Calling Discus Experts!

[San O Fisher]

My own experience...

I heard a lot about how hard it is to keep discuss and everything else, but from what I have found is that I was way more concerned than what I needed to be. I have a group of three, and there is definitely a dominate fish, but he picks on an 7-8 inch syno catfish in the tank. My tank mates are a few cories, syno eupterus, green phantom plec, couple oto's, neon's, and i took 3 bala's off a friend to house them for a bit b/c there tank was too small, all in a planted tank. I know i need to thin out the tank population, and the bala's will go once i find a bigger tank, but all is well in a 55 gallon. The three are healthy, and have only lost one since having them over a year ago due to my water getting all messed up for a day or two. I would say get the discuss and monitor them closely to see how they adapt. it may take a few days to get them eating, but as I have added more plants to the tank the discuss seem to be happier!

 

[theshadowinc]

Sorry, but I still have to agree and say 17 days isn't enough to say you have successfully kept them. You have barley even kept them after all.

And do you mean the behemoth tank??? This tank has much more then just Discus, Angles and Cardinals.

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Ya got it wrong spelling its behemoth

 

[rabbut]

Most of the advice thus far has been good IMO, though I diden't read Shadow's reply if I'm being honest...

~ did i make the reply to long, I do know i put some good pointers in there to help someone out ^^, especially about beefheart feeding thats what caused a huge ammo spike in my tank the second day i had them >< <-- One thing for sure I was glad I had a spare tank setup and ready in case! Its like my filter took one hell of a hit! I had to borrow media from a breeder to help it back out again! <- Definitly not an expert but I guess I am still active I learned that beefheart when to much in the tank can actually kill a filter system in a hurry and don't matter if its planted or not!

Not too long at all, I was just too lazy to read it. I have now, and bar a few stocking "issues" you point out that *shouldn't* be issues... I also don't feed Beefheart, not due to the mess though, but rather a percieved risk of it caursing health issues. Some members argue contraty to this though....

It does not help that you are dealing with a species many consider "advanced", i.e. Discus, each with an individual personality, that inevitably leads to many different ways of keeping and hence different mixings working and increased numbers of fish that don't live by the rules of being a Discus fish

The main thing here is experience and willing to keep learning! Guess so far on this forum I am the first to successfully hold 3 in a tank with no issues as of yet! I probably won't run into issues until they decide to pair off! I think 1 female and 2 males I have. Many people have been known to break rules, after all most are just typed from some scientist that might be outdated by experience from most by now! The best tank is the bohom tank, that huge thing houses discus, angles, cardinals, and I think cory's not sure on that. It definitly breaks most rules of fish keeping! 1 Water change a week 50%

Considering it can take a full month for Discus to truely settle, I can deffinately argue that you might not have seen issues yet with agression as they are still stressed from being moved in....

This "unexpected" behavior is often coined as "rogue fish".

Can you define this for me plz, I have always known rogue fish to be a bass of some sort but am not sure now.

A rogue fish is any fish that does not behave as it should. Neon Tetras ripping fins off Tiger Barbs would be one example...

All the best
Rabbut

 

[snowflake311]

Thanks guys that's what I wanted to know

 

[mike os]

having read this

the way you are going you are setting yourself up to fail.

a pair will take over the tank if they breed, & tankmates just add to the problem.

my advice is, as always, keep it simple. Learn to keep discus then see what you can add & what works. Keeping discus in a planted tank can be quite a hard lesson all by its self. Keeping 2 ditto, the easiest way is 5-6 adults, maybe an ansistrus or couple of corys & thats it. Once you get them settled & happy you can think about mixing it up. If it has to be planted then anything under 4" is not going to do well.