How many tank mates?

[mels95yj]

I'm in the process of putting together a 55g display tank. It will be bare bottom (painted) with a couple manzanita branches as the decor. I've got two AC 70 filters for the filtration. I'll be getting six 3" or 3.5" discus from Kenny's when it's ready. I'm thinking of getting about ten schooling fish and two or three Cories for the bottom. Since lemon tetras are rarely seen around here, I'm thinking Rasbora or rummy nose tetras. My questions are these:

1. How is this number of tank mates?
2. Since this is a new tank, I'll either start with the discus and quarantine in the display tank or start the tank with the tank mates, and add discus at a later date. I wouldn't have a tank big enough to quarantine the discus, but they'd be added well after the typical 8-week quarantine of the others. Any problems with either idea? BTW, the discus will be added all at once.

My thoughts are I can go ahead and have a tank and enjoy it while it's building up the biological bacteria before adding the discus. The time in between the tank mates and discus should be long enough to be safe before adding the discus. Thoughts? Thanks for the help.

[zchauvin]

Hi this is a bad idea pretty much all the way around, some searches could answer most of your questions. First off, you want to cycle your tank before adding any fish, not using fish. Typically this is done by either using a raw shrimp from a food store. You would put it inside a stocking so that it does not make a mess of your tank and bacteria will build as it decomposes. On the other hand, you could dose enough pure ammonia to get a level of 2 ppm in your tank and keep the level up until you see nitrite and nitrate. Your cycle will be finished once you can dose 2 ppm and 24hr later it is undetectable.

When it comes to quarantine - I think you have the concept wrong. This is the basis of quarantine, you would put your discus in the cycled 55g tank. For your corys and tetras, they could go in a 10-20g tank and you would treat with a few things to be pro active and kill any bacteria, worms, ect they may have. After 4-6 weeks, you would take one of your least prized discus and add into the tank with the dither fish. This way if the treatment was not a success you would only effect one fish rather than all your discus. Following a 2-3 week period of the (1) discus being with dither fish, if nothing bad happens you could then put all fish back into display tank. Simply having your discus or dither fish for 8 weeks inside a tank (cycled or not) is not considered a quarantine and would not insure the health of new additions.

Also treating inside a 55g tank would be a bad idea in terms of costs of medications and water changes. Same as if you ever have to treat a sick fish, it is much better to use a smaller tank. On that principal alone, I would cycle the tank, add the discus, and then use a small tank to quarantine the dither fish. Later on down the road, if you add discus, you would only be quarantine a few fish in a 20g rather than many fish.

[mels95yj]

I guess my original post wasn't exactly clear. Cycling the tank was a given. I stated in another post I was doing a fishless cycle. I haven't seen any posts stating how many dither fish are suitable for a 55g with six discus, thus my initial question. I also wasn't too clear regarding quarantining, but you suggested I go with my first option of starting with the discus in the display tank and then going with the dither fish.

[zchauvin]

Ok my mistake. I guess in terms of tetras or cories it's personal preference then. I've never seen any situation where it was too many fish unless you obserdly overstock the tank. Obviously the more fish the more waste, just keep that in mind. And yes it would be much more cost effective and take far less space to start with the discus in main tank and use a much smaller tank to quarantine small fish.

[mels95yj]

No problem. Thanks for your help. It's just sometimes, while I'm typing, my brain moves faster than my fingers, so I usually think I say something, when I may not or not completely.

[Phillydubs]

The real question here is your husbandry and water change routine... What are your plans for keeping up with the tank...Also what size discus will you be adding?

The reason I ask is because most will tell you 6 adult discus alone in a 55 is your max... Speaking from experience as a guy with a maxed out 55... unless you are planning on big daily water changes, I would keep that load low and not add too much... Are you going bare bottom?

You could get away w the 6 discus and a small school of something and maybe a few cories and a BN plecco... that is about all and again, thats with good water and staying on that tank...

Also what are your plans for filtration?