Discus Tankmates

[hoppybunn]

I am planning on setting up a tank centered around 5 or 6 discus (probably a 75-90 gallon tank, depending on how long/high it is), and I was wondering what some good tankmates would be. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Puffer punk]

good tank mates would be
near enough any tetra
harliqiun rasbora
dwarf cichlids ( as in apistos )
otos


nothing that is skitty , agressive or to big

 

[Sp00ky]

the normal rule of thumb (or the 'fish bible') is nothing that is fast moving.

However, i have in my discus tank, guppy fry that are growing on and NEARLY full adult size. I also use the tank as a 2 week R&R tank for female LB's so there is currently a female pineapple sword in there as well.

Bear in mind that high temps are best for discus and with this in mind, this is the reason i use it for a grow on tank for the fry and for an R&R tank for the females (we all need abit of sun to rejuvinate ourselves, so why not for fish as well).

I'm interested to read PP's comments regarding dwarf apisto's. I bought some cockatoo apistos along with Mini_wiggle last week and the guy that breeds them and delivered them to us told me they prefer temps of 26 degree, so at adult size this may be not the best enviroment for them. However, i aint overly knowledgeable on apisto's yet so i could be wrong. I'm just going on info from other people

I also have in my discus tank, Bronze Corys, a spotted dora, another catfish which im not sure of the name of and a red tropical crab

 

[annka5]

As you're setting the tank up from scratch, I'd suggest sticking to the defintiely safe species before adding anything that the majority of discus keepers/ breeders would be concerned about.

I'd include in the safe category:
Cardinal or rummy nose tetra (not nippy, not too fast, appreciate higher water temps that the discus need, are a good dither fish for discus). Not all tetra's will manage the higher temps of the discus tank.
Some kinds of cory (not all do well at high temps, so you do need to check)
German blue rams / other dwarf cichlid types so long as you get species that can cope with the heat.
Marbled hatchet fish
Bristlenose plecs (sucker mouth pleco types have a reputation for occasionally attaching themselves to the sides of discus to eat their slime coats - some people swear this happens, others say it doesn't - I've never tried keeping them with my discus. )
There are probably loads of others I've forgotten.

Nippy fish are a no-no, nocturnal fish are out, as is anything very active (like danios for example).
Angelfish are seen as controversial as some people reckon that they carry a parasite which does them no harm but is dangerous for the discus. Other people don't have any problems keeping them together.

 

[kev_kb]

Annka5 gives the best advice on this thread. Basically any fairly calm fish that will live in soft, acidic water with the high temperature should be ok. I wouldn't put Angels in with them, from my experience their fast feeding can annoy the Discus and mine actually started to pick on the Discus and so had to be removed.

I've also heard stories of Ottos sucking on Discus, but never had a problem with my Bristlenose or Clown plecs.

As you haven't got the tank yet go for something fairly high but also deep.

 

[Sp00ky]

Annka5 gives the best advice on this thread.

based on what?? cause i base mine on my own personal experiences and it works for me. End of the day its down to personal experience and what works for one person may not work for another, but the advice has been offered !!

 

[hoppybunn]

I think that everyone who responded gave good advice, thanks. So now my question is with dwarf cichlids such as rams, will they be too small once the discus reach their full size? I mean I know that rams have the tendency to be shy when overwhelmed, so will they hide all day in a tank with big mates such as the discus? I was thinking of adding rams or some type of fish like them, but I just want to make sure that everyone in the tank will be happy. Also, I was hoping to add a pleco to the tank, but I too have heard about the sucking on the side of the discus, so I was wondering what types of plecos are good (like the brittlenose)? Thanks.

 

[wesleydnunder]

Rams will get along fine with adult discus. I have them together and they basically ignore each other. I'm keeping neons, rasbora hets, pygmy cories, otos, SAEs and kuhli loaches with the discus also. I had amano and cherry shrimp in the tank and my adult brown ate all of them.

Mark

 

[jayjay]

wesley what do you class as adult discus and how big are yours? discus can eat neons i think.

any slow fish is good with discus providing they are a few inches long cardinals cories etc. make good tank mates as would alot of the south american community fish.

