Discus...Boring or Not?

[sledge760]

I am thinking of switching over my 180 gallon African cichlid tank to Discus. I have been reading through different forums on this site and others. Some people seem to think that Discus are boring. Most of the comments are from other forums though.

Some of the comments are:
"Discuss are very, very boring."
"You will get tired of Discus real fast."
My set up only lasted two months, then got rid of them".

Can I get other people's opinion on this topic? Basically, are they boring or not?

 

[redtailfool]

Boring is a very subjective term. I personally like Discus but my fish
buddies hate them ( Paging Neo , Deathcurl ? ). What do you like in a fish ? Maybe we can start with that.

 

[DasArab]

Well they are certainly going to be a bit calmer than a tank of manic africans but remember that once fully grown you will have a tank of beauitfuly coloured fish. If herd people say the Oh they are boring then in the next breath are compliaing that thier tank of semi aggresive sa/ca cichlids are taking chunks out of each and they dont know why.
I just started down the Discus route and yes they are shy, but they are getting better, i nearly had one eat out of my hand the last day.

Heres the first of mine, how can these be boring?

Royal Blue Turq

Red Dragon

Red turq

Pigeon Blood

 

[dirtyblacksocks]

Discus and angelfish - to the best of my knowledge - are the only cichlids you'll find that school together.

In a 180 gallon tank you could get roughly 15-20 discus and it's quite a sight, I think a lot of people don't understand the nature of discus and purchase only 2 or 3 - you won't see their full behavior patterns unless you get a large school.

Just like other SA/CA cichlids they'll come to the glass at feeding time, let you pet and hand feed them ect.

During mating season when they start to pair off you will see semi-aggressive behavior, their mating dances can be pretty complex in comparison to other cichlids simply flashing eachother. It's very cool to watch a full grown discus start to vibrate and shake at a female.

 

[sledge760]

Great pictures DasArab. This is one of the reasons why I am interested in switching to Discus.

 

[dirtyblacksocks]

One of my favorite discus pictures.

 

[sweeTang21]

i love discus. They are not the most active fish but they have amazing colors. i wish i had 180 gallon for discus. hell i wish i had a 180 period.

 

[Bderick67]

I find them very boring, I only keep them as dithers for my black arowana

 

[tunerX]

Those are some expensive dithers.

Very nice though.

 

[JD_MAN]

I find them very boring, I only keep them as dithers for my black arowana

Funny...I was told that my discus are dithers for my clown loaches. lol