Discus information anyone?

[Raechal]

Okay so I decided to give the 120 gallon to my community fish in my 29 gallon because I think they should get first dibs on it. So this is what is in the 29 gallon as of now:

1 bumblebee catfish
2 glass cats (the others died due to unknown nitrite spike)
1 german blue ram (other died of nitrite spike as well)
5 neon tetras
1 glo-lite tetra (thrown in with neons by accident)
1 red-tailed rasbora (thrown in with neons by accident)
1 dalmation molly and her 7 fry (she is pregnant again )
1 rubbernose plec
1 green cory (survivors from a tank crash)
1 albino cory (survivors from a tank crash)

I am thinking this will be what will be in the 120 gallon:

2 bumblebee catfish
6 glass cats
4 german blue rams
10 neons
10 glo-lites
5 red-tailed rasboras
1 dalmation molly (7 fry and more to come )
2 rubbernose plec
5 green cory
5 albino cory
1 female betta


And I was thinking I wanted something as a centerpiece. I know the rams could make as a nice center piece but I wanted something just a little bigger. I don't know if my tank would already be fully stocked with the fish above?

Discus need very clean water so that wouldn't be a problem. I plan on doing 25% water changes weekly to keep up on the good water quality. I also heard they like to be in groups of 6-8? I was thinking like getting maybe 4 max? Would this not work or..? I am also heavily planting the tank and getting some floating plants so the environment would be pretty good for the discus IMO.

Also about price range, I live in the US. How much is an average discus? I was thinking $50-$60 each?

Anyone have any comments or anything about discus being in my tank?

Of course the tank hasn't cycled yet so once it cycles I will add the fish from my 29 gallon ino the 120 gallon. Then add to my schools a little slowly. Then finally add the discus in a few months.

 

[nc_nutcase]

I’ve never had discus but I’m trying to talk my girlfriend into getting a pair. I’ve seen small 'plain' looking ones as cheap as $12 and I’ve seen medium gorgeous ones as much as $140 (sidenote: that's in North Carolina). As far as your tank, it's not the kind of fish I keep so... you know better than I would.

I do have one question though... you have 1 Dalmatian molly, with fry, and prego again... I've never seen one of anything get prego. What made her that way?

 

[Raechal]

I’ve never had discus but I’m trying to talk my girlfriend into getting a pair. I’ve seen small 'plain' looking ones as cheap as $12 and I’ve seen medium gorgeous ones as much as $140 (sidenote: that's in North Carolina). As far as your tank, it's not the kind of fish I keep so... you know better than I would.

I do have one question though... you have 1 Dalmatian molly, with fry, and prego again... I've never seen one of anything get prego. What made her that way?

Well I had my first tank (10 gallon) I went to the LFS and picked out a whole bunch of fish without researching them or even cycling my tank and one of the fish I picked out was a dalmation molly. After a month or so from having her her belly was huge and square-like so I was freaking out. I didn't think she was pregnant because there were NO male mollies in the tank with her. So I thought she had dropsy or something. But then I read that mollies can hold sperm for months and just keep having babies without even a male present. I guess it just takes one time with a male (that was at the LFS) and then they could have babies once every month or so. She was actually pregnant when I got her but she didn't show until a couple weeks after I got her home. I love her to death though, she is quite the little character in the tank.

She gave birth while I was at work so I didn't get to watch her first time and no one was home to watch her or even know she had them or how many she had. When I got home I saw like one tiny fish swimming in my 29 gallon I was like So I looked around for more and finally found 5 surviving fry. Then I went out to the LPS and got a breeding net and when I came home I found 7. And they are still in their breeding net. Just waiting for another week or two until they are big enough to release into the main tank.

My dalmation molly is pregnant again with even a bigger belly this time! I am excited for more fry. They will all be moving into the 120 gallon once it cycles. Hope she can wait that long hehe. Or she can just have them in the 29 gallon. Just more fish to move for me.

 

[nc_nutcase]

That's awesome. I just had a young pair of convicts produce their first 'litter' a few weeks ago. I was surprised as the female is barely over 2 inches long (the male right at 3" which is what I was told is the minimum breeding size. I have them mixed in a well populated 125 Gal Cichlid tank (see below for list) I planned on moving them so they can breed as they wish without my other fish killing the fry (or the convicts killing off the potential threats). They had (I’m guessing) about 80 babies and I have about 10 left. Pacus love convict fry, convicts hate pacus, lol. But I have another tank to move them into this week where they will be (almost) all to themselves.

