Hi everyone,
I was given three beautiful Discus two weeks ago. I'm wondering about how Discus generally behave. My three seem to be rather reclusive. They spend the entire day together in one corner of the tank. At night with the lights out I see them slowly floating around. They are extremely lazy eaters. The food always makes it to the aquarium floor before they pursue it at all. The only food they even reasonably act excited about is frozen bloodworms. Previous owner fed Tetra brand Cichlid food, I've started them on New Life Spectrum Discus mix. Is this all normal?
I've read that three Discus is about the worse number you can keep. Do you think that is a problem? The guy who gave them to me said the huge one (about 7 inches) was the father of the other two. The female had died (some time ago). He said both smaller ones are the same age from the same batch of fry. Yet one is significantly smaller... I'm assuming this could be because it was the one the other two picked on.
Do you think I should try to add a few more Discus to bring them out? If I do, will it hurt to add several smaller Discus or should I spend a fortune on larger grown out species?
Maybe my aquascape isn't Discus friendly?
Here's the tank details:
Standard 55 Gallon
Ammonia and Nitrite = 0ppm
Nitrate = 5ppm (lots of live plants)
PH = 6.8 (kept that low naturally by C02 injection and driftwood, no buffers)
82 F Temp
Weekly water change of 40%
Tankmates:
School of 6 Silver Tip Tetras
School of 6 Harlequin Rasboras
Pair of German Blue Rams
Two Pearl Gouramis
Couple Juli Cories
Algae crew of 3 Siamensis and 4 Ottos
I'm not opposed to removing the school of Silver Tips if you think less schooling fish would help the Discus feel the tank was more open.
Here's some pics!
I was given three beautiful Discus two weeks ago. I'm wondering about how Discus generally behave. My three seem to be rather reclusive. They spend the entire day together in one corner of the tank. At night with the lights out I see them slowly floating around. They are extremely lazy eaters. The food always makes it to the aquarium floor before they pursue it at all. The only food they even reasonably act excited about is frozen bloodworms. Previous owner fed Tetra brand Cichlid food, I've started them on New Life Spectrum Discus mix. Is this all normal?
I've read that three Discus is about the worse number you can keep. Do you think that is a problem? The guy who gave them to me said the huge one (about 7 inches) was the father of the other two. The female had died (some time ago). He said both smaller ones are the same age from the same batch of fry. Yet one is significantly smaller... I'm assuming this could be because it was the one the other two picked on.
Do you think I should try to add a few more Discus to bring them out? If I do, will it hurt to add several smaller Discus or should I spend a fortune on larger grown out species?
Maybe my aquascape isn't Discus friendly?
Here's the tank details:
Standard 55 Gallon
Ammonia and Nitrite = 0ppm
Nitrate = 5ppm (lots of live plants)
PH = 6.8 (kept that low naturally by C02 injection and driftwood, no buffers)
82 F Temp
Weekly water change of 40%
Tankmates:
School of 6 Silver Tip Tetras
School of 6 Harlequin Rasboras
Pair of German Blue Rams
Two Pearl Gouramis
Couple Juli Cories
Algae crew of 3 Siamensis and 4 Ottos
I'm not opposed to removing the school of Silver Tips if you think less schooling fish would help the Discus feel the tank was more open.
Here's some pics!
