How Many Discus for 55 gal tank?

[hogen10]

Hi folks. I'm new here. I have 5 cute discus about 4 to 5 " in length in a 55 gallon tank together w/ 3 corycats, 6 cardinal,5 black neons, a pair of dawrf gouramis and blue rams and 3 otocats. (I've had the discus about a year.)

Will the discus out grow the tank? I don't intend to add any more fish, but I don't want to stunt my discus. I have a nice 95 gallon but my landloard is having a 'hissy fit' about me setting it up. (He's afraid it'll go through the floor!)

Any advise appreciated. Thanks very much!

Jim C.

[Alight]

At one year, Discus are mostly full grown. They might grow another inch in length over the rest of their lives, but can gain a fair amount of weigh, maybe a third more than they weigh now.

Out growing a tank depends more on water changes than on the tank size, for Discus. They will be quite comfortable in a 55 if you keep the water quality good.

99% of stunting that goes on will happen within the first 9 months of a Discus' life.

[tony1313]

Sounds like an over crowded tank, especially if you have gravel and decorations. Your discus won't get any bigger and probably are not very healthy unless your doing 50% water changes at least every other day. I would set up the 90. Best of luck with the landloard.

hth,
Tony

[Timbo]

I have a nice 95 gallon but my landloard is having a 'hissy fit' about me setting it up. (He's afraid it'll go through the floor!)



tell him a 95gal is the equivalent of having 6 or 7 adults standing around within 5 or 6 feet of each other...would he be worried about them going thru the floor? i suspect he's actually more worried about water leaks

[AADiscus]

If you are not doing daily wc or even every other day wcs then yes your tank is over crowed.

[Kindredspirit]

tell him a 95gal is the equivalent of having 6 or 7 adults standing around within 5 or 6 feet of each other...would he be worried about them going thru the floor? i suspect he's actually more worried about water leaks


Good analogy ~ I like that Tim!


Marie ~ :angel:

[KIWI13]

stocking fish is all a matter of experience and some people i know have grown out around 10 discus in a 55 with daily water changes and some people have stunted 3 discus in a 55 by not feeding correctly and not changing enough of water. Its all a matter of how much you change and hw well you feed. Is your tank a spectale or a grow out for future breeders. If its dispay tank which i am sure it is then yeah its a lil over crowded but do a nice 30 to 50% water change daily and you will have no problems..

[mmorris]

If your landlord is worried about water leaking you might offer to pay additional deposit, if you can. If the concern is the floor and if there is a basement I believe there are supports you can buy to `prop up' the floor from below. The floor may never need it but your landlady might feel a bit better about it if you offer to use them. A hardware shop could tell you more. Martha

[t_j]

Well I live on a third floor apartment and I have a 125gal I also have renters insurance. We have had a couple accidents with water (all by me :D ) one being that I forgot about the tank when I was refilling it lucky for me nothing happened (I also have a spot bot that sucks up water witch came as a big help sucking all the water out of the carpet) but those could be the things that are unforeseen. So you could get the same as me renters insurance and see if then you could get the landlord to let you set it up. It took me awhile to figure out if I wanted to even put that big of a tank in here but thanks to Graham I decided I would but the first night it was set up I kept waking up to see if it went through the floor :D or if it might be leaking lets just say I didn't get any sleep that night. But in the end ever thing was fine and I'm happy that I got it. Like Graham told me find out what kind of floor you have and what floor you live on. Talk to your landlord and try to work something out.

[jmcarson3]

tell him a 95gal is the equivalent of having 6 or 7 adults standing around within 5 or 6 feet of each other...would he be worried about them going thru the floor? i suspect he's actually more worried about water leaks

I agree that the landlord is most likely worried about leaks, but the analogy is actually a bit incorrect. The aquarium will be a uniform load over a long term, as compared to concentrated loads from people that move regularly.

There is a great webpage on the cichlid-forum that in-depth discusses floor load capacity. Myth #10+ directly addresses the analogy.
http://www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/aquarium_weight.php

There are lots of tips of where to set up and how to orient your tank, and there are even some rules of thumb on load capacity calculations.

Best of luck with the 95G.

[geekfacejer]

i have about 6 discus in my tank along with a green asian arowana, 3 blood parrots, 2 small rams and a brown bichor ( that is soon to be sold ) but yea i will also be upgrading to a bigger tank too! i live in a apartment as well.

[RoninGai]

i have about 6 discus in my tank along with a green asian arowana, 3 blood parrots, 2 small rams and a brown bichor ( that is soon to be sold ) but yea i will also be upgrading to a bigger tank too! i live in a apartment as well.

:shocked: get the parrots and arrowana out. the bichir is a fin nipper. you have a chiclid tank but discus are docile fish. a 55 gal w/ this much fish is a bio-bomb!!! i'm no expert on it but even i can tell you that you have a choice of having discus that are happy and healthy or discus running scared for there lives when the parrots chase them around due to territorial issues.

[FishLover888]

Arrowana and discus mix is a no no for sure. In fact, the arrowana could ended up killing all other fish in the tank sooner or later.

[Apistomaster]

I went through the issue of setting up a 125 gal US on the second floor directly over my manager's apt. I worked as a structural inspector in high rise construction and had some of my structural engineering buddies put together the rationale as to why he should not be concerned. This was in Seattle and during the time it was set up we had a small earthquake. There was some concern as the resonance began setting up strong waves but fortunately it was a plexi-glas tank and by design the top covers much of the tank. Still it was a close call. It was a reef tank so the mess would be that much worse.
The analogy of of 6 or 7 men standing in one spot was a good one but technically by code there is no distinction made between the people and the aquarium as neither are fixed permanent loads and both are considered live loads since they both will be moved eventually.
I agreed to sign a waiver but somehow we never did.
The discus: You have the right number for the 55 minus those other fish. I disagree with the school of thought that recommends daily partial water changes. You will get better % turnover doing 2/3 water changes twice a week than you get with 10%/ day and it is much easier to work into your schedule. Just do the math and you will see that what I suggest results in a greater exchange and export of waste products than the other method. The fish will also show a better growth response. I have raised discus commericially off and on since 1969 so you can take my advice at our own risk. I've only raised and sold a few thousand discus.

[geekfacejer]

:shocked: get the parrots and arrowana out. the bichir is a fin nipper. you have a chiclid tank but discus are docile fish. a 55 gal w/ this much fish is a bio-bomb!!! i'm no expert on it but even i can tell you that you have a choice of having discus that are happy and healthy or discus running scared for there lives when the parrots chase them around due to territorial issues.


- the discus seems to be doing fine they are swimming around along next to the blood parrots and my green arowana is still small. my bichor is mostly running away and getting nipped on by the arowana. so yea i know but i am getting another tank for the discus soon.