The followings are some of guidelines for choosing discus, which will lead to additional questions that only full addressed by the sharing experience and expertise among discus lovers.

A successful discus keeper must thrive on challenges. One needs to have the desire to continually seek improvements in order to be a good discus keeper.

When purchasing discus, please pay attention to the following in selecting discus :

High Fins, High Body or Round Body.

Avoid torn fins, crooked fins and puffed-out gills.

Look for small red eyes, but both eyes should be of the same size.

Eyes should be round and should not be protruding.

Look for discus that breathe smoothly and bare gill plates of the same size.

Avoid fish with missing or uneven gill plates.

Healthy discus should swim towards you and pace up and down the aquarium looking for fold.

Don’t purchase any discus that has turned dark or has been medicated. Introducing a sick fish will infect other fish as well.

Go to buy at a reliable shop with good reputation.

A new fish, including discus and any fish you intend to keep together should be placed in a quarantine tank for three weeks for disinfecting and observation of signs of diseases.  At the end of this period, if you are absolutely certain that the fish is free of the most common ailments and eating a normal aquarium diet, you may then transfer the fish into your display tanks.

The next best thing you can do to prevent diseases is to maintain excellent water quality consistently. It is critical to maintain ammonia and nitrite levels at zero, and nitrate below 40ppm (ideally below 20ppm). It is important to maintain these parameters at constant levels though a particular pH and water hardness is not critical. It is possible to maintain healthy discus at any pH level between 5-6, but you will not be very successful if the pH in your aquarium fluctuates constantly. In addition, the temperature of the aquarium water should be kept absolutely stable at a temperature between 82-86°F (about 27-30°C).