Discus tankmates?

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
Stay away from Chinese Algae eaters (Gyrinocheilus aymonieri). I've tried these and my discus first got bit then got even. There wasn't enough left to fishout with anything but a very fine net. I've kept discus with tri-colors, tin foils, red fin prochilotus (yea I know not even close with the spelling). Mine had no problem compeeting for food, one had a strange hatred for the 12" tri colors and kept stealing their food. They grew to about 8-9" not quite dinner plates but large. They were not the high body variant from Asia, never like that variant visually.
 
revkkoolaid;3478680; said:
Yeah I noticed that to. . .photoshop?
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not photoshopped. its off a site i order discus from sunrise tropicals in there photo gallery. also vladdiscus has a photo of an aro(jar) with discus. Looks real kewl but who knows if it will work but if work means get along happily maybe not but work as in just survive comfortably odds dont seem that bad depending on temperament of the ARO

arodiscus.jpg
 
Brandybottle;3481817; said:
Oh, thanks a lot, but are you sure that I should find a carnivorous pleco or an herbivorous one?
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I meant to tell you that if you're looking for a Plec to eat algae you're probably out of luck unless you get a Bristlenose. I said carnivore because Discus are mainly carnivores as far as needing less greens in their diet. You wouldn't have to go out of your way to make sure the Plec had veggies that way. But then again-if you don't mind adding cucumber or something to the tank then it wouldn't matter.
 
Notice how the discus are close to what little cover there is in the tank. I don't think it's a stress free situation. Just because there are no killings doesn't mean it's all rosy in there. It just means the discus are staying the hell out of the way.

arodiscus.jpg
 
hillbilly;3481930; said:
Notice how the discus are close to what little cover there is in the tank. I don't think it's a stress free situation. Just because there are no killings doesn't mean it's all rosy in there. It just means the discus are staying the hell out of the way.
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i noticed that too . maybe a divider :naughty:
 
apisto;3478922; said:
It all depends what you consider a good looking discus. Those that look like jelly babies on steroids or wild fish? Wild fish tend to be up to 25% smaller than the varieties bred in South East Asia. But there body shape is much more in proportion. Ok, they are not the size of dinner plates but nicer looking fish all the same. And they naturally occur with other fish and why not keep them with such?
If you want to keep the Asian breeds that I think are offensive to the eye, keep them in unnatural surrounding like a bare bottom tank and feed them beefheart mixes laces with antibiotics...:screwy:
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You seem to have misunderstood myself and many others. . . .

I consider happy healthy fish good looking discus. We keep "other" fish in EVERY SINGLE one of our dozens of discus tanks (NONE of them barebottom.) Wild and Domestic. Most of which happen to be fish they live with in the wild, some not i.e loaches. Discus naturally occur with Arapimas and Piranha. That doesn't make them good tank mates.

You can hate on farmie discus all you want. Yes they glow in the dark and sparks shoot out their ass and wilds have their own charm and subtle beauty. My newest discus tank is a 6ft diameter 4ft tall cylinder hardscaped with a group of 10 wild greens and 200+ gold tetras and 24 G. Surinamensis and their happy as all hell. Let's toss a 2ft silver aro in there and see what happens :screwy:.

To each his own on their discus preference but the fact remains large messy predatory fish are bad tank mates for discus period. I don't believe discus SHOULD be kept alone. I DO believe they SHOULD be the FOCUS in their aquarium and not be sprinkled around bruisers.
 
Brandybottle;3481817; said:
Oh, thanks a lot, but are you sure that I should find a carnivorous pleco or an herbivorous one?
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Carnivorous/Omnivorus Plecos typically are the ones who will gnaw on discus. Although really any can if hungry enough. I once had a 12'' common given to me because he kept trying to gnaw. Bushynose are the old stand by for most discus keepers. I've yet to have one tear up discus. We also keep Gold Nuggets, L200 Green Phantoms, L128 Blue Spotted, Royals, and Blue Eye (they felt like paying for it lol) w/o incident.

I've actually only had one instance of pleco gnawing in the field it was a Snowball. The feeding schedule was adj. The fish recovered and the gnawing stopped.

What I'm getting at is it's typically not a super-danger. Just something to be aware of and keep and eye out for.
 
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