Keeping Discus?

[Jim Curtis]

The reason is I already have a pleco. But its not important as I was told that my 46 US gallon tank is too small and that I need a 50 gallon tank . Ill probably end up getting them and just not mentioning it on the boards. I was also told angels were too big for this tank but as a kid I remember having a half dozen angels in a tank slightly smaller than this and they lived for years. Fish dont grow 5 inches overnight. My lfs keeps like 5 discus in each of there 20 gallon display tanks and they dont look ill or dying to me. And its a very popular store that I see discussed on many forums, its talked about as if its the mecca for aquarium enthusiasts for at least the northeast US. They guys dont seem to bull#### too much. Ive seen them tell many a housewife who come in with there children that they shouldnt buy certain fish that they inquire about. But at any rate, sorry to hijack this thread.

" I really dont think people are against you just so they have a nicer tank!!"

I didnt mean myself personally, I just mean in general.

 

[Ian H]

sorry but i completely disagree! i think anyone here who gives advise is doing it to benifit you rather than themselfs!!

Anyway whats the point in ignoring peoples opinions if you think they are right? chances are they are right otherwise they wouldnt have told you outright that you can't have them!!

yes fish do not grow 5" over night but you will end up stunting them which will cause stress/pain to the fish. TBH if your going to act like this your no better than some one who keeps goldfish in a lil 5 gallon tank. The people who give advise on here are doing it so the fish get a better life. Yes i get jelous of other peoples tanks but im not going to give them false information just so mine looks nicer than theirs! take in as much as you can information wise and im sure one day you will have the perfect tank that everyone else is jelous of

The difference with lfs keeping discus in a small tank is that they are going to be sold to some one with a bigger tank, its not like they are in there for their whole lifes. Please just think about all this before buying them just because you want them. Think about the living conditions of the fish rather than what you want to look pretty

 

[Jim Curtis]

Still you miss the point. The point is there is way to much conflicting information and the people who are giving it are not always correct. I dont beleive everything I read on this board, it would be mentally impossible and my brain would explode. I just read on the same exact page that you can keep 40 discus in a 20 gallon tank, followed by youre an idiot you can only put 5 in a 70 gallon tank. I obviously dont want to spend $50 on fish to have them die on me. But I think that if fish can be happy as clams in a 50 gallon tank than a 46 gallon will make them at least happy as oysters.

"i think anyone here who gives advise is doing it to benifit you rather than themselfs!!"

You're really twisting my words now. Clearly I dont mean everyone, but I think there are a few people who give advice just to give it and not because they know what they are talking about, you just attacked Paul Newton, hes just telling you his experience. Honestly, I probably wont get them, I was just a bit irritated earlier. But the point still stands. I had replys to my question that went both ways. I just wish people wouldnt give answers unless they knew they were 100% correct and I think that a lot of the people who attempt to give advice are not really sure or are not qualified to give answers, all other motives aside, people feel the need to throw in there 2 cents. I think discus is a prime example of the fact that keeping fish just isnt an exact science and there are way too many variables to say what can and cannot be done. You talked about stunting the fish, I just read a 20 page thread on this board about how "stunting" fish isnt a proven fact or even plausible with many people agreeing.

"TBH if your going to act like this your no better than some one who keeps goldfish in a lil 5 gallon tank."

I do not understand how you reached that conclusion. I have easily invested over $1000 in an aquarium that houses about $10 worth of fish and spend more time taking care of it than most people do with there own children. Fortunatly for them there is a pretty large wealth of information on how to take care of children, they need at least a 100 gallon tank and a bit of dry land if im not mistaken.

"Anyway whats the point in ignoring peoples opinions if you think they are right?"

Who am I to say who is right and who is wrong? I'm not ignoring anyones opinions if I were we wouldnt be having this conversation. Somebody could write that my dog will die if I move into a 1 bedroom apartment. Im not going to beleive that. I could go out and buy a 55 gallon tank and fill with with 250 lbs of slate, will the discus be healthier in that than they would be a sparse well maintianed 46 gallon? Too many variables. If the concensus is that 46 gal with a small plec is no good for a discus then I can easily forget about it, its just there does not seem to a concensus. Get it yet?

