Discus

[fiskkeeperpro]

Hi, i was wondering about discus and:
What is the minimum tank size needed? I'm soon to be getting a 120-180l tank, would this be enough?
What food do they eat?
Are they messy?
What would be suitable tankmates?
Any other details i should know?

Thanks
Will

 

[cheesy feet]

Hi, i was wondering about discus and:
What is the minimum tank size needed?
What food do they eat?
Are they messy?
What would be suitable tankmates?

Thanks
Will

A 50 gallon or more aquarium is reccomended for a shoal of 5 (adult) discus, minimum.If numbers are lower than 5 (unless it is a breeding pair) it is not unusual for the bigger or more boisterous discus to bully and attack others, leading to the deaths of other discus.The rule for 5 discus or more is simply to spread aggression.

My Discus' diets consist of.-Tetra prima, beef heart, glassworms, bloodworms and other frozen foods, you can feed live food but IME this can carry diseases which would put all the fish in the tank in danger.

Yes, very messy.They need to be fed 5 x a day when juvenile, and newly born are commonly fed even more with 2x daily water changes with RO water.

There can is a list of suitable tank mates here;
[URL="http/www.fishforums.net/content/forum/19...f-The-Aquarium/"]http/www.fishforums.net/content/forum/19...f-The-Aquarium/[/URL]
I still havn't updated the post so some things may be wrong.

Sounds like you need to do much more research on them though

 

[fiskkeeperpro]

So in the 120-180l tank, could i keep 2 discus and lets say a shoal of cardinal tetras and maybe a few cories? I would put an external filter on the tank and do water changes 2x per week, is this enough (thats if i can have them in my tank )

Will

 

[cheesy feet]

It would be ok if you got an adult pair to start of with, but that is very costly Plus they might have a go at eating the cardinals, and the cories would eat their eggs, and might even stress them due to there active behaviour, although I have found with mine that albino cories are fine.

Then there's cost for another tank, RO unit and loads of maintenance for offspring, if you get any.

If I were you I would by a 50-55 gal tank bare bottem, set it up with the external, buy a group of 5 discus as large as you can (4inch plus) to decrease the risk of stunting, water change twice a week as you said and add some large amazon sword plants and bogwood.

 

[fiskkeeperpro]

lol, i will now try and tempt my parents into letting em get a tank that big
Thanks for your help Cheesyfeet

Will

 

[kev_kb]

There's no point buying a breeding pair just to fit them into a tank IMO, it would be such a waste.

Don't take this the wrong way, but if you need to ask your parents permission they may not be the fish you. They are expensive and require a lot of dedication to keep successfully.

If you do decide they are right for you there's another post in this section asking for similar info so read that, and search through old posts as there has been plenty of good info posted, just ignore anything saying its ok to keep them in really hard water and high pHs.