Discus tankmate: angelfish? AROWANNA??!!!

[dragonfisher33]

i have seen some of the most outrageous tanks IMO on Youtube lately. some tanks have arowanas and some tanks have angelfish with the discus. I was warned one time about keeping angelfish and discus together because angelfish is more aggressive and will outcompete the discus for food. also as they mature the angelfish will become more territorial and stress out the discus. There's also a "rumor" that angelfish carries certain bacteria that will kill the discus. But after seeing so many tanks that have both discus and angelfish, i really question the validity of the statement.

but on a separate note: if the tankmates for discus need to be peaceful, how the HELL can anyone keep them with AROWANAS, assuming you have the tank requirements for full grown arowanas.

 

[Goldfish loach boy]

Wow might as well put the discus with a gar!

 

[Cynic]

I'm sure if you asked they'd tell you "I inherited the fish" "The arrowana is actually really peaceful (Has been for a month!)" and "Yeah I'll be getting an 30,000G tank when the fish get too big".

 

[dragonfisher33]

130 gal Discus and Arowana - YouTube

Gold Aquarium Blood red arowana and discus - YouTube

 

[bettaowner]

I'm surprised the tetras haven't been eaten

 

[bud29]

Oh wow. That definitely is bad. Generally I stay off youtube for fish related things unless I want to see some fish I'm contemplating getting - there's so much awful advice and overstocking on there.

 

[TrueEnvy]

i have seen some of the most outrageous tanks IMO on Youtube lately. some tanks have arowanas and some tanks have angelfish with the discus. I was warned one time about keeping angelfish and discus together because angelfish is more aggressive and will outcompete the discus for food. also as they mature the angelfish will become more territorial and stress out the discus. There's also a "rumor" that angelfish carries certain bacteria that will kill the discus. But after seeing so many tanks that have both discus and angelfish, i really question the validity of the statement.

but on a separate note: if the tankmates for discus need to be peaceful, how the HELL can anyone keep them with AROWANAS, assuming you have the tank requirements for full grown arowanas.

Well from what I know discus likes salt in the water and Angelfish like vary low levels of salt... But angelfish none are the same some well do well with tetras and others not so much.

 

[Andy Sager]

i have seen some of the most outrageous tanks IMO on Youtube lately. some tanks have arowanas and some tanks have angelfish with the discus. I was warned one time about keeping angelfish and discus together because angelfish is more aggressive and will outcompete the discus for food. also as they mature the angelfish will become more territorial and stress out the discus. There's also a "rumor" that angelfish carries certain bacteria that will kill the discus. But after seeing so many tanks that have both discus and angelfish, i really question the validity of the statement.

but on a separate note: if the tankmates for discus need to be peaceful, how the HELL can anyone keep them with AROWANAS, assuming you have the tank requirements for full grown arowanas.

I think the hobby has reached the point where we need to separate what is good or bad depending on the origin of the fish we are talking about. Blanket statements are no longer valid. For wild Discus, they can be deterred from feeding rather easily by overly aggressive eaters like Angels. The Discus in the vid appear to be the new man created colors so they may not be as shy as their wild counterparts when it comes to feeding. This opens the doors for many other tankmates than wild ones would allow.
As for the "Angelfish carrying bacteria" rumor, again are we talking about wild Angels or Tank raised? I've had entire hatchery wipeouts of domesticated Angels that carried some kind of "bug" that only effected Cichlids. Back in the 1980s, we called it Angelfish AIDS because we could not find any drug that would save the fish. As for wild fish being carriers of this bug, as an importer, I did not see this type of rampant incurable disease in any shipments of wild Angels. So I think this might only pertain to domestic Angels. As for mixing wild Angels and wild Discus, maybe a nice large tank with Altum Angels and Discus might be okay as they are both rather skittish fish and both like very acidic water. I don't think wild Scalare and Discus are a good match.
So again, I believe the blanket statements need to be adjusted to what type of fish we are talking about.

Just my thoughts on the subject

 

[Coursair]

I'm surprised the tetras haven't been eaten

In the comments the Tank owner said the Arowana was eating the Cardinals, so they had to move the Tetras out.

 

[dragonfisher33]

In the comments the Tank owner said the Arowana was eating the Cardinals, so they had to move the Tetras out.

not surprised, but i would like to know what happened to the discus

 

[bud29]

Well from what I know discus likes salt in the water and Angelfish like vary low levels of salt... But angelfish none are the same some well do well with tetras and others not so much.

Both come from soft and acidic waters, so neither really care for salt.

 

[dragonfisher33]

Both come from soft and acidic waters, so neither really care for salt.

+1. they live among driftwoods/mangroves and rivers near heavy forestation/vegetation, so which contribute to the low hardness and acidity