Moving a mated discus pair to community tank

[roper52]

Greetings!

I am new to this forum, so hello :D , and glad to be here!

I have a question I have no found in the forums. I have a mated pair of discus in a smaller tank (30 gallon), but I am toying with the idea of moving them to the community tank, which is 55 gallons. Taking care of 2 tanks is getting to be tough, and I could really use the extra space of taking the other tank down. My community tank is much nicer as well, better lighting and put together much better.

My question is, can a mated pair be safely moved?

In my community tank I have:
3 angel males (med size)
1 angel female (med size) - no angels have mated yet
2 med sized clown loaches (4.5 inches)
2 small clown loaches (<2inches)
2 yo yo loaches (3 inches)
1 pleco
2 silver dolllars (med sized)
1 swordtail
1 beta

The ph in my community tank is a bit higher than my discus tank. Can I safely lower the ph in the community tank to add the discus? Or should I slowly adjust the discus in their own tank to a slightly higher ph before switching?

They have had many spawns in their own tank, but the father eats the eggs, and I don't have another tank to move him to. I know, I should be more excited my discus are actually spawning, but to be honest, I am not sure I want to breed discus right now which is why I was thinking of moving them to the larger tank. In the smaller tank, the mother will lay the eggs, dad is fertal, then within 24 hours they get eaten. I have seperated them and gotten them to hatch, only to swim between the tank divider and get eaten :x


Ok, ideas? Good idea or bad idea? Please let me know as I don't want to shock my fish into sickness or death. I like the idea of having them all together because then I can focus on keeping ONE tank clean and water quality up.

Thanks!!

[dwilder]

discus will usually adjust fine to a higher ph that should not be a problem.you have quite a few fish in the 55 might be hard keeping water quality good enough for the discus

[Matt15]

As dwilder said PH would be fine, but I personally wouldn't place my discus with silver dollars, angels & clown loaches all together. Mind you thats a personal choice.
Having said that, if only looking after one tank is your plan then give it a try.
Just keep a close eye on them and keep the current discus tank running just incase they stress out too much.

[Merrilyn]

Hi Roper and welcome to the forum.

Your 55 gal is already pretty much at capacity now. Adding two large fish may well put a strain on your water quality.

A few other things come to mind too, a pleco is not a good tankmate with discus, they tend to latch onto the side of the fish at night and suck on the slime coating. This will cause a great deal of stress to your discus.

Angels don't make good companions either. They're too similar to discus, and are much more aggressive feeders. Diseases pass easily between angels and discus, with the discus taking the worst of it.

Large clown loaches are usually too boisterous to be good tankmates, and some say they suck on discus slime too.

You could give it a try, but honestly, I can't recommend it, not in a tank that size.

[roper52]

ok, so i think im going to do it!

Should i add a divider at first or just put them in? Should i add some of the community tank water to their tank before i move them for good?

I dont want to stress them too much! Good idea to keep their tank running in case it doesnr work out. I think i will take a few angels and th sillver dollars and move them to the old discus tank and jut switch them around again if it doesnt work.

[roper52]

ok, so i think im going to do it!

Should i add a divider at first or just put them in? Should i add some of the community tank water to their tank before i move them for good?

I dont want to stress them too much! Good idea to keep their tank running in case it doesnt work out. I think i will take a few angels and the silver dollars and move them to the old discus tank ( just switch them around again if it doesnt work).

[dwilder]

dont think using a divider will help much there either gonna settle in or they won't.don't see a need to add tank water discus will be fine with an instant increase in ph just not a decrease usually.and if you have to move fish if they don't get along your gonna end up with two tanks again if that happens i would just put the discus back in there original tank

[ILLUSN]

you can move them, first get rid of your angels and your pleco, if it a bigger variety it's gonna out grow the 55 Gal anyway, also there's a good chance the discus will tear your betas fins to shreds.

I'd adjust the ph in the discus tank first as they're gonna be under stress when you move them, theres no point making it worse with ph shock.

In a 55 gal of that stocking density do DAILY 25% changes and look at getting a good canister filter that turns over the tank 5-8x an hour.

if you reduce your fish load (no angles no pleco) you'll get away with 30-50% changes 2x a week and a smaller filter.

personally I'd leave them be or sell them, putting them into you comunity tank will just make more work for you.