Discus Question? Please Help

[pattyplaty]

hello forum!

i have a couple of questions about discus..

first, what is the best number of discus to keep in a tank?
i cannot house five or more discus due to my tank size.
i was thinking about a couple, but what if they end up being same sex? would they get along? and if i get trio, what would happen? what about buying several of them and letting them pair off and keep the pair? however, it will go in a biotope community, so i am afraid if it pairs up, it would start to get territorial and aggressive toward my oterh fish. what about being kept singly? would they be lonely?

and what size of discus is best to buy?
i cannot afford an adult, so id like to buy the ones as small as possible.. however, the younger they are, the more fragile they are as well, right?

ive kept all kinds of freshwater fish and some marine fish, so id like a challenge so decided to try discus!

p.s. can i keep rams with the discus and cardinal fish? i was maybe hoping to have one. if so, what kind of ram?

or any information of discus would be appreciated!!

thanks, everyone!

 

[rabbut]

With two or three Discus, the outcome will be the same. They will either die of stress if they are young, or they will murder eachother untill there is one left if older, and then the lone fish will die of stress The MINIMUM group size for discus is 5, though with these guys, the bigger the group the better. Due to their adult size, a 55g tall would be the MINIMUM tank size for a group, along with mebe 10-20 dither fish like cardinals I cannot see any tanks on your stocking list in your signature that would accomodate a group of discus Proven breeding pairs are the only recomended way to go if you cannot house 5, but they can be agressive when breeding and will likely want to claim the whole tank if it is small.... Also, if you cannot afford adults, the chances are that a decent pair would be out of the question also

Younger fish, though cheaper, are often seen as a false economy for a new keeper. They require lots of work untill they reach 4inches (50% daily waterchanges recomended, again minimum) and stunt very easily. Idealy, you want to be buying them at 4-5", as this is where the settle in easiest, while not needing rediculous ammounts of work to up-keep them...

If you realy want discus at this point, I'd advise you to start saving for a bigger tank and a decent group of these wonderful fish. The tank will need to be well matured before you add them (going 6months+ with fish in) also, so use this time to thuroghly research them Don't make the same mistake that I did and start the thurough research after they started going over after you purchased them They are not a hard fish to keep if you learn about their needs. Fail to research thuroughly and you will have issue after issue with them, and this is what caurse ignorant people to claim they are hard to keep. I say people calling the fish hard to keep are ignorant, because they usualy ignored the fact that these guys are an "advanced" species and thus reguire lots of research prior to purchase. Leaving off the research and then blaming the fish for the keepers own mistakes IMO is ignorant, but please don't all shoot at once if your "guilty as charged"

All the best
Rabbut

 

[vonnie06]

like rabbut said save to get a bigger tank as discus like to be in a group of 5 or more.for a proven pair your still looking at 25 gallon or more,so why dont you save for the bigger tank in the mean time while your waiting do research on them the more info youve got the more easier you'll find keeping them,alot of people do say they hard fish to keep but ive found there not as hard as normal tropical fish aslong as you keep up the water changes and do your research before hand least then you know what to expect.the best size to get is above 4-5 inch as under they are more challenging as you need to give alot more water changes cleaning after they have eaten bad water and not enough water changes result in stunted fish,rams can go with discus so can some shoaling fish, discus dont like fish that move to quickly around the tank.hope this helps

 

[DiscusKeeper403]

With two or three Discus, the outcome will be the same. They will either die of stress if they are young, or they will murder eachother untill there is one left if older, and then the lone fish will die of stress The MINIMUM group size for discus is 5, though with these guys, the bigger the group the better. Due to their adult size, a 55g tall would be the MINIMUM tank size for a group, along with mebe 10-20 dither fish like cardinals I cannot see any tanks on your stocking list in your signature that would accomodate a group of discus Proven breeding pairs are the only recomended way to go if you cannot house 5, but they can be agressive when breeding and will likely want to claim the whole tank if it is small.... Also, if you cannot afford adults, the chances are that a decent pair would be out of the question also

Younger fish, though cheaper, are often seen as a false economy for a new keeper. They require lots of work untill they reach 4inches (50% daily waterchanges recomended, again minimum) and stunt very easily. Idealy, you want to be buying them at 4-5", as this is where the settle in easiest, while not needing rediculous ammounts of work to up-keep them...

