Discus With Angels

[DiscusKeeper403]

Well,

Is it really that dangerous to keep angels in with Discus? I have a new 25 gallon tank I want to put in one very small angel fish I saw at my local pet store. I am also getting a Discus ordered in through the store. The fish expert there has alot of experience and has Angels that hes ordered from this hatchery in with his discus in a large tank and they seem to be doing fine. The discus i will get will probly already be 2-3" while the angel is only the size of a dime. This hatchery they get there fish from has locations all over the world and is of high quality. I already have the tank running with nothing in it in order to create some bacteria and areate the water. Is there anything I should do to prep the angel fish to make sure he is not carring any parasites?

 

[SamUK]

a fish shop employee isnt the best person to take advice from.

they jus want money when it comes down to it.....


i thought the angel and discus thing was a myth but all the discus owners here seem to think different so id go with them.

 

[kev_kb]

There are already plenty of posts on here about mixing angels and discus, please a take a look through them.

As Sam points out, some shope employees are not the best source of advice, they can't know everything about each fish they sell and sadly some will tell anything to make a sale. On the other hand so are very good, and some have slightly different views on how to do things.

Regardless of the mixing angels and discus issues I'm sorry to say discus are not suitable for your tank, and you have some more research to do. Firstly if you have an empty tank the filter bacteria will not grow, there needs to be a source of ammonia to cycle the tank. Either you need to add it or you could add some very hardy fish and do water changes until the tank is cycled. If this is new to you then please research cycling on here before going any futher.

Do not add either angels or discus to the tank until it has been cycled, you will most likely loose them. Angels are more hardy and can be added directly after cycling. Discus however should not be if you plan to keep other tank mates, keep the tank mates first to allow the filter to establish then add the discus last. If you have a discus only tank then add them directly after cycling but keep a check on the water parameters and feed lightly for a while.

Before I say anything else I would like to point out that discus must be kept in groups unless you have a breeding pair. A breeding pair is a bonded pair of discus, not just two discus you buy wishing to breed. A bonded pair will have formed from a group of discus. You should look to keep a min of 5-6 discus, and you need to give each discus 10 gallons of water when adult, this does not mean you can keep one in a 10 gallon tank though!

From the above you will see you should not keep discus singly, most of the time they sulk in a tank on there own, they become very inactive and do not feed well, and mostly it ends up in death. Depending on its dimensions your tank may be suitable for a breeding pair whilst breeding, but I would not keep them in there for life and you could not have any other fish them.

You also need to think about the water parameters, and you need to research the requirements of discus in this respect. Matching the water parameters of your breeder/supplier is the best solution to this.

I do not believe in pre-treating the fish I buy, and if the supplier is of as high quality as you suggest there should be no need to.

Just like to add that for a group of 5 discus your looking at a tank 48" x 15" x 18" as the minimum size, bigger is always better though.

 

[ringham]

I have heard several acounts of anges carrying diseases that discus are particularlt prone to catching because they aren't as amune as most other fish.

IMO if the angel has been apropriately quarantined (research in books etc.) then you should be fine.

 

[grayboy1]

listen m8, uve got about 3 posts with all these diff ideas for ur 25gal tank. do u actually know what day it is? 1 disucs? 1 angel? omg u dont know much about fishkeeping do you. sorry this seems a bit aggresive but ive read nearly all your posts now and your fabulously clueless. i can tell by the things you say. 1 discus in a huge or small tank is totally wrong. so is 1 angel. if i was you id get some goldfish and practice keeping fish with them until you are compenant enough to deal with cichlids....

 

[SamUK]

shocking, discuslova on the other end of a bad comment.


well be keeping fish in tanks next! madness.

 

[CAC]

The thing i dont understand is weather you have any fish in there, and whats comeing, whats going etc.
And where their going too....
you profile says:

3 cory cats
comming soon-1 Ram
loads of live plants
1 Blue Acara

So is there a ram comeing?
Is there an Acara in there now? If its gone, then where?
ANd the other day you were asking about breeding rams..!
So whats the actual story???
I dont get it.

Mikey

 

[Josiah]

Discuslova exactly how old are you? Everybody else has said the first thing that came to my mind lol.

 

[grayboy1]

lol i maybe sounder a little nasty earlier. but there is truth in it. if you are comprehending doing what your doing then you need to research more, there is nothing wrong with not being lets say "clued up". it sounds to me like you are chopping and changing with your ideas and trying to overcompensate with this weird selection of fish? go back to basics. read somemore. a tank your size.....hmmm....the only thing ive kept in a tank that size with great success was a pair of neolamprologus brichardi's and a pair of Neolamprologus multifasciatus. they had a half a dozen shells towards the front of the tank, the brichardis colonised a clay pipe covered in natural slate towards the rear corner. great to watch these fish, didnt bother eachother. both spawned hapilly and all ignored fry from both species. every month or so id take all the decor out to do a water change and remove fry of both to a serparate tank or sometimes to a dealers shop. mind you my tank i used was about 6-7 gallon more than yours. before i had sussed out who were the pairs i still had 4 adults of each species and neither (that i saw) would eat the others fry nor their own. sort of like livebearers really.. great little cichlid tank that was easy to maintain. if you wanna try something like this start off with 1 species first and see how it goes. neither are all that expensive. u could certainly got 4 - 6 brichardis for the price of 1 discus xD

 

[DiscusKeeper403]

no one posts on this topic anymore its old so stop postin n stuff n im not gettin a discus or an angel in there. no one cares so can i like delete this thread or if a mod comes plz delete it. i noe discus r 2 small n so are angels ect. ect. so yes plz delete this thread or send me a mssg on how 2.

 

[Cheffi]

You, can't delete it. Why would you want too? Is it because you are now embarassed regarding how many times you posted dumb questions? Please try to be sensible and stop asking ridiculous questions which I think you know the answers too.

 

[grayboy1]

why would you want it to be deleted. the whole idea of forums is for everyones benefit? people will read this post in the future and could pick up info and advice from it? you have actually done a good service for tropical fish keeping in general. i would imagine due to your thread nobody is ever going to contimplate keeping a blue acara, a keyhole cichlid, some rams and a discus in a 25g tank ever again

 

[DiscusKeeper403]

you can keep a keyhole in a 25gal tank and the blue acara that i have isnt going to grow past 4inches. i called the LPS and they said it aint a real acara. by the way i wasnt going to put all those fish in togather that would be madness! i created this thread when i fist came to www.fishforums.net and have learned lots since then.

 

[jayjay]

What is this 'blue acara' then?

 

[Cheffi]

My my my 241 posts in so little time................................. someones bored