Discus in community tank

[tsskinne]

Hi guys, have had my tank set up for awhile, and did do research before purchasing my first discus. I only got 1 which i know will get me yelled at but its a present for my roomates birthday and about all i could afford this week as im a broke college kid. Anyway i plan to get another in a week or 2 if this one is successful. I have him in a 55 gal. tank with a fire eel (small) a black ghost knife (also small), then a polka-dot botia and a stiata botia. Also there is a pleco which after some more reading is scaring me, there are also about a dozen (12) danios in there. Any advice would be appreciated, i can move the pleco to my other tank if needed its all set up and good to go, thanks to everyone.

[Merrilyn]

Welcome to the forum tsskinne :newbie

And nobody is gonna yell at you here, or they've got me to deal with :whip

Your choice of fish in that community tank is fine. You know to watch the Pleco, so that is taken care of. The danios, what variety are they. The giant danios can get a bit rough for a discus which is more used to slow moving tankmates. Just keep an eye on that situation.

Again welcome. Glad to have you join us. I gather you're not from Aus, so if you could fill in your location, it helps with recommending local brands etc. :P

[tsskinne]

hey thanks for the reply so quickly, and no they arent the giant danios, i was aware that their quickness might agitate my discus and i tryed to net them.....but ya the quickness thing kicked my a**. I was able to net 2 of them out of 12 they became food for my African Clawed Frog kermit, who is a giant. Im glad to hear ati wont get yelled at, and that my fish in there should be ok. Thanks again, and any advice would be appreciated. Talking to my LFS they said the breeder they get their discus from raises them in stages and slightly increases the PH each time so this helps them he believed, i plan on starting to do a water change at least once a week, although im still confused on how to do this with out upsetting the fish, andi know i need to add some water stuff to my tap water to eleminate the metals i have that, but like any other advice would be appreciated. thanks again and sorry if i confused anyone with that last sentence.

[nicholas76]

caution - black ghost knife (also small)


these will attack your discus at night .

ive seen it occurr with older larger ones, just letting you know in due course what you might be in for.

[tsskinne]

thanks for the warning about the ghost knife ill keep my eye out, that saddens me because he is one of my favorites his name is mr. giggly. Anyway sorry i missed the question earlier about my location. Im at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana. My local fish store is about a 10 min drive. I've gotten all my fish from there and had no problems as of yet and all advice they have given me has worked so i trusted them with the advice and approval they gave me on gettin the discus, but i still value more opinions so anything helps, and again thank you.

[goldenpigeon]

hi and welcome to DF.com! :D hope you enjoy ur time here!

[tsskinne]

I have blood worms, and mosquito larva and i have already seen my discus eat both, PS i think he is a pigeon blood (ill take a pic or find similar one later), but how much and how often should i feed him/her? thanks again!

[tsskinne]

hey guys i played with my camera and got a descent picture, hope it helps, and again thank you for all the help. Also get a pretty good look at my polka-dot botia, i think he is awesome too, thanks again. Also included a pic kinda of the whole tank so im open to advice on my set up as well.

[goldenpigeon]

thats a nice discus :D well formed :D is it just me or is its eye a lil big? anyway nice discus!

[tsskinne]

honestly i would have no clue if its eye was big or not, he seems very attentive and swims around the tank it a nice mellow way, not frantic at all. I read somewhere that discus should have a very red eye, so while looking at the store there were 3 discus in the tank, the other 2 stuck together and this one was by himself, and had a red-er eye so i chose him, but again what type exactly do you think he is?

[kevkoi]

Just a quick word of caution on the fire-eel...... These are what would fall under the "tank buster" category. They get to about 3ft long and about as thick as your calf. :P

...... definately too big for your community tank. Plus they eat little fishies.

[tsskinne]

thanks for the warning on the fire eel, right now he is about five inches and i have a male which is much slower growing, but yes i am aware of his futre size potential, and am ready to deal with that, thank you again

[nicholas76]

Really nice tank mate you have done well.


dont worry about the eye colouration however if we were being picky it does look a tad big for that body size.

but its a nice healthy looking discus so he must be enjoying your tank.


can you take another pic or two please?

[tsskinne]

ill get some more pics for you guys tomorrow, i gotta get to bed i got class and then work, any quick advice on the feeding before i hit the sack?

[goldenpigeon]

what foods have you got to feed him?

[tsskinne]

so far he has been eating frozen bloodworms, and frozen mosquito larva, same as they were feeding him at my LFS, i was just kinda curious as to how much and how often to feed him?

[nicholas76]

as long as he keeps eating keep feeding ! then stop :D

[tsskinne]

haha ok will do, well if anyone comes up with some good random advice for me while i catch some Z's feel free to leave it, ill check it in the morning. I have been watching him and the ghost knife has left him alone so far, but ill keep my eye out. Thanks everyone and goodnight

[Nat]

I have 2x ghost knifes in with my discus and 1x is about 30cm long, and he never bothers the discus. I love him!!!

[tsskinne]

well im in america so we dont use centimeters but i would guess my guy is like 6 or 7 inches, a fair size i just went and watched more and for right now at least he is basically avoiding my discus, he is kinda a wimp though, he usually abandons his cave for one of my botia if they really want it and he will just sit by the heater, ok goodngiht for real this time, bye.

[leanne31]

Your fish which looks like a blue turk will eat 1 to 2 meals a day of a varied diet if he is a juvenile fish a lot more I feed my juvies 5 to 6 times a day.