They will go into the 55 Gal Terrarium (30 Gal of water) with the itsie bitsie convict pair. The lil ones aren't doing to well and have an area they can stay in that the larger convicts don't fit in, so they will have the chance to perk up, and if they do I'll move them into the hospital tank until I grow them enough to go back into the Terrarium.

But wow... mollies retaining sperm. I've never heard that before. Although fish breeding has never been my thing so I haven’t researched it much.

 

[Raechal]

That's awesome. I just had a young pair of convicts produce their first 'litter' a few weeks ago. I was surprised as the female is barely over 2 inches long (the male right at 3" which is what I was told is the minimum breeding size. I have them mixed in a well populated 125 Gal Cichlid tank (see below for list) I planned on moving them so they can breed as they wish without my other fish killing the fry (or the convicts killing off the potential threats). They had (I’m guessing) about 80 babies and I have about 10 left. Pacus love convict fry, convicts hate pacus, lol. But I have another tank to move them into this week where they will be (almost) all to themselves.

They will go into the 55 Gal Terrarium (30 Gal of water) with the itsie bitsie convict pair. The lil ones aren't doing to well and have an area they can stay in that the larger convicts don't fit in, so they will have the chance to perk up, and if they do I'll move them into the hospital tank until I grow them enough to go back into the Terrarium.

But wow... mollies retaining sperm. I've never heard that before. Although fish breeding has never been my thing so I haven’t researched it much.

Yea I didn't think fish breeding would be my "thing" either, but surprise! My molly can keep having babies until she runs out of sperm I guess and only God knows when that will run out.

Yea well my bumblebee catfish LOVES molly fry. I came home from work and looked around for the remaining fry and saw my bumblebee catfish and his belly was bigger than when my molly was full of babies! He must have had quite a feast he looked as if he were going to explode!

I wanted to turn my 120 gal into a cichlid tank, but I think I am going to stick with community and some discus.

 

[Gourami Lover88]

If you really want Discus in a community you shoud get adults as they are less afected by higher nitrAtes and would do better in a communit ,but you would still need to do waterchanges more often or in a larger amount. However adult discus can be quite expensive,and even if you find them cheap it will still run about $80-120 each.

 

[nc_nutcase]

I'm picturing your Ram(s), your cats and your cories in the 120 with several discus' of various colors swimming in a 120 Gal tank... and the pic in my mind is beautiful!

I've never had discus but I've always thought they were gorgeous fish. I simply suspect they wouldn't make it with my monsters...

 

[Raechal]

If you really want Discus in a community you shoud get adults as they are less afected by higher nitrAtes and would do better in a communit ,but you would still need to do waterchanges more often or in a larger amount. However adult discus can be quite expensive,and even if you find them cheap it will still run about $80-120 each.

Yea, I will definately be looking for older discus when I shop but I don't think my LFS has any adults. Just small and medium sized ones. I will be doing 10% water changes every day or 20% water changes every other day with maybe a 50% water change at the end of every week.

I sometimes tend to over-do it on water changes, ever since I had that unknown nitrite spike that killed half of my fish in my 29 gallon...

 

[Raechal]

I'm picturing your Ram(s), your cats and your cories in the 120 with several discus' of various colors swimming in a 120 Gal tank... and the pic in my mind is beautiful!

I've never had discus but I've always thought they were gorgeous fish. I simply suspect they wouldn't make it with my monsters...

Yea, I think it will look amazing especially with some bright green live plants.

 

[nc_nutcase]

Totally... I have a thing for live plants as well, but with the fish I have it's a damn headache! I have a little trick that usually keeps the rooted but they still get beat up on a ton.

 

[Gourami Lover88]

Well if you are going to be doing that many WC and if it is heavily planted and if you under stock slighty then you could probably have juvies . But really six discus would be the magic number so they would have a proper pecking order .

 

[Raechal]

Well if you are going to be doing that many WC and if it is heavily planted and if you under stock slighty then you could probably have juvies . But really six discus would be the magic number so they would have a proper pecking order .

Well I am not sure if my tank is UNDER stocked but I will have lotrs of live plants and floating plants and do lots of WC The stuff that will be in there is on the front post.

 

[elgecko]

Look for a breeder or importer of discus in your area. I got my discus 4-5" for $25-30 each, and he sells 6-8" discus for $90 each.

 

[Raechal]

Look for a breeder or importer of discus in your area. I got my discus 4-5" for $25-30 each, and he sells 6-8" discus for $90 each.

Okay, I will try. Thanks for the info.