my planted discus tank

[Insane4discus]

My new planted discus tank

 

[Goldfish loach boy]

Wow! Nice tank
Question, how big do discus grow,I would like to add one or two to my community tank

 

[Insane4discus]

Thanks! They can get up to 6-7 inches

 

[Goldfish loach boy]

Would they Bo ok in a 55 gallon?

 

[Insane4discus]

They will be fine in a 55. Depending what u have in ur community tank. They perfer slow movin tankmates like neon tetra german rams and so forth

 

[Goldfish loach boy]

Good, the most agresive fish is an angel fish

 

[Insane4discus]

I had angels before with my discus didnt work out so well for me they hog all the food

 

[giffmastaflex]

How many discus could you have in a 55 gallon? At max?

 

[Mlani]

Thanks! They can get up to 6-7 inches

From what I've researched they can get as big as 14" around. Depends on tank size most captive discus are stunted.

 

[Mlani]

I wouldn't put discus in a 55 if you want a community. If you were going for just a single breeding pair maybe but not a group of them. It's too small IMO.

 

[Berylla]

I have 3 discus in a 45 gallon. If you change the water out every other day, the tank size is fine. The problem would come from fighting since there are so few discus.

 

[Mlani]

I have 4 in an 80 gallon community tank running r/o and do daily water changes to keep my levels in check. I have to strongly disagree with keeping these fish in smaller tanks. Unless you're running bare bottom breeders. They will be stunted. Just my opinion.

 

[Berylla]

I have 4 in an 80 gallon community tank running r/o and do daily water changes to keep my levels in check. I have to strongly disagree with keeping these fish in smaller tanks. Unless you're running bare bottom breeders. They will be stunted. Just my opinion.

My fish are almost full grown, two at over 6" and one at just 6". I purchased them at 3" and put them into the 45G planted tank when they were 4.5" from a BB tank. From my experience, feeding with dry flake food and freeze dried black worm and avoiding beef heart, growing out the discus in a planted tank can be successful if you start out with 4" fish, and perform a 75% water change every other day (this is what I do). I only have amazon swords, any food stuck in the plant is easily accessible to my plecos.

Filter maintenance for a planted discus tank is critical to success as well. I found using a canister filter a really difficult since I needed to clean it out every week. I switched over to an Aquaclear 110.

 

[Mlani]

This is what I love about the hobby. Everyone has different experiences with it. Things change so much over the years. Whether it be equipment or theories proven to work better. It's places like this forum that create and innovate people to try different things. I will not argue my way is the only way because I know that to NOT be true. How ever it has been what works well for me and my fish. I think it all comes down to what you decide is the best environment you can provide for your fish.

 

[Berylla]

Mlani, so true! I actually started out with 7 discus, most died, one sold, so I'm left with 3. It was a very steep learning curve. They did die in the BB tank, that's why I just put them all in my planted tank. They really liked the more natural environment and the places to hide among the plants.

If I do this over again, I would order 5 at a time (not 3) so that they would be comfortable in a BB tank until they grew to the 4.5", then put them in a display tank. Also, the next time around, I would not use any substrate. I would plant all my plants in ceramic pots with organic soil capped with sand. So much easier to clean - just take the plants out of the tank.

 

[Fresh N Salt guy]

I have 2 discus, 5 plecos, 5 Cory cats, 4 tetras, 2 guppies, an African dwarf frog, horseface loach and 3 Japanese algae shrimp in my 60g tank. I do a 15% water change weekly and run no carbon in my filter. Just ceramic media and sponges. It's been that way for 6 years minus a few tetras and guppies that got replaced my water tests are perfect every week. Only thing I do different than most is use DI RO water only and I have a filter pushing 400g. You could probably keep 4 happy and healthy in that tank if that's all you have in the tank.