Larger tank- 6 discus should I get more?

[jb1974]

Hi everyone :)

I just bought 6 baby (2.5-3") discus 2 days ago. They are adjusting pretty well for me (I think). They are eating bloodworms and checking things out in the tank. I notice that when 1 gets lost from the crowd it does not appear to be as happy. When the lost one finds the others it will perk up.

The tank is heavily planted.

Should I put a few more in? Do they feel more comfortable in schools? If so, how many should I go with in total? (tank is 250g)

Thank-you for any input :)

Oh, one more question...is it normal for the discus to take some time to get their colors in the morning? I was so worried when I woke up and they looked so dark. Once the MH came on they became colorful again.

[Camden]

Darkness is normal in the morning, when I first got mine I thought they were all dead because of the way they float. Normally we keep them in schools of 6 to keep the aggression to each other well spread out. I've kept 11 in a tank before though. So I don't see a problem. Do you have any more fish besides the discus in there?

[AADiscus]

I'm gonna give you my honest opinion here: 2" discus will not grow out well to there full potential in a heavly planted tank. They really need to be in a bb tank with large wc's. Feed VERY well! jmo:) If you want to put discus ina heavly planted tank start out with larger fish, they need to be at least 4"+. imo

[jb1974]

I knew that the growth rates would not be as great as in a BB system. Will they still be healthy though?

I guess I should just stick to 6 then if I will be feeding them so much.

The only other fish I have in the tank are about 40 cardinals...I guess I will keep it that way.
Thanks guys :)

[FishLover888]

I have a 125 g tank and there are 11 discus in there without any problems. You can use the rule of 1 discus per 10 g of water rule. I would not go to the max with that. Just some more room for them. For a 250g tank, you can have as many as 20 discus in there.

Keep in mind you need to feed them 5 times a day and you need to do 40% water changes at least twice a week (more if possible) to keep them healthy and happy. You can do smaller WCs but you need to do it more often.

Even with only 6 of them in the tank, you still need to do more water changes. Maybe 60% once a week? Not sure about that. With the feeding going on with young discus, I would do more than that.

Just my two cents. I'm not an expert on this. There are lot more people with good advises here.