Discus

[2day]

i was at my local fish shop and was looking at the tanks and saw baby discus!!! They were the size of a 20 cent coin. They were $15 and were being sold in 2 weeks. My question is, can discus can go with guppies, platies, clown loaches, bristle nose catfish and angels? They are really beautiful looking fish and have nice colours, but this is the only thing that is putting me back. Also, would they be ok in a custom 3 foot tank?
Any help will be appreciated.

 

[kev_kb]

Sorry but the short answer is no. I don't know how big a 20 cent coin is but I guess its pretty small. Baby Discus should be kept in large groups and in my opinion in bare bottom tanks until they gain a few inches. Even if you went for older Discus you'd need 5-6 min and your tank sounds pretty well stocked as it is.

Then there is the water chemistry to think about, if you wanted the Discus for another tank I would say match the parameters they are in currently with regard to pH, softness and temperature. You'll need to keep them at 28-30C and the water will be low-neutral pH and on the soft side.

I've heard of people keeping them with clown loaches so I guess that can work. I've also heard of people keeping them with Angels, but in my own experience thats a bad idea as the Angels are much faster feeders and can get aggressive. For both of these options you'd need a larger tank though so I'm just mentioning it in case you want to get another tank going.

The bristlenoses won't be a problem, but I'm not sure about the livebearers, not sure how they would handle the increased temperatures. I probably wouldn't try it and would go for Cardinals or something like that.

Your 3ft tank isn't big enough for an adult group of Discus, let alone with everything else in there. Have you considered how big your Clown Loaches are going to get?

Sorry the negatives response, but hey, it's another reason to go buy another tank!

 

[Sp00ky]

Sorry but the short answer is no. I don't know how big a 20 cent coin is but I guess its pretty small. Baby Discus should be kept in large groups and in my opinion in bare bottom tanks until they gain a few inches. Even if you went for older Discus you'd need 5-6 min and your tank sounds pretty well stocked as it is.

Then there is the water chemistry to think about, if you wanted the Discus for another tank I would say match the parameters they are in currently with regard to pH, softness and temperature. You'll need to keep them at 28-30C and the water will be low-neutral pH and on the soft side.

I've heard of people keeping them with clown loaches so I guess that can work. I've also heard of people keeping them with Angels, but in my own experience thats a bad idea as the Angels are much faster feeders and can get aggressive. For both of these options you'd need a larger tank though so I'm just mentioning it in case you want to get another tank going.

The bristlenoses won't be a problem, but I'm not sure about the livebearers, not sure how they would handle the increased temperatures. I probably wouldn't try it and would go for Cardinals or something like that.

Your 3ft tank isn't big enough for an adult group of Discus, let alone with everything else in there. Have you considered how big your Clown Loaches are going to get?

Sorry the negatives response, but hey, it's another reason to go buy another tank!

#
i currently keep my 5 discus with guppy fry ( about 3 months old so they can grow on) a Marble molly, a spotted dora, a plec an unidentified catfish and a red crab. They temp is 30 and they all get on very well together.

 

[SamUK]

as has been said the tank is already stocked so discus wouldnt fit.


infact you need to sort the stocking out cos the clowns will get way too big as it is.

 

[Alex_]

another think to add is that platies and guppys will spooky the discus as they are fast movers.

 

[annka5]

I agree, unfortunately; it would be a bad plan and moreover small discus are more fragile than older ones, so if you want healthy, big, round colourful adults from them a large bare bottomed tank, decent sized group, and plenty water chnages are essential.
Also, it's pretty unlikely that at such a young age they would naturally have much in the way of bright colours. When you say they're so colourful, do you mean the babies? If so, I'd imagine they really must have been hormoned to cause them to develop full colouration so early on. This can shorten their lives, make them infertile, and the colour will fade once teh hornone treatmnet is stopped.

