and are quite reasonable in price. What you have to take into account is that from strain to strain the price can vary massively.
As far as reputable breeders i would suggest taking a look on such sites as aquarist-classifieds.co.uk and search the counties around yourself. Most likely one of them will have a good Discus trader.
You also can't go far wrong if you join a good Discus forum. Simply Discus is a solid forum but mainly Yankies. Bidka.org is a good uk forum, and also has solid links to most the uk traders.
 
I'll check out some of the links posted above once I get home.

Check these out... Are there domestic breeds that look anything like these that you know of:

wild
 
Possibly Red Alenquer, which happen to be a "cheap" strain, or maybe Red Turquoise.
 
Just a thought, but with the fairly chunky bioload in a planted community tank, will cleaning the substrate become a hassle as the tank matures? I'm not sure whether I'll have the whole of the substrate engulfed in some kind of carpet plant yet.

How have some of you handled it?
 
I don't know where you are based, but in St. Albans there is a guy called Artur (his offer is listed on ebay). You could get a decent youngster for 8-10 pounds. And it is fun to watch them growing and fighting for food. They are always hungry - I think during weekends I feed them 7 times a day (small portions) just to see how brutal they are.
 
Many thanks for the heads up.

I would imagine loads of water changes with seven feeds in a day!

I couldn't find Artur on eBay. Do you have a link to his seller account?

Other than the cleaning issue I raised earlier, I understand F0s are difficult to keep, how about F1s?
 
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