What size discus for a noobie to start off with?

[Priscacara]

G'day, the discus tank is slowly coming together for me so time to think of the discus I would like to keep. The tank is a 4x2x2, will be planted (plants arrive this week) with 7cm of substrate (gravel and eco-complete). Tankmates will be 2 schools of tetra, 10 corydoras (sterbai or schwartzi if I can get them), 2 common bristlenose and possibly a small whiptail if I relocate it from the angels tank.

I have no intentions of breeding as this will be a display tank but I do want to do as much right as I can................I dont want to start off a debate of clear bottom and tankmates issues . The plan is to keep the water at ph 7.2, 30ppm gh, 27.5C with 10% water changes every 2nd day (once a week if I'm told it wont be detrimental). Filtration is an eheim pro II 2028.

Would I be better off with the smaller and cheaper 6cm discus or would the 9cm fish be a bit hardier? I had thought of 6 discus given the tankmates but was told I could keep more at the lfs, they sell them but dont keep them at home so unsure of the number now.

Cheers!

[swifto]

hi,i'd start with smaller that way u can watch them grew and learn from them,5 fish is a good start

[swampy1972]

Only go with smaller fish if you're doing bare bottom otherwise it's hard to give them the feed quantity to get them to good size and shape.
For your needs, being a planted display, go with the biggest you can afford and preferably of a similar size to prevent bullying.
If you have good filtration and reasonable stock levels (min 50L per fish after substrate etc) you can maintain a nice display with a single water change per week, but it would need to be more in the order of 30%.
I look forward to seeing your setup

[BobbyBruce]

Hi Priscacara,

Just a few points in regards to your proposal.

Your 4x2x2 has the following capacities depending on how you set up Max theoretical volume 454 ltr, BB 424 ltr, 7 cm substrate 366 ltr minus any rocks and driftwood you may add.

Generally, the cleaner the tank and the higher the water change the better growth you will get. Having said that, some fish in a batch seem to grow quite well while others don't seem to increase in size at all regardless of your tank conditions. I have some fish that are only slightly larger than when I bought them January last year and are actually smaller than the juveniles I raised from a spawning in August last year.

Recommended minimum volume per adult discus seems to be around 40 ltr with some keepers recommending up to 60 ltr. Therefor your approx 350 ltr volume could accomodate up to 8 adults if there were no other fish in the tank. With two schools of tetra (min 10 per school), 10 C Sterbai, 2 Bristlenose and a possible whiptail I would not recommend more than 5 adult discus.

As you are wanting large fish in a display tank and there is no guarantee that smaller fish will grow, particularly if they are stunted due to being kept in less than ideal conditions at the LFS, I would go for the larger ones rather than the small juveniles. I would also suggest that you access some of the reputable dealers/breeders here through the Members Classifieds rather than going to your LFS.

At 27.5 degrees your discus will be less active and more susceptible to diseases such as white spot than if they were kept at the more usual 29 - 30. They also tend to do better in acidic water so Ph <7.

C Sterbai will cope with the higher temperatures required by discus where C Schwartzi prefer 22 - 24 so may even have trouble coping with 27.5.

Best choices for tetras at discus temps are Cardinals or Rummy nose. I have also kept Black Phantoms in discus tanks and they do quite well and, in my opinion, look very good.

Bristlenose are recommended for 21 - 27 C. Most other whiptails prefer lower temps though the Royal Whiptail is okay at discus temps. Some do develop a liking for the discus slime-coat though.

It seems that the more successful discus keepers here do water changes at 30% three times per week. On my 6x2x2 I change 160 - 180 ltr every second day.

Good Luck,

[Priscacara]

Thanks for all the input its much appreciated.

I can bump the temp up to 29C, would actually be a bit easier than the messing round I have at the moment trying to get the 2 heaters in sync to keep it steady at 27.5 (2 x 300w Jager).

I had planned on getting the discus from Marlon's website but still premature to order any unfortunately, I also need to check they can be delivered rather than picked up at the airport. The price of Marlon's beauties is the same as the price of the lfs fish which are nice but not up to his standards.

Due to injuries I'm limited to the amount of water changes I can do as I do it all manually by bucket but on all my tanks I do a minimum of 25% once a week. I can manage 10% every 2 days based on 45 litres each time, although as was pointed out I lose a lot of the actual water space with everything else in the tank so 45L would be a bit more than the 10%.

Still lots to work out

Cheers!

[mistakes r crucial]

Big ones!

If it's a display tank and growth etc is not an issue then keeping half a dozen Discus with a few other fish in a 4 x 2 x 2 isn't much of an issue.

As long as your tank filtration is well cycled (must have), change 30%-50% water at least once a week and test the water weekly I doubt you'll have too many issues.

27c-28c is where I'd leave it with a mixture of fish. You'll find the Discus are OK and you won't kill or shorten the lives of others.

If you start hiking up the temps to completely suit the Discus you'll kill BN etc and especially the adults.
Cheers

[Oonallee]

Hi there,

I'm a relative novice myself, but in my experience the larger ones seem hardier and more forgiving of our mistakes. I had four when I started 3 small and 1 medium. When the water paramaters were an issue for me, the 3 small ones went downhill and died almost overnight. The medium one coped and has come through (thankfully I now have my water issues sorted out).

From what I've read 7.2 ph is a bit high for discus?

Good luck with it all and post some pics if you get a chance

[Priscacara]

Thanks for the input Oonallee. Fairly sure that unless your wanting to breed and/or the fish were raised in lower ph water than 7.2 shouldnt be an issue. I only use ph down so dropping it a little more is fairly straight forward.

Just got the plants in yesterday so still a bit of a mess but its getting there.