Research Before You Buy
If you want to buy discus fish successfully, you will need to do some research so that you know as much about the fish as possible prior to purchasing. You will also want to learn about the chemistry of the water and how to care for it and some knowledge of tropical fish before trying discus. While it’s possible for you to be successful with discus fish even if you don’t have any experience, is highly recommended, because there’s so many different things you need to know.
Choosing Good Stock
Choosing stock is the first thing that you should know about and there are three sources. First, there are importers and dealers where you can buy discus fish, and that’s the only thing they deal with. Some will know a lot about the fish, have a great selection to choose from and be able to give you lots of tips and pointers to get started.
Next, you can look in Aquatic shops which normally have a selection of discus. although many times they’re not that great in quality levels. If you’re just getting started, Aquatic shops may not be the best for you, because you’re going to need to get a lot of information that they may not have time or knowledge.
One of the best places to buy discus fish is with home breeders who are hobbyists, and who like to breed and display their fish. For the beginner, this is one of the best ways to go about it. You get a lot of information from a home breeder, but you’ll want to make sure that they only breed discus and not a wide variety of small fish.
Breeders, Importers & Dealers
Barring that, you’ll want to go with an importer who has the next most important information on how to successfully by discus fish. You don’t want to decide what colors you want, although don’t worry to much about the names because they’ll very from place to place.
Before You Buy Discus Fish
There are a number of good books like the Discus Fish – The Complete Pet Owner’s Manual and ebooks out there that will get you off on the right foot.
Before you buy discus fish spend some time watching them and avoid buying on impulse. You will want to buy fish there or alert and come to the front of the tank. Avoid buying discus fish that hang at the back of the tank, and be sure to watch the breathing to see if the fish are breathing heavily or if they’re using one gill and not two.
If you can, watch as the discus fish feed so that you can see which of them respond quickly to the food. If the person who’s trying to sell you the discus won’t allow you to observe them don’t buy discus fish from them, because they just want to sell you fish and they’ll do anything to get you to buy them.
