How many discus is to may?

[chris]

Hi all just wondering, I have a 3 foot tank tank with, 180L
5 discus
15 neons
7 corys
2 bristlenose cat fish.
Is that to many fish,
If I loose some fish how many water changes a week and what fish do I loose, I use rain water, at the moment I have An amonia problem.

[Chris McMahon]

Generally the rule of thumb is 40L per adult discus. I'd say you've reached your limit.

Water changes - I'd go with 2x 30% changes per week, some do more, some less.

Straight rain water isn't the best for discus as it lacks the minerals discus need to stay healthy. A mix of tap and rainwater might be a better solution. Depends on the quality of your tap water. Another option is "discus salts" or similar.

You'll want to get the ammonia problem under control as quickly as possible. Do a 50% water change if you're reading over 0.5ppm and keep doing them until it's under 0.5ppm. Then take daily readings and do a 25% change every day until you get 0ppm. Keep you pH under 7.5.

It sounds like it's either a new tank, or you're put a lot of new fish in at once. You should also be keeping an eye on Nitrite levels.

[flukes]

Thats a few too many fish for that tank, it is possible to keep that many but you would need too have thr right filtration.

Because of the bio load you might want too think about either upgrading or adding on some more filtration.

[weird]

I have a tank with more fish in it than that, but ... no discus ! Also the tank is very established, heavily planted, 2 filtration units and gets water changes 2 times a week. I am not sure what size the discus are, but you are going to run out of space ... and you did say you had an ammonia problem.

To tie you over until you have a solution , another tank properly cycled could take you atleast 2 weeks to setup - increase your water changes ... atleast daily.

From size/mass

6 clown loaches (4 adults but only 18-12 months, 2 juvs)
2 bala sharks (adults)
2 rainbow sharks (adults)
2 upside catfish (juvs)
2 sucking catfish (adults)
2 bristlenose (adults)
3 corys (adults)
2 black widows (adults)
7 neons
2 leopard danios
1 molly
------------------------ ALL THIS TANK IS FULL NO MORE COMING IN THANKYOU

[Supersnake]

There is very little biomass in the other 22 sundry fish, if the discus are not full grown it is no problem at all in 180 litres - you may need to increase water changes slightly if discus full adult. Remember, still the same water going round even if you upgrade filtration so water change is much more important. I have seen many more discus kept successfully in tank this size (commercial breeders for example)

[flukes]

Yeah but commerical breeders will change a lot more water than 2x30% a week. Look iam not saying it cant be done iam just saying if your going too do it then your gonna have too take the extra care to make sure water is perfect so they dont become stunted..

Personally why make it harder on your self?