Need some advise - Keeping Discus

[Fansons]

Hi All

I have a 48G heavy planted tank, which has ECO complete and dosing CO2. I don't usually use plant food because I am too busy to keep up, so I use root tabs. I had this tank running for 2 years now. Currently there are 4 neons, 2 phantom, 2 cat fish, 1 small frog, 2 unknown small fish, and one algae eater. All fishes are small around 2 inches except algae eater, he goes big around 3 inches. I have 1x Fluval 206 and 1 Ehiem 2217 running. Doing water change every two weeks.


Recently, I am thinking to keep Discus. For my setup above, will I be able to do it without fish loss? I really don't have time to do daily water change. Weekly might be the best I can do.

So, I really need some advise, if discus is not for me, I will give up and not thinking about it. I might be able to shut-down this tank and do another one, but its too much work for a busy accountant.

Thanks for all your comment.


Fansons

[Canadian_Aqua_Farm]

Hi Fansons, You could house a group of 5 discus in your tank. If you go with larger size discus you don't need to change as much water. 50% once a week will do. Get at least 4" size discus. Also make sure that your CO2 dosing is not creating PH swings as that would be stressful on the discus.

[discuspaul]

Sorry, Fansons, I don't have good news for you.
Your tank is too small to keep the reasonable number of discus (5 or 6) necessary to maintain an acceptable social order, unless you want to keep a mated pair & breed them. But that doesn't seem to fit into your plans either, because you have other livestock in your tank, it's heavily planted and you're running CO2. (Not a very good discus set-up.)
The biggest problem is that you can't devote the time to doing more than weekly water changes, and that would be a recipe for disappointment, if not disaster.
So to be completely candid, forget about discus until you are able to devote the necessary time to maintaining the high water quality conditions that are required by discus; you're prepared to invest in a larger tank, preferably at least 60 gallons; you have done your homework on keeping discus, you're happy with what you have learned, and you're fully comfortable with committing yourself to discus.

[Fansons]

Thanks for all your comments.

I know my tank is a bit small for them, but I heard a lot of successful stories, some of those stories do involve large sumps with lots of filter media, which is possible for me, but in the mean time, I might have to keep only low light plants with no CO2.

So, If I run a large sump, lets say 30G and still have both filter running, and keep only 6 Discus, will I be able to do it with a weekly water change? My wife does not want me to spend too much time on fish, so if I do daily water change, she will give me "the face." Happy wife, happy life, eh? So, I think you can imaging that.


So, I might have to get a larger tank in the end, haha~ with larger tank, water parameter should be more stable.

[josephl]

Hi Fansons, You could house a group of 5 discus in your tank. If you go with larger size discus you don't need to change as much water. 50% once a week will do. Get at least 4" size discus. Also make sure that your CO2 dosing is not creating PH swings as that would be stressful on the discus.

I agree with Rick. With the small fish that you have, I would say you could easily keep 4 to 5 domestic discus in there without problems assuming you do regular water changes. As Rick says, start with larger ones and don't cheap out on food.

I would do water changes a little more regularly though, though you could get away with 50% once a week. I would get rid of the algae eater though

[clairel]

if the issue is about you, you can put any fish you want in any tank. if the issue is about the fish, you want to provide them with the best environment you possibly can. there are a couple of good articles on April's site. and lots of info online. check it out. just my two cents.

[discuspaul]

Strange, but there was an almost identical thread to this, posted on the simplydiscus forum a couple of days ago, and almost all of the replies (including mine) by experienced discus-keepers, said this was not a good idea - in contrast to this thread where the reaction seems to be a bit of the opposite.
I'm a little surprised that you good folks feel it's sound advice to tell someone who has no previous experience with keeping discus, that it's a-ok to keep 6 -4" discus in a heavily planted tank 48 gal tank, while running CO2, and doing only weekly water changes.
To me, that's kinda like "an accident waiting to happen" (particularly with a newbie to discus), or like a kid playing with matches - he's probably gonna get burned.
If Fansons were to agree with the advice here and do that, then I for one would be very interested to see pics of those discus after about 6 months in that environment, to see what kind of shape and condition the fish were in - those that were still alive, that is.
That's my .02 - without disrespect to anyone.

[travistiale]

Anyone else want to weigh in on this?? Seems like we have two opposite opinions from experienced discus keepers. shall i say fight fight fight...

[josephl]

I think it's just an issue of one's personal experience.

I have always been successful going with 'normal discus tanks' and have done the following:

- more fish than 1 per 10 gallons
- and I change things up a lot. For a few years, I had had it as a high tech planted tank, then just gravel and wood, now low tech planted.
- lots of water circulation
- I use charcoal and purigen
- community tank with angels, rainbows, wild bettas, glass fish and half beaks
- I source discus from multiple sources; if it's pretty I buy it(only problem I ever had was disease introduced by a Simply Discus sponsor, Dale Jordan)
- I feed live and frozen black worms almost exclusively

And my discus are thriving and spawning. Just because people sign up to Simply Discus as a member dosen't mean that instantly achieve god like powers and become discus experts. It could just mean that they are noisy and like to be heard....

Any disbelievers are more than welcome to come by and check out my two 'community discus tanks'

[discuspaul]

That's not my case Joseph - I'm not noisy and just like to be heard.
I've been fish-keeping for well over 50 years, since I was a kid, and have successfully kept discus many times over the years, in planted tanks mainly. You may or may not be aware, but I've also written a 17 page illustrated guide to getting started with Discus, which April Ross has on her website and which has also been posted as a Sticky by 6 aquarist forums, including Simply Discus about a year ago, and it's also posted in BIDKA's library (British & international Discus-keepers Association).
So, not to blow my own horn, but I believe I do know whereof I speak.