Interested in adding discus

[Jung]

Hi,
Been reading the boards for over a week, very informative! I'm interested in keeping discus in my community tank. It's a 70gal well planted tank that is close to 4 years running. It's filtered by an eheim 2224 canister and AC300. Temp set at 79F. Two 20% water changes a week with declorinated (Prime) tap water. UV sterilizer, no co2 or fertlizing. Fish stock are:

3x Altum Angels
3x Bolivian rams
2x curvicep (dwarf cichlid)
12x bleeding heart tetras
13x bronze corys
4x cherry barbs
4x oto cats
1x SAE
5x harlequin rasboras
1x bristlenose pleco

I would like to add 3 discus in this tank. Would it work out? What changes do you recommend? here's a pic of the tank:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v474/vf1a/tankfull1a.jpg

thanks

[Cosmo]

Beautiful Tank :) You'd have to up the temp for Discus to 82/84... 79 on the cold side. You may want to up the WC's some as well as Discus are more sensitve to water conditions than are the others.

Angels can be somewhat aggressive for Discus, and can be carriers of disease that may cause the Discus harm... that being said, there are people that do mix the two together.... but don't think it's recommended. I'm sure others will disagree :D

Really pretty setup though :)

Jim

[Sergey]

The tank looks great! But isn't there enough fish already? Altums grow pretty big. A great opportunity to start a discus tank IMO :)

Sergey.

[funkyfish]

nice landscaping

[Jung]

Thanks, I've seen some really nice pics of tanks with altums and discus. So I don't think it's a horrible idea. I'm gonna try to up the temp past 80. Gonna get some insulation wrap cuz the tank is in the basement and it's really cold. Is 2-3 discus ok to start off with? I have a 20 gal that I can quarantine the discus, how long should I quarantine them for?

[JimmyL]

Altum is different compared to domestic Angels. They are very peaceful fish mainly they don't spawn every week like the domestic Angels. That takes away the aggressiveness issue of keeping Altum with discus. Angels have completely different behaviour during spawning time that will attack and cause demage to the discus. As far as disease is concern. It depends on where you get your fish and how good is your quarantine. I have juvenile Angels and adult Altum together with discus in every tank just to bring the agressiveness in feeding out of the discus. With the Altum in my tank. I'm able to save electricity by turning off the light completely at night and Angels can takes away the shyness when the light is first turned on in the morning. It's a good combination with my experience. It's a vital member of the coumminity especially in a planted tank with numerous hiding places. The only way to see your discus is to have the Altum to bring them out.
Jimmy

[discusrama]

Hi!

Well setup tank. Looks pretty good.
U seem to have a lot of fish already. Would recommend not adding any discus as they may have a problem from the angels.

[Howie_W]

Thanks, I've seen some really nice pics of tanks with altums and discus. So I don't think it's a horrible idea. I'm gonna try to up the temp past 80. Gonna get some insulation wrap cuz the tank is in the basement and it's really cold. Is 2-3 discus ok to start off with? I have a 20 gal that I can quarantine the discus, how long should I quarantine them for?


Hi Jung,

You have a couple things to consider; Discus are schooling fish and do best in groups. If you get juveniles you'll want to get at least 6 fish, and grow them out first. With adults, you may or may not have an agression problem between the 3 fish. Discus and Altums are not a problem together.

Also, 79F is right on the cusp for a planted Discus tank...I've done 80F without a problem before, but prefer the 82F-84F range. You can experiment with slowly raising the temp, and see how it effects your plants.

As for quarantine, a minimum of 6 weeks is recommended.


Howie