 

[stiffler69]

My normally shy bn went straight for the side of my discus when i first poped them in together so i got rid of the plecs

 

[mister-t]

after reading this topic with interest i thought i would add my oppinion.i keep 5 discus in a 50gallon tank,with 3 ottos,ottos love the algae on my bogwood and keep it in check,they dont bother the discus at all,also i have 3 shrimp which are my disposal guys what food the discus miss my shrimp eat.every set up is different what works for me might not work for you.all i will say what ever route you take with discus water changes are vital,i do 20% every other day,all my water is filtered through an hma filter so no chlorine or metals are present in the water
mister-t

 

[stiffler69]

I have a pair inside a 125 litre tank they are fine in here and breed readily

My experience with discus has been a good one, my pair arnt shy like the usual discus you see they will openly breed infront of you, they react to the familys presence and come to the front of the tank to see a person.

I only ever do water changes with treated tap water, i treat the water with stess coat by api and i do 25% water changes once a week sometimes not even this frequent.

My discus have been perfectly healthy and happy however i was running 2 filters what would assist in good water quality

I also have gravel in my tank but i beleive i need to get rid of the gravel because i keep loosing the young, they only last a few days then disappear

 

[Miss Wiggle]

just to add my two pence to the whole discus debate

firstly you are quite right, there is conflicting info on this forum, and sometimes people get things wrong. But that's what makes this forum such a great source of information. No one person knows everything about every species of fish, so if you look on a website compiled by 1 person there will inevitably be inaccuracies, take it as gospel and you could be in for trouble. On this forum individually we don't know everything, but when you combine our knowledge and experience we've got most bases covered and you should be able to get a good response to any question. Yes you may well get conflicting info on a post, but usually once a few people have replied you can see what the general consensus is, most of the time when someone disagree's with someone else's answer they will give reason's for it. Obviously occasionally there will be someone who spouts out a load of rubbish, but then the people who know what they're doing follow them round correcting it until they get the idea!!

So no, don't believe every word you hear on this forum, look for the consensus or if you aren't sure then ask people to expand on their reasons for saying something, when people have to explain things you'll usually see weather what they say is based on fact or just somethng they heard down the pub.

This applies especially so to Discus, when Discus were first introduced to the hobby they were virtually impossible to keep alive, they were really regarded as suitable for expert keepers only and extreme measurs had to be taken to keep them alive. Over time our knowledge of them grew and the tank bred strains becaome stronger and more tolerant of tank conditions, discus keeping is moving on, but advice tends to stick around for a long time. So you get a range of opinions from 'no you can't keep discus without loads of expensive equipment and space' to 'discus are actually fairly hardy and don't need thta much extra treatment' and everything in between. Really there is no overall consensus at the moment on what is best for these lovely fish so you will get a conflict of opinions, sorry this isn't much help to you but perhaps it explains a little of why you're getting confused. You just have to read as much as you can and try to make an educated decision from there. But with Discus don't expect some magic wand formula that someone's gonna give you which will make it all work perfectly straight away.

Not lets disect this slime coat theory, firstly what is slime coat, this is a natural protective mucus that all fish produce, it acts as a little barrier around the skin and will stop some irritants in the water getting to them. Sort of like having a big plaster all over you!! Now slime coat is a good thing for fish to have, if it gets removed they can produce more, but sometimes they can't produce enough of it quickly enough to avoid any issues. It's certainly not something you should be looking to remove from the fish on purpose.

So why would you want to add a fish which will remove it? Plecs also have sort of teethy raspy bits in their mouths and as we have established, discus are not the absolute hardiest fish ever, can you imagine the stress caused to a slightly shy nervous fish by having a great big plec clamping onto their sides and rasping away at them?!?!

Now I have heard of some species of plec and loaches sucking onto fish like this, never specifically heard of the association between plecs and discus, but lets assume that it is true. In what way can this possibly be a good thing and something you should encourage?!

 

[San O Fisher]

wow, there is a lot of talk on here...

that said, i started out going for a community tank, but ended up wanting to make it a discus tank. After trying to add more than 2 discus to my 55 gallon tank I noticed that the first two discus I had will harrass any new ones to almost near death everytime. Is this normal...who knows, but different fish have different personalities.

Since I could not add more discus and I love plecs, i added one L200 & an L128, with a syno eupt cat. my discus eat and are growing steadily, my L200 is shy, my L128 comes to the front of the tank when i get home, which is odd, and my syno does not seem to mind the light any more.

I also have some otto's in there to help with the algae b/c my plecs would rather check bogwood and everyone gets along fine. the otto's dont touch the discus, nor do the plecs. so yes, you can keep them together

add fish slowly and make sure you are reacting to how your fish react to each other.

someone said discus are like dogs, that is true b/c you can have two dogs, same species who hate each other and that is just life, no explanation, but they just dont get a long. I have found this to be true to discuss

(this is just what I have noticed from my own personal tank, if i could add more discuss I would but it doesnt really work for me)