what do i do? please fast

[diskboy]

i want discus SOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!! bad my mom said i cant get another tank and i am going to die without discus. i have a 55 gal. but it has 75 lbs. of rock and inhabitants already. they are 1 gold ram, 1 male krib, 13 krib fry, 2 coolie loaches, and 6 serpae tetras. the only other tank i have is a 10 gal. that i dont know what to do with. iasked here if i could get a 29 gal. but "No" she said :mad: . what can i do i can get a discus for free but it is a little peppered but i dont care i need some. is there a way to work with this? please help i need advice. :(

[tpl*co]

hmmm, well 1 discus won't be happy by itself. some of the fish in your tank may get along with a discus but you'd have to get rid of some and I don't know about how much rock you have. Rams are OK with discus, but I don't know about kribs. coolie loaches I think need cooler temps and I think serpaes do too. If you are willing on switching out the tank to discus, then go for it. (in my area the aquarium stores swap unwanted fish for store credit.

[JimmyL]

There is only one choice. Either you die or the fish die at your present situation. If your choose the later, you'll end up with no discus anyway and you will die too. It's best to let your temptation die rather than you die with a broken heart.
Jimmy.

[Carol_Roberts]

Put the rocks in the backyard and take the rest of the fish back to the pet store. Will your mom let you get 6 discus? If not, save your money until you have enough to buy 6 youngsters. Local hobbyists and folks who specialize in selling discus probably have better deals than the pet shop.

[ed8t]

If you want Discus that bad, I think you'd want to give it every chance of thriving and surviving. It's a fair bit of money to get started so do it right the first time otherwise you're setting yourself up for heartbreak down the road.

You've received some excellent advice, go with a small school, Discus only tank.

[shaunn]

Diskboy-

Go ahead and by yourself a Discus or two. They are not that hard to keep, just accept the fact that they might not be world-class like some of the ones that you see here.

I know many would disagree with me, but I really think that a lot of uber-Discus folk are scaring the crap out of the mainstream hobbyist.

Go Discusboy, get your Discus. Its the first step to learning. Just TLC, good food, and get a water change system down. Get as many small Discus as you can. And enjoy!

[Russ]

Hi Diskboy,
I was in a similar situation as you a while ago, and I went ahead and bought 3, 2 inch diskus and put them in my community tank, and they all died within a week or two and I was very upset. I was determined to keep discus and did some reasearch and decided to devote the tank to only discus, and got rid of my other fish and bought 6 discus and put them in the tank by them selves, and they thrived, and within a year I had a breeding pair. So I say follow Carol's advice if you're heart is set on discus. Just remember they need very clean water so be prepared to do some water changes, at least 25% twice a week.

[KIWI13]

Look its real simple, you have 2 options. THe sage one and that is Carols, which is the common sense option and the one that will prove to save you lots of money by making expensive mistakes

OR

The radical option which is you just get the one and see how things go. I think go with yoru gut instinct, if you want one get one and learn from it and if you make a mistake then you would have learnt your lesson and you can start all over again but I would personlly listen to JimmyL, he summed it up aptly.

Hey man do what makes y ahappy,at the end of it all we keep fish for our pleasure and if your not gettin your thrills then work on it till you do.

Just one suggestion though

Please check to make sure you provide the best habitat for the fish you bring home cause that is THE VERY LEAST you can do. Take a couple of weeks and make the tank liveable for a discus.

GOOD LUCK

[jeep]

I know many would disagree with me,

Here's one :wave:

Jimmy was injecting a bit of humor into reality. If you place discus into your present tank, they will most likely get very sick. Discus ARE pretty easy to keep, but they do have certain requirements. One requirement is higher temps. If you raise the temp for your discus, some of your current fish will probably die. If you don't, the discus will become skittish and hide, or become infested with ich or other illness...

If discus are the way you want to go, I would go BB and start off with some nice, healthy stock from a hobbiest or breeder.

I would go with Carol's suggestion :)

[shaunn]

Good point, Jeep.

Diskboy, if you or your family afford a new tank, and you really want a few Discus, I would suggest turning up the temp on your heater 1 degree every other day until you hit 85 degrees Farenheit. If your other fish die, they die. Get them outta there if they do. My best bet would be they will survive as long as you ease them into it.

Don't by a $100 Discus, buy some nice juveniles for around $30 a piece. Enjoy and learn.

I have 14 other fish in my Discus tank in 5 different species. If I can do it, you can do it. Trust me, I fell on my face a few times, but it was my fault.