mixing different size discus

[gr8nguyen1]

i am a about to purchase 5 discus. 3 will be 5-5.5'' the other 2 will be 3.5''
is it ok to put them in my 75 gallon tank together or should i put the 2 smaller fish in my 20 gallon tank until the get bigger. i read in other post that the bigger fish will bully the smaller ones. is this true?
and how many discus can i keep in a 75 gall tank?

[Eddie]

It can happen, just be prepared if they do start to get bullied. Easy fix, get a tank divider if it does get too bad. Although, it might cause even more issues dividing them, as you'll have 3 on one side and 2 on the other. If you can get more fish from the same source, I'd highly recommend you getting 2 more. This will help disperse the aggression and keep things under control. ;)

Eddie

[gr8nguyen1]

how many discus can i keep in a 75 gal
rite now i have 5 corycatfish
1 otto
6 neon tetras
1 dwarf gourami

[ifixoldhouses]

The general rule is 1 discus per 10 gallons.

[Eddie]

The general rule is 1 discus per 10 gallons.

+1

[gr8nguyen1]

yeah but is that mean an empty bare bottom tank or a tank with sand and driftwood ect.

[Eddie]

yeah but is that mean an empty bare bottom tank or a tank with sand and driftwood ect.

However you want to look at it, its an average.

[wesleydnunder]

yeah but is that mean an empty bare bottom tank or a tank with sand and driftwood ect.

Go by total available water volume. If you have a BB, then your available water volume is total tank volume. If you have substrate, driftwood, etc. then your available water volume is tank volume minus displaced volume.

[gr8nguyen1]

so is a 3.5" discus stil considered a juvenile? the reason why i ask is because if i purchase some adults with some 3.5" does that mean i still have to do dailly wc and feedings 5x a day? or are the 3.5 old enough where i can get away with wc every other and feeding 2x day

[rickztahone]

so is a 3.5" discus stil considered a juvenile? the reason why i ask is because if i purchase some adults with some 3.5" does that mean i still have to do dailly wc and feedings 5x a day? or are the 3.5 old enough where i can get away with wc every other and feeding 2x day

generally speaking you could have a 3.5" adult. doing daily water changes and feeding good food is your best bet to getting them to their full potential. once they reach around 5" you can slow down on daily WC's and feedings, jmo

[gr8nguyen1]

i have a 20 gallon tank at home. if i convert it to a bare-bottom grow out tank is it possible to raise 3 3.5" discus until they get bigger or is this tank too small. it would be easier to do daily wc on a 20 gallon as opposed to a 75 gallon

[tcyiu]

Frankly, I would be more concerned with the fact there are 3. There will be aggression and this could lead to the deaths of 2 of the 3. While you can control the water parameters by water change and diligent maintenance, you really can't be there 24x7 to control the violence.

Tim

[gr8nguyen1]

interesting point tim, ok so what do you suggest.,
heres the scenario, i'm about to purchase 5-6 discus within a week or so.
3 of them are gonna be adults, the other 3 are gonna be 3.5" i was planning on put them in my 75 gallon tank. but the daily water changes and 5x a day feeding makes it difficult because i work all day. i'm worried the adults will bully the smaller ones

[tcyiu]

That's a tough one. I don't know. Teach the smaller ones the art of self defense? Just kidding.

If it were me and if I cannot get 3 more smalls, I would put them together. But that said, I would expect the small ones not to reach maximum growth potential, and that some may get stressed to the point of illness.

Tim

[JoeDiscus]

I was very interested to read this post, especially since I, myself, just this week added a much smaller single discus of about 2" to my discus tank which has just 3 other larger discus of 4-5" size...I wanted to replace a discus that I had lost recently and maintain the group number at 4. I find that 4 discus are much better behaved with each other than 3 since they don't fight with each other when there's 4.

I was concerned initially about the difference in size, but I find that they're actually doing well together! It is also good to see that the new discus seems to adjusted to the new tank and mates, and seems to be eating well and appears to be developing a nice tinge of color...it's supposed to be a leopard snakeskin cross, so I'm excited to see how it'll turn out!

Anyway, just wanted to chime in with my experience, though I'm still somewhat of a newbie...one thing that's for sure is "Nothing makes a discus happier than when there is frequent water changes!!" :)

[Spardas]

I don't think it's going to be too bad if there are enough discus in to tank the spread the love around. I've kept smaller discus with large discus before and nothing happened.

The important thing is just make sure you QT your new fishes properly before you mix all of them together.

Also, you can feed twice a day and buy automatic feeders for dry food like flakes, freeze dried food, etc. This way, the feeder can feed them 3-4 times a day while you're away at work.

I'd also stick to changing water everyday if you're intending to use BH/seafood mix.

[gr8nguyen1]

should i quarantine even if they all come from the same supplier. what foods can i feed that will cause the least amount of pollution

[hedut]

should i quarantine even if they all come from the same supplier. what foods can i feed that will cause the least amount of pollution

You should and WC everyday;)

[Spardas]

You should always QT regardless just to be on the safe side.

Also, QT also involves testing one old fish with the new group and observe them for weeks to see if nothing happen; then you can move them all back to the main tank. Also, it's best to have the QT tank far far away from your display tank in another room.

It's best you feed them a varied balance diet. See if you can make a seafood mix fortified with vitamins and other ingredients. You can find some recipes online here if you do a search. These you can feed when you're at home. After feeding them these, you should do w/c and siphon the bottom.

You can also feed frozen food like Hikari FW or freeze dried food like Mal's blackworm as cleaner food.

Then when you're not at home, use food like flake and freeze dried food and put it in the auto feeder. This way you'll have your 5-6 meals a day without worrying about having to be home all day long to feed.

[Keith Perkins]

should i quarantine even if they all come from the same supplier. what foods can i feed that will cause the least amount of pollution

The main purpose of QT is to make sure your new fish don't give something to your healthy existing fish. You're weighing the health of your current fish against setting up a new tank with good biological filter etc. Given you currently don't have any discus and mostly just neons and corycats, I'd be inclined to put the discus directly into the 75 where you know you already have a good biological filter established if all the discus you are getting are currently housed together. Unless you are picking up the fish, that's impossible to know for sure.