Discus and eel?

[kurty2osu]

I have a 65g and have always wanted some kind of eel (maybe peacock?) but also would like to keep a discus or two in with it. I've talked to some fish store employee's and one said no because at night when the discus was sleeping the eel would pick on it and stress it out and the other guy said no it shouldn't be a problem any thoughts?

 

[dirtyblacksocks]

No personal experience with it but I would not keep any large fish like that with discus, they're skittish.

 

[Lupin]

My answer is no as well. The employee has a point.

 

[ziggy2]

I say no, but you need to know that you should keep Discus is larger groups than 2. You should have at least 5. But Discus do sleep/rest and could become dinner when the lights are off.

 

[Ice001520]

I work at a Fish Store and 2 people keep discus with African Cichlids. (Yes, I know they are crazy) And I also know that an African Cichild is not nearly the same as a peacock eel but I think it is worth a shot. A discus is not going to sit there and take it and there is no guarantee that the peacock eel is going to pick on the discus. People also keep discus with aarowana. My vote is for Yes.

 

[Westie]

I had a fire eel with my discus for 10 years and no problems.

 

[boxerfish]

Had a fire eel with discus for about 6 months until I cleaned the tank one night and left the top exposed overnight. Thought I left a rotten banana on floor, but it was my 10 inch fire eel curled up dead.
Anyways, had no conflict with the pair, they didn't even show any recognition to each other, eel ate earthworms, discus ate blackworms. With eels in my experience, if it couldn't fit in their mouth, they couldn't care less about other fish.

 

[reptileguy2727]

My tiretrack has left bite marks on a number of the fish in with him even though they are way bigger than he could possibly eat.

Discus are sensitive and an aggressive, pecking tankmate can take them downhill fast.

Many people keep combinations they should not. Just because these cases did not turn out horribly (at least not yet) does not mean they should be used as the references to go by.

Discus should be in a tank dedicated to and designed around them. In that tank you can do a nice school of 6 or so, maybe they will form a pair if all goes well. You even have room for some maintenance fish like bristlenose plecos, many of the cories, some loaches, you might even be able to do a school of cardinals or something.