Keeping discus in a community aquarium

For years now I've wanted to add discus to my community aquarium which itself is a non-aggresive tank. The guy at the local fish store told me NOT to do it since discus should only be kept with discus.

Most websites said the same thing but I went ahead and did it anyway. I have a 90-gallon tank by the way.

I purchased two discus and they are swimming around with large-sized irridecent sharks, bala sharks, gold gouramis, congo tetras, rainbows, and 3 fully grown angels. Most of these fish are pretty docile and have shown no aggression against by discus.

It's been 4 months and the discus are doing great! The trick is to keep your aquarium water in great shape - in other words:

- do 10 to 15% water changes weekly (this includes vacuuming the gravel) - do water changes using 'Aqua-Plus' by Hagen - dose aquarium with some 'Cycle'(again by Hagen). Some people say that this product is useless but I've used it with excellent results. - add a little bit of Doc Welfish's aquarium salt - the temperature is at 86 degrees F with good aeration

and that's it !!

By the way I have a FLUVAL 404 Cannister filter.

So for all you people out there who are afraid of buying discus, think again. Having docile fish + good water quality is all you need.

'> So for all you people out there who are afraid of buying discus, think

We shall see. What variant of discus do you have only two of?

Hi Alpha:

I have two discus. One is a fire-red discuss, and the other is a cobalt-blue discus.

I have also had success keeping discus in a community tank.No doubt you should carefully select discus tank mates. I must advise that Angels are no good to keep with discus, as well as larger gouramis and hooligan fish like giant danios. These fish out-compete discus for food and space. In which case they cower in a corner and refuse to eat. Discus may safely be kept with other docile community fish, just as long as the discus are not intimidated and the other fish can handle the heat. I would also advise you not to keep plecs together with discus, as my plecs would hover around trying to latch onto the discus. many purists out ther have bolted me for kwwping loaches with discus, citing that their biotopes are different. if yu really care about biotopes or you're keeping an amazon theme tanks, I don't see why not. Personally I keep Kribs, Rams, dwarf gouramis, loaches and assorted tetras, and they do quite nicely with discus.

Hey Stokes:

Thanks for the advice ... also glad to see other people successfully keeping discus in a community.

My angels however are almost fully grown and kinda mind their own business. They don't bug the discus at all (for now).

The only negative thing I'm seeing so far is when I feed, there is a feeding frenzy that goes on .. quick movements, splashing etc especially with blood worms. The discus are very classy fish - they don't like to splash around which is why I put food right above them away from the warzone.

This is now month 4 with the discus - they seem to be heathly - no hole in the head whatsoever and their appetites are quite good.

Aside from high quality flake food and frozen blood rooms, can you recommend other foods that the discus may like?

Thanks.

Hiya Jim,

Glad to hear its the fourth month already. I had angels with my discus a while back, they were such bullies I had to give em away. The other risk of keeping the two together is the risk of parasites. Apparently angels are carriers of capillaria, fish lice an a host of intestinal worms. You should definitely feed them brine shrimp, live or frozen. It is a good source of protein and carries no risk of parasites. A good ox heart preperation is also very nutritious. They come prepared in the same sort of packaging that the forzen blood worms do. You just break off a slab and chop it into quarters. I've also fed them good old earthworms. I've been advised not to feed any tubifex worms cos they grown in sewage. you may want to try mosquito larvae, make sure that the source is not polluted. I pick em out of our pond in summer. kind of like a seasonal delicacy

Hi Stokes:

Man oh man you are a WEALTH of information !! Thanks a million for the great advice ... Hikari makes frozen brine shrimp .. do you recommend it? I'm only asking this cause I want the very best for my discus.

Also - your comments regarding angels carrying a host of parasites kinda raises my eyebrows a little ... what would you do in my place if you had 3 large angels living peacefully with 2 discus ... it's been 4 months that I've had the discus however it's been well over a year that I've had my angels ....

Ah yes ... the ups and downs of fish keeping .... what's a guy to do?

Hi Jim,

Its wonderul isn't it? The discus have really ingnited your enthusiasm.

