It rained ANGELFISH this morning LOL

[AquaAlex]

Ok.... so here's the story. I was checking out a pet shop in Boston, ( I only go to Boston once a year) and I brought in all my fish from the 120 because you know I am converting it to discus. They offered me 4 red turquoise discus but I turned it down because I'm still researching and I really want my discus to come from Hans. So the next thing they offer was their home bred angelfish that just came out of qt. They showed me their tank and I liked the color. So they said they would give me 6 of the small 2-3'' angels and a large piece of driftwood. So I was happy. I also bought some a api master test kit and Cobalt discus fish flakes and Hikari Bio-Pure Discus frozen foods so I am prepped with food for the discus.

So I was given 6 small angels along with my 2 4-5'' angels. The small are 2-3''. Would 8 angelfish and 10 discus be pushing it in a 120? Should I rehome some of the angels? The angels will most likely be the only tankmates that are active.

[Altum Nut]

Alex...what size Discus will you be getting from Hans? Tank size would be not suitable to grow-out if Discus are 2-3 inch range unless you up to changing 50% to 75% of water daily for Discus to reach near potential size...and I would quarantine Angels for 5-6 weeks before getting any Discus if this is the only tank you have.
All in all I would recommend sub adults 4" to 4.5" at the least and keep the two large angels which would meet the 10g per fish rule.

...Ralph

[discuspaul]

Yes Alex, it would be overloading the tank over time, as both the Discus and Angels grow and begin to mature. ( this is assuming you were planning to get some smaller discus to start with, say 3" fish).
So a short answer is yes, re-home some, or all, of the Angels. Perhaps of more importance, and even though some may not agree, I wouldn't consider keeping the 2 - 4"-5" Angels with the discus, even if you choose to get larger, more mature discus of, for example, 4" or larger.
Please appreciate that angels are generally more aggressive than discus, and large angels will almost certainly out-compete some smaller discus for food.
Overall and quite candidly, even though many folks do keep angels successfully with discus, it's not something I'd recommend to any novice to discus, until he or she has kept discus for a while, has become familiar with their traits & behaviors, and gained sufficient knowledge of keeping them happy & thriving.

I've personally witnessed a number of situations where angels of similar size to discus, or even a bit smaller, intimidated discus and stressed them.
That's my best advice - I feel it's better to be safe than sorry, particularly when one is just starting out in a new field of aquatic endeavor like discus-keeping.

[AquaAlex]

Alex...what size Discus will you be getting from Hans? Tank size would be not suitable to grow-out if Discus are 2-3 inch range unless you up to changing 50% to 75% of water daily for Discus to reach near potential size...and I would quarantine Angels for 5-6 weeks before getting any Discus if this is the only tank you have.
All in all I would recommend sub adults 4" to 4.5" at the least and keep the two large angels which would meet the 10g per fish rule.

...Ralph
Hey Ralph,
The discus I am getting are all in the 4'' to 5'' range. I like the sub adult discus better than juvinellies. So what I'll do is rehome the juvinellies and only keep about 3-4 angels with the discus.

[AquaAlex]

Ok so what I will do is rehome the 2 4-5'' angels.
So if I kept a few of the juvinille angels is that good? Maybe like 3-4?

[AquaAlex]

Ok so I found somebody to take my 2 largest and 3 of my smallest angels.
So that leaves me with 4 2.5'' angels?
Could I have about 9-10 4-5'' discus with 4 angelfish? Or should I just trade them all?

[discuspaul]

Alex, you said you would be getting 8 discus of 4"-5" size. If you do that, you could keep 3 or 4 of the small angels with them if you wish, after suitable quarantine. ( 9 to 10 discus may be ok rather than 8, but that might be pushing the bio-load a bit over time).

[AquaAlex]

Alex, you said you would be getting 8 discus of 4"-5" size. If you do that, you could keep 3 or 4 of the small angels with them if you wish, after suitable quarantine. ( 9 to 10 discus may be ok rather than 8, but that might be pushing the bio-load a bit over time).

Ok. I may not even keep angels I'm just contemplating sorry for all of the questions. I want my discus to be happy. I've had plenty of angels before and I never had GOOD quality discus. Unfornately I have had discus but that is one story I had to share.....
If I have to HAVE angels, I will cut it down to either 3 or 1. That way I can have discus.... but my friend who kept discus for years said to abort the angel idea and go for either rams or aspitos but aren't aspitos really senstive?

[discuspaul]

Rams are good tank-mates for discus and, while I've never kept Apistos with discus, they are from the same general regions as discus in S.A. waters - they do well under the same types of conditions as discus, i.e. temps, pH, water quality, low TDS, etc., and are similar in terms of generally peaceful characteristics, so I believe they would make good discus tank-mates.

[SNap0283]

Alex what pet shop in Boston are these from?

[AquaAlex]

Alex what pet shop in Boston are these from?

Aquaworld.
I sold some fish to a guy there and brought whatever fish he did not want into the shop.