Discus Re-Stocking question

[wlr75]

Hello to all,
I am new to posting here but have been reading and researching here for sometime. I am primarily a marine and reef hobbyist , I however got my mother into cichlid keeping 17yrs ago. First Malawians and then Tanginikans. Between us we have almost 40yrs experience of keeping aquaria. She has successfully kept up to 7 aquariums ranging from 16g to 90g community and species and successfully breeds many species, though that was never her goal. About 5yrs ago she set up her first Discus tank, a 70g 30"x30"x18". Filtration consists of a large canister filter(bio material only) as well as a Emperor 400(carbon and filter pad). Substrate is small pebble style freshwater gravel, a few silk style plants, bog wood and a couple pieces of rock are the decorum of the display. She maintains temp of 82 degrees and a pH of 6.8. Water changes are done weekly of at least 25% or more.

I am posting here because she is not computer savy, to say the least. She has been receiving very bad advice from her LFS for sometime now and she is fed up with their practices. Unfortunately that is the only LFS in the area. So I am turning to your knowledge for some sound advice and assistance.

She began with 5, 1.5" Stendaker discus sold from the LFS, she also had a dozen Neon Tetras at the time. All were great in the beginning, but as they got older one was starved out, another injured it's eye and formed an extreme case of popeye. In that instance she did euthanize the fish. Leaving 3 for the longest time, 2 Blue Diamonds and a Blue Pigeon Blood. The three have been very aggressive with each other over the past several months, so she had taken to using a tank divider (eggcrate) separating the BD from the BPB. They would show great depression and would begin not eating, all three. She feeds a variety of foods, several varieties of pellets, flakes and bloodworms. Due to the depression behavior she removed the divider, and they were fine for a few days. The most aggressive BD is about 3.5-4", the other 4-5" and the BPB is 3.5-4". The aggression continued and within a couple of days they had starved out the BPB. She is now left with the two BD and the smaller is still aggressive towards the larger. I have stated it is due to not enough fish in the tank.

Her LFS told her after the initial lose no other could be added, whatsoever. (Tells her the same on Africans too) I have shown her Hans' Discus and there are several that she likes. I have estimated with the 3+ variety she could place 4-5 Discus in the established setup, they are not much smaller that those current there.

My main question is it advisable to do so? Can you successfully add smaller (younger) fish with those that are older and not have them starved to death or beat to death by the older? I could really use some advise and assistance, as I admit this is not my expertise.

Thank you for being the best Discus forum!

[sdrexler078]

I wouldn't take the chance with smaller fish. I have successfully done so but I don't recommend it. And with smaller disc us they need larger water changes to grow and be healthy. I also wouldn't mix different sources like that especially since their have been issues in the past. but you came to the right place. Welcome to sd

[rickztahone]

Although you are a long time member, I see that this is your first post, so, a delayed welcome from me :)

With a 70g tank it is safe to suggest for your mother to have at least a group of 6 discus in that sized tank. The reason you are seeing so much aggression was already figured out by you, too little stock.

Not being able to add discus to the tank is complete balony. We do advise quarantine (QT) however, which means having a spare tank available for incoming fish (any fish). You should observe them under QT for a month or two, and eventually add a "hero" fish and see how they react.

I typically tend to tell members how I would approach a situation, so keep in mind that what I am about to tell you is what I would specifically do. If it were my 70g tank, I would remove the current fish and start fresh. I would disinfect the tank by bleaching it as well as all the filter media.

I would then purchase a group of 8-10 small discus from a sponsor here. I would raise them on beef heart mix (BH) and a variety of other foods. I would grow them out to about 4" or so, and eventually would sell 2-4 of them, keeping the most desirable ones. This would be done in a bare bottom (BB) tank and I would definitely do more than a 25% Water change (WC) a week. More like daily 80% WC's.

That is specifically what I would do, but I know not everyone will agree.

To get down to answering your question though, in simple terms, yes, you can add new fish to an exsisting tank, and they could potentially get along if the group is large enough. However, with animals, not just discus, you never know how they will interact until you put them together.

I hope that helps a bit.

[wlr75]

Thank you for the replies and the welcoming. ��

Yes, this does help as it confirms many of my suspicions already. I know that this is not the ideal situation. The new fish would be quarantined to confirm that they are disease free and eating well before introduction. In essence these are from the same source, just a few years later. I know for a fact that the supplier for the LFS was Hans and these were Stendekar strains. So there won't be any cross contamination, such as German/ Asian.

Brief couple of questions; would you get two of the same strain (color)? Also somewhere along the way I was told to stay away from any of the Red strains, including Pigeon Bloods because they were more agressive than blues or green strains. Is this more of the same LFS hype and tales?

[rickztahone]

Strain selection is a personal preference only. I have never heard of Pigeon blood discus being more aggressive. I had 2 quite a while ago and never noticed any more bullying coming from them than I did form the rest of them.