Discus

[Ethos]

One of the many fish I eventually want to own, I am wondering what size of a tank is the minimum for 2-3 discus. I was looking in our discus profile here on the forum, and it doesn't include much about the tank. I can picture a nice 30G with 3 discus and a school of neons.
Now, I don't plan on owning these fish anytime soon, I'm just curious for myself, and for future referance I may give.
So...:
What size tank is the minimum for one, and a trio?
What fish are compatable? Just slow tetras? What about livbearers?
Plants?
Why do they need such frequint water changes?

Feel free to add any information.

 

[annka5]

Unfortunately, they are shoaling fish and ideally keep them in groups of 6 plus, thought an adult mated pair can work.
Tank size - reckon on 10 US gallons per fish - I don't think this means that you could keep a pair in a 20 gallon though. Breeders do occasionally, but whilst the fish are breeding - not as a permanent home.
Water changes - they are incredibly intolerant of nitrates, hence the need for lots of water changes.
Tankmates - have to tolerate the higher temparatures that discus like. I THINK that would put livebearers out, as would the chemistry - discus prefer soft acidic water. They need calming influences and find shoals of tetra reassuring.
HTH

 

[plecoguy]

30 for 3 is way too small. 29 is minimum for a breeding pair in my opinion, and same with many others. for a school of 6 you will want about a 55 gallon, or bigger. bigger is always better with discus..nitrates=bad, more water you have the longer it takes to build up. i always kept my nitrates under 5ppm when i was raising discus.

 

[Matty]

question: If you had a really really good filtration system that had your tank waaay overfiltered, would it be possible to keep nitrites down without having to do a water change?

 

[prankster705]

Overfiltration doesn't remove nitrates. You would need nitrate removing sponges, or a biodenitrator, or you could yust do it the simple way: fast groving plants.

 

[plecoguy]

if you have nitItes in your tank you have problems, and like said earlier, plants and waterchanges are the best and easiest way to remove nitrAtes

 

[Ethos]

bigger is always better with discus...

Well, can't that be said about every fish?
if a school of 6 can be kept in a 55...why can't a less amount be kept in a smaller tank? I've seen quiet a few tanks on here before with just 1 discus.

 

[simonbrown403]

There has been people that have kept a single discus on it's own without problems, but as a rule they tend not to do to well, they end up skittish and shy.

I think gf225 is one of thoughs you have probably seen, he had to eventually re home his.

Personally i have 7 adult discus (2 of which are being moved to a 40gal tank for breeding as soon as i equalize the PH ), 2 large clowns, 15 rummynose tetras, 2 corys and a small bulldog plec in a 66gal tank.

I get away with this because i have 2 large filters, a bare bottom tank (which is easy to keep spotless) and i change 22gal every 4 days with reclaimed r/o water which is 98% pure H2O give or take.
(they will be re-homed after Christmas in a 6*2*2)

If you intend on using tap water, and are not blessed with perfect water you will probably encounter problems there, due to the high levels of nitrate, phosphate dissolved organics and metals, all of which will weaken the immune system of the discus and lead to death in time.

Young discus are less tolerant that adults of the occasional slip up of water quality

As with all fish sudden and large changes are bad, discus are less tolerant than other fish, so a close eye is needed.