How to avoid discus fish diseases
As we all know discus fish is a sensitive fish and it is not very hard to get it sick. Don't change water, keep its quality poor or bring other fishes to your aquarium without disinfection and you will see how your little buddy gets sick.
So how to avoid diseases? Firstly, after buying a fish you can't just put it in your aquarium because it can have many parasites or diseases. You should make disinfection or even better quarantine it.
If you decided to quarantine it I recommend you to put it in aquarium without other fishes for about a month. Put 1 tablespoon of salt for 10 gallons (38 liters) of water. If you see that your fish is somehow sick put 1 tablespoon of salt to 1 gallon (4 liters) of water.
If you can't or don't want to wait for a month till your fish is in quarantine than you can make fast disinfection. It is not so effective as quarantine but it will reduce the risk of your discus fish getting sick significantly. I recommend you to do disinfection with potassium permanganate. Put just a little of it in a water where you are making disinfection. Water should be just pink not purple. Do not overdose it. Than put your fish into this water and keep it about 15 minutes. Now you are ready to let your fish into your main aquarium.
If you put plants to your aquarium I recommend you to do the same disinfection. That's because plants as well as fishes can bring parasites from another aquarium.
Another thing that can make your discus fish sick is stress. Stress can be caused by many factors. Fish always have stress after transportation or after moving it from one aquarium to another. So after such experience I recommend you to give some special vitamin which helps your fish to cope with stress. That's not expensive but quite effective choice.
Also stress can be caused by other factors. For example blinking lights, loud music near aquarium or dramatic temperature changes of water in aquarium.
And don't forget to keep high quality of water. That will help you to avoid diseases.