55 Gallon Doscus?

[Shovelman]

Hey everyone, had a question.

55 gallon, heavily planted tank. Stocking idea of mine..
Would a breeding pair of discus be able to happily live in a 55 gallon aquarium with some sort of pleco/ottos and about 6 panda corries? Would having a pair of German blue rams be suitable tank mates?

So a total of- 2 discus (breeding pair), A pair of GBR, ^ or more panda corries, and some sort of algae eater. Overstocked? Understocked? Opinions and advice welcome!


..... if understocked... some hatchet fish???

EDIT*- I just realized i accidentally spelled Discus wrong in the title...whoops.

 

[trit0n2003]

my general rule of thumb is 1 inch of fish per gallon. after that it comes down to whether or not the species of fish will get along or not.

 

[Shovelman]

my general rule of thumb is 1 inch of fish per gallon. after that it comes down to whether or not the species of fish will get along or not.

ummmm....yeah well you do know that the 1 inch per fish is not exactly always true... Some fish such as discus and angelfish are rounder and taller rather than length, which is the flaw in the 1 inch per gallon. And not to mention there are exceptions to every rule Some people go more than 1 inch per gallon, which i dont exactly encourage but its either their filter can handle it because they have the necessary amount of bacteria to break down waste or other reasons.... and the reason why i posted this...post was too try and see if somone actually knew anything about the species getting along...not someone telling me to figure that out :b as that is what I'm trying to do.... (dont mean to be hasty sorry)

 

[kaivalagi]

No doubt Discus experts will post soon and provide accurate info...

I just wanted to ask are you actually planning to buy a known breeding pair of Discus or just one male and one female?

If you don't have a known pair you really ought to have a group of discus not just 2, once (if) you get a pair then you can sell on the others

I think a 55USG tank would happily take a known pair of Discus, not sure if it's big enough for a group of 4-6 though

 

[walkers101]

yeah a proven pair would work in there also a group of 6 would be ok

 

[markandhisfish]

if you go for a breeding pair make sure it is a proven established pair , just putting 2 discus in and hoping for a pair to form wont work. you could go for a group of 6 , but i would say only if you were to simplify the scape as you say its heavily planted and discus do like plenty of swimming space. and 55g is a bare minimum for a group of discus , so the more space you can provide the better.

 

[Shovelman]

Thanks everyone! And YES A PROVEN BREEDING PAIR, not two random discus! I probably wouldn't try a group of 6 in a 55 gallon, as like it was pointed out they would just be squished... or at least not as happy as if they were in a larger tank (that goes for any fish, the bigger the better when it comes to aquarium size)

 

[kaivalagi]

Good stuff, pics when you have them please

 

[Shovelman]

Good stuff, pics when you have them please

Unfortunately this will take a while, as i do not have the tank yet.... or enough money to purchase my CO2 system...but Im working on it! Hahaha....and im not sure if i just want to do angelfish, hatchets, and corys instead of discus pair...

Do GBR mix well with Angels? ive been getting a lot of mixed reviews...

 

[kaivalagi]

Not sure about GBRs with Angels, I would expect they';d work like any other SA cichlid mix, if from a young age I don't see why not at all

I have hatchets and to be honest they are just plain boring, they sit in one spot most of the time...alright so they look different but I personally wouldn't get any now I know what they're like.

You could keep quite a few different american cichlids in a 55USG...anything up to the 6" mark which there is quite some variety of...acara/firemouth/convicts etc etc could be keep so long as no breeding pairs form assuming you'd have a fair few...

 

[Shovelman]

Not sure about GBRs with Angels, I would expect they';d work like any other SA cichlid mix, if from a young age I don't see why not at all

I have hatchets and to be honest they are just plain boring, they sit in one spot most of the time...alright so they look different but I personally wouldn't get any now I know what they're like.

You could keep quite a few different american cichlids in a 55USG...anything up to the 6" mark which there is quite some variety of...acara/firemouth/convicts etc etc could be keep so long as no breeding pairs form assuming you'd have a fair few...

When you talk about American cichlids, are you meaning a cichlid only tank? Or are those other possible fish to have with angelfish?