How many fish is too many fish?

[Austintx]

Hello,
I just got a 120 gallon tank, stand, 2 filters, and lights for $300. Based on the size of the tank here is the game plan for fish.:)

Discus 12-15
Rams ?
Julii Cories ?
Cardinal Tetras?

I want to grow the Discus to 6-7+ inches. That is what is most important to me. So I don’t want to put to many fish in the tank.

So what do y’all think is a safe number of each fish to grow out the Dicus?

Thanks for your help.

[mmorris]

What kind of filters are you going to run? Is this to be a planted tank?

[Austintx]

No plants, going to use an Eheim 2217 possibly 2 of them.

[philip69285]

12-15 discus is too many. I have 120gal as well. If you dont want anything else go for it no big deal. With others I have 8 discus and other fish and its great and the discus are growing. But definitly not 12-15 with others.

[mmorris]

12-15 discus is too many. I have 120gal as well. If you dont want anything else go for it no big deal. With others I have 8 discus and other fish and its great and the discus are growing. But definitly not 12-15 with others.

Agreed. If you are buying young juvies you might want to buy more and then sell a few that you decide you like the least when they get older. Be careful not to overstock. I use two Eheim 2217s and two sponge filters on my 125.

[Austintx]

I hear what y'all are saying so if we do 8 Discus how many of the others should we do?

Rams ?
Julii Cories ?
Cardinal Tetras?

[Finatic]

If you follow the 1 per 10 gallon rule for discus, then subtract out any decorations, rocks, gravel etc..., that should leave you 30 gallons to calculate your other fish at 1" per gallon. That should leave you enough to get 10-15 cardinals (maybe 20), 2 rams (at 3-4" each) and a couple of cories.

You should be able to handle this load with good water changes.

[Jhhnn]

I'll just repeat what I've learned, mostly here-

If the discus are the most important part of it all, just keep discus.

Buy the biggest fish you can afford from one of our sponsors. Buy them all at the same time, same size, same strain. Quarantine becomes a non-issue.

Add a couple of sponge filters and an airpump, battery backup for the airpump if you have power outages and can afford it.

If you're on public water, use Prime or amquel or chloram-x. Use a Seachem ammonia test kit, because it's the only one that really works with those products. Test for nitrites and nitrates as well.

Cycle your tank well before ordering fish. Get set up to change a lot of water- use your ingenuity to make it easy, be prepared to spend some money to do it.

Feed 'em a lot, with the widest variety of foods they'll accept.

[hedut]

I have 125 gln BB and I put 17 adult discus but I do 35% -50% 5time week and 2 time 90% :D:D:D. And only discus with ABN

[zamboniMan]

If discus are all your putting in them you can go with 12 no problem as long as you keep up with your water changes.

Corries are nice because they eat food that gets left on the bottom.
Some pleco species might not be bad either (some that eat mostly algae to keep things clean (or otos) and some that eat meat to clean up an uneaten beefheart you missed with the siphon).

Also you may consider getting a Reverse Osmosis unit. These are great because they filter out anything nasty and they greatly lessen algae blooms.

And another thing would be to get some marimo moss balls (easily found on aquabid) they do not require much light. You just throw them in the tank and squeeze them out when you do water changes. They move around help absorb nutrients in the water. Again helps cut back on algae and provides the water with a tiny bit more oxygenation (the more the better when keeping discus).

Hope that helps,
Josh

[jhamil]

If discus are all your putting in them you can go with 12 no problem as long as you keep up with your water changes.

Corries are nice because they eat food that gets left on the bottom.
Some pleco species might not be bad either (some that eat mostly algae to keep things clean (or otos) and some that eat meat to clean up an uneaten beefheart you missed with the siphon).

Also you may consider getting a Reverse Osmosis unit. These are great because they filter out anything nasty and they greatly lessen algae blooms.

And another thing would be to get some marimo moss balls (easily found on aquabid) they do not require much light. You just throw them in the tank and squeeze them out when you do water changes. They move around help absorb nutrients in the water. Again helps cut back on algae and provides the water with a tiny bit more oxygenation (the more the better when keeping discus).

