How many discus can I fit in my tank?

[Diesel]

Hey all,

I have a 250L tank and i currently have 5 discus. 2 6month old coblt blues and 3 pigeon bloods. I also have 9 cardinal tetras. my question is this...my tank is long and thinish about 120L X 40W and 50H. how many discus can i have in the tank? some people have told me i should have up to 8 and others say i'm at my limit with 5 so I really have no idea. Can anyone help with this?

thanks!!!!!

[timmy82]

Mate 6 would be the most. Long skinny tanks aren't ideal for discus. The normal rule is 1 adult per 10g = 1 per 38 ltrs. They are better suited for a tank that has a larger surface area than the height so the water is expose to more oxygen if that make sense.
Also it depends on your filtration and water changes too and what you are trying to acheive from keeping discus.

[Diesel]

Thanks Timmy, it's a display tank only really, its a BB tank however i am wanting to put silicon sand in it but still undecided on that. yeah i understand what your saying about surface area. i have an aqua one 1050 external bio filter and an air pump too. i do a 50% change every 2nd day.

[camuth8]

1 discus per every 10 gallons or 38 liters. I agree with Timmy.

[trungnguyen]

1 discus per 10 gallons: general rule
However, it depends on what filtration you have and how many times you do the water change. Water source is the key...as long as you know what you are doing
my 55 gallons has 13 adult discus, with large water change every two days, and 30% everyday...It has been months, no problem at all...

[Diesel]

so with the filter i have and the 50% water changes every 2nd day I would be able to get 6 discus in my 250L tank? its just that i see much smaller tanks with heaps more fish in it but i guess your right and it does come down to filtration etc.

[trungnguyen]

I don't know about your filtration set up since you did not mention with us on here. My tank has one canister filter, one HOB, and one sponge...

[Diesel]

mine has a black sponge topped with some white "wool" and the bottom canister has white cog-like pieces in there and from what i understand its a bio filter? its operation flow is 650l/h Hmax:2.0m and Qmax: 1250l/h if that makes any sense? its an aqua one Aquis 1050 series II pressurised filter

[MrsIHguy]

So I currently have 6 discus in a 120 fat boy with an eheim canister and 4 sponge filters. I do 50% water changes every 4 days am I safe to add 2 more??

[bs6749]

Mate 6 would be the most. Long skinny tanks aren't ideal for discus. The normal rule is 1 adult per 10g = 1 per 38 ltrs. They are better suited for a tank that has a larger surface area than the height so the water is expose to more oxygen if that make sense.
Also it depends on your filtration and water changes too and what you are trying to acheive from keeping discus.

You are contradicting yourself with this statement. A long, skinny tank will have more surface area than a taller tank of the same volume and you say that more surface area is better, and I agree to a certain extent. But you also say that discus aren't well suited for long and skinny tanks and I would have to disagree, again to a certain extent. These tank dimensions are roughly 65 gallons for those of us that don't use the metric system. I have kept discus in 55 gallon tanks before, which are roughly the same length and height but about 2 inches narrower and they did just fine. Many people use these 55 gallon tanks to grow out a group of 8-10 juvenile discus before placing them into a larger tank. If it were me, I would keep 6 adults in that tank at most.

[camuth8]

So I currently have 6 discus in a 120 fat boy with an eheim canister and 4 sponge filters. I do 50% water changes every 4 days am I safe to add 2 more??

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