 

[wesleydnunder]

I class adult as 6" and up. My brown is about 7", and yeah, we're starting to call some of his tankmates 'feeder-neons'. He's definitely a predator. We started with 20 neons and I think there are about 15 left. I may wind up having to replace them with some rummy-nose or cardinals if he eats all the neons. As the plants get thicker it's more of a hassle for him to catch them, I think, so maybe we've hit a stasis in their population.

Mark

 

[kev_kb]

based on what?? cause i base mine on my own personal experiences and it works for me. End of the day its down to personal experience and what works for one person may not work for another, but the advice has been offered !!

Based on my own experience, and everything I have ever read on Discus lol. Don't take it as an attack on you or anything because I don't mean it like that, I just don't agree with your stocking and would rather other people on here didn't copy it just to make life easier on themselves.

For a start you have a catfish in there and you don't know what it is, then you have live bearers which have different water chemistry requirements to your Discus. Plus you have a crab which could easily nip on the Discus whilst they are inactive at night.

You seem to have plenty of tanks, so why not just seperate them out?

 

[hoppybunn]

What are some other smaller and less aggressive cichlids that would work as good tankmates for the discus besides rams?

 

[Sp00ky]

based on what?? cause i base mine on my own personal experiences and it works for me. End of the day its down to personal experience and what works for one person may not work for another, but the advice has been offered !!

Based on my own experience, and everything I have ever read on Discus lol. Don't take it as an attack on you or anything because I don't mean it like that, I just don't agree with your stocking and would rather other people on here didn't copy it just to make life easier on themselves.

For a start you have a catfish in there and you don't know what it is, then you have live bearers which have different water chemistry requirements to your Discus. Plus you have a crab which could easily nip on the Discus whilst they are inactive at night.

You seem to have plenty of tanks, so why not just seperate them out?

thats fine based on YOUR experience, but dont say that one person gives the best advice when advice has been offered on personal experience such as your own. I could take you to a discus breeder who i get mine from who has read pretty much all the top books on discus..... and in the past few months has found that not everything that is written to be factual anymore. Bear in mind that the books that are in circulation at the moment are based on finding up to 25-30 years ago... when discus werent quite as "hardy" as they are now. Things have changed and the advice i get is from a friend who has been breeding discus for 10 years, has spent an exceptional amount of money on his fish house and stock and is also information he has weaned from other "experts" who breed discus.

Why would other people copy it to make their life easier?? i chose to keep my fry in there at those temps because from tests that i have carried out they thrive in higher temps at an earlier age. the catsish that is in there came from a discus tank and is still in a discus tank and its about 3". Its not a plec and has long whiskers and one day i will find out what its called, but it caused no problems in the tank that it was in and has caused no problems in mine.

The crab has been in there for as long as the tank has been stocked with discus and i have seen no nipping or fins or any fish with nipped fins. The first time i do i will remove the crab and advise anyone in the future not to put a crab in there.

Yes i have plenty of tanks, but like i mention previously, i use the high temps as a grow on tank for the fry and when they are big enough to go to the LFS or friends or even in my LB tank then they will be moved.

 

[annka5]

jeez, calm down all! The tank is being set up from scratch; hoppybun didn't start the thread saying "can I keep livebearer fry and a crab, and..." in her post, or even say that that's what she wanted to add to the tank.
I already said in my original post that I keep rams and cards with my discus, so like you Spooky, my advice was based on my own experience; and also from reasearch. I suggested risk-free tankmates which I've never seen any reports of causing problems in the discus tank. I don't see how that's particularly offensive.
I agree that a lot of the advice in discus books does suggest they are excessively hard to keep, and that this just isn't true. However, on discus-only sites and forums, you do see pictures of clearly stunted discus (rugby-ball shaped, over large eyes) which invariably arise from people bending rules e.g. re: water changes, temperature levels, or whatever, so I don't think it's fair to suggest that they are incredibly straightforward to keep.

 

[hoppybunn]

Would keyholes do well with discus and rams? (trying to stay out of the argument )