stocking ... how many discus??

[quilaho]

i'm planning some discus for my 55 and would like your assistance with stocking levels. let me tell you what i have, what i'd like to bring those up to and you can give me some pointers on adjustments and # of discus. here goes:



fish
current
up to
dwarf gourami
2
2
gold nugget pleco
1
1
spotted cory cat
3
3
red eye tetra
2
10
cardinal tetra
1
10
discus????????????????????


i'm flexible on the # of tetras and am willing to move the pleco to another tank if it would make a big difference (this species of pleco only gets 6")

so ... how many discus ... 1, 2 (i'd really like to have at least 2) ... 4 (i understand 3 is a bad number) ...

in case you want to know ...

my water change scedule is about 4 gallons per day. that comes out to 28 gallons per week or a little over 50% per week.

[April]

Hi:wave: to be honest with you...id have those fish in their own tank and then.set your 55 gallon up for a group of 5 or 6 discus. nothing else.
especially for beginning and learning. most people do about 35 - 50 percent up to 80 percent a day. to get good growth and have a bare bottom tank. only other way is if you got a pair.. full grown already. then there already grown and they will do better. the gourami could be a bit aggressive for your discus. the small ones.....could be devoured. unless their bigger. neon tetras have been known to go missing.
read through some of the posts...and if you want planted go to the biotope section for advice.

[henryD]

sorry I would have to say NO DISCUS FOR YOU!!!.

Next...

Henry

Ps.. That was my seinfield impression. On a serious note that is a pretty stock tank. On top of the fact that you are not changing enough water. 4 gallons of water is probably not enough to remove all of the waste. I would keep your community tank the way it is. And think about having a dedicated discsu only tank. Even then you will have to change a lot more water.

Pss. I thought the general rule of thumb is 1in per gallon.

[quilaho]

alrighty ... more water changes ... i can handle that. somehow my brain had not correctly remembered information on this that i had gathered before (http://forum.simplydiscus.com//index.php?board=21;action=display;threadid=14356). anyhow ... more water change ... no proglem.

tetras ~= discus food ... no problem ... consider them gone.

dwarf gourmi's ... dwarfs are peacful ... won't pick on discus. they are 2" long and 1" tall. seems kinda big to become food for any fish one could safely keep in a 55. now that you know the mesurements, do you still think they will get devoured??

discuss only tank ... sorry but that's just not the goal. i'm trying to get a couple centerpiece fish for this tank. if these are to be discuss, i plan for these to be full grown. my lfs has some and they are actually trustworthy.

so ... with the additional water change routine and the removal of the 20 tetras, can i safely put a couple discus in this tank?

[quilaho]

never mind ... i have decided that i do not yet have the proper environment for these fish.

until next time ... ;D