Discus Fish Health - How to Keep Your Discus Happy and Healthy For Years

Discus fish health truly has 2 main areas of concern and those are the fish's water and the discus fish's food. Of smaller concern, but worth discussing is that you must do a little analysis before you put your discus fish in with other species in your tank. They may not be good tank friends and this could cause your new pet stress.

Knowing what signs to have a look for can help enormously with discus fish health for the easy reason that treatment of sicknesses is boring and hard. It's best to do everything that you can to be preventive in your attempts at frustrating any stress causing environmental issues.

There are occasions where adding some medication to the water will solve the problem, however this is not the case almost all of the time. Your discus fish's water is like the air that we breathe as humans. Should our air be soiled and polluted, we'll develop health issues. With discus fish, you need to keep their water clean and at the right temperature and pH levels. You will need to do a partial change in the water one or more times a week changing out between twenty-five and fifty percent of the water. You should have an excellent biological filter and ensure that it stays clean.

An alternative way to be fully certain that your discus stays healthy is by utilizing and reverse osmosis filter. A reverse osmosis filter uses a little, semi-permeable surface that permits only water molecules to pass through it, filtering out minerals and trace substances which are unhealthy for the discus. When using one of these, you could have to think about adding some minerals as this removes everything except pure water and there are a few things that your fish wants.

One of the largest health concerns with discus is bugs and worms that they can develop, and their immunological systems will keep them in check till they become stressed. Observing the fecal matter of your discus fish can show symptoms of bugs or worms in your fish. White feces, clear feces are 2 signs. Apart from their feces, you can tell mostly by their behaviour. Bugs can bring about a number of observable symptoms from hiding, developing a darker color to food strikes and not eating.

Often times if a number of these symptoms happen, you can try doing a water change in the tank. Discus fish are terribly delicate to their environment and could cause them stress. If this doesn't do the job, there are medicines that you can put into the water that can help clear up any discus health issues.

Among those are metronidazole. Metro as it's known is step one in treating bugs should your discus get infected. Also common with these bugs are worms, so you must find a de-wormer to be employed in coordination with your Metro treatment.

As stated before, prevention is way easier than treatment when it comes to discus health. Following these tips, while ensuring your discus has proper nutrient elements and feeding will insure that you could have satisfied and healthy discus fish.

Evelyn Stone is a discus fish expert. Discover The ULTIMATE Guide For Discus Fish Care, Learn The Secrets How To Breed And Grow A Happy & Healthy Discus Fish!

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Evelyn_Stone

Discus fish health

In my experience with studying, keeping and breeding discus fish the most common cause of health problems is incorrect water conditions. Discus care has very little to do with fish. It is about water chemistry, and if you are not knowledgeable enough to maintain the proper water conditions, your fish are doomed. In this article I will only discuss a few topics that comprise water chemistry, but I strongly suggest you learn as much as possible. Your fish will live a lot longer and your hobby will be more rewarding if you take the time to do the research.

If I had to pick the most neglected task common to all fish keepers it would have to be testing their water prior to every water change. When it comes to discus care, this is particularly important, as discus are prone to stress easily. Tap water is full of chemicals which are added for YOUR health, but they can be very damaging for your fish. In addition, much of our tap water ultimately comes from rain water. The chemistry of rain water is always changing due to pollution, so it is critical that you monitor levels at every water change.

About pH
Discus are somewhat picky about pH. Keep your pH below 7 and above 5.5. The ideal pH for discus is 6. At pH levels above 7, discus are stressed. Below 5.5, the pH is inclined to drop rapidly, so I find 6 to be comfortable for both the fish and the fish keeper.

This has been a brief overview of water chemistry as it relates to discus care. This only covers the high level basics, and there are times such as breeding when special care must be taken to ensure proper conditions. In general, discus are not difficult to care for, as long as you give them what they want. And, what they want is clean water, free of toxins, and the correct chemistry.