If you realy want discus at this point, I'd advise you to start saving for a bigger tank and a decent group of these wonderful fish. The tank will need to be well matured before you add them (going 6months+ with fish in) also, so use this time to thuroghly research them Don't make the same mistake that I did and start the thurough research after they started going over after you purchased them They are not a hard fish to keep if you learn about their needs. Fail to research thuroughly and you will have issue after issue with them, and this is what caurse ignorant people to claim they are hard to keep. I say people calling the fish hard to keep are ignorant, because they usualy ignored the fact that these guys are an "advanced" species and thus reguire lots of research prior to purchase. Leaving off the research and then blaming the fish for the keepers own mistakes IMO is ignorant, but please don't all shoot at once if your "guilty as charged"

All the best
Rabbut

Couldn't have said it better myself.

 

[pattyplaty]

With two or three Discus, the outcome will be the same. They will either die of stress if they are young, or they will murder eachother untill there is one left if older, and then the lone fish will die of stress The MINIMUM group size for discus is 5, though with these guys, the bigger the group the better. Due to their adult size, a 55g tall would be the MINIMUM tank size for a group, along with mebe 10-20 dither fish like cardinals I cannot see any tanks on your stocking list in your signature that would accomodate a group of discus Proven breeding pairs are the only recomended way to go if you cannot house 5, but they can be agressive when breeding and will likely want to claim the whole tank if it is small.... Also, if you cannot afford adults, the chances are that a decent pair would be out of the question also

Younger fish, though cheaper, are often seen as a false economy for a new keeper. They require lots of work untill they reach 4inches (50% daily waterchanges recomended, again minimum) and stunt very easily. Idealy, you want to be buying them at 4-5", as this is where the settle in easiest, while not needing rediculous ammounts of work to up-keep them...

If you realy want discus at this point, I'd advise you to start saving for a bigger tank and a decent group of these wonderful fish. The tank will need to be well matured before you add them (going 6months+ with fish in) also, so use this time to thuroghly research them Don't make the same mistake that I did and start the thurough research after they started going over after you purchased them They are not a hard fish to keep if you learn about their needs. Fail to research thuroughly and you will have issue after issue with them, and this is what caurse ignorant people to claim they are hard to keep. I say people calling the fish hard to keep are ignorant, because they usualy ignored the fact that these guys are an "advanced" species and thus reguire lots of research prior to purchase. Leaving off the research and then blaming the fish for the keepers own mistakes IMO is ignorant, but please don't all shoot at once if your "guilty as charged"

All the best
Rabbut

thanks!!
your information was very helpful!

actually i havent updated my signature but i do have a new tank. it is planted brazilian biotope with cardinals and couple of cories, so i was hoping to put in a couple of discus. maybe a ram. they will get along, would they??

hmm... for getting five discus, i do have some questions. what if two of them pair off and start being aggressive toward the other discus? my friend said since i am keeping them in a community tank, i should have only one just in case they do pair off. is it true??

 

[rabbut]

They will die of stress if kept singly, and will kill each other in groups of less than 5, with the exception of a proven breeding pair, that will need the tank to themselves. Pairs are easy to break, just move one of the two into a seporate tank for a couple of days before re-introducing them back Discus, Rams, Cardinals and some corries are fine. Corries as a rule don't like the heat, so we need to know the species to confirm if this is OK. Discus need a temperature of 30c idealy, but deffinately in the 28-32 range. Too hot for many corries, but not all

What capasity and dimentions does the new tank have?

What corry species do you already have?

All the best
Rabbut

 

[pattyplaty]

They will die of stress if kept singly, and will kill each other in groups of less than 5, with the exception of a proven breeding pair, that will need the tank to themselves. Pairs are easy to break, just move one of the two into a seporate tank for a couple of days before re-introducing them back Discus, Rams, Cardinals and some corries are fine. Corries as a rule don't like the heat, so we need to know the species to confirm if this is OK. Discus need a temperature of 30c idealy, but deffinately in the 28-32 range. Too hot for many corries, but not all

What capasity and dimentions does the new tank have?

What corry species do you already have?

All the best
Rabbut

i have some emerald green and peppered cories, would they be ok? if not, they can be easily put into my platy tank. and what species of cories would do well in higher temperature?

 

[DiscusKeeper403]

They will die of stress if kept singly, and will kill each other in groups of less than 5, with the exception of a proven breeding pair, that will need the tank to themselves. Pairs are easy to break, just move one of the two into a seporate tank for a couple of days before re-introducing them back Discus, Rams, Cardinals and some corries are fine. Corries as a rule don't like the heat, so we need to know the species to confirm if this is OK. Discus need a temperature of 30c idealy, but deffinately in the 28-32 range. Too hot for many corries, but not all

What capasity and dimentions does the new tank have?

