Looking to get adult discus

[Brucethewind]

Hi guys. Got a few questions. These discus that I saw in my LFS are absolutely gorgeous and the size of them are amazing. I tried to ask the shop keeper if he has any idea if these 2 are either female or male but he doesn’t know. I tried to look at their tubes but it was hard to see as well. Anyway, here are my questions:
1. I have a black background, would it pepper these discus?
2. My tank is a 55 gallon hexagon tank, I was planning to just get 2 adult discus male and female just to get them along together. I just hope not to get a 2 males because they would fight I think.
3. How could you tell if they are male and female?

Also, tank design now is different but black background is because of the internal sump.

[jwcarlson]

I can't help you with the male/female question. But I don't think that your tank is a good match for discus. That's not to say that they couldn't live in it. They need a little more space laterally. They tend to be a bit skittish/flighty and in an aquarium like yours, they can't really dart anywhere. I had mine initially in a 75 and by the time they'd grown, that seemed very tight for them. Granted, I had 8 of them in there. They ended up in a 6' 125 gallon which was much better for them.

[AquaticNerd]

Discus require lots of lateral (horizontal) space for swimming, which a hexagonal tank does not provide. Further, discus are cichlids and typically need to be in larger groups (aside from breeding pairs).

Would they survive? Probably. Would they thrive? Extremely unlikely. Personally, I would not put two full-sized adult discus in a 55 hexagon.