Discus Question

[Fishalicious]

Well, last night I couldn't take it any longer and I ended up buying $76 worth of stuff from big als online!
Not bad for:

AC500 filter
"The Bag" by Seachem
250mL of Purigen by Seachem
36oz of Black Diamond Carbon
Refill AP Ammonia Test Kit
4 Pack filter carts. For my Emperor 400

All for $76 including shipping, NOT BAD!!!!!

But Annyyywayyyyyy....
Since I have all this extra filtration (The AC500 and Emperor 400 will be working together on my 55gal!!), I had a couple of questions about discus.

I know they're moderately difficult to keep but I think I'm up for the challenge. My questions are:

I see that they can be put in with Danios, Barbs (who knew?), rainbowfish,gourami, and plecos. I was just wondering if anyone has ever housed them with clown loaches? Loaches are peaceful and harmless enough, I wonder why they weren't listed.

Does anyone think it may be a problem?

Also, Other than strict water parameters, and high quality, variety of foods; is there anything else I should keep in mind? Are they okay being the only discus in the tank?

Any comments/advice is greatly appreciated as usual!

Thanks a bunch,
-Dan

 

[BrianNY]

I have 125gal planted tank. The inhabitants are 5 discus, 10 assorted dwarf cichlids, 19 black neons, 4 dwarf albino plecos, and 3 clown loaches.

The water parameters are unimportant as long as they remain constant. Water changes are a must. If you're thinking of keeping one discus alone, I'd advise against it. They do much better in groups.

HTH

 

[Luke Anderson]

I've seen discus housed with clown loaches in many cases and they all did fine for years, as long as their is sufficient tank space things should be fine.
Discus are schooling fish and generally wont thrive unless there are at least 4-5 of them together. (a "general" guide is roughly 10 gallons of tankspace per discus).

 

[Fishalicious]

Yeah, actually I did googled discus' right after I made the post and read that at least 5 are recommended.
That's definitely understandable and I'm going to do the right thing and stay away instead of keeping one lonely discus in a community.
I've considered not buying any other community fish and just having 5 discus and a few loaches but honestly they're too expensive for me right now. Average $50 from what I've seen. One, sure, but 5 at the same time is not in the budget. Maybe if I pick up another tank later

MUST.....MAKE......... ROOM!!!!!!!!!

Dan

 

[BrianNY]

You might want to try aquabid.com Dan. It's possible to get some real bargains there. Especially on juveniles. Don't buy any fish under 2 inches though.

 

[Fishalicious]

Thanks Alot Brian. I think I'm just going to stick to my community and eventually when I get older and move outta here and get my own stable place, I'll have a discus tank. It's alright, it'll keep me motivated to keep going to college to get the money to move out to have all my tanks

The way I figure it is that one day
it's going to happen but I just have
to be patient but it'll be well worth
it in the end. Not to mention I will
have more money and I can possibly
buy some direct from Jack Wattley 8)
Edit: woops assuming he's still alive

Thanks everyone for replying.