Got My First Discus

[hillmar77]

Just picked up my first discus today and he is already swimming around and made friends with my dwarf parrots...Going to pick up another one tomorrow so he isn't the lone discus in there. My 2 angels like to swim with him too. Looks like a start of a good relationship

 

[Wills]

First thing just to say - I saw on your other post you have an Argonite substrate - this massively raises your ph often to around 8! A lot of your fish in that tank are going to suffer in that water - particularly the discus.

 

[hillmar77]

First thing just to say - I saw on your other post you have an Argonite substrate - this massively raises your ph often to around 8! A lot of your fish in that tank are going to suffer in that water - particularly the discus.

Nope my ph readings are at 7.2 ..... I've got no kh and very low gh comming out of my tap. I'm more worried about a ph crash before but now at least my ph is at a rock solid 7.2!
http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?/topic/341183-need-advice-on-my-new-55gallon-setup/
you must have read that post?
Just did a water comparison test
Tap water
GH-30ppm
KH-0ppm
PH-6.0

Tank water readings
GH-60ppm
KH-40ppm
PH-between 7.0-7.5

Would you let your fish swim in water with 0 kh?

 

[AstonN24vantage]

nice discus!

 

[simonas]

nice looking fish
however I would imagine that parrots wouldn;t be such good tankates

also discus fair alot better in groups

 

[hillmar77]

those little dwarf parrots act aggressive but once you stand up to them, they run away faster then my daino's. My Red Discus found that out and now just swims into there territory whenever he wants. I got 2 discus's now and they are showing no aggression to each other! hope this keeps up.

 

[Carlovel1]

Cute!
But pH 7.2 seems a bit high. Do you know if he is tank bred or wild caught. Tank bred Discus tend to be more hardy

 

[snowflake311]

You will see a problem with just 2 discus as they mature. 3 is the worst number one almost always gets picked on to death. 2 can last for some time but as they grow they will fight eachother a lot. Or one gets really shy and will not eat much. If you had others with them things are much better. But you could get really lucky and have a pair. no way to tell if you do till they get older. Keeping a pair (male and female )is one of the only ways to get away with 2 discus in a tank.

Don't worry in time you will find a way to get more discus that's just how it goes. You get a few and some how more and more find their way into your tank.

I do agree that the parrots could also become a problem once they get bigger. Things change when they all mature.

Personaly I would lose the parrot fish and go all
discus.

 

[markandhisfish]

Cute!
But pH 7.2 seems a bit high. Do you know if he is tank bred or wild caught. Tank bred Discus tend to be more hardy

those arent wilds and 7.2 is absolutely fine , altho you should as others have said ditch the parrots and get at least 4 more discus

 

[hillmar77]

My dwarf parrots only get to 2.5" in size....But I'll keep a eye on them just in case. Yeah these Discus are tank raised, even the breeder said alot of there customers have them in a wide range of PH and tank parameters but they always come back in a month to pick up more
Everything seems okay atm with them. The Red one is eating my frozen blood worms like a pig but my blue one would only eat a couple and then swim away. Its only been 2 days so I'm not expecting much but they look pretty healthy and like to swim around. Sometimes they school with my angels but once I show up the angels wait at the top of the tank for me to feed them!

 

[walkers101]

You don't seem to be either listening or understanding. The may be great right now but after a while fight club tank style will kick off not many people understand how aggressive discus can be to each other. Even with 7 in my tank they still kick off now and then. I just this last week lost one to bullying so have added a much larger one to the tank and this has controlled the group for now. So thats with 7 remember not 2 imagine what they could do to each other if its one on one. You have been warned!

 

[the biffster]

with cichlids there isnt such
a thing as a good start to a relationship
cichlids are cichlids whether it
be discus angels parrots if there
is cichlids together there will
be trouble lose the parrots and get
some more discus

 

[hillmar77]

You don't seem to be either listening or understanding. The may be great right now but after a while fight club tank style will kick off not many people understand how aggressive discus can be to each other. Even with 7 in my tank they still kick off now and then. I just this last week lost one to bullying so have added a much larger one to the tank and this has controlled the group for now. So thats with 7 remember not 2 imagine what they could do to each other if its one on one. You have been warned!

Thanks for the heads up....I do know there might be a aggression issues and as I sort this out, I might want to go to the route of having just one. I went back to my local breeder where I got the 2 discus from and he said this batch he had come in are from a real good discus farm in Taiwan. Is a single discus in a community tank going to be okay? I know he swims with my angel fishes alot.

with cichlids there isnt such
a thing as a good start to a relationship
cichlids are cichlids whether it
be discus angels parrots if there
is cichlids together there will
be trouble lose the parrots and get
some more discus

I've always thought alot of people like to put different types of cichlids together... south america or african theme tanks? Some of the nicest stocking I've seen have about 3-5 different types of cichlids together?!!! Is a species tank the only way to go if you have cichlids?

 

[walkers101]

looking at the stocking i seriously do not reccomend having the one discus as said before then do not do well on their own

 

[Squidward]

Discus are a project on their own. Not something you can just add to a community tank and hope they do ok. They need specialist care.