[FDStation152]

Well as it so happens I've decided to convert my community aquarium into a discus aquarium. As some of you may know discus require soft water (I'm currently at 60ppm gH and slowly working my way down to the 20ppm area), lower pH (currently at 6.5 and planning to hold there for a while), and higher temp (currenly at 86 due to a mild ich outbreak, will be lowering back to 84 once that is properly taken care of).

Now as much I love discus I lack the money to have a tank stocked solely with them (they run about 60-100 bucks a piece in this area) so I've decided to place one of two of them into a community setting in my 37 gallon tank.

The tank originally had 5 praecox rainbowfish, 1 colombian tetra, 1 black tetra, 5 von rio tetras, 3 blue rams, and 6 hatchetfish. The rainbowfish and colombian tetra are far too agressive for the gentle discus so theyve been removed to a bare 10 gallon tank for the time being while I decide to either sell them off to a friend with an aquarium or set up a more permanent home for them.

So after buying my Discus the tank is set up as follows. 1 smallish discus (3-4inches diameter), 5 neon tetras, 5 von rio tetras, 1 black neon tetra, 3 blue rams (though 2 of them have mated up and seem intent on driving out the other female), and 6 hatchetfish. The tank is also moderately planted (saving my next heavily planted run for the 125 gallon tank I'll be getting later on in the year) and contains ghost shrimp and malaysian trumpet snails.

Anyone have any suggestions as far as the tankmates I've selected for my discus go?

 

[musho3210]

Wow, in my area one of my stores sells assorted discus for around 25-30 dollars.

 

[FDStation152]

Well there is in fact one store in the general area that sells em in the 30-40 dollar range but they are generally in such poor shape from various diseases that it would be like throwing the money out the window. Even the LFS that has them for about 60 is a gamble. They generally aren't in the best of shape either but that's where mine came from (following 2 weeks of near daily stopping by to examine him). The best place in the area sells them in the 80-200 dollar range. Truly beautiful fish but very expensive and almost an hour drive away. I've learned to accept having to take some basic risks in getting fish around here (thankfully I do bother to run quarantine tanks) but I'm not enough of a gamblin man to pick up a 30 dollar discus thats hiding behind the filter covered in parasites and body fungus.

 

[Lauri]

I have always loved discus they are expensive over 80 dollars here as well for nice ones.
Look forward to seeing photos of them.
You mentioned a 125 gallon, what do you have planned for that?

 

[FDStation152]

The 125 gallon will most likely be a full out discus tank (with some cardinal tetras and blue rams) It'll also be more heavily planted than my current tank. I'm hoping to have aquired atleast one pair of discus by then and I'll set up the 125 gallon tank for breeding. Figure I might as well take a crack at breeding discus. I started out years ago breeding guppies and danios (about as easy as it gets), moved on to bettas and rainbowfish, and currently I have a pair of blue rams that I'm hoping to breed in the near future. I'm also growing out some baby angelfish in a seperate tank and hoping to get a breeding pair out of them.

 

[FDStation152]

Oh by the way I uploaded a picture of the tank and of the my discus into my profile.

 

[musho3210]

hmm, the 25 dollar discus i saw was pretty healthy. It was swimming fine, great colors, fins outspread. Maybe i was just lucky, but im no discus expert so maybe you guys are right

 

[FDStation152]

Well hey if you can find good ones for that price then thats great. Wish it was like that around here. The cheapest I've seen a healthy one selling for was around 30 bucks but it was only about the size of a silver dollar including the fins. They tend to be rather delicate at that age so I waited to find a good one that was older. If I had a bigger tank though and wanted to grow out a breeding pair or two I'd go for the little ones and hope for the best