Discus+BP=Disaster?

[toehead11183]

I had a customer come into work yesterday to buy a blood parrot. I have 11 and love them so i ask what he plans to keep with his BP. He says hes got a 125 with 3 other blood parrots, clown loaches and a pleco (similar to my set up) BUT he also has 3 discus in there. I told him i'm no expert on discus but i'm pretty sure he's set up for disaster...am i right? Could it work?

 

[TwistedPenguin]

I can't imagine anyone keeping Blood Parrots with Discus. That's not using common sense IMO. Discus are like Angelfish in temperament. The Parrots would harrass them constantly.

 

[Lupin]

Blood parrots are more boisterous in their share of foods.

 

[SusieQ]

Hi. Sometimes a lot of oddball combos work short term.. While the bloodparrots probably wouldn't actually kill the discus outright, I think they would probably stress them to death... Again it depends on the size and temperment of the fish... But usually the bloodparrots are much more active boisterous fish and discus like calm tankmates.. Three discus is also usually not the best number to have so who knows what's really going on in the tank and how long he's had it set up. I wouldn't recommend it that's for sure... Sue

 

[Bobears]

Not to mention the major differences in water parameters...

 

[Lupin]

I forgot to add with the temperature needed by discus, no doubt, the blood parrots will become more aggressive at their foods. High temperature increases metabolism and can increase their aggression towards food as well. Just something else to consider.

 

[revkkoolaid]

Hi. Sometimes a lot of oddball combos work short term.. While the bloodparrots probably wouldn't actually kill the discus outright, I think they would probably stress them to death... Again it depends on the size and temperment of the fish... But usually the bloodparrots are much more active boisterous fish and discus like calm tankmates.. Three discus is also usually not the best number to have so who knows what's really going on in the tank and how long he's had it set up. I wouldn't recommend it that's for sure... Sue

Yeah I agree. . . has bad idea written all over it. I have a client who , against my recommendation placed 3 . . .gag. . .sweetheart parrots in her discus tank.

Granted all that remains of her several yr old discus colony is one giant 8'' pair of some kind of sunrise-esque strain, several lemon tetras & several lg yoyos. But none the less the remaining 2 are perfectly healthy.

It's a 175bow in their vacation home. They had lost several fish during the last hurricane and she had just spoken to me about about restocking her discus and then called me the next day and informed me she had already purchased the bps herself and to postpone (cancel!) her discus request.

After I explained, in so many words lol, that this was stupid and mean she decided to go ahead. I even offered to trade out the discus for something compatible but she wanted to keep them. It sounds messed up but this client really isn't involved enough to own a discus tank IMO (they bought the tank/fish with the house years ago and they go months w/o being there and thats esp no good for acclimating several new fish). I was kind of counting on the discus "checking out" and was trying to look at the bright side and restock her with the standard cichlid hodge-podge. . .

We're going on 5-6 months now and the bps have raised no hell as far as I can tell. I suspect the parrots have eaten all of my amano shrimp but the discus seem like they could care less about the bps. I suspect this temporary success can be attributed to the huge size difference. The bps were 3-4'' when introduced and the discus are about as big as they come and are the original alphas from a well established group of 15 fish. They've also been in the tank undisturbed for years and have no fear of taking on their retarded cousins or fight for food as it comes out the autofeeder that has been their sole food source for eons.

We'll see how it pans out in the long run cuz I never count success in months only years. . . and the fish are rather ancient. . .i'm sure any day now the discus will fall apart and the bps will uproot all the deco and eat the tetras lol. . . .sigh.