thinking about discus

Never kept these before, would a couple go in a planted 37 tall , with black neons and cpd? 84 degrees and stable 6.5ph

my other choice for this tank would be some apistos or rams

would be a perfect discus tank... think you can fit more than a couple in there... talk to our new sponsor... bobbys water world... you can get some quality discus cheap from him.

When a pair forms you can pull the other ones.

I would go with 10 to 12 discus to a 37 gal.

What size discus did you want to put in there? I'd go with adults In your case. They would be alot easier to keep in that size tank. I wod probably only get 2. Being planted and your other fish. 10-12 would be way to crowded. IMO.

Really you can fit 10 to 12 discuss in a 37G tank??

I've never kept discus myself so i'm "NO" expert by any means.. But i'd have to agree with ashley.. I don't see how you can put that many fish in that size tank.. I would say 6 would even be alot for that size tank.
Also i can't even think doing 90% waterchanges can be good, i do 2x 50-60% water changes a week and my bio load is 10x what discus will put out..

You dont have to believe what im saying but maybe you need to go visit bobby and hear and see it for yourself, I think since the guy has been doing it for 11 yrs he might be knowing what hes doing since his discus business is doing so well. He said the exact same thing that people say what your saying but they dont know anything about discus, but until you see it for yourself and talk to him you wont understand.

Also ashley FYI the discus that sandnuka owns now use to be mine which I also got from bobby's water world and based off of his info, so what im saying is exactly what I was told by the breeder of 11 yrs.

Well I think maybe you mis understood him then. I doubt anyone with that much experience in fish keeping would cram that many fish in a 37gal. I've seen discus at a good 8" in diameter. And when doing a waterchange, draining almost ALL of their water, no way in *language

First off I want to say thank you to Sandnuka as he is the main person that takes care of my account on here as I rarely have the time. So to clear a few things up about discus. First off when considering how to house them you need to realize the difference between doing it as a hobby verses doing it as a business/farm/breeder. Yes I will put 50-60 discus in a 55 gallon as addictedtofish said. The pH he is a little off on, our pH settings: spawning 5.2-5.6, free swimming 5.6-6.0, 1"-2" 6.0-6.5 and 2.5"+ 6.5-7.4. Now water changes, we do 90%+ on all discus tanks daily, the water that we use to replace the water we've taken out is pretreated RO/DI water taken from reserves. It is an exact match to what they are swimming in hence they do not even noticed their water prams change outside of the fact that it is cleaner as we feed them 5-8 times a day. When you do these daily water changes in this manner you are not really relying on your tanks bio system to maintain it. The fact is we have found that the heavy water changes, feeding and how we house them produce healthier discus that grow to full size. Now most all that I have learned about discus came from three very reputable breeders out of Malaysia, Thailand and Sweden. I do not know all there is to know about discus but I have been working with them for 11 years. So would I put 10-12 discus in a 37 gallon tank, yes if they are all less than 4”. Just keep in mind that the water will need to be changed regularly. The daily water changes at 90% is a big factor in how the grow, look at someone who doesn’t do this and you will find that their discus fry are barely dime to nickel size at one month verses our method that have them at 1-1.2” at one month and 2” by two months. You will read online and in books that you need 5+ gallons per discus, if they are full grown yes if not then chances are that you will have much slower growing discus that will not reach their full size.

I wouldn't go calling ignorant being all the details WERE NOT on the table.. You or no-one else happen to mention how Bobbie kept his fish, the size of these fish, the RO/DI system, and anything like that.. Plus the way breeders and lfs owners keep their fish is way different than most normal hobbiest. I've kept fish for my years and until these detail came out i thought you were off your rocker too.. Personally i would still never keep that many fish in that small of a tank and would never do daily waterchanges UNLESS you have a setup like Bobbies..

