# Discus



## Borntofish (Nov 30, 2007)

Hi All,
I would like to add a pair of "bonded" discus to my planted tank. I have done a fair amount of research on these guys and it seems like my tank is a fitting home. Wanted to see if anyone had any helpful advice, suggestions, etc for these guys. My tank is 75 gal "high tech" heavily planted. All parameters are wnl (within normal limits) and my ph is around 6.2 with the CO2 running. I have a community tank of tetras, rasboras, rams, an apisto, a pair of killies, corys, a gold barb and otos.
Thanks in advance!


----------



## alan j t (Oct 22, 2008)

i would say to raise the temp first and see if the plants will be ok, as to the residents aswell.

i think some of those fish on your list dont really like the hight temps that discus do well in.


----------



## TAB (Feb 7, 2009)

Some of those fish on your list might also become lunch.


----------



## Six (May 29, 2006)

fyi, discus are needy and once you've met their needs, they're quite boring IMO. You can't put much with them and they just are big colorful discs. LOL. To each their own, but discus are about equivalent to malawi cichlids in behavior.


----------



## Franzi (Dec 7, 2009)

so far the only useful info here is alan jt's. to add to it, i'd raise the temperature only a little bit at a time till you get to the desired temp...as not to shock the plants.

I've had adult discus with ottos, corys, cardinals, rummies, etc. and never had any of them eaten.

simplydiscus.com is a good place to get great info.


----------



## orlando (Feb 14, 2007)

_*Shock the plants?*_


----------



## Franzi (Dec 7, 2009)

Yes. Personally, I would not go from let's say 76 degrees up to 86 degrees overnight. Staggering the increase in temperature by two degrees over a week or so, might be a better approach

Does acclimating the plants to warmer, discus-preferred, temperature sound reasonable, orlando? "Shock" may have not been the best choice of words.


----------



## orlando (Feb 14, 2007)

_*This would be the first time I have ever heard of somebody acclimating plants.

I'm curious to know, what happens to your plants when you dont acclimate them.*_


----------



## Six (May 29, 2006)

they explode.

j/k- just another "useless" comment per this remark:


> so far the only useful info here is alan jt's


I think he's referring to the stress of a changing environment. Some plants, I'd have to say not many, may get stressed and lose leaves/lose color/die (crypts are well known for this). They're likely reacting from either too fast a change in the environment or you're just not meeting their requirements anymore.

Also, I just want to clarify, the reason I made the comment about discus being boring is because I've know many people who pay a lot of money for those fish and end up with a species only tank. Most people on this forum want a "community". A discus tank isn't really ideal for that, hence my _suggestion_ to rethink the plan.


----------



## Franzi (Dec 7, 2009)

orlando said:


> _*This would be the first time I have ever heard of somebody acclimating plants.
> 
> I'm curious to know, what happens to your plants when you dont acclimate them.*_


We don't know what kind of plants the OP has so it's hard to tell if they will do well in warmer water. As you know, some plants don't do well in warmer temps, but I have read others' experiences in which they had great results by adjusting cooler water plants to 84-86 degree water by slowly upping the temperature, giving the plants time to adjust.


----------



## theblondskeleton (Nov 22, 2008)

I just did this in my 90, and I raised the temp by 1 degree per week for a few weeks until I was at 84 degrees. All of my plants did fine. The only thing I would say is make sure you stay on top of things, and keep it stable. At those high temps, a slight imbalance can become a huge problem very fast. Otherwise, they do fine. Keep the discus fed and you won't lose any, but know that I just lost a school of 16 rasboras because my discus got hungry


----------



## londonloco (Sep 25, 2005)

Six said:


> fyi, discus are needy and once you've met their needs, they're quite boring IMO. You can't put much with them and they just are big colorful discs. LOL. To each their own, but discus are about equivalent to malawi cichlids in behavior.


Discus are cichlids.....


----------



## exv152 (Jul 12, 2008)

I'm not sure if the barbs would be a good fit for discus. Also, if you plan on doing daily water changes for your discus, as is usually recommended for these fish, this may pose some problems for your planted setup. Usually leading to an algae breakout because you begin to deplete the nutrients with daily WCs.


----------



## alan j t (Oct 22, 2008)

exv152 said:


> I'm not sure if the barbs would be a good fit for discus. Also, if you plan on doing daily water changes for your discus, as is usually recommended for these fish, this may pose some problems for your planted setup. Usually leading to an algae breakout because you begin to deplete the nutrients with daily WCs.


to clarify this quote.
daily w/c are very reccommended for juvie discus.
the reason for frequent w/c is 
1-multiple feedings a day,
2-the cleaner the water, the faster your discus will grow
3-young discus will get sick if your parmater are not up and over the best conditions
4-the reason you do all of this if to maximize your discus growth the fastest you can.
you only have about a year for your discus to grow out to there best,not counting gurth.
all this should be done in a bare tank.
why do you think all the discus dealers have bare tanks?
less chance for issues.

but ya try discus,first do your temp about 80-82 for adults and go from there
make sure plants can hang,some will rot so you dont want that.
make sure your heater will hold that temp, the bigger the better on heaters.
and fish, the heat will possible shorten some of your fishes life span by speeding up its metabolism(not sure if its true)
alot of lowlight plants will work for sure.
stems too, but to me stem plants require more flow from power heads and such.
discus dont hang with high flow tanks.
check simply discusdotcom for tanks mates and see if they are compatible or recommended.
overall you would want to work around your discus

my discus hates my power heads.
when i forget to turn them on after a w/c i notice my discus all over my tank, such beauty and grace,dont forget the colors. adding a couple of angels wont hurt too.

so what if its a species tank! 
people do it with african cichlids all the time, you cant add anything else, not even a pleco(though some have achieved it) and your very limited to plants.(i love african cichlids)

i added corys, rummy nose, betta, albino bushy nose pleco, hatchet fish,congo,appistos,geophagus.
cardinals, with ease. though you will need enough space and if you plan it out correctly you should have limited issues if none.


----------



## Borntofish (Nov 30, 2007)

Thanks for all the great info and responses. Amazing how many different schools of thought out there. Some are hard core and say water changes daily, bare tank, etc.... while others say a well planted community tank would be fine for a pair of discus.. Tough to make sense of it all. My tank temp is already at 82 and the plants are pearling daily, I guess I wil increase it 2 degrees to 84. My main problem is our water appears to be too hard for these guys. We were planning to install a water softner so this gives that much more reason too. Once I get that corrected, I hope to move forward with these guys. I'll keep ya all posted and thanks again for the advice.


----------



## growingwonders (Feb 12, 2010)

Please reserach your softener thoroughly and/or invest in an RO unit afterwards. They often use salts and chemicals to soften the water that are detrimental to plants and I'm sure other life forms, especially aquatic ones.


----------

