Hello New Member

[tsunami]

Hello,

My name is Ed from NJ, I had taken a 10 gallon tank from my brother who had it sitting around and decided to get some fish for my daughters. So we have had it up for about 2 months now, got the tank cycled and the fish are nice and healthy, I have 4 male guppies, 2 Peppered Cory Cat, 1 marble Mollie, 1 goldendabloum mollie, 2 orange mickey mouse platys. My buddy who has Discus , had a 40 gallon breeder tank sitting around and he gave it to me for free. So I want to set it up with some Discus. Right now I ordered some stuff for the tank. I ordered a aquaclear 70 gallon filter, and a aqueon heater 150W, next paycheck I will order a top and a light. So what I am thinking is 3 small Discus, and maybe two different sets up school fish, and like 3 cory cats, and my buddy is giving me a bala shark. I think that should be ok,( I hope) but I am not going to be purchasing the Discus until my tank is completely ready for them. I am not looking to breed them, just want to make a nice tank for me and my daughters to enjoy taking care of. I do want to keep plants in there so will have to research them also. I have seen alot of people say start with 55 gallons, but I was giving this tank for free and would like to make it work, maybe down the line I will invest in a bigger tank. Which I am sure I will because I went from oh lets get some fish there easy , to water changes and testing water and I enjoy and am addicted to it now. If you have any ideas or anyone who has experience with Discus in there 40 gallon can give me some pointers. Once I get it all up and running I will post pics.

Thanks
Ed

[Jdizon20]

Welcome to SD. I started discus keeping a month ago. I have a 37 gallon with five 3+ inch discus.* They all seem to be doing fine but then again I have limited experience. As long as you keep up with the water changes you'll be fine. My advice is to read the forums religiously for 2 months and you'll get a good sense for what you need to do.* then you can dive and put everything into practice.* Start with a cycled tank, good stock, keep the water and tank pristine, and feed varied nutritious food.* oh I would adviceyou tp buy them all at the same time from a single source so get comfortable with the number of discus you want and strains.* Not sure about the bala shark with discus..you might want to research further on compatibility. starting out with small discus is more challenging to grow them out properly so a lot of people advice to get adult or sub adults to start.

[tsunami]

Thanks for the reply Jdizon, do you have just Discus or do you keep any other fish in there? I know my buddy keeps his bala shark with his discus now, he only wants to get rid of the shark because he just wants an all Discus tank, so hopefully the shark works out in my tank. But yes like you said I am not rushing this , I want to make sure I get it all right before the Discus go in, so I will definitely be doing alot of homework. Do you have a picture of your tank, would like to see how you have it setup for some ideas. Thanks again.

[Jdizon20]

Definitely do the homework. It might change your perspective on the type of tank look / design you are currently envisioning…maybe you might opt for a bare bottom like a lot of people in the forum advise for keeping younger discus (younger discus need to be fed more often, therefore clouding the water, creating more poop, and therefore more water changes.)* After your homework, you’ll have to make decisions on how much work /care are you willing / able to provide allowing for contingencies (power outage, vacation, sick days etc), and decide on how much risk you are willing to live with for your investment/hobby.
*
Personally *I keep my discus with *10 small cardinals, 3 bandit corys, 2 amano shrimp, 1 Anubis nana plant, and sand substrate.* To keep it clean I do 50% water changes a day which takes me about one hour using buckets. If I have to skip a day, at the minimum I vacuum out the bottom.* I wish I could clean it less often but it gets dirty pretty quickly.* Maybe if I kept less discus in the tank might give me more breathing room to comfortably skip a day…I live with the risk that when I go away on vacation hopefully they will live through it (until my wife lets me upgrade to a bigger tank)
*
I started with a lot of plastic plants in the tank but quickly learned that they are just hindrances to properly vacuuming the tank.* I also do weekly maintenance on the glass, filter, etc. The fish are not cheap so people take a lot of precautions to keep them healthy and are careful not to stress them. **You’ll be using the faucet/sink a lot and a good decholrinator (I use prime), so the closer to the faucet the tank is, the less painful the water changes will be. Currently I use a 5 gallon bucket that I have to carry from the kitchen to the living room…so it’s a lot of work. *You’ll be investing a lot in extra equipment to safeguard your investment ie backup heater, automatic feeder, pump etc.
*
There’s tons of pictures /videos on youtube to give you ideas.* Just as you probably already know, that there is often a price (money and energy) to be paid to keep such beautiful fish / aquariums.

