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steve s
02-12-2003, 07:30 PM
Have set up bare bottom 75 gal for discus. I am going to stock with 6-7 2-3 inch fish. Is tank too big for fish to
grow out fully ? Unable to set up more tanks till wife
settles down.
Should I use a devider ? any suggestions
Thanks ,
Steve

dm
02-12-2003, 08:24 PM
Hi Steve,

That is some serious water changes. It is bad enough on my 50.
I would think this is the worst thing about having a big tank. I could be wrong though. :P

02-12-2003, 09:34 PM
Steve,
I think that will work great. You could even start out with 8 or more, but as they grow you'd have to select some to remove until there's only 6 or so at adulthood.

Ryan
02-12-2003, 09:52 PM
Steve,

The general rule of thumb for discus, and the one that I recommend to new discus keepers, is one fish per 10 gallons. Keep a minimum of 6 fish so that the pecking order is evenly distributed and they feel fairly secure. The more discus you have in a tank, the more secure they seem to feel.

Many people here break the one fish per 10 gallon rule. This is because with adequate water changes, you can successfully add more fish. It's been shown several times that it's not the size of the tank that grows monster fish, but the amount of water changes you do and the amount of foods you provide to your fish.

Seven fish in a 75 gallon tank would work just fine. You could also get more, but this may mean more water changes down the road. I have seven fish (six young adults and one sub-adult) in a 55 gallon tank right now, but I've been doing 50 - 85% changes a day on them.

Ryan

DarkDiscus
02-13-2003, 09:40 AM
Steve,

I would get 8 fish to start with (10 would be better) and then keep the best 6 once they grow up to 4-5 inches.

That's with heavy water changes and lots and lots of good food and TLC.

I would do at least 50% daily as they grow out and more would be even better!

Good luck!

John

Carol_Roberts
02-13-2003, 12:45 PM
Hi Steve:
I agree with John (darkdiscus) The more little discus the better. All will not grow the same and you can sell or trade the once you don't want to the local fish store. You could easily have 8 to 12 two and a half inch discus in that tank for months :heart1:

steve s
02-13-2003, 02:48 PM
Hi Carol,
My storage tank for water changes is 30 gal. Is this
enough for 75 gal tank and 8 fish?

Carol_Roberts
02-13-2003, 02:54 PM
Yes :thumbsup:

daddyg70
02-13-2003, 05:09 PM
I have 8 of various sizes in a 60 gallon tank with two at the largest at 4-5". I do 60% wc every other day straight from tap. They seem to all be doing ok. Jeff told me I could take two of them out later. Is my wc schedule ok at this time? I feed them a lot of CBW and feed FBW once a day. I feed Wattleys beefheart 1hour before WC.


Greg

Carol_Roberts
02-13-2003, 05:21 PM
Hi Greg:
It depends on your water . . . . . At my house the water from my tap is 6.6 pH and rises to 7.8 pH after agitating off the CO2. If your water is like mine a 60% WC from the tap woul lower the pH in the tank by .6 or so (7.8 down to 7.2). . . way too much too fast!

Maybe you are lucky and your pH is the same or even higher from the tap than in your tank. IN that case you can do large wter changes.

Can you test your water pH from the tap and tank and let us know the numbers?

BlueTurquoise
02-13-2003, 05:53 PM
Correct me if I'm wrong but you cannot have too big a tank? the larger the better, depending on many factors such as workload of water changes etc. But if you can manage that then go for it I say...

Chong

fossil
02-13-2003, 06:45 PM
I agree Chong :)

Carol_Roberts
02-13-2003, 11:38 PM
Actually that's not always true . . . . 6 very small discus may feel more secure and be able find the food easier in a 29 gallon . . . .

With older juveniles the bigger the tank the better ;D

Wolf
02-14-2003, 12:33 AM
Carol, how long were you able to keep your 80 fry in your 55g tank. I am thinking about putting all of mine around 100fry and culling out the runts early. Hopefully, this will leave me with around 60 good fish. I can do as much as 2 100% water changes daily. Right now my first batch is just starting to color up at 7 weeks so I would like to keep these fish for 2 months at least so I can choose the best fish for breeding later on.

Carol_Roberts
02-14-2003, 12:52 AM
They are all still in there. I'm doing two 80% WC a day. Monday the silverflakes come out of QT and I'll be able to move fish around . . .

Wolf
02-14-2003, 01:26 AM
Ok thanks. They are around 9 weeks old now? How many clean pigeon bloods are you getting out of your fry. I know your male is very clean but I'm just curious how many are as clean as he is.

Carol_Roberts
02-14-2003, 01:40 AM
Maybe 3 or 4 are as clean as he is. Another 3 or 4 have moderately heavy pepper and the rest are in between. The pepper is like mood bars. It shows more when the are excited or eating.

Wolf
02-14-2003, 02:31 PM
Thanks Carol. Now I know why it's so hard to get a clean pidgeon blood. It doesn't seem like there are many out of each batch that are pepperless.

daddyg70
02-19-2003, 11:56 PM
hi carol,

In response to my every other day wcs, my tap water is 7.8 and my aquarium is 7.4 with a high PH test kit and 7.6 with a regular PH test. Is it okay to do large wcs every other day?

greg ???

Carol_Roberts
02-20-2003, 12:07 AM
Yes, as long as the water you are adding is a bit higher pH it is OK to do large water changes. I would watch my discus carefully at first to make sure they were not acting stressed.

You have to be much more careful if the new water is lower pH.