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I have a 65g tall hexagon tank with two large angelfish and two small clown loaches (I have a larger tank to move the loaches when they grow).

How about adding a discus? Or two? I am just beginning to learn about these beautiful fish and I know they are a lot of work. But would the requirements (other than the frequent water changes for discus) be similar to those of the angelfish?

What say you

I wouldn't mix discus and angles in that size tank. Even thought they are peacefull cichlids they are still cichlids and are teritoral. A hex tank does not give enough of a foot print for them to move about in.

55G Planted tank thread
19G Container Pond
[IMG]http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y118/Wingsdlc/Ric

In my personal opinion Discus should be on their own as they can be a very shy slow moving fish besides they look beautiful in a tank all by themselves.

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Betta 11Gal Desktop & Placidity 5ft Community Tank Photos

Keith

Near enough is not good enough, therefore good enough is not near enough, and only your best will do.
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One of the first mistakes we made when we first started keeping fish about 15 years ago was to buy, on a whim, and with no knowledge of keeping them, a beautiful pair of angel fish and an even more beautiful family of discus for our first tank - big and expensive mistake.
The angel fish are too aggressive to be kept in with discus and they just constantly harrassed and stressed our discus to death as we only had the 1 tank.
We now research compatability via the internet and find the odd 'google' can be very informative and of course forums like this one are invaluable./:'

I wouldn't mix Angels & Discus in a 65 gal. tank, but you'll find mxed ideas about mixing Angels & Discus. Some fishkeepers say that they do fine together & some say that the Angels can carry a disease that is deadly to Discus.

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Member of the Malta Aquarist Society - 1970.
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Thanks for everyone's input. Any other suggestions for some large tankmates for my angels? The two angels are most definitely an established pair. I am wondering if perhaps just leaving them with the clown loaches and not adding anyone else might be a better idea?

Keith, your desktop tank is gorgeous!!

They had these two species together at the Georgia Aquarium along with many kinds of tetras. Are they able to do it because they have such a big tank?? The tank looked to be around 200-250 gallons but was very tall.

http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g191/IgorM06/Georgia%20Aquarium/100_5976.jpg

If your pair are most definitely a pair, you probably won't be able to add much if anything to that tank. As the foot print is so small that if they spawn, they will kill anything near them or the eggs.

If not a pair, you could try some of the larger tetras, they would be fine. Rainbows would work well too. But only if they are not truely a pair.

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There is always a bigger fish...

Mixing Angelfishes and Discus can be done - after all, they overlap in the wild. However, they need LARGE quarters for this exercise to stand a decent chance of success. The public aquarium cited above was able to mix Discus, Angels and assorted Characins successfully because of the sheer size of the setup - I suspect it was of the order of 1,000 gallons or so, which is a 'typical' public aquarium size setup for this kind of fish mix. Not many of us can afford to buy a 1,000 gallon aquarium to start with - such a system has to be custom made and is hideously expensive because of this. Then there are the "civil engineering" questions - will your floor joists stand the presence of an immovable object that, when filled with water, will top three tons in weight? Then, there's the running costs of heating and filtering 1,000 gallons of water.

After that, you have other logistical problems to solve. A water change and gravel vac on a 55 can be quite a chore - if you change 50% of the water, that's 50% out, 50% in, which means you're lugging 55 gallons of water about in buckets. Good exercise for the body, admittedly, but that chews up a good 2 hours of your day when you do it. Now imagine even a 10% water change on a 1,000 gallon. First, your gravel vac is going to be an interesting task in itself, and then, even if you only change 10% of the water, you're shifting 200 gallons around in buckets. That would soon become fairly tiresome unless you were seriously dedicated.

Now, a 1,000 gallon setup might be overkill, but if you were to stand a decent chance of success with this mixture of fishes, I'd be looking at a 125 as a minimum setup. A 65 hex would be too small.


Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

Now come on here.... if you are going to do a set up thats in the 1000 G range then you would have to do all the pluming with it.



55G Planted tank thread
19G Container Pond
[IMG]http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y118/Wingsdlc/Ric

Precisely - which is why I said above it would generate a number of logistical problemns even if you could afford one!


Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002