Hope that helps,
Josh
Can you please explain why we should squeeze the moss balls. I have five and this is the first time i hear of this. Thank you

[zamboniMan]

By squeezing out the moss balls they fill up with fresh water. If enough food gets built up in them over a short period of time it can actually kill the moss ball. Most people don't have this problem unless they have lots of moss balls in a small space (More than 1 per 5 gallons). I know one individual who keeps one per gallon and had a mass die off of moss balls. Once he started squeezing them out every WC he didn't loose any more and given that he's been back to 1 per gallon it probably wasn't due to lack of nutrients. Also in my expirence the things get bigger the more water flows through them so squeezing them out at each WC helps keep water flowing through them.

I keep these in my BB grow out tanks (1 per 5 gallons so they roll around the bottom) with cherry shrimp (again the shrimp help clean out the moss balls allowing for more water movement). (I'll try and get pics if I remember once my camera is done charging). The shrimp love to hide in them and then the discus (Once they're big enough and they've figured out they're a food source) love to hunt for shrimp among the moss balls.

[Fraise]

I have a 120 gallon high tech planted tank with 7 discus and 8 angels and they seem to be doing well. for filtration i have a 2217 and a 2215 and usually do 2 water changes a week of about 20%

[Arjunpun]

Is this just me. I have 8 discus on 55 g empty tank. 2 eheim canister filter and 50 percent water change once a week. They are doiing fine.

[zamboniMan]

Is this just me. I have 8 discus on 55 g empty tank. 2 eheim canister filter and 50 percent water change once a week. They are doiing fine.

Alot of people don't follow the 10 gallons per discus rule and do just fine
(the most well known of them being the Stendker brothers in germany).

Merry Christmas,
Josh

[Willie]

More to the point, you'll do better crowding juveniles and doing more frequent water changes. I find that small discus can easily get "lost" in a big tank. When they get to adults, I prefer to drop the density so the big fish have room to swim.

Willie

[Jhhnn]

Alot of people don't follow the 10 gallons per discus rule and do just fine
(the most well known of them being the Stendker brothers in germany).

Merry Christmas,
Josh

I wouldn't pretend to be nearly as adept as the Stendkers, nor do I think it wise to encourage novices to think that they might be anytime RSN.

When things go wrong in heavily stocked tanks, they can do so rather quickly and fatally for the inhabitants. Stress on the fish is greater, disease spreads more rapidly, water quality can go to hell in a hurry with the least bit of inattentiveness by the hobbyist.

We're human beings, fickle slackers all, to some degree or another. It's in our DNA. Barely getting by on weekly partial water changes becomes bi-weekly, and I thought I changed it last week, but well, it's really been 3 weeks and the fish are sick, again... so forth and so on... and I never really got set up to change water...

Discus are high maintenance pets, particularly youngsters, even for experienced aquarists. That's the truth. We need to make that clear to anybody expressing interest, if only to maintain our own integrity.

I'm of the rather jaundiced opinion that the vast majority of young discus ever sold are dead within a year, most within 6 months of arriving in the tanks of their well intentioned but inept keepers. That's best avoided by having a solid knowledge base, good stock, diligent husbandry and conservative stocking levels. Add some luck and you'll do alright.

[pcsb23]

More to the point, you'll do better crowding juveniles and doing more frequent water changes. I find that small discus can easily get "lost" in a big tank. When they get to adults, I prefer to drop the density so the big fish have room to swim.

WillieI pretty much agree with this. If you decide to get 8 or 10 juvenile discus, use a piece of coarse sponge matting to divide the tank. This way you will reduce the space for the juvvies, and believe me they will be happy, I have 11 in a tank that measures 24"x24"x15" (on a centralised system).

As they start to grow move the divider back. The extra volume of water will help maintain high water quality and provide that essential wriggle room we can all do with from time to time when we have to miss a w/c.

2 x 2217's will be perfect too.