^^^ Thanks for clearing that up. Yeah If I ran a business I would put a bunch of them in one tank because you would be constantly moving the product. but if it is just a personal tank at home, no way would I suggest anyone to put 12 discus in a 37gal. They would be stunted forsure. And about the 90% water changes same thing. The fact that you replace their water with an exact parameter match and it being pre treated, i'm sure that works out great for you and the growth of the fish. But just someone at home, I would never suggest more than a 40-50% water change. Thanks for the info

Correct, but I wasnt really applying what I said to you hunter you never really called me stupid, since ashley did I assumed she must of known what she was talking about so I would assume she would know the difference from what I was saying and from a breeders standpoint. I had 7 discus in a 55 L with rams,cory cats,otocinclus, and cardinals. I did only once a week water changes of 25% after about 5 months of keeping them I learned the hard way that I wasnt doing enough water changes because I had a mix of 3" to 5" discus and ended up seeing a 3" discus spawning which really bummed me out knowing there growth was now stunted because I didnt keep fresh enough water in the tank for them to grow. Plus with me keeping them to early in my fish keeping days and also in too high of PH (8.0) and not soft enough water for them. I did try in the beginning of only had 2 discus in a tank and one of the discus stressed out the other discus till death occurred, I even tried 4 discus and there was still alot of aggression and 3 discus were in the corner and couldnt move without the dominant discus ramming the other 3 back into the corner, it was not until I got 6+ that things finally settled down and they finally got along peacefully and the aggression was spread out enough. Towards the end I had a pair of discus that were spawning in a community tank but never worked out since my water was to hard.

Addictedtofish wrote:Thank you ashley for getting on here and calling me not once but twice STUPID!! I just hope when the day comes and someone thats obviously ignorant as you are will point out your lack of fish knowledge, but like you said its your opinion and some opinions are best kept to yourself so you dont end up looking like the STUPID!! person.

LOL funny. The OP stated that he had never had discus before and you go telling him it's okay to put 10-12 discus in a 37gal and do 90% water changes per day!? And you forgot to mention all the details that bobby just brought to the table... Sorry but what you said was a prettyy STUPID statement if you ask me.

Keep in mind ashley discus are not active like most fish there similar to frontosa's when it comes to movement, possibly even anglefish, slow peaceful movement. Im also not saying keep 10 to 12 adults in a 37 gal, because most people wont pay the price for 5" + discus. The general size you see in stores is around the 2 to 4" size and there is no problem keeping 10 to 12 of them in a 37 gal. But if you only do once a week water changes and not at least 25% WC there growth will be stunted, I only fed my discus twice a day which I knew was to much of an amount each time, but they ate like pigs and with all my cleanup crew my bioload was still pretty minimal after a week. If I did it all over again I would do exactly what Im saying but I would increase my water changes to 3 times a week and 50% water changes till they hit the 5" mark then I would move them to a bigger tank and get more smaller ones to see the beauty of the different sizes and colors of fish. I do miss them but I know enough now I dont want to mess with pre treated water nor all the water changes, I prefer to stick with africans since im well water and dont have to do anything to my water to keep them.

Okay yeah sure but you were replying to someone who has never kept discus before. You probably should have included a little more detail to your post.

And what do you think the 2-4" discus grow into?!? Big discus!

All you said to start out with was "10-12 can go in a 37gal tank" I mean come on....You didn't expect people to jump in on that one?

I really think this topic has gotten out of hand and ended up like most of the other topics on here, people are always going to have a different point of view and there are many different ways of keeping fish. If you dont like or dont agree with the posters advice or comment, please dont criticize the posters on public forum keep it to PM, that goes for me also since I have abused this more than once.

I think we've beaten this dead horse into the ground.. Maybe we can just give the OP some good advice about the Correct way to keep discus.. There's always gonna be a 100 different ways we all keep our own personal fish. Hopefully the MOD's can clean this thread up and just keep the good info..

Ok, I just recently lost a member do to my "cleaning up a thread"... I definetly do not want to loose any more members do to my deleting posts...

Bashing member is not tolerated... so any posts with name calling, or vulgarity will be deleted, otherwise I will leave it be.

to get this thing back on subject, how a breeder/farmer runs his business is completly different than a average hobbyiest trying to establish a nice planted community tank. So, I will stick with what I originally said, you can fit more than a couple discus in your 37gal, I would talk to our sponsor bobby for some great advice... he is a genious! buy his fish too... there awesome!

