Wild Discus Tank Mates

[TW]

Hi all

I think I'm clear on the view that it's best to keep wild discus separated from domestic discus - but what is the consensus about their tank mates?

I am wanting to add some apistos, sterbais, ottos & some sort of other small fish in with the wilds - maybe rummy nose or cardinals.

Looking to see what advice you guys might have for me.

[TW]

Anyone?

[tc]

hi tw
i keep cardinals and cory adolfi with my wild greens - but they ate the small cardinals so i only have a few left. the corys are frightened by the discus and only come out and clean up when the lights are off.

my heckels have some glolite tetras with them - they seem to go well

and my wild blues and browns are just on their own.. i do not have domestic bred discus in with any of them and i am too worried about disease to ever do so.
tlc

[TW]

Hi tc, thanks for input.

Once my new wilds finish their QT, I intend to shuffle the fish around, so that wilds discus are separate from domestic discus. I'm doing this because of the advice here to keep them separate (disease issues).

I was wondering if the same issues regards to wilds being kept separate from domestic applies to their tank mates as well.

Currently, I have some wilds in the community display (which will become the wild discus tank in a week or so). They are already with domestic sterbai, ottos, apistos, krib, cardinals. It's not so much the behaviour issues I'm concerned about (as I can see these are all fine together in that way). It was more from a disease spread point of view.

By reading your post, I think you are saying you do keep domestic tank mates with wild discus? Anything negative about it?

Cheers, Robyn

[tc]

robyn
my corys and cardinals were in quarantine for 8 weeks before i combined them with the wild greens- i was concerned about mixing domestic mates with wilds but i just so wanted the tank mates with them that i hope the quarantine was sufficient... and as it turned out i have had no problems. i would like to add more cardinals but just havent got around to buying and quarantining them - also everything is going well in the tanks and i would hate to upset the applecart so to speak

as for the domestic discus - aside from the fact that i have read several times not to mix them i had a bout of discus plague or something nasty when i purchased some young fish from a LFS, despite all i did i lost about 25 small discus - the survivors are all well now but i would be terrifed of introducing this disease into my wilds so i will never put my domestic discus in with them... another adjustment i have made is my pH - i keep my heckels at 4.75 - 5, my wild greens at 5.5 and my wild blues at 6ish...
trace

[TW]

Thanks tc, the majority of the domestic tankmates I would put with the wild discus - I've had them already for a long time. In fact, they are already mixed in with the discus, spread between the 2 tanks. Was just wondering if I needed to remove them from the tank where the Wild Discus will be housed.

I am thinking of buying some apistos from another forum member & I may add some new Rummy Nose. Any new additions will be QT'd for around 8 weeks minimum. In particular, the apistos will be wormed.

Glad to hear that it was worked for you.

Thanks for input.

[Hassles]

For what its worth.

Apistogramma occupy the bottom areas of their tank. Discus fotrage for food in this same area so encounteres will take place. I have observed both good and bad while keeping Apistos with Discus. I have lone female A. baenschi in with my discus with no trouble whatsoever. I once had an immature pair of A.macmasteri in this same tank (before the baenschi) and the male went nutso at the discius - I considered he was jealous as the discus were the only other fish in the tank brighter than he was.

[jluna]

from a purely analytical point (having not kept wilds), surely the fish share their natural territories, so why not an aquarium?

the issues would be:
- tetras becoming snacks (unless you went with a bigger-bodied species such as phantoms or rosies - temperature may be an issue) but i can't see why rummies wouldn't be fine.
- apistos being territorial...but i really couldn't imagine many dwarves being able to really do any damage to an adult wild.

and seeing as though you already house them together, i reckon if it suits your aesthetic, then go for it! of course, stringent quarantine if you're adding newbies, which i know you do, robyn!

there was a huge aquarium in my lfs when i lived in melboune - 25 or so wilds, 50 rummies, 5 or 6 bolivian rams, and royal whiptails in a tank planted with val. beautiful.

would love to see pics of the tank when it's complete!

[jluna]

hehehe - just saw how old this original post is!! so where's the pics, robyn???

[TW]

hehehe - just saw how old this original post is!! so where's the pics, robyn???

Well, I'm in the final stages of a disaster. In May I bought 2 discus that brought in disease. Their story is told here, if you ever get time for a read
http://www.discusforums.com/forum/vi...298&highlight=

Though the albinos were in a sep QT, somehow I cross contaminated all but one of my discus tanks. I think it happened by water from the diseased tank back syphoning into my water storage container & then that contaminated water was pumped into the other tanks at water change. Or maybe I didn't sterilise my hands properly after being in the diseased tank, before working on the healthy tanks. Whatever, I ended up with 4 infected discus tanks, with 18 sick discus. Anyway, to cut a long story short, nothing worked. 15 out of the 18 exposed discus died. 10 of the dead were wild discus. As of today 3 out 18 still live (1 wild green + 2 domestics). I'm not 100% counting on them making it just yet, but things are looking better for them.

Losing the wilds really cut me up

Only one of my discus tanks remained disease free. Not sure what saved it. It was filled from the same water storage container. The only differences between that tank & the others are:_

a) it was planted and
b) it had a UV steriliser.

By all accounts, my UV didn't really have high enough wattage (25W over 138G, run via an eheim pro II 2028) but maybe it was just enough to make the difference.

This has taught me not to buy my discus from an unknown source again.