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Hi All,

I have purchased a discus fish and I quite like him/her and I was thinking about getting some more.

The question I have is how many would I be able to get in my tank?

My LFS has them on special for $35 each or 4 for $100. So I was thinking about getting another 4 so I have a total of 5 discus. The discus are only small not the large ones.

I have a heavily planted Aquaone 620T Tank which is about 2.29ft high, 2.03ft wide and 1.31ft deep which is about a 45 gallon/170 Litre tank.
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My PH is 6.5 (I use rainwater all the time), and Nitrate is about 40.

The fish I have there now are 15 Cardinals, 4 Neons, 8 Rummy Noise and 1 Blue Gorami.

I might get rid of the Gourami as I have seen him chasing the discus a few times and he behaves "weird" somtimes. He might not like the water i think.

The discus I purchased now just seems to hide in the back near the plants so I was thinking about getting more to keep him company and to make them all feel safe in a school.

What do you guys think? Would the tank be over crowed with these extra discus fish?

Any feedback or comments are most welcome

Hi there,
a 45g tank is not really large enough for 5 adult
discus.
You could add 1 or 2 more if you remove the gourami,
but 4 more would really be pushing it.
5 adult discus would need a 75g tank.
Of course, even 1 more discus would make
yours infinitely more happy.


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Yeah thats what im thinking of maybe getting only 1 to keep him/her company.

I got home from work and I still see the discus hiding (however he is only 4 days old so he/she might need to settle in) so hopfully an extra one will make them come out a little more.

Nice looking tank, Saiya. Sneaky is right that the tank would be very crowded when the discus grow.

Adult discus need about 10 gallons of water when they reach 5 or 6 inch body size. Additionally, discus are social fish and should be kept in groups of 5 or more. They are sensitive to water conditions particularly nitrate.

Now, your discus will not do well as you have it as a solitary fish. If you would like to keep the fish add 4 more small discus and trade the gourami back to the pet store. Your rummy nose and cardinal tetras will be fine with your discus.

You will need to increase your water changes when you add the discus for a number of reasons -
o Your nitrates are too high,
o You have increased the bio-load of your tank,
o Discus need great water quality.

Consider 30% water changes twice a week. You will notice that your existing fish and plants will also perk up. Target value for nitrates is under 10 ppm.



Last edited by Bob Wesolowski at 18-Jan-2006 10:58

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You can remove the Gourami & add another Discus.




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Thanks heaps for the feedback guys.

Well I think tonight ill buy 1 more discus to keep the one already in there company and donate the gourami to my LFS (ive had him for quite a while).

Looks like if I do buy any extra I will have to do more water changes to keep the water quality high, or even buy a bigger fish tank