Discus Fish

We hope to have fish from all three of these discus strains within a few months. At the moment we have fry coming up from the Red Pigeons. They should be available for sale shortly.

About Our Discus

We raise all our own discus. We shouldn't have to say this, since we always raise all the fish we sell, but with the common practice of selling imported discus through breeding operations, we thought it important to mention this. Our discus are disease free, like all our fish. We do not use hormones or feed any special color foods. We feed them our fish Flakes, Starters, Freeze-Dried foods and our own superb paste food formula. They are kept in our tap water (8.5 pH, 250-300 ppm). They adapt really well to other water, especially since most people are fortunate to have better water than we do.

For those who've heard how difficult discus are - here's our thoughts on this subject:

They are sensitive to certain disease organisms. Be sure you don't have any. Angelfish will pass pathogens to discus if the angelfish have any. On the other hand, it works the same way if the situation is reversed. Discus will transfer pathogens to angelfish just as easily. Make sure both come from a safe source.

Discus are often times more shy than many fish, but in general are not submissive. For instance, they will always be dominate in the presence of angelfish - as long as they are comfortable with the tank. We've kept thousands of discus with angelfish in past years, with almost no difficulty between the two. The biggest problem to overcome with discus is their own pecking order. Stunted discus occur far more frequently from this than the result of any interaction with angelfish. Discus are not aggressive feeders, but will guard food and in general will get more than their share when mixed with angelfish. The big difference is that angelfish prefer feeding from the surface and will readily feed at all levels. Discus far prefer feeding slowly off the bottom, but can be trained to feed from the surface. We make sure all our small discus readily go to the surface for food. Angelfish will not be able to outcompete discus for food if you're careful in how you feed.

Discus are easy breeders. We've never had trouble getting spawns from them. The fry grow quickly and are easier to keep in show quality condition than angelfish. Their fins cannot be ruined by poor water quality nearly as easily as angelfish fins. In general, they are less work, unless you decide to raise the discus fry artificially. The first 2-3 days of artificial discus rearing is very time consuming for the fishkeeper. In general, raising show quality discus and getting them to breed is actually quite a bit easier than doing the same with angelfish.

Many discus breeders will raise an eyebrow at some of this, but our opinion and observations are based on keeping, breeding and raising both discus and angelfish together in large numbers for about 15 years.