Discus

Kolton13

Kolton13

Redtail Catfish
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Oct 3, 2019
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So its my birthday tomorrow! and with my birthday money and the money ive saved up I am getting a bearded dragon and in my 75 I want to get some discus. Any pointers on keeping them? How many can I keep in a 75 gallon tank? Hard water? soft water? temps? What kinds would look best? I saw these red dragon ones and thought they were awesome. I have black sand a huge piece of fake wood and am thinking of getting some really bright plants to make there colors pop, and I plan on feeding a color enhancing tetra flakes with floating pellets for food.
 
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Deadeye

Deadeye

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Happy birthday!

I would think 3-5 or discus should be good (maybe more, I don’t know too much on discus). Color really depends on your preferences. Pristine water is important. Soft, acidic water is preferred for them.
A shoal of cardinal tetras would look nice with them and compliment the discus.
 
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twentyleagues

twentyleagues

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Kolton13 said:
So its my birthday tomorrow! and with my birthday money and the money ive saved up I am getting a bearded dragon and in my 75 I want to get some discus. Any pointers on keeping them? How many can I keep in a 75 gallon tank? Hard water? soft water? temps? What kinds would look best? I saw these red dragon ones and thought they were awesome. I have black sand a huge piece of fake wood and am thinking of getting some really bright plants to make there colors pop, and I plan on feeding a color enhancing tetra flakes with floating pellets for food.
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Happy birthday!
I'd definitely do more research on discus before buying. Like Deadeye Deadeye said soft acidic water, very clean, and they like very warm water too. They are very prone to hlle and other issues if not kept in the correct parameters. I'm sure captive bred multigenerational common ones would be more forgiving it's still a kind of fragile fish. What else is in the tank?
 
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robmcd

robmcd

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I have always wanted to keep discus, but the high maintenance and specific needs always kept me away. Soft acidic water, bare bottom grow out tanks (gross), feeding them 5 times a day, 80+ degree constant temps, and massive (80% daily) water changes are a good deterrent, even for an experienced fishkeeper like myself.

Happy Birthday and happy fishkeeping. I look forward to see what you end up doing.
 
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The Masked Shadow

The Masked Shadow

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robmcd robmcd , I think you exaggerated! biweekly water changes are probably good, you can have them in planted tanks, and I think you feed them 2-3 times a day.
 
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robmcd

robmcd

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The Masked Shadow said:
robmcd robmcd , I think you exaggerated! biweekly water changes are probably good, you can have them in planted tanks, and I think you feed them 2-3 times a day.
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You CAN keep them any way you want, but to keep them healthy, and not raise stunted fish, you must dedicate yourself to that high maintenance regimen. If and when I decide to have a go at raising discus, I want to grow round fish the size of small plates, not runts with oversized eyes and oblong shapes.

Also, keeping enough high protein foods such as fresh and freeze dried blood worms and beef heart just sounds tedious to me.
 
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Kolton13

Kolton13

Redtail Catfish
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Oct 3, 2019
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robmcd said:
I have always wanted to keep discus, but the high maintenance and specific needs always kept me away. Soft acidic water, bare bottom grow out tanks (gross), feeding them 5 times a day, 80+ degree constant temps, and massive (80% daily) water changes are a good deterrent, even for an experienced fishkeeper like myself.

Happy Birthday and happy fishkeeping. I look forward to see what you end up doing.
Click to expand...
Thank you everyone for the birthday wishes. I plan on adding a filter onto the tank (I forgot to mention that) it was a 75 gallon filter on my 50 but since im getting a bearded for that I have the extra filter. I can get water softening pillows because the water at my house is always hard (hence why I kept cichlids and catfish) And a special filter to increase heat. I think tank mates are going to depend on colors of the discus like if I get orange/red discus ill get ember tetras or if I get dark colors like black or a dark blue black neon tetras and so on.
 
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Kolton13

Kolton13

Redtail Catfish
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Also. Anyone have any ideas for a reptiles in a 40 gallon? I was supposed to get a leopard gecko but he backed out. Something again I can handle and interact with
 
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