discus questions

[daneek155]

I was going to try to buy a discus in a month or 2.. my tank has been established for 7 months now so its stable..
I have a 55g tank that's med heavy planted with a ph of 7.0 but I want to get some driftwood to get a ph of 6.5 here's what's in it now
3 Gbr
2 blue rams
2 rainbow rams
1 apistogramma cacatou
2 angels
1 pleco
2 ottos
I wanna get 2 bolivian rams and a discus.what do you guys think

 

[DCLXVI]

I was looking into discuss recently and every where I looked it said they need to be kept in groups of 5+(like loaches). If not i guess you will have a fish that hides all day long. Also stressing out an already sensitive fish seems like a death sentence IMO.

 

[mfdrookie516]

Moved to Cichlid Discussion

 

[HN1]

I would not recommend discus with your stocking in a 55 or keeping a single discus. I also wouldn't advise adding the bolivians.

 

[daneek155]

Why do you think its not a good idea to add Bolivian rams?

 

[daneek155]

O was told its better to over populate cichlids

 

[mfdrookie516]

You already have 10 cichlids in a 55g tank. If/when they start pairing off, you're going to have deaths... I can almost guarantee that. The fish that aren't paired off will be first, then the stronger pairs will pick off the weaker pairs. I wouldn't do more than a pair of angels and a pair of rams in a 55g... 2 pairs of rams and a pair of angels would be max IMO

 

[HN1]

Because you effectively already have 8 rams though I'm not sure what "rainbow"s are.

 

[daneek155]

so whats the chances of my fish surviving as the tank is now.. is there anything i can add or do to keep the set up as is.. the fish get along great right now and they are not full grown. i have my tank well planted so there is not that much open water other than the top..would a school of some sort of fish help me keep the aggresion down. more caves or what. thanks for the help

 

[daneek155]

would a school of cardinal tetras help??

 

[bruinsbro1997]

so whats the chances of my fish surviving as the tank is now.. is there anything i can add or do to keep the set up as is.. the fish get along great right now and they are not full grown. i have my tank well planted so there is not that much open water other than the top..would a school of some sort of fish help me keep the aggresion down. more caves or what. thanks for the help

The overstocking thing is more for African cichlids, which are super aggressive, so the more you have the more the aggression will spread. That's not exactly true for rams. You already have quite a bit of cichlids in there already and I would not add anymore. Discus should be kept in a shoal of 5+ in a 55 Gallon Minimum and I would not put a single one in with your stocking as it is right now.
The fish may get along now, but when fully grown and paired they will very likely terrorize one another and may die from the stress.

would a school of cardinal tetras help??

No, not really. It'll look nice in the tank but won't do anything. And with your stocking I wouldn't add any more fish.