[Orange Crush]

-Discus need 10 gallons of water each. If you put substrate and plants and other fish in there you have a lot less than a 40 gallon tank.
-Discus are schooling fish and do best in groups of 5-6 minimum. The only exception is if you have a bonded or confirmed pair.
-Discus less than 5" each do not do well in a planted tank when you are just learning how to care for them, it is a lot of work and most really struggle to make it work with discus
-Bala sharks are cool but not good with discus
-Welcome, and do lots of reading in the begginer section of the forum, especially the "stickies"

[Starfish]

hello tsunami. Its good to see another person just starting to branch out into the discus's. I will have my tank sitting in the room on tuesday afternoon and then wednesday i will have a look to see what it needs and then take it from there.

The way i am looking at it there is always something new you learn about these guys,always new strains and so on so you never know....

I actually myself wouldnt be surprise if i stick with the bb set up and take it from there to look after discus's once i have the tank with water in it and running I will get the foods they need and then look at talking to breeders about their stocks...

[tsunami]

Thanks again Jdizon for the tips.

Thanks Orange , just curious why you say the bala shark is not good with the Discus, not saying your wrong but my buddy has kept it over a year with his discus and he said he hasn't had any problems . Maybe because they have been in there together since they were small or something not sure. But I mean if he doesn't work out I will just give him back to my friend. But I am definitely not going to do anything until I know my tank is ready for the Discus.


Hello Starfish, Nice , how big is your tank going to be? Yea I feel the same, I will just keep trying to learn.

[Starfish]

my tank is going to be a 300ltre and just gotten in touch with a breeder that is near where i live... so it will be interesting at the moment before i can proceed research into practice i need the tank, check the ph from the tap and if i am not mistaken will be alkaline.. so therefore will mean me needing to do something to get the water into the soft acidic range the discus's like unless they like the conditions already but with the breeder i have touch based with close to home i will be able to find some simple facts out and has the colours i am interested in, including red map discus...

[Larry Bugg]

Thanks Orange , just curious why you say the bala shark is not good with the Discus, not saying your wrong but my buddy has kept it over a year with his discus and he said he hasn't had any problems . Maybe because they have been in there together since they were small or something not sure. But I mean if he doesn't work out I will just give him back to my friend. But I am definitely not going to do anything until I know my tank is ready for the Discus.

That's right it does say 1 Foot 4 inches. the Bala shark is one of those fish that the typical LFS has no business selling to typical hobbyist. It certainly doesn't belong in a 40 gallon tank. It is semi-aggressive which also means it really doesn't belong with Discus.

QUICK STATS
Minimum Tank Size: 70 gallons
Care Level: Moderate
Temperament: Semi-aggressive
Water Conditions: 72-79° F, KH 10-15, pH 6.5-7.5
Max. Size: 1' 4"
Color Form: Black, White, Yellow
Diet: Omnivore
Origin: Farm Raised, Thailand
Family: Cyprinidae

[strawberryblonde]

That's right it does say 1 Foot 4 inches. the Bala shark is one of those fish that the typical LFS has no business selling to typical hobbyist. It certainly doesn't belong in a 40 gallon tank. It is semi-aggressive which also means it really doesn't belong with Discus.

QUICK STATS
Minimum Tank Size: 70 gallons
Care Level: Moderate
Temperament: Semi-aggressive
Water Conditions: 72-79° F, KH 10-15, pH 6.5-7.5
Max. Size: 1' 4"
Color Form: Black, White, Yellow
Diet: Omnivore
Origin: Farm Raised, Thailand
Family: Cyprinidae

+1

You might be able to get away with having a Bala in your discus tank for awhile when it's still small, but there are a few reasons (other than the fact that it's gonna get huge) not to keep them together.

1) It prefers cooler temps so you are shortening it's lifespan by putting it in a higher temp discus tank.

2) The higher temps will also stress out its immune system and can leave it susceptible to illness, which it can then pass along to your discus.

3) Food - Discus are carnivore and, especially when young, eat a tremendous amount of high protein foods every single day. Not good for a Bala who needs a diet with a lot of greens in it (as well as proteins). The bala won't care that it's already had enough protein for one day and will just keep stuffing itself on yummy beefheart, etc. which will impact its digestive system.

Now on the other hand, some people actually try to keep the temps down and feed lower protein foods just so that they can keep incompatible fish in with discus, but the cost to the health and growth of the discus is high. And discus are, in my opinion, too expensive to treat like throw aways. =)

[tsunami]

Thank you Strawberry, you made some good points in there which is what I was looking for. I think what I will do is pass on the bala shark , and I am going to look for a pair of Discuss, not worry about them having babies but just so they are happy together and then do maybe a school of tetras and some peppered cory cats for the bottom, with a few plants.