Water Hardness and Alkalinity
If the hardness and alkalinity are not correct for your discus, they may be adjusted. It is easier to increase hardness and alkalinity upwards rater than downwards, but lowering these values is by no means impossible, it just requires an extra water conditioning step.

Chloramine and Chlorine
Chlorine or chloramine are routinely added to the water supply in many parts of the world. Chlorine is not good for discus fish and chloramine is worse. The presence and concentration of either can be determined with a test kit. Removal of chlorine or chloramine is part of the process known as conditioning your water and is an essential part of discus care.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Mark_Grover,http://www.discusfishinfo.com

Discus Fish Health

Discus fish health is a highly debated issue on Internet forums, on chats and in special magazines. The problems appear due to the failure cases that many owners face because they don’t know how to preserve their discus fish health. The coordinates for perfect discus fish health are very simple and easy to follow: keep them clean, well-fed and loved and everything should work great. Don’t make the mistake of combining discus with all sorts of other species as they may not be compatible. The results of an unfortunate co-inhabitance may have severe effects on discus fish health as well as on that of the rest of your aquatic pets.

Discus fish health is just fine if you place them with fish smaller than themselves, on condition that these are not catfish with sucker mouths. This species is dangerous for the discus fish health as they attach to their scales producing severe tissue injuries. Some of the environmental discus fish health problems are sometimes solved by simply adding some medicine in the water, but this happens in the most fortunate of cases. This is why it is so important to prevent rather than to cure. In order to learn about the discus fish health risks you can have a look at www.discus-fish-secrets.com.

Discus health fish very much depends on nutrition; feed your discus enough protein and they will have all the energy necessary. Furthermore, amino acids are also highly important, and they come from the meat you feed your discus. The only discus fish health problem that may arise here comes from over-feeding that may lead to water deterioration and the lowering of the standards in the living conditions. Your discus fish health should be well protected if you have a very powerful biological filter in the aquarium and you perform regular water changes.

The most adequate method for water filtration and therefore preservation of discus fish health is by reverse osmosis. This is possible with the help of the semi-permeable membrane inside the filter that allows only water molecules to pass through it. It removes minerals, trace and any other substance, producing pure water that is so necessary for your discus fish health. A few minerals should be however added in the water to actually recreate the discus fish health-friendly environment. Keep a watchful eye on everything that goes on in your small ecosystem as you’re in charge.

More About Health

Facts About Discus Health

The most popular concerns about discus fish are those related to their health since they are know for being very sensitive to environmental conditions. It is essential for discus health that you recreate the living conditions they are used to in the wild: soft, slightly acidic clean water. Of course breeders do everything in their power to protect discus health given the fact that they also require special temperature and pH. Therefore if you plan on buying discus fish, you should start preparing their tank a month in advance to make sure you ensure discus health.

There are many problems associated with discus health, but I will mainly refer to the environmental ones, which seem to be the most common. For instance, the iodine deficiency may appear due to pollutants in water or improper feeding. Then, another problem related to discus health is the lack of vitamins in the food, which on the long term may create low immune system and deficient wound healing for instance. Vitamin C is essential for discus health; hence make sure you store food properly or you risk losing this vitamin though oxidation. Absence of this vitamin leads to bleeding, fin ulcerations and many other problems.

Many of the discus health problems appear because of breeder’s ignorance or failure to provide the proper living conditions. Once you take up breeding fish, there is a responsibility involved like with any other animal; should you find yourself overwhelmed, you can always turn to special discus health services provided by vet units. Information and tips you may find in books on discus health or on sites such as are highly reliable and make a very good start when in comes to taking care of discus health. The authors of such books are usually experienced breeders from whom you’ve got lots to learn.

Discus health should not be an issue for someone careful enough to follow some ground rules. For instance, the water cycle should be functional all the time and no waste or uneaten food should be left in it. Discus health is threatened in case of over-heating. Don’t go over 31 degrees Celsius, as this will also lower the oxygen level in the tank and cause your fish to suffer from oxygen starvation. Monitor your discus health on a regular basis and check the living conditions daily or even several times a day if possible so that nothing goes wrong.

More About Health