 

[Sp00ky]

I agree, unfortunately; it would be a bad plan and moreover small discus are more fragile than older ones, so if you want healthy, big, round colourful adults from them a large bare bottomed tank, decent sized group, and plenty water chnages are essential.
Also, it's pretty unlikely that at such a young age they would naturally have much in the way of bright colours. When you say they're so colourful, do you mean the babies? If so, I'd imagine they really must have been hormoned to cause them to develop full colouration so early on. This can shorten their lives, make them infertile, and the colour will fade once teh hornone treatmnet is stopped.

yep, i agree with the hormoned (or fed on steroid flake). Mine are about 3 1/2 months old and are roughly an inch and half 2" in diameter and are JUST about getting some form of color on the dorsal fins. There bodies are still grey.

 

[2day]

they aren't hormoned in any sort of way. They are just babies and so he will be selling them in a couple of weeks. They just aren't big enough. They are about 3cm in diameter

 

[Sp00ky]

they aren't hormoned in any sort of way. They are just babies and so he will be selling them in a couple of weeks. They just aren't big enough. They are about 3cm in diameter

i think what we are trying to say is that any discus at 3cm in size shouldnt be showing "nice colours" mate.

 

[kev_kb]

Guess it depends how you define 'nice' lol.

 

[dwarfgourami]

i currently keep my 5 discus with guppy fry ( about 3 months old so they can grow on) a Marble molly, a spotted dora, a plec an unidentified catfish and a red crab. They temp is 30 and they all get on very well together.

How on earth do you manage to match the ph/water hardness requirements of discus and a molly? Somebody is not living under ideal conditions here.

 

[2day]

yes ......... but i am saying they look nice when they are full size! lol. I should of said when they are adult size

 

[Sp00ky]

i currently keep my 5 discus with guppy fry ( about 3 months old so they can grow on) a Marble molly, a spotted dora, a plec an unidentified catfish and a red crab. They temp is 30 and they all get on very well together.

How on earth do you manage to match the ph/water hardness requirements of discus and a molly? Somebody is not living under ideal conditions here.

The water ph is 6.7 which is fine for both of them. The ph in my main livebearer tank is 7.3 and the discus are tank bred in tap water. They are juvis' around about 2" in diameter. They all get on fine and thrive in the tank. I use this tank as an R+R tank for my female LB's after they have left the birthing tank for 2 week before they are returned to the main tank. So they must be living in good conditions cause i aint lost any and the birthing cycle is constant !

Just because you READ that a fish needs a specific pH dont mean its STRICTLY true. As for discus, i now of someone who has actually seen them in their natural habitat and been then when its rained heavily. He's seen the water turn from clear to "you couldnt even see the bottom because of the peat that had been distrubed". Then after a while the water turned clear again after the rain fall. Now if that aint altering water conditions i dont know what is!

He returned to the UK and the breeder i got my discus from has always been very careful to not his discus around enough. So this friend visited him one day and asked why he was scared to move them. He said that he was afraid of changing the pH by more than .5 My friend explained to him about what he had seen and his own experience's. As such, the discus in the breeders tank were in a pH of 6.5. My friend dropped the pH in another tank to 4.0 and netted the juvis out and plonked then straight in the tank. He proceded to tell him to leave them all in the tank for 2 weeks and any that died he would pay him £5 each for the, ( which was more than he was selling them for). 4 weeks later and not one has died!!

Yes there are ideal conditions for any fish. But it is very rarely the case that they can be EXACTLY reproduced in an aquarium. Look at it this way, would ANY fish be living in so much ammonia in the wild? i think not !

 

[kev_kb]

Rain water is soft and acidic isn't it? The Discus live in water that is soft and acidic, so the addition of fresh rain water probably wouldn't affect the chemistry all that much. Plus you can't compare what happens in nature with your aquarium as your aquarium is a closed system.

Moving a fish from ph 6.5 to ph 4 straight away is asking for trouble in my opinion, especially with Discus. Just because someone does something doesn't mean you should do to. It makes me wonder what the long term effect on the fish would be.

I accept a lot of fish will live in varying conditions, but its beyond me as a keeper why you wouldn't want to provide them.

By the way, you should have 0 ammonia in all your tanks, especially with Discus!

 

[dwarfgourami]

It's not your discus I'm worried about Spooky, but your molly. I have myself kept mollies in soft acid water and I am convinced that it shortened their lifespan. These IME are fish that really do need hard alkaline water, much more so than the other common livebearers.