I have this crazy Idea for a dream tank?

[Snowflake311]

My dream would be to have 6 discus in my 100 gal with my True parrot. Anyone have any idea this could work or is it just a dream?

I read that True parrots are often caught with Heckle discus.

 

[HiImSean]

if it were to work, you would need a much larger tank than a 100g. i was volunteering at the georgia aquarium the other day and we have a tank with maybe 2 dozen discus, all 5"+, a few dozen festivus and one chocolate cichlid. id imagine in a tank that size a psittacus would work as well. the tank is prolly around 1000g if not more

 

[Sarah88]

i dont see why the stock wouldnt work but i agree you would need a larger tank, i think it could probably work in a 180, psittacus get quite large so you would need more room for a grown one plus a nice school of discus and be able to keep the water clean enough for the discus without doing daily water changes, sounds like it would be an awesome tank though and if you could get your hands on some wild heckels that would be even more awesome

 

[Snowflake311]

Yeah when my parrot got big I would not have room in my tank for all of them. But till then it could work. Because 6 discus is not too much for a 100gal. maybe some day.

When my parrot does get over 8" I might have to find him a new home. Unless my husband let's me upgrade my 100 gal.

 

[thedarkone]

That would be pretty awesome. The wife and I have been talking a lot lately about getting a 75 gallon to put 5-6 discus in. We are both madly in love with Discus. Hopefully within a couple of years it will happen. We don't have a lot of funds right now as we are raising 2 kids.

 

[Gruff Master]

Sounds great! I have yet to see a True Parrot in person, only online and mags. Your future stock can work in a larger tank. I hope to see a thread on it one day.

 

[peathenster]

well, a 100g is tight already for a fully grown psittacus alone...if you plan to rehome it, might as well do it early because 1. they grow fairly quickly and 2. large fish are very hard to transport...

 

[CTU2fan]

I think it could work but as said I think you'd want a really big tank and a large discus shoal. I'd mainly worry about the discus getting enough to eat, are psitticus aggressive feeders the way adult uaru and chocolates are?

 

[Snowflake311]

I don't want to let my parrot go yet. I have a while till he gets over 8". I hope my husband will see how big they get and give in to the idea of a larger tank.

Yes I think your right the main problem would be the discus getting food. My parrot is a pig.

Would a 150gal 5'x2'x2' be big enough or would it have to be a 180gal?

 

[ryansmith83]

A 180 would be better... or even a 210. I moved a single psittacus into my 210 with some severums and it went from 3" to 6" in just over two months. That's serious growth. He's almost as big as some of my severums and they're all at least a year old.

The biggest concern is the fact that large cichlids like psittacus are aggressive eaters. Discus tend to pick at their food and forage around for it. Yes, they'll often attack it when you drop it in the tank like other cichlids, but they don't devour it all at once. I'd be afraid the psittacus would gobble up what was left and your discus would constantly be foraging for food that wasn't there.