discus help....

my best friend is ready to try his hand at discus. He currently has a 150 tank (4x2x30" tall) he has been keeping CA/SA cichlids (most of my old ones / my overstock) for the last 3-4 months. His tank is beautiful, and is perfect for discus, at least in my opinion.

anyways, where is the best place locally to get discuss? Best prices, highest quality, biggest selection (i am assuming these may be different places)

I'd like to buy him his first one, if you know of a place that has a great price (or cheaper juveniles)let me know . Wish he would have made this decision back when anthraxx had that tank and fish for sale.
oh well, thanks in advance everyone......
lloyd

I think A Place For Pets has some fancy types. They have 25% off on fish for their anniversary sale this weekend.

lol that would have helped a TON. for starters have him read anything really by jack whatley. a lot of his stuff is a little over kill but he swears by it and he is huge among raising discus (actually sells them for rather cheap too) discus arent like other fish and theres a LOT of signs to look for in unhealthy specimens. first off never by anything under 3 inches in length (too susceptible to disease and other issues) also look for discus that form the perfect circle (think if you chopped all their fins off, would it resemble a silver dollar?) a ton of deformities can show up in any number of ways. anyways my best bet is to buy local (where you can see the fish, or buy from reputable dealer online) theyre just like any other fish just need a little bit more work. try a group of 6-8 juvies with some dither for sure. nothing too big or mean but something that also wont end up as snacks. secondly get a HUGE range of foods if you can. i pretty much stuck with a staple of dried and then tried a large number of prepared frozen options. beef heart and blood worms are WAY up on the list. brine shrimp never seemed to do it for mine

Tropical Fish World had a few smaller ones for 40 bucks when I was there a few days ago. The Discus I saw at A Place For Pets were bigger, had better colors, and were being sold for $110ish. They had a bit more to choose from as well.

thanks for the information you three!

I will let him know about the petshops. Anthraxx, thanks for the info on jack whatley, and on choosing a nice fish. i will pass this on to him!

I went to little amazon last weekend and they had lots of beautiful adults and pairs but not sure on the price. I was supprised how big they get, ive only seen small 2-3 inch fish in the stores around here and they had quite a few 5"-6" fish, very impressive.

Flyfalcons wrote:Tropical Fish World had a few smaller ones for 40 bucks when I was there a few days ago. The Discus I saw at A Place For Pets were bigger, had better colors, and were being sold for $110ish. They had a bit more to choose from as well.

snagged two of them for 25% off today...score!

also left a lot of money behind at barrier reef, but at 30% off all livestock, who could resist?

I get mine on line.

too often I find poor quality discus in LFS.

the issue usually is the time it takes to raise out Discus.
Juveniles need lots of food and lots of clean water.. this equates to 4 feedings daily with 50% water changes to remove the waste and uneaten food.
I don't find young discus any more suseptible to disease than an adult, given the proper care.
juveniles should be raised in a 'growout ' tank. be prepared to do lots of work
they also fare well in a shoal or school.
there are plenty of places to get good Discus and this is key to your success.

you can avoid growing out Discus to add to a large tank you should seek those 4" + and expect to pay premium prices
also some color variants a or wilds can set you back (price wise)
while some juveniles can be very affordable

Nice. Just got some Cardinals at the sale on Saturday. Probably saved a whopping two bucks on that purchase. 25% off a Discus is a nice score.

got a 5 1/2 inch turquise and the 6 inch or so pigeon blood...25% off of 220 (for the pair) wasnt anything i could complain about!