Getting ready to take the plunge

[cellingson]

Thanks in advance for the advice.

1- I have a rimless cubed tank, are discus prone to jumping out? Anyone with a rimless who would be willing to weigh in on their experience.

2- I was looking at some of Kenny's March shipment. I really liked the checkerboard pigeons but noticed that the back half of the body is colorless in some. These were small juveniles. As they grow will this color fill in or will this be the color they have as an adult?

[Altum Nut]

Welcome to Simply Discus cellingson,

Many have had success with open top tanks and no jumpers but others not so much. It would all depend on where tank is located...high traffic areas, shadow areas etc.... Egg crate seems to solve the issue.

You will find that Kenny/Forrest offers top quality discus. The juveniles you are looking to get... is fairly normal to look pale or spotty striation at a young age but will fully color up when they reach adults stage.

Just thought I would offer some advise...do your homework first before you take the plunge. Browse the site as it's full of useful information and asked questions if your not sure about something.

Good luck,
...Ralph

[cellingson]

Thanks for the advice.

I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions on the number of discus. I would like to grow them out fully to maximize their beauty. I have a 60g cubed tank. It is and will be planted. Should I purchase 2 adults or even 3 adults? Will discus be happy in groups of less then 3. I will admit I have kept discus in the past, about 8 years ago. It was a heavily planted aquarium 37g with 3 juvenile discus. 2 paired up and bred, and bullied the third. But after reading through this site I feel like their growth may have been stunted because they never got as big as some of the fish I am seeing on here. But they were healthy, and I sold them when I had to move.

[cellingson]

85366
here is a pic of the tank

[Altum Nut]

I have to be honest my friend...I would not buy juveniles and try to grow them out in that tank. As you may know Discus are schooling fish and you should consider getting a group of at least 6 to 8 in a bare bottom tank with plenty of w/c's.
If this tank is all you have...I would start with at least sub-adults approx. 4.5+ inch fish.
I wish I could convince you to strip down that tank if you decide to buy juveniles...
Read through the site before making drastic decisions.

...Ralph

[cellingson]

I am open to getting non-juveniles. But I love the planted look and I find beauty in the tank as a whole. A bare bottom tank definitely produces some amazing fish, but as a whole unit it is not as appealing to me. If I went with sub adults or adults what is the minimum-maximum I should stock with. I am very open to keeping as few as two if they could be happy. I think five would be a max for me but even then think that may be too crowded.

[SortSay2003]

I am open to getting non-juveniles. But I love the planted look and I find beauty in the tank as a whole. A bare bottom tank definitely produces some amazing fish, but as a whole unit it is not as appealing to me. If I went with sub adults or adults what is the minimum-maximum I should stock with. I am very open to keeping as few as two if they could be happy. I think five would be a max for me but even then think that may be too crowded.


Hello and welcome.

That is a nice looking planted tank. I'd say keep it that way and go with the sub-adults/adults as mentioned by Ralph. Kenny has very healthy, vibrant, Quality discus. My two tanks are filled with discus from Kenny only. As a general rule of thumb; 10gal per adult discus. This way it gives you some room in case a mishap should come up. Good luck:)

[rickztahone]

How many gallons is that tank? It looks to be no more than maybe 30g? In all honesty, that tank looks ill-suited for any school of discus due to lack of size unless it is deceptively bigger. IMHO of course.

[cellingson]

60 gallons, its deep. 24X24X24. That back piece of wood is nearly 12 in long.
The picture is from a cell phone, certainly doesn't do it justice for beauty.

[rickztahone]

60 gallons, its deep. 24X24X24. That back piece of wood is nearly 12 in long.
The picture is from a cell phone, certainly doesn't do it justice for beauty.

considering the tank is double the size I initially thought, I am still going to stand by my statement and say that this tank may not be overly suited for discus. As it stands, you have a lot of things in the tank that take from the total volume of the tank. This means, that achieving the 10g/1 discus will be somewhat difficult. Additionally, discus prefer longer tanks rather than tall, and in this tank, being that it is a square, it limits the amount of places the discus can hide from each other from bullying. I tell you this from past experience.

I had 5 discus in a 56g bowfront that was 36" long and it was too small for any of the discus to get away from each other. Ultimately I had to break down the tank because I knew in the long run it wasn't well suited for the discus. You have to ask yourself if you really want to keep discus, can you give them the environment they need? If yes, then some things need to change in order to achieve that goal.

edit: oh, and apologies for not seeing that you had already mentioned the tank gallons. I am not sure how I missed that.

[cellingson]

Kind of bummed about this. Would it make any difference to start with sub adults or adults, even if I did 2-3. I guess I could always do another fish type.
85391.
Here is another angle if that helps

[ericNH]

What about starting with 2 fully adult discus that have paired up? They don't necessarily have to be successful breeders. If they are pairedup they won't kill each other, and if they are fully healthy adult discus, they could be beautiful in that tank.

[Len]

I'd also throw out there that you can get tops for rimless tanks. I just bought three of them :) They are MArineland (Perfecto) tanks/lids.

[Reesj]

From my limited experience you CAN grow Discus Juvis in planted tanks and I'm doing it currently with good success so far from 2 inch size to about 3 inches now. These are the stuff I have found out in 2 months I have raised them so far.
Problems:-1. Most of the sinking food types will not be appetizing for you fish when there is a substrate(Had two in quarantine which were gobbling up Kenny's DF3 but show almost no interest when I put them in my planted including all the rest of the Discus who ignore it .).
2. Pigeon blood discus types will will have some peppering or very slight stress bars.
3. If you want to be doing ferts a lot or high WPG setup it might be a hassle to the discus.
Although if I were to do it again I would definitely start off with 3-3.5 Inch discus rather than 2 inch or so lot I started off with.

My suggestion :- Start off with 5-6 Discus of about 3-3.5 inches and try to get about 3 water changes per week. If you feel the tank is too small when they mature in about 8 months or so you can get a new set-up or give away soem and keep a breeding pair in there. If you decide to go and feed them beef heart exclusively, you might have to do a bit more water changes . Imo try and learn rather than listen to the same old song being sung over and over! If no one try anything new or at least become a bit adventurous there will be no improvements in this hobby.