Angels with Discus
- Thread starter Yoda1
- Start date
I have done it and my observations are in a large tank it works as both species (kept in groups of 5 or more) tend to keep to themselves. Angelfish are generally more agressive than discus and can out compete the discus for food if the thank is too small. It is a debated question because the dynamic has to be balanced. If the tank is set up correctly so the Discus & Angelfish have an area of their own there is usually little interaction. So there is no set in stone answer and like all tanks it is a trial and error propasition what worked for one may be a disaster for another. A large tank set up correctly can and will work is my experiance. It would be interesting what others have tried and experianced.
A lot is often said about Discus picking up diseases from Angels.
Was this never an issue for you??
No never. I heard all of that too, Discus plague etc. I think that's one for mythbusters. Anytime you introduce fish together without proper QT there is a risk of disease transmission but no more than normal between Angelfish and Discus and any other fish.
No issues with domestics at least, not sure I would keep wilds together. I've had angels and discus and generally it worked out fine. Mine all schooled together in one big group and picked on one another equally like shoaling cichlids should do. The angels were more aggressive about feeding so I had to over compensate with food so my discus got food, this led to giant fat angels that looked like they'd eff you up, not at all magestic LOL! I have since given away all my angels (I only kept them when I switched to discus because my daughters were attached). Here are some random pics where yo can see my last angel, the only angel with a beer belly.
That's interesting your domestics grouped together. My were both wild and stayed apart mostly not always but they prefered the company of there own kind. Of coures at feeding time all bets were off. I would get the angels eating at one end and then feed the other end of the tank so the discus would be able to relax and graze. I think a lot of the myth about Discus getting sick housed with angelfish has more to do with the Discus getting stressed by being bullied and then their imune system being compromised making them suseptable to illness. Long term sucess IME requires a big tank at least 6ft, 8ft even better or its better keeping only the Discus or the anglefish.
All my angels and discus started out very small so maybe that has something to do with it, they grew out together.
You hear all sorts of horror stories though.
I plan on getting some Stendkers in about 6 weeks time.
There is an Angel in my tank, which I am quite happy to get rid of. But my 5 year old daughter considers it to be her fish. So I would not be popular if I had to move it on.
Those are stendkers in my pics. The fish did get quite sick at one point and I had some losses, this was a couple years ago though before I got the hang of growing out discus.