Leanne

[tsskinne]

ok, well i would say he is about 3-4 inches in diameter right now, i know they get bigger so im gonna assume he needs to eat more then im giving him right now at least. How fast do the discus grow, and ive heard they get to be the size of a dinner plate, is this true? I've never seen any much bigger than the one i have right now in person at least, i did see a pic of a big one next to some smaller ones and there was quite the difference. THanks again!

[sleepers]

Hey, buddy. You should check out some of the ridiculous deals they have on tanks and supplies in the Indiana on eBay. I have no idea why, either, but whenever I'm sort of browsing (not like I can afford it!!) there's always someone getting divorced or retiring who has to sell their 70 gal for like $100.

Anyway, I just saw the discus/AMazon turtle exhibit at the Baltimore aquarium. Muy impressive. Talk about larger than 3-4"... these guys are all about 8-9" in diameter. Although, I must say, some of them had frayed dorsals... I wasn't sure why, and that aquarium has a stellar reputation for care. Maybe a brief infection or something. But they were still really active and just beautiful.

[tsskinne]

hi everyone, just got back from work, stopped at the fish store on way home and got a bigger net and was able to remove the 12 or so danios from my new discus tank, he is still doing good with the BGK. I also just performed my first ever water change so hopefully i did it right. I have sand substrate and vacummed as best i could, got up most of the ghost shrimp shells and other stuff from bottom. I have a 55 gal, and i took out 10 gallons of water, i then did my best to match the temp of my new water to that of the aquarium, added my aqua plus or safe, basically eliminates all metals from the water, and then added the new 10 gallons. That was about 5 min ago, everything seems ok so far, please let me know if there is anything else i should do at this time, and thanks again.

[jim]

my pleco never bother my discus....and i think most breeders have 1 pleco or 2 even in their breeding tanks...

[DR.V]

great setup u got there

[tsskinne]

Hey Dr. V are you complementing me, or the other new picture? just curious.

[Merrilyn]

You did exactly the right thing with your water change.

Nothing more you need to do.

Try to add some kind of commercial dry food to the diet, like flake or pellets, just to make sure your fish is getting all the vitamins and minerals necessary for growth.

[tsskinne]

hey just got back from work again today, and yes i also have been putting in some tropical fish flakes for my other fish and i noticed my discus eats them as well. All is still well a day after the water change so im glad that seems to have gone right. Thanks again to everyone for all your help. I talked to my fish store last night about what they expect to get in next week and they said they should get more discus on wednesday. I want something that is a bright orange or red to add color to my tank, anyone who could tell me what types those are i would appreciate it, thanks.

[kalebjarrod]

Maybe a red melon or a Malbro (my speeling is wrong but it is early LOL)

i think that is what you are looking for

maybe even a nice pigeon strain :wink:

[tsskinne]

Ok thanks for the advice, i just have returned from the LFS, i had them test my water after my water change. They said i have a 40 ppm of nitrates i think, or nitrites, i cant remember. (ppm is parts per million, they had to tell me too). But they said i should be ok with regular water changes which i previously had not been doing. I also picked up a small school of tetras, i cant remember what kind, i think maybe bleeding heart tetras, and another loach to help clean up the large mess that is occuring on the bottom of my beautiful white sand substrate thanks to my new even more beautiful discus. Well thanks again for the advice and as always im here listening, well at least ready to read any more advice anyone has to offer.

[leanne31]

It would have to be your nitrates that are 40 not nitrites its a bit high but not to bad, for discus you'd like to keep it under 20 I keep mine between 5 and 10 and thats just regular wc that does that your going well keep up the good work.

[tsskinne]

Hey guys my discus appears to be a little bit lighter in color today, he is eating fine and swimming fine, just wanted to see if this was normal behavior, or if something bad is happening, please let me know, thanks.

[Merrilyn]

Did you have in mind something like this......................

That's called a marlboro red. It's just a young fish, and will develop a more red colour as it matures.

Your nitrates are a bit too high at 40. Do some daily water changes till they come down. Even a bucket a day will help.

[tsskinne]

yes that is exactly what i was thinking, those are very attractive fish. I just woke up and i have to drive back to my real home in a bit to help a relative move but im going to do a water change before i leave again today, then another one when i get back tomorrow, thanks again for all the advice. Another question i might have is are basically all the variants of discus about the same price, or should i expect to pay more for some?

[DR.V]

Hey Dr. V are you complementing me, or the other new picture? just curious.

Im complementing both ^^

[tsskinne]

good cover Dr. V, JK. I just did another water change, all seems to have gone well again. I was kinda scared to do them at first becuase to me it seems like that would really stress the fish but i guess its all good, anyways thanks again all for the help. Im showering and heading home for the evening, but ill give y'all an update tomorrow night, maybe ill snap a pic before i leave, bye for now.

[tsskinne]

hey everyone i snapped a pic like i said i would because i know we all like looking at them, here ya go.

[DR.V]

HEI !!! u did a great job ^^

[Merrilyn]

That's looking great, and your fish is looking happy.

Prices of fish will vary according to the strain. That Marlboro red strain has been around for a long time, so the price should be the same as a turquoise.

Some of the rarer and more exotic strains, like albino, or spotted fish will be more expensive, simply because of the demand.

[tsskinne]

Hey everyone i got back earlier and did another water change, so thats like 3 20% water changes in like 5 days or so i think. How long do you think i should continue the frequent water changes to get my nitrites back down? thanks.

[leanne31]

Have you checked your nitrates recently what they :?:

[tsskinne]

no i have not checked them, i dont really trust myself with that stuff, im taking my water in on tuesday when i go to get my ghost shrimp for my eel to eat. i will make a post then and inform everyone of the new results. thanks again