New 90g for discus?

First topic message reminder :

I just got a 90g tank and stand for $100 at a yard sale and was wondering if it was a good size for discus and if so how many?

Too few can be a problem. you dont want to have one weak guy get picked out and beat to death. Just watch them close. IMO 6 is a good number

6 is a good number in my opinion for a smaller tank, like a 55 gal. Here is my reasons why I would go with 12 to 15 in a 90.

1.There a slow moving fish that prefer to swim up and down instead of back and forth.
2.They are a cichlid and have a pecking order like other cichlids.
3.I learned the hard way if you dont buy adult discus then for sure you want to do 2 to 3 WC a week because by only doing once a week WC my discus weren't growing and ended up having a female at 3" start spawning, which means most of there energy now will be going into spawning and not growing, so there growth rate was now stunted.
4.90 gal tank is a good sized tank and there are not many fish that have much size to them to make take up the excess room.
5.Some people post on the internet discus need 10 gal to 1 fish is not true, there not your typical cichlid they are similar in nature to a angel fish, slow graceful movements.

Here is some more reasons also.
If your planning on breeding them, when that time comes generally around 2 yrs of age and when you see them pair off, you will need to remove those 2 to a 20H or a 29 gal tank. So with only 6 in the tank and now removing 2 your pecking order has changed and your back to having to few in the tank. Also if you keep more you have a better chance of more than 1 pair pairing off and even after there removed you would still have enough to make a difference if you pull 2 to 4 out of the tank.

Also most people are not out to spend over $100 on a adult fish, from a breeder you can get 2 to 3" fish in the neighborhood of $15 to $40 each.

So conclusion however many you choose to get make sure you feed them alot and do multiple water changes a week to help grow them out before they get to there age to spawn. If you choose to only keep 6 or less keep in mind when you pull the pair at breeding time your school will be to few and if you choose to buy more to keep that number up, you have great chances of those new fish being picked on if your only replacing the 2.

That's some great info "Addictedtofish".
You should post that info in the library section.

Yea I agree, it felt like I was writing a book, kept reading over it and re writing it.

All of that is great info, but all I can get right now is 4-5, if my friend is willing to sell that many. But I can add more to them later.
My friend is on the same water company as I am and he just uses tap water and prime for his tanks, RO only for the breeders. So that will make it quite easy!

ya im adding lik 10 to a 11 in my 100 gallong with my community, my next question for u addictedtofish wat kind of foods should i feed my baby discus, and i do 2 waterchanges in my 55 which is where their tempraryly be placed. should i do more? i do at least a 25% water changes twice a week. if i need to do more then okay ill do more. yes someone should do a library on these little guys. u hav really good info on them

I got 1 then added 4 more waited a month and added my last one they were all your 2-3" so I did not have any bully issues maybe for a day the new guy got chased around. Now he knows his place and they all hang out together.

I'm no expert on discus but I have done lots of reasearch ask lots of question I can share what I know with you guys.

First off with young ones I you want them to grow up right and not get stunted you need to do more wc because you need to feed more. I feed mine 3-6 times a day everyday. I do 50% wc everyday sometimes I skip a day then once a week I do a 80% wc and clean the fake plants.

Older ones need less work you can feed once a day and do large weekly wc. Lots of people use aged water because often times ph can change once out of the tank.

well i dont hav a problem with food in the tank i hav loaches and bettas, swordtail and mollys watever my discus doesnt eat they eat it. if my top and middle dwellers dont finish it, my bottom dwellers do, loaches knife fish, cory, plecos. so their all having a feast in their opinion

Well I have 1/2my dirt on the stove cooking now and I got 100lbs of sand, not sure if it will all end up in the tank or not yet. I need to rummage through my wood and find a nice piece or 2 to go in there, Now that I finally have a tank I can put big cool wood in

lol nice fern hope it goes well!!!

i would do 6 to 9 discus, nice find fern!

I can't wait to see pics of the finished tank! I'm sure it will be stunning!

wow your getting Discus? j/k nice im sure they will have enough space with 4 or 5 i think..

i cant wait to see it either hope i goes well. def want to see the finished product and ur new little fishies!!!

I did some research about the discus and i found out that you can keep 4 of them at no least than a 55gl tank, i want some discus keeper to confirm this!..

snowflake311 wrote:

they say 1 discus for every 10 gal this is not including any other fish. if youwant others then less discus.

Whos "they" Not that I know anything but I always love when people say ...Well they say.... WHOS THEY and how the fridge do they know?

I have no idea why you would waist that much of a tank for a fish that is slow moving and spend alot of its time staying in one spot. I would definitely say 10 gal. to any other fish that moves around alot but discus and angel fish dont apply to this. If you believe half of what you read on the internet then your already on the wrong road, most of whats on the web is people repeating what someone else with minimal discus experience wrote. If your going to be doing 2 to 3 water changes a week because of heavy feeding to grow them out before spawning happens then why waist your time with only a few discus, especially if your planning on breeding them. I just get tired of reading on the internet the same BS on 3 to 4 websites that has the exact info. its like all the did was copy and paste.

Snowflake question for you, have you ever owned discus and have you ever bred them? If not sometimes its best to not comment because your only doing the same thing as the rest of the people on the internet are doing.

Hey now keep it friendly.

I'm not sure if I will end up breeding them later on or not, that's why I'm only going to get a few for now. I'm testing the water so to speak. I can always get a few more later on if I do well with them.

Ive got the tank cleaned up and in place. 1/2 of the dirt is boiled and draining now. Ive got a few nice pieces of wood on the stove. I'm going to be using 36" power compacts to light with, I got them to do salt but that wont happen any time soon and I know they will grow plants very well!
I'm going to try to make this tank more of a show tank and less of a working tank. I've already picked out a few plants in my sump that will be going into this tank.
I just got and aquaclear 110 for the tank and I have a fully cycled ac 70 on another tank that I can use to kick start the tank.

Nice good luck!!

Just started a build log on it http://www.usafishbox.org/general-freshwater-fish-discussion-f4/90g-discus-cory-tank-build-log-t4616.htm#63454

the more the merrier fern.
i have 6 in a 55 and there one that is at the end of the todem pole. just alot smaller than the others. its just to spread the aggresion and one discus doesnt get bullied alot or worse. that why "they say" to keep a minimal of six in all the discus info around the web, but theres always the exception;-)

I can always get more, I just want to start small, this will be my first discus venture.

lol yeap is not a very cheap fish to go buy a school of discus for the first time and then something can happen (i hope not)

That's why I'm starting with so few.