What corry species do you already have?

All the best
Rabbut

i have some emerald green and peppered cories, would they be ok? if not, they can be easily put into my platy tank. and what species of cories would do well in higher temperature?

The Emerald Corys should be okay, as they can handle temperature up to and around 28C, 29 or 30C shouldn't do too much. Peppered on the other hand prefer temperatures up to 26C, so 28-30 would be pushing it.

May I ask how big this tank is??

 

[pattyplaty]

They will die of stress if kept singly, and will kill each other in groups of less than 5, with the exception of a proven breeding pair, that will need the tank to themselves. Pairs are easy to break, just move one of the two into a seporate tank for a couple of days before re-introducing them back Discus, Rams, Cardinals and some corries are fine. Corries as a rule don't like the heat, so we need to know the species to confirm if this is OK. Discus need a temperature of 30c idealy, but deffinately in the 28-32 range. Too hot for many corries, but not all

What capasity and dimentions does the new tank have?

What corry species do you already have?

All the best
Rabbut

i have some emerald green and peppered cories, would they be ok? if not, they can be easily put into my platy tank. and what species of cories would do well in higher temperature?

The Emerald Corys should be okay, as they can handle temperature up to and around 28C, 29 or 30C shouldn't do too much. Peppered on the other hand prefer temperatures up to 26C, so 28-30 would be pushing it.

May I ask how big this tank is??

thanks!

hmm.. i guess i will move cories in with my platies. are there other types of cories that would do ok in higher temperature?

i dont know the exact dimension of the tank (ive had it for a while. used to house platy frys and then became central american biotope with platys. and now for south american lol) but i think it's somewhere around 45-55g.

many people said i should get two juveniles. man my only concern is them getting along with eachother.

 

[Jim Curtis]

"many people said i should get two juveniles. man my only concern is them getting along with eachother. "

No. I don't think anybody said that. I think everyone said 5. You could do 5 in a 45 gallon but you would have to keep on top of maintenence and probably would have to stay discus only. But if you cant figure out the size of your tank I think you should skip the idea of keeping discus. There's alot of things you need to know for sure. Number one being what size your tank is. You should measure that thing and post what you get. Generally when I think of a tank for discus I dont think "old fry tank".

You seem to know the sizes of all of your other tanks and I have a really strong suspsion you are thinking of putting discus in a 10 gallon tank. That would be an epic failure.

 

[pattyplaty]

"many people said i should get two juveniles. man my only concern is them getting along with eachother. "

No. I don't think anybody said that. I think everyone said 5. You could do 5 in a 45 gallon but you would have to keep on top of maintenence and probably would have to stay discus only. But if you cant figure out the size of your tank I think you should skip the idea of keeping discus. There's alot of things you need to know for sure. Number one being what size your tank is. You should measure that thing and post what you get. Generally when I think of a tank for discus I dont think "old fry tank".

You seem to know the sizes of all of your other tanks and I have a really strong suspsion you are thinking of putting discus in a 10 gallon tank. That would be an epic failure.

no im not planning to keep a discus in my 10 gallon tank. i do breed platys and i have some common sense in fish keeping

and people from other web cites recommended two juveniles.

 

[DiscusKeeper403]

"many people said i should get two juveniles. man my only concern is them getting along with eachother. "

No. I don't think anybody said that. I think everyone said 5. You could do 5 in a 45 gallon but you would have to keep on top of maintenence and probably would have to stay discus only. But if you cant figure out the size of your tank I think you should skip the idea of keeping discus. There's alot of things you need to know for sure. Number one being what size your tank is. You should measure that thing and post what you get. Generally when I think of a tank for discus I dont think "old fry tank".

You seem to know the sizes of all of your other tanks and I have a really strong suspsion you are thinking of putting discus in a 10 gallon tank. That would be an epic failure.

no im not planning to keep a discus in my 10 gallon tank. i do breed platys and i have some common sense in fish keeping

and people from other web cites recommended two juveniles.

Please tell me what websites recommend keeping two juvenile Discus together. I would love to go and tell them off.

 

[rabbut]

5+ discus is probibly the second most important piece of discus keeping advise, after keeping water-quality spoteless