The other fish in your tank will benefit immensely, their general health and colour will improve. Just remember water changes to keep levels of waste down. As far as salt is concerned, in my opinion it is a good fungicide, albeit its mild. Also works on white spot combind with a small increase in the temperature. I do not think that salt has any effect on these parasites, knowing full well that these organisms affect marine fish as well. Also, I've read some where that discus do not particularly like salty water and cannot tolerate it for a long time. erhaps someone else may share their opinion on this. I would still go for the tank buddies fizz tabs by Jungle Labs. For a long time I had suffered losses from HLLE (Hole in teh Head) and gill flukes. That is until my LFS owner recommended this product. Dose the main tank, as this will treat all the fish, alo kill any parasites in the water and on any rocks. ornaments etc. Let me know how it goes.

Hi Stokes,

Indeed the discus have ignited not only my enthusiasm but it's taking some social time away from my wife - but we'll leave THAT story for a more suitable forum

Jungle Labs sells everywhere here in Canada. Can I just ask you, the Jungle Labs product by which you mean, is this 'Parasite Clear Tank Buddies' ? Just drop it in and it fizzes right?

My main concern is that most of these products by Jungle Labs (Parasite Clear, Parasite Guard etc.) require the removal of my carbon media which to me is alot of work. All I want to do is treat my tank once in a while as a 'preventive measure'. Do I have to go through this every time?

Can I drop in a tank buddy and not have to worry about removing the carbon?

As usual Stokes, your input is quite valuable.

A zillion thanks !

Could I please jump in here, with regard to your Angels, and the parasite thing. Firstly who said there loaded with parasite, If there eating well, bright eyed, and swimming, dosing the tank with a load of Chemicals , might well be an over reaction. Really let your eye's be the judge, You say you have had them for a while, If there that infested with Parasites, I think something would have happened , to indicate it by now,, laying on the gravel, dying, is a good indicator that something is wrong. Regards bassett

Greetings!

I'm not saying they are carrying parasites. Any top breeder who has authority on the subject agree that angelfish are carriers of capillaria which are harmless to the angels but not so with discus.I've read that on lots of web sites and books on teh subject. I would suggest taking sample smears from dropping and swabs from the skin to verify the condition. Examine them under a microscope and check if they are infested. If not go ahead and keep em. I just feel strongly about the angels bullying discus as that is what happened to me. Most fish carry parasites but not so much as to kill them or make them ill. In time, given the right conditions, they will reproduce and progressively decimate the fish. I wouldn't take that chance, but then again i feel strongly about not keeping angels and discus together. And by the time the fish shows any signs of infestation, I would think it too late...

Jim, you would have to remove the carbon inserts i'm afraid. That is the stuff I was telling you about. The medication would be rendered ineffective in no time, especially if the flow rate on your filter is high, which I assume it is. What sort of filter are you using?

hi guy's and girls. yeah it sounds really good that you can keep Discus in a community tank. just becareful with Angles i was told from a breeder to use garlic guard for worming discus because the Angles can give worms to Discus.but het don't Quote me on this. cheers Dingo1.

What you can get by with and what is optimum for Discus are two different things. For example, Discus need warmer water than most other species, and they like to school. If conditions are perfect for Discus, they're probably marginal for other species. Since Discus are delicate and expensive, do some research before adding tankmates.

I have to agree with John.

"Sharks" and some of the other fish mentioned as tankmates are indeed tropical fish, but not as hot as the discus...

And buying a discus or two isn't really the greatest of ideas. As a schooling fish, a group of 5 is more suitable, with more being better.

These fish also require a tremendous amount of tank space to themselves... not including all the other fish mentioned... 90 gallons may be a big tank, but if you add up how many "big" "sharks" or cats you have in there... you might be over bioload without realizing it.

Also... a 10-15% water change a week isn't ideal for discus... Most discus owners are changing water a lot more than that... both in amount of water change, and in the number of times a week, with some that I know doing 60% a day.

Discus are beautiful, but you need to read up on them.

Also, a little reading up on Angels wouldn't hurt anything. Angels aren't "infested" with worms. If you get your fish from a quality breeder, this isn't a problem. I feel like it's very unfair to make a species wide comment like that.

Anyway... My 2 cents worth...

sir i read all these posts..in my opinion u may not go for only 2 discus..bcoz 1 may be aggresive and other is not..so the aggresive one may take max of the food that u gv...the best way to keep discus is min of 4 or more than that...when u keep discus u should provide the atmosphere that where u shoult...u should gv some hiding place with driftwood...some plants like amazon..u may keep neon tetra and angels with discus... thanx