Help me stock my tank

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
ckcdrummer said:
Thanks guys, these are all some nice ideas. What would you guys think of a few discus and a school of some kind of tetras? Maybe rummy nose or blood eyes?


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Discus won't last very long with large geos. The idea of rehoming the geos and stocking with 4 discus, 10+ deep bodied tetras and a school of 6-8 cories is a great idea. Rummy nose would be okay with juvie discus, but adults will eat them. But the red eyes should work. Make sure you buy all the discus at the same time so their social hierarchy doesn't get reset every time another discus is added.


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Mythic Figment said:
Discus won't last very long with large geos. The idea of rehoming the geos and stocking with 4 discus, 10+ deep bodied tetras and a school of 6-8 cories is a great idea. Rummy nose would be okay with juvie discus, but adults will eat them. But the red eyes should work. Make sure you buy all the discus at the same time so their social hierarchy doesn't get reset every time another discus is added.


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Rehoming the geos wouldn't be a problem. I do understand that discus need pristine water so if I just did a 5 gal change every day would that work better then doing one big water change every week? I only use RO water on my saltwater tanks but I do use water conditioner for the freshwater tank. Also, is 4 discus gonna be a big enough group or should there be more? I know discus need to be in groups so just wondering. What would be a good kind of discus to get? I wanna stay away from the pigeon bloods cause I know they can get peppered pretty easily. I was thinking I'd go with Green discus or blue snakeskins. What do you guys think?


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ckcdrummer said:
Rehoming the geos wouldn't be a problem. I do understand that discus need pristine water so if I just did a 5 gal change every day would that work better then doing one big water change every week? I only use RO water on my saltwater tanks but I do use water conditioner for the freshwater tank. Also, is 4 discus gonna be a big enough group or should there be more? I know discus need to be in groups so just wondering. What would be a good kind of discus to get? I wanna stay away from the pigeon bloods cause I know they can get peppered pretty easily. I was thinking I'd go with Green discus or blue snakeskins. What do you guys think?


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Many discus keepers grow their juveniles out in bare bottom tanks and change a large portion of their water out every day (75-200%). If you go with juveniles, grow out in a bare bottom but doing a 25-30% daily change should be fine if you make sure to siphon the poop off the bottom twice a day. And just to clarify that because I know it was a little confusing, do 2 daily 5-10 gallon changes and make sure to suck the poop off the bottom both times. I would still recommend doing one big water change of about 50-75% once a week. Using RO water will go a long way with making them feel more at home.

If you go with adults, they are more forgiving and doing a 25-30% water change once every 2-3 days will work just fine.

Four discus should work just fine. Now they are still cichlids and the rule of "personality counts" still matters here. Keep an eye out for aggression. They will bicker among themselves for the first 3-7 days you have them while they figure out their social standing within the group. If things get too rough (serious damaged fins, scales getting torn off, etc) or it goes in for longer than a week, you may need to rehome the aggressor and replace it with another discus. Doing so would reset the social hierarchy and they would argue again for a few more days, but you should be fine with four. I have done weeks worth of research on discus and only rarely came across reports of truly aggressive discus. I wouldn't worry about it.

Color is a matter of personal taste. Buying from a reputable source like Hans (my personal favorite discus vendor) will drastically reduce potential peppering in lighter colored discus. My favorite colors are the turquoise varieties. But again, its all about what you prefer.


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Mythic Figment said:
Many discus keepers grow their juveniles out in bare bottom tanks and change a large portion of their water out every day (75-200%). If you go with juveniles, grow out in a bare bottom but doing a 25-30% daily change should be fine if you make sure to siphon the poop off the bottom twice a day. And just to clarify that because I know it was a little confusing, do 2 daily 5-10 gallon changes and make sure to suck the poop off the bottom both times. I would still recommend doing one big water change of about 50-75% once a week. Using RO water will go a long way with making them feel more at home.

If you go with adults, they are more forgiving and doing a 25-30% water change once every 2-3 days will work just fine.

Four discus should work just fine. Now they are still cichlids and the rule of "personality counts" still matters here. Keep an eye out for aggression. They will bicker among themselves for the first 3-7 days you have them while they figure out their social standing within the group. If things get too rough (serious damaged fins, scales getting torn off, etc) or it goes in for longer than a week, you may need to rehome the aggressor and replace it with another discus. Doing so would reset the social hierarchy and they would argue again for a few more days, but you should be fine with four. I have done weeks worth of research on discus and only rarely came across reports of truly aggressive discus. I wouldn't worry about it.

Color is a matter of personal taste. Buying from a reputable source like Hans (my personal favorite discus vendor) will drastically reduce potential peppering in lighter colored discus. My favorite colors are the turquoise varieties. But again, its all about what you prefer.


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Ok thanks for all the information! I do plan on keeping adults, not juvies. how can I contact Hans? Is he on here?


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ckcdrummer said:
Ok thanks, I'm gonna go over my budget for the next few weeks and see what I can afford.


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Definitely save up. Adult discus run in the $60-90 per fish. Go ahead and get your other fish, that way they are keeping the bio filtration alive and well while you save up for the cost of the fish plus their shipping cost. You should be able to afford all the tetras and cories with your initial $90 and still have some left over to put aside for the discus. You will probably spend between $250-300 for all four fish plus shipping.


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