Discus Vs Sucking Fish

[d_willi]

Hi all, Im currently looking for some advice re which type of sucking fish will go well with Discus.

I have quite a large discus and 1 small discus, previously had to get rid of my chocolate albino plec due to it giving my discus a bit of abuse.

I currently have a Chinese sucking loach which is only a few inch long but recently noticed that is starting to bother the discus too. (Presume its trying to eat the mucus on the discus' fins). It hasnt done any damage to the discus but it cant be any good for it long term.

I could do with some kind of algae eating fish so that my tank is kept algae free as I have quite a large tank.

Obviously I don't want to have to sell my discus as they are the best fish in the tank, however they hide quite a bit in the day presume due to this other fish bullying it a bit.

It will be a few days till I get the chance to exchange the algae loach but would like an alternative that will not give the discus any hassle.

My discus

 

[n3ont3tra]

Are you looking for an algae eating fish or more of scavenger-type fish?

 

[HelenUK]

Well some people do say not to have plecos in with discus but i have 2 x 4 foot tanks each with 12 discus in and each tank has a bristlenose pleco in. These are about the best algae plecos you can get and they do not grow to big either. Both my plecos have never shown any intrest in my discus.

 

[Fishkrazy1]

Try a school of 6-8 rosy barbs they tend to graze on algea and the go well with discus

 

[daveip]

i'd say bristlenose plec .... my bristlenose is doing ok in the higher temps needed for the discus ... not sure how the barbs would cope though

 

[Gankutsuou]

totally on a different subject, but I'd like to educate for a bit....


Discus are kept in two ways usually. A breeding pair, and a group (the magic number of six plus I believe? although I've heard of 5 making do)

Now, The size difference makes it unlikely that this is a breeding pair, but perhaps they'll grow into it. And it looks like they get along fine anyways, so maybe they have become one and just aren't going to go into egg laying...

anyone wanna ID these as male or female?

edit: go with a golden/Albino Bristle nose. They're GORGEOUS
and since it appears you're keeping water quality high enough for discus, you might try otos or specialty otos if you have the money and the algea to feed them.

 

[d_willi]

Cheers for the replies, looks like bristle nose wins the vote.

The 2 discus I have werent originally a pair hence the diff in size, I did have a pair but 1 of them died and I got another smaller one as replacement, they are totally inseperable and the little one follows the big one all over the place. Would of thought the little 1 wasnt quite at adult age yet but will wait and time will tell.

Re algae eater or scavenger, would probably say algae eater as my Aqua One tank has an almighty filter and I don't really suffer too badly with algae its more for cosmetic reasons to keep the tank that bit cleaner.