Discus tankmates

[ewan]

I'm setting up a 300 litre discus tank and my stocking which I would like to go for is 5 discus 1 blue phantom pleco 6 torpedo barbs and and 3 pictus catfish. Am I over stocking my tank or am I fine to do this setup

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[xwing]

300 lit is 80g so you would be way overstocked... Discus need clean water low ph and high temp 82f.

They are also not vary forgiving when it comes to mistakes they tend to die fast

 

[xwing]

So no barbs and no cats the placo is fine but you can do 6 discus instead as they do better in schools

 

[ewan]

OK thank you for that. You saved me from fish death which I hate.

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[xwing]

OK thank you for that. You saved me from fish death which I hate.

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Is this your first discus tank?

 

[Mr tap water]

In a lot of the local fish shops I've been to over the years most of them seem to have angelfish with them whether that's ideal I'm not sure

 

[Freakgecko91]

Angelfish are too food aggressive and will often push the more timid discus out of the way, so they don't get enough food.

Blue rams tend to do well with discus, as they like the higher temps

 

[bribo12]

Angelfish are too food aggressive and will often push the more timid discus out of the way, so they don't get enough food.

Blue rams tend to do well with discus, as they like the higher temps

I disagree with the angelfish part of this. The discus tank I work on at my lfs has 4 large discus that come to the top and outcompete all the other fish for food. Once they have their fill the other fish eat. Whereas my angel in my home tank gets beat to food by all my other fish.
Discus are timid but once adjusted they're very personable and will devour food. I do agree rams make great tankmates though.

 

[ewan]

Yes this is my first discus tank

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[ewan]

I'm not new to the hobby I've been keeping fish for 2years now

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[xwing]

Yes this is my first discus tank

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So a couple of things to remember first your ph should be stable this is more important with delicate fish like discus they have a range of 5.5 to 7 but it's best to keep the same ph they we're raised in.

Water quality needs to be exceptional no lazy I don't want to wc weeks they die easy.

Don't feed them warms as these sometimes carry parasites that are deadly to discus

The temp is huge no wiggle room here needs to be between 82f to 86f they like warm water

Plants and driftwood are good because driftwood keeps ph low if your tap ph is high

you may need to use a RO filter but this again depends were the breeder had them in.

Basically it's not a biggener fish you need to know what your doing with discus

If anybody sees anything I missed feel free to chime in