Growing Baby Discus

[DiscusKeeper403]

Hi,


I know that for a general rule you shouldn't stick baby Discus in a tank with gravel. Well I quarantined a Discus I bought from my local LFS, it is a lovely shaped Blue Turk. I was thinking about keeping him in there to grow out, but I don't have any others in the spare tank (29 gallon.) Also, I don't have a heater for it at the moment so I have to borrow one out of the 50 gallon, and thus the single heater in the 50 struggles to keep temperature up. My question is, what do you guys think of growing out Discus in a tank with gravel? I would still do daily water changes, and feed 4 times a day. If not, will he be okay till' I get paid on the 15th? I would buy another Discus or two, and a heater for the 29 gallon.

Thanks,

DL

[kaceyo]

I'd remove the gravel as you just can't come close to keeping the water as clean with gravel as without no matter how hard you try.
One discus alone will not do well. Even getting one or two more won't help much and will eventually create problems with bullying and the low fish on the totem will bare the brunt of it. You need at least 5 and more would be better.
As for the heater, if your getting much fluctuation it will causeproblems in the long run and if it's dropping more than a couple of degrees before catching back up you need to fix things right away.
HTH

Kacey

[GrillMaster]

Discus just need to be in a group of 5 or more and need the tank space to compensate for that. A 55G tank is fairly cheap, and would be a good start. A BB tank would be the easiest to maintain as well! :)

[DiscusKeeper403]

Hey,

Just don't have room for another 50 gallon... I guess I will have to think of something...


Thanks for the replies.