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do angel fish and discus live happyly whith each other or do they both have different water chemistry requirements (pH/GH/KH)and whats the minimum size tank for these guys
thanks
Declan

nah they are fine together.. 4ft would be perfect..
make sure your hardness is not to high and not to low as the discus requires much more softer water.
Water change 25% weekly with these guys and you wont have a problem.

r0b3y

I have read befor that Discus can catch certain diseases or parasites off angels which angels are usully emune to.

Last edited by freakof87 at 07-Jun-2005 05:59

Yes, i heared that too freakof87, but i'm not sure about it.
Maybe somebody can clarify it.


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they do not do well together, you will sonner or later end up with just angels probably sooner than later. Angels with try and eat the slime coat from Discus

Last edited by freejoe at 07-Jun-2005 16:42

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Never heard about slime coat issues, whrre'd you hear that?

The two problems I found between angels and discus is aggression and disease. Angels can bully discus of the same size. However, if you buy a baby angel and an adult discus, you'd be ok. Also, angels carry diseases that are harmless to them, but deadly to discus. By putting them in a Q-tine tank and dosing with various meds(I don't know the name, sorry), you should be able to avoid any problems

I dunno- I kept my Discus with my breeding pair of Angels for some time, and they totally tolerated him, didnt bug him at all, never tried to eat the "slime coat" or anything.
Really and honestly, in the wild huge schools of Angels and huge schools of Discus occupy very close territories, often living side by side. I would not worry about it.
I have heard people talk about this "disease" discus can catch from Angels, but yet never heard of any actual cases or the name of these disease.



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I have an angel with my discus the only time there's a problem is when they try invade "his" space which is going to happen with just about any fish. As long as there is plenty of room and plenty of hiding places they are fine together, sometimes (more when they were new to the tank) the discus schooled with the angel, but that's happening less as they get used to the tank.

I was also really concerned with what I had heard about mixing angels and discus and how the angels carry diseases that are fatal to discus. The reason I was more concerned was because I had the angel before the discus and I wanted to add discus to the tank. So I brought the subject up at one of our lfs's because I knew the lady had raised discus for many many years and probably knew about it. What she told me about that particular problem with mixing the fish is that it is less of a problem now than it used to be. The problem was more of an issue years ago with wild caught fish. I think if you're going to mix discus in with wild caught angels than you may want to be very careful, but anymore I'm sure it's difficult to find wild caught angels because how popular they are to breed. And that is why it's less of a problem because these tank raised angels aren't exposed to the parasite and there for aren't carriers.

That's just one comment from a lfs, whether it's true or not I'm not sure, but I've never had problems with my angels and discus.

Concerns that I have keeping angels and discus together are:
1. Adult specimens of both fish should have about 10 gallons of tank space, since discus are a social, schooling fish, you will need a minimum of five discus,
2. Angels are faster and more aggressive than discus, they will out compete discus for food,
3. Angelfish and discus are in the same phyllum, domestic angel stocks were decimated by the angel "plague". Although the disease has apparently run its course in angelfish, discus are extremely susceptible. In other words, your angelfish may be Typhoid Mary to a discus.

The "plague" decimated fish farm populations of angelfish in 1986. It is an unidentified virus that appears to highly communicable. There is some evidence that it may aerosolize or become airborne. Jack Wattley, the well known discus breeder, has written extensively on the disease. Recent issues of TFH contain comments.

Note that the above statements are concerns. If you want to mix angelfish and discus, you may, but there may be problems. The National Aquarium maintains a very large aquarium at the Barnes & Noble bookstore on the Baltimore waterfront. The center of the tank is dominated by altum angels. The periphery of the tank has midsized (4" discus.

Last edited by bob wesolowski at 09-Jun-2005 14:08

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From what I heard, the disease is closely related to "hole-in-the-head" disease. Either that, or there are two seperate diseases.