discus questions?

[fishyjoe26]

I'm planing on starting a discus tank,and did some research but still have questions.

what is the right ph for discus? my ph is 6.2

how many discus can i put in my 225 tall.

what type of fish can go with discus.

i have cory catfish,synodontis catfish,pictus catfish,plecos,black skirt tetras,zebra danios,red tail giant gouramis,bala sharks,and angel fish will they go with discus or will i need to take them to a lfs or sale them.

how offen should i do water changes(i have a 600gph fluidied filter, and 2 fluval 404's).

how many should i get at one time?

 

[Bderick67]

You said you've researched, these a pretty basic questions.

your pH will be fine.

20 adults would not raise juvies in this tank.

Fish that can tolerate high temps and acidic water to start, they also need to be non aggressive. Would only put other fish with adult discus none with juvies.

At least 50% w/c a week, more with juvies.

Are you buying adults or raising juvies? it is always good to buy in groups and avoid adding individule fish.

 

[ewok]

I'm planing on starting a discus tank,and did some research but still have questions.

what is the right ph for discus? my ph is 6.2
that is fine...

how many discus can i put in my 225 tall.
what are the specific dimensions? taller tanks usually mean fewer fish

what type of fish can go with discus.
gentle, non predatory, smaller sized, can handle higher water temperatures. recommend certain corys and cardinal tetras although i have not done it myself.

i have cory catfish,synodontis catfish,pictus catfish,plecos,black skirt tetras,zebra danios,red tail giant gouramis,bala sharks,and angel fish will they go with discus or will i need to take them to a lfs or sale them.
i would take out the synodontis, pictus, pleco, red tail gourami, angels and bala sharks actually. angel fish are purported to carry diseases that discus can catch... the other fish seem to active or will get too large for discus.

how offen should i do water changes(i have a 600gph fluidied filter, and 2 fluval 404's).
i do daily 25% water changes straight from the tap.

how many should i get at one time?
see comment about dimensions. i would recommend at least 6 since they are social fish.

 

[fishyjoe26]

so i basicly need to get rid of all my fish, and start over? the tank is 6 feet long, 2 feet deep, and 2 1/2 feet tall. i was planing on just getting a couple of juvies/teens.(the adults are pretty expensive, the juvies/teens are more affordable - 30 to 50 dollars each).

 

[hillbilly]

Sure you could raise juvies in this tank. I would get rid of the other fish, and get a group of about a dozen. You could probably get by with 2, 50% water changes a week if you remove their waste on a daily basis. The more water changes the better. But also keep in mind 200 gals. is quite a bit of water, and if you don't stock it heavily, it's doable. I've done this on a 125 gal. with drip, and 2, 50% weekly water changes and daily vacs. I had no stunting, except for one runt out of 13. This fish probably should have been culled anyway. By the way, you can find the more common strains, turks, blue diamonds, and others from reputable breeders, often for as low as $18 a piece at a 2.5" or so size.

 

[skene]

If you're raising juvies, you probably wouldn't even need a 50% WC as they couldn't even make a dent on how much they can crap out in a 225... that is unless you're planning on stocking it with like 40 juvies, which I doubt.
So you can get away with a 10-15% WC a week. If you had a smaller tank such as a 30-75 gal sure I would recommend more frequent WCs.
I'll tell you though that discus aren't that difficult to keep now. I've had associates that have had multiple discus living for years running in water that barely had WCs per month with no problems. I personally would not recommend doing that, but discus now are less picky with the WCs than the wild caught discus of years ago that were more picky and more susceptible to disease and sickness from less water changes.
Try it out and see how your fish react to it. Then go from there.
I usually do 1 50% WC for my juvies and they are just fine. Growing fast and eating so as long as they are happy no problems here.

 

[WyldFya]

I'd personally recommend a much smaller tank for growing out. Your water changes are going to take forever, and there will be too much space for swimming if you are starting with juvies.

 

[ewok]

i think the irony with keeping juvenile discus is they probably don't need the same kind of 'grow out' space like most CA or SA cichlids. you can comfortably keep 6 3" juvis in a 40 gallon till they hit the 5" mark and then move them. i believe the thing with juvenile discus is the following: tons to eat all the time and massive water changes. it's kind of hard to accomplish the later in a 200+ gallon.
i would get a 40 gallon and grow out 6 of them to a good size and take it from there. you will be much more motivated to do DAILY water changes, as opposed to waiting twice a week. i am waiting for all my fish to quarantine properly then put all the adults in my 100 gallon and my 6 juvniles in a 40. i know i would probably change much more of their water that way. just my two cents.

 

[hillbilly]

i think the irony with keeping juvenile discus is they probably don't need the same kind of 'grow out' space like most CA or SA cichlids. you can comfortably keep 6 3" juvis in a 40 gallon till they hit the 5" mark and then move them. i believe the thing with juvenile discus is the following: tons to eat all the time and massive water changes. it's kind of hard to accomplish the later in a 200+ gallon.
i would get a 40 gallon and grow out 6 of them to a good size and take it from there. you will be much more motivated to do DAILY water changes, as opposed to waiting twice a week. i am waiting for all my fish to quarantine properly then put all the adults in my 100 gallon and my 6 juvniles in a 40. i know i would probably change much more of their water that way. just my two cents.

No, they don't need that much space. But with a few small fish in a big tank, like 200 gals., you don't need to do massive, daily water changes. Small fish in a big tank equals a smaller bio load, which equals fewer water changes to keep good water. Why put 6 of them in a 40 gal. and have to change the water every day? I know, you'll say in order to feed heavily and keep the water clean for maximum growth. That's a good reason, but it's much easier to just dump them in the big tank , keep the crap off the bottom, and change the water once or twice a week. With that much dilution from 200+ gals., the results are the same. The fish don't care, as long as they get plenty to eat, and the water reasonably clean, they will grow just as big as they would in a small tank with 100% daily water changes. I know because I've done it both ways.

 

[WyldFya]

No, they don't need that much space. But with a few small fish in a big tank, like 200 gals., you don't need to do massive, daily water changes. Small fish in a big tank equals a smaller bio load, which equals fewer water changes to keep good water. Why put 6 of them in a 40 gal. and have to change the water every day? I know, you'll say in order to feed heavily and keep the water clean for maximum growth. That's a good reason, but it's much easier to just dump them in the big tank , keep the crap off the bottom, and change the water once or twice a week. With that much dilution from 200+ gals., the results are the same. The fish don't care, as long as they get plenty to eat, and the water reasonably clean, they will grow just as big as they would in a small tank with 100% daily water changes. I know because I've done it both ways.

The results are far from the same. Even with the most minute amount of excess nutrients, the discus will stunt. They absolutely will not grow to the same size as they will in the smaller tanks. 1st reason is going to be the nutrients. 2nd reason is that discus are very skiddish, the larger the space, the more room they have to swim. The more room, the more calories they burn, causing less to be left for growth. This also will cause stunting. 3rd reason, just as ewok mentioned with water changes being less motivated, gravel vacing a large tank will be less motivated, resulting in more rotting food... which equals... stunting. The size tank he has is simply not a good grow out tank.