Tips for starting a discus fish farm

Disc farms are classified into large and medium disc hatcheries and home breeders. Large farms can have around 700 aquariums and 110 breeding pairs. Breeders without employees manage medium-sized farms of less than 230 aquariums with approximately 50 pairs. Home breeders have 40 to 60 aquariums with fewer than 13 pairs. Malaysia is known for its famous discus fish farming, especially for export purposes. The state with the most disk farms here is undoubtedly Penang. Most of the houses were converted to farms because this will save the cost of renting the space. It is best to raise and rear discus indoors as the temperature fluctuation is high at night and this can cause a lot of stress to fish kept outdoors.

The basic facilities on a farm are a well-drained water system, aquariums, an air pump, and some water heaters. For a large and medium farm, water storage tanks are installed to provide enough chlorine-free water when a crisis or water shortage occurs. Aging the water in large storage tanks over a 24 hour period with aeration will effectively remove chlorine. Sodium thiosulfate and granulated activated carbon are also useful for removing chlorine.

Different sizes of aquarium are required for purposes such as rearing, fingerling young discus. For example, for the breeding tank, the proper size of the aquarium is 135 liters. Good quality discus fish farming depends on good water quality. A large water hose draws water until the fish swim in an inclined position. The aquarium is refilled with chlorine-free water to replace the old water. The water change method is called “in-out” and it will remove all unwanted substances from the aquarium. This method of changing the water eliminates expensive biological filtration equipment. New fish should not be introduced into a mounted aquarium for the simple reason that new fish can harbor disease.

New fish must be kept in quarantine for a period of 4-6 weeks. Do not feed your fish for the first two days during quarantine. Change a serving of water daily. The care of the disc farm involves hard work in changing the water, but it is a pleasure if we can implement an efficient water drainage system, either by a motorized system or by the “in-out” method. The average cost of establishing a new small farm is around USD 5,000 in Malaysia. The electricity bill is very low, but the water bill is higher as a frequent water change is required, after the fish are fed beef heart.

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