How many Discus?

[LMitch]

Hi!
I am thinking of keeping discus in my 180L tank. I just want to know how many discus would be suitable and if there are any suitable tank mates or not? I have bristlenose Plecs in there at the minute but that is all.
Thanks, Luke

 

[Naughts]

Symphysodon aequifasciatus (Discus) — Seriously Fish

www.seriouslyfish.com

Hi Luke,
See the above link which is an excellent resource - the 180 litre will not be big enough for discus.

You could look at pearl gourami which are more suitable to your tank size. They tolerate a wide range of parameters too.

Trichopodus leerii (Pearl Gourami) — Seriously Fish

www.seriouslyfish.com

 

[Byron]

I concur re the discus. It would help us, going forward, to know the tank dimensions (length and width particularly). Also the water parameters of the source water, being the GH and pH.

 

[Lajos_Detari]

Usually the recommendation is 1 Discus per 8-10gallons of water for the adults and they need to have tall tank.

But when they grow up or if they pair up, sometimes you may have to separate them.

Sometimes you may encounter a few bullies that are overly aggressive which you may have to remove them.

It's best not to have less than 6 Discus.
The more of them the better to spread out the aggressions.
They also feel more secure in bigger group.

I will write more another time. There are too much to share here.

 

[LMitch]

Symphysodon aequifasciatus (Discus) — Seriously Fish

www.seriouslyfish.com

Hi Luke,
See the above link which is an excellent resource - the 180 litre will not be big enough for discus.

You could look at pearl gourami which are more suitable to your tank size. They tolerate a wide range of parameters too.

Trichopodus leerii (Pearl Gourami) — Seriously Fish

www.seriouslyfish.com

Thanks, I have thought about gourami as I have had them before and love them. Do you know if I could keep Pearl gouramis with other gouramis and what other fish Will they get along with?
thanks

 

[Byron]

Thanks, I have thought about gourami as I have had them before and love them. Do you know if I could keep Pearl gouramis with other gouramis and what other fish Will they get along with?
thanks

Do not mix gourami, at least not the medium-sized (or larger) species like Pearls. Combinations can work with the smaller species, depending upon conditions and species, but I wouldn't try it with these. Male gourami are territorial; this varies with species (some are as aggressive as cichlids, others less so) and individuals, but needs to be understood.

As for tankmates, with Pearls there are good options. You want quiet fish, not active swimmers (so danios and barbs are out). This leaves most of the rasbora species, and many of the characins (tetras) provided the species is not known to fin nip.

 

[Naughts]

I haven't kept any of the less peaceful gouramis (3 spots and their variants are often mentioned).
I have honey gourami (trichogaster chuna) in 180 litres with corydoras, rummy nose tetra and praecox rainbows. As long as the tank mates are not too active they will be able to share a tank and access food. I appreciate that honeys are a lot smaller than the discus you were looking into, so I suggested pearls. I believe @Essjay has them in a 180l with rasboras.
As Byron said, we need to know the water parameters (GH and pH) for serious recommendations.

 

[Essjay]

I do have pearl gouramis - 1 male, 2 female - in a 180 litre tank. My rasboras are the last 9 espe's rabsboras from a shoal I bought 5 years ago, and a new shoal of small/young harlequin rasboras.

 

[Jan Cavalieri]

I have kept virtually nothing but pleco's and Dwarf Gourami and Pearl Gourami , These fish stress easily so you don't want to mix them with a lot of fast moving fish or schools of fish (A little tiny danio ate the fins off my gourami - I will ALWAYS hate the Danio species) There is a virus that supposedly wipes out dwarf Gourami but having kept them for over 4 years I've never seen evidence of it and I've purchased my fish at least in 6 different locations - both locally and online. In fact I've never had a disease that was visible evident in any fish I've ever owned - I guess I've been lucky. The problem with Gourami is that most only live 2-3 yrs (only 1 yr in the wild) so I would occasionally have a Gourami die for no reason except they usually were the oldest fish in the tank.

Here is a true but very strange story: I have only once had a pair of males that were aggressive - they were the strangest fish. I purchased them from LiveAquaria.com and I haven't seen them carry them since. They were striped red, white and blue - they looked so cool. But as they got older they started turning black. Sometimes it was only one side of them that would turn black but eventually both fish were black (like they turned into a recessive version of what they were bred from - and weren't gourami any more). The two males fought a lot, but when the fighting would slow down you'd start to see their stripes coming back but then they'd immediately start fighting again and go black. They never actually hurt each other - it was really just dominance they were showing rather than actual aggression. The more dominant of the two would turn the blackest first. Eventually one passed away and the other one never lost all of his black color but mostly returned to his original red, white and blue color.

But bottom line - they are my favorite fish other than my darling crazy DoJo loaches (which no other fish can put up with because of their size and their antics make life so stressful - they are very peaceful fish - BUT they have their own tank.

Rainbow fish are another species that aren't quite as colorful (with some exceptions) as the Gourami and they are a tiny bit more aggressive with other fish than the Gourami (all my Gourami started dying after I got some rainbow fish - but the Gourami were at least 2 yrs old). So Rainbows arent the most exciting fish so I was pretty bored with them, but after a while I noticed they just watched me all the time, got excited when I came near etc., so their personalities started coming out. But twice (once when they were with my DoJo and once when they were with my Pleco) a bunch of them just died off in a big group in the middle of a water change. I saved most of them from the dojo tank but couldn't get to them in time in my other tank. I assume my assistant either - didn't adjust the PH (we use a special chemical to keep it at 7) or he forgot to add the water conditioner. The effect was so immediate that's all I can think of (my tap water is 9.4 - WAY too high for fish so I always adjust every bucket that goes in. It's just interesting that in both cases the bottom feeders (DoJo and Pleco) didn't die. Didn't react at all. Water tests showed nothing out of the ordinary so I'll never know what killed them.