I'd say start with 5-6 then as a pair forms remove the rest... I don't think more than a breeding pair should be kept in a 37 (same footprint as a 29, just taller)... heck, I put a pair of adult blue cobras into a 75 gallon and then decided to switch them for something else, things were near 10" in diameter and really just looked huge in that tank.

I'd suggest 5 of them to start... that leaves you a slot or two open just in case you come across one in your adventures around fish stores that you absolutely must have without the danger of putting your tank over the edge.

750 in a 25 gallon ..do it! lol

Aaron (OP)
I'm pretty new myself to Discus but what I've read or heard most often for a hobby tank (not a breeder or grow out set up) is that adult Discus will require 10 gals per fish. I do a 25% water change every 4-5 days, so that bio load would make sense to me. That's for the Discus tank, which is heavily planted with pressurized CO2 and dosed with fertz, and my water parameters stay stable between changes.
If I was doing daily water changes I'd keep more Discus/fish per gallon. The higher the volume of water, and the greater the frequency of water changes, the more you can add to the bio-load (within reason). So everyone here is who keeps Discus have found methods that work with their bio-load and results in healthy fish.

I picked up three new Discus from Bobby this afternoon, and I tell you, he's got some beautiful and healthy fish, and a great set up that allows him to do 90% water changes daily.
I'm impressed.

So feeney
After all this information are you still thinking of getting some discuss ??

ya maybe 2 or 3 at most, but will they eat my CPD or neons, I am a cheap SOB and would probably start with younguns and not worry about growing fast, just staying healthy,,, no hurry to get huge fish,,,,, I really didn't think a simpole question would blow up so much contraversy

lol... many different opinions in here.... and people throw passion behind what they believe... anyway, they wont eat the neons... itleast mine dont... and bobby actually had some housed with his.

It shows how passionate we are about our hobby Aaron. You should only think about how you would feel in a 37 gallon tank with 3 or 4 buddies. would you like clean water and freash food? would you like more room to thrive and maybe have some space to yourself when you just want to be alone. I had 6 discus (Pigeon Blood circa 92') in 55 gallons with just a sailfin pleco( 3") and some clown loaches. All was well for about 2 years but then 2 decided to lay eggs and the other 4 ate them and fights broke out all the time. No one paired up to my surprise. So I took out the loaches and pleco. Same thing over and over so I gave them to a friend who had a bigger tank (400 gallons) . The next week all 6 of my discus began pairing off with his discus (he had 12 before mine came along). Soon he had babies and he would leave them in there to grow. I thought he was crazy but they thrived and about half made it to 4 inches and thats when he decided to pull them out and sell them to several stores for a nice chunk of change (well, it was back then). His water changes was twice a week at about 25 to 30% each time. Well fed with shrimp and krill and some sinking wafers but nothing else. What my discus taught me was even though everything looks fine and dandy discus need their space to thrive and not just survive. My 55 gallon was not big enough for 6 full grown discus to develope healthy discus behavior and they suffered because of it. Just some food for thought

go with rams in your size tank, o two discus that you cant live with out. even that imo is pushing it due to the fact that i love my fish. hince they are all spoiled and would never cramp them together. keep us posted on what you do.

You already tried to breed rams right? I got my apistos in a 10gal, the rams in a 10gal, my discus pair in a 29gal, and my discus community of 8 fish in a 55gal... everything is happy scrappy over here! Breeding like crazy, keeping me busy. there all fun fish, especially cause they dont disturb plants so you cant make a awesome planted setup.

Definetly keep us posted.

I don't see why you don't get both... a few discus and a pair or trio of apistos, apistos are alot easier to breed than rams IME and usually have cooler breeding behavior, or just get a single discus... I've seen several people do that with success, you've just got to pick out a discus that seems like a loner in the tank, the one that doesn't associate well with the others.

Though IMO aaron... you should work on your PDF viv before you get more fishes or you're gonna miss your chance to pick up some frogs at microcosm

I plan to spend some time in the garage revisiting the Dart frog terrarium build after work today

That's a better idea...get the frogs going
Are you still working on the hex tank??

took a break, from the Hex build, for vacation time, now back to business.