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I was wondering if a discus can be put in a 40 gallon tank. would it be ok if it was with a couple of dwarf ciclids? such as a rams?. with a cannister filter for filtration?. i've heard discus are very sensitive and needs daily water changes, i hope that wasn't an exageration of how sensitive they are

hi,
Discus need to be kept in small groups or you will stress them out big time, I would put 4-5 small discus in there with the other fish you have. rams will be fine with the discus. Discus are not that hard to keep weekly water changes are fine at about 30%, you will find out its the water quality that makes it all ok.Keep the water peramiters ok and the discus will be fine.

Trace

Rock,

Nice advice from Russ. The keys to keeping discus imho are:

o Minimum number of 5 discus,
o Great water conditions,
o Water temps of 82F to 86F,
o Great diet.

A single discus in a tank will not do well as it is a shoaling fish. Two discus in a tank will result in one discus as the dominant fish harasses the other fish to death. Three discus in a tank becomes two discus as two fish harass the weakest fish and then becomes one as the dominant fish harasses the other fish. It is a similar story with four fish, three harass one, two harass one, one harasees one. For some reason at five fish or more, the combinations seem to break down. Aggression is diffused so that all fish survive.

Discus originally came from very soft, acidic water. They still require similar conditions to successfully spawn. However, domestic fish no longer require acidic water. They do require stable, clean conditions. Stable means no great fluctuations in pH or in hardness or in temperature. Clean means nitrates that are as low as possible, think under 10 ppm. The only way to achieve those conditions for most hobbyists is water changes. A water change is a cheap, effective way to provide a great environment for your fish.

Water temps are infrequently discussed in these forums. If a tank is too warm for fish, it may hurt their metabolism or their immune system. The same is true of temperatures that are too low for fish. Discus require warm water. 81F is too low, 82F is maybe OK. Try to keep the temperatures in the 84F to 86F range. If I have an illness problem, the fish goes into a hospital tank with the temp at 90F...

The discus biotope does not have any water plants. Yet, many hobbyists maintain discus in aquariums with plants. There are two reasons for planted discus aquariums -
o Plants use ammonia, nitrites and nitrates in the water to grow and therefore help to provide great water conditions,
o It looks cool...

Lastly, discus are omnivores with a taste for meat. Feed a good quality flake food with some frozen or live food. I strongly recommend frozen bloodworms (midge larva) and live blackworms.

By the way, I raised 5 discus to 6 inches in size in a 30G planted aquarium. Guess what my rules were!

Rams, cardinal tetras and rummy nose tetras will love discus tank conditions.



__________
"To steal ideas from one person is plagiarism; to steal from many is research."
researched from Steven Wright

hey thanks for the awesome reply
if i do get a group of discus i'm thinking of getting the cheapest variation and healthiest that i can get for starters

Whats's the minimum tank size for a discus?

Chris

Not sure how long before they are full grown, but 5 small ones in a 40 or 55 would be my minimunm guess. Plan ahead as a 70+ would be better.



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