Apistos & Rams with Discus?

[danielb]

This may seem a silly question but bear with me as I've kept Rams & Apistos before but never Discus. Can Dwarf Cichlids (Rams & Apistos) be kept in the same tank as Discus? I'm currently planning a four foot tank (approx 75G) and I was thinking it would be really cool to have a small group (1M + 1-2F) of maybe one or two of the following species to liven up the bottom of the tank: Blue Rams, Bolivian Rams, Apisto. Trifasciata, Apisto Borellii or Apisto Cacatuoides.

[fishgeek]

http://www.discusforums.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=11041

[fishgeek]

oops

[Robdog]

I guess the simple answer to your poll is Yes you can keep some apistos with discus. In the wild some of them are found in the same areas as discus with the same water qualities and will fit in quite well. Some others are from totally different water types (fast flowing etc) and while they will probably survive they may not flourish.

Thanks(?) to extensive line breeding with both apistos and discus there are strains that have become quite hardy and tolerant of a wide range of conditions so you should be OK with the hardier of the dwarfs e.g borelli and cacatuoides. Just be aware that discus temperatures will reduce the life span of the dwarfs so maybe a compromise is needed on temp

HTH

[parkap]

Hi All,

I tried this in the early days of my fishkeeping. I think I've posted this story before but fore the benfit of this poll I'll re-tell it.

In a perfectly healthy tank, they are fine to be with each other. The biggest issue is that to keep them both you have to find the middle of the road water parameters. The most obvious being temperature.

My discuss and apistos were all going fine until the very first small outbreak of disease. What I found was that b/c the water parameters weren't optimal for both species, they both struggled to fight off even minor ailments.

In the end I had big losses of both species b/c the water parameters weren't the best for either of them.

Regards,
Peter.