Discus

[finchfarm]

Ever since I started my Amazonian biotope my mother has been insisting that I get a fish with some color. Most Amazonian fish are a "drab" silver/brown color. My mother has always wanted a discus. Thus far I've been able to convince her otherwise based on the price. I really know nothing about discus other than that they are high-maintenence, sensative fish.....another reason why I've been hesitant to get one. Our tank is cycling, so I wouldn't get one now anyway, but I just wanted to know if its a species that's even feasible for our tank.

Tank Info:
Size: 75 gallons
Dimentions: 1.5 foot wide, 2 feet tall, 4 feet long (approx)
pH: 8.6 (I'm not happy with this number for my current fish; I'd like the number to be between 6.8-7.6. I have a pH adjuster powder but it also removes ammonia so I can't use it since the tank is cycling. Any suggestions on how to lower it naturally?)
General Hardness: Put in 26 droplets and still didn't register a hardness reading (not happy with this for current fish either, any ideas on how to lower?)

Tank Mates:
3 Silver Dollars
1 Angelfish
1 Little-Scale Knife
1 Sailfin Pleco
5 Zebra Danios

Anyway, would a Discus be something feasable we could add to the tank or not? If not, what other colorful Amazonian species would you recomend?

And again, if you know any ways to naturally lower pH and water hardness I'd be very appreciative. Because our tank is cycling I've been chaning out water every day so I don't know wether this may be altering our pH and hardness in the tank. When we had the tank set up before our pH was 6.0 with very soft water so maybe the water changes have something to do with the high pH and hardness.

If our pH and hardness stays this way and never lowers, are our current fish (listed above in tank mates), okay in these perimeters?

 

[roseK]

i dont kno many colourful fish. but discus would not be good with your current stock. they like to be in groups and a species tank is better anyway.

 

[Matty P]

Discus can be kept in a community tank but only with slow moving, non aggresive fish.Water parameters: 80-84 F (Some people use up to 88F) pH 5.8-7.4 gH of 2-11

 

[Straydum]

in my opinon, your fishes are compatible with the discus, well except maybe the silver dollars.

 

[roseK]

you shouldnt have the danios or silver dollars since they are fast moving. and the plec isnt good because it will suck on the discus and they like soft acidic water

 

[Squidman]

This is just my opinion but discus are a little boring to watch. They are colorful though and are classified as a cichlid.

 

[DiscusKeeper403]

Yep. Not compatible.

I don't recommend the use of any chemicals except de-chlorinator. Using chemicals to change the Ph can lead to disaster.

If you want to take the money from the Discus and buy an RO/De-ionizing unit, that would be much better. You could mix that water, with half de-chlorinated tank water.

If you can't afford one of those units (De-ionization being cheaper) then try to filter the water through a bag of peat moss. This may bring the Ph down a few points, but not a whole lot. Try using drift wood as well, it will turn the water yellowish brown (perfect for amazonian type set-ups such as this) and help with the Ph just a little. You could probably get it down to 8.2 or 8.3 if you do it this way, where as a mixture of RO/De-ionized water could get the Ph down to 6.5 or less.

Hope this helps




One more thing,

Check from the guys at the store you want to buy the fish from, ask them if they keep the fish in the normal tap water. If they do, I wouldn't worry about it too much, just use the peat/drift wood.

 

[bugsy66]

I don't recommend the use of any chemicals except de-chlorinator. Using chemicals to change the Ph can lead to disaster.



** I totally agree with this over and over again. Do not add chemicals to lower ph in your tanks. Your fish will adjust just fine. My Discus and Angel are very happy and healthy with my ph which is on the high side.

 

[bugsy66]

You have a nice size of tank if you want to devote it to Discus completely. A nice school of 5 would be amazing in there with some live plants and some small schooling cardinal tetras. But this might not be what you are looking for.

Discus are not hard to keep, they just require you attention to their water quality. When small you must do water changes alot. As they get older once a week with a good filteration system is great. They are beautiful fish, that is why they are called "King of the Aquarium". They can be shy at times. Not to lively and swimming around like other fish. But overall very beautiful if you get mixed colors of them in your tank.

They are not cheap, or at least here where I live and not easy to get here either. Most folks around our city won't devote a tank to Discus so they don't bring them into the stores here. No breeders here either.

So you have to ask yourself if this is what you want?? If not there are tons of other fish with great colors that would suit your tank.


bugsy.....

 

[djceri_g]

you should test your tap water for ph, because your tank is cycling it causes the ph to be unstable. I think when the tank is ready then test the water. In the meantine, do some reasearch on Discus. I think the pleco and silver dollars might not work with discus, but mind you, people have congo tetras with their discus(as myself) and they are very fast fish. I think if you have atleast 5 disucs, good filteration, water changes often and good diet it should be okay

 

[freshwaterfishlover]

It would look weird. 8" Discus next to 4" fish.

 

[Aphotic Phoenix]

I agree with others that using a pH adjusting chemical is a bad idea, and that at least some of the tank mates wouldn't be suitable. Also you have to consider that discus prefer a temp that is much higher than what is healthy for a lot of other fish long term.

Another thing that really should be considered is that discus should be kept in groups...that means 5 or more. If you try to save money by getting young discus you'll be doing daily water changes, and larger fish get very expensive.

 

[djceri_g]

Its not really a good idea for a beginner to buy such young discus, theres a high risk they will get stunted!

 

[fishytyke]

i would say that, amongst other things, that the Dollars would spook the discus way too much, why not stick with the Angels?

BTW, you do know that your danios dont fit into your amazonian biotope dont you? nice fish tho'

 

[finchfarm]

Yeah, I know that Danios aren't Amazonian. When we were forced into a fish in cycling because of our bad bacteria problem we bought them for their hardiness to help cycle the tank while the other fish were in a small hospital tank. I would have prefereed to do a fishless cycle, but keeping all the fish listed under "Tank Mates" in a 20 gallon tank (especially when one of the Dollars is the size of a plate) wasn't feasable. Once we saw how the Danios adjusted we gradually started dividing the fish up between the two tanks, putting the hardier fish in the big tank after the Danios. The ammonia in the small tank, even with evenatually only 3 fish in there, got a lot harder to manage, so all the fish are back in the big tank now. The ammonia is easier to manage in there and for the past few days the ammonia has been pretty low. Once the Danios die, hopefully of old age, I'll replace them with some sort of Amazonian tetras. Once our tank is cycled I also plan on getting another Angel (my single one seems lonely and is schooling with my Silver Dollars ) and maybe two or three hatchetfish.

I don't really want to go completely Discus, at least not now anyway, as most of my fish are pretty young (save for my big Dollar who is about 6 years old). If I did go Discus it would be until my other fish die off....again, hopefully from old age. Though I'm quite attatced to my Dollars, they're my favorite. Maybe I could just look for some other colorful fish. We did Neons once, but they were so small that they all got sucked into the filter. Have to find something a little bigger.