following species and numbers OK with Discus?

[RipSlider]

Am at the most fun bit of fish keeping - planning the tank!!

Just wondering on opinions on the following fish.

Tank is a 1,100l which will be fairly heavily planted. Bottom planed to be leaves/soil/peat/gravel mixture.

l46 plec ( Zebra plec ) these are deal breakers, if I can't re-home these to the discus tank, then I won't be getting discus.

30-40x tetra's.

<<Is there any other suitable species I can use barring neons and cardinals? I'd prefer something like Black Phanton, emperor, lemon or x-ray tetra's, in that order >>

some form of puffer fish.

20x cory's

Question: what are people feelings about using botia loaches rather than cory's. They make much better scavengers.

up to 20 shrimps: mixture of filter feeders and scavangers. However, discus eat shrimps in the wild. Do you think the bigger species would be OK?

Thanks

Steve

[dwilder]

the zebras will be a problem as well as a puffer the shrimp will probably get eaten after awhile

[ILLUSN]

Shrimp and discus bad idea!

[RipSlider]

Even the likes of armoured shrimp?

Mine are 4 inches long and thicker than my finger!

With the Zebra, they come from roughly the same area, so I was thinking that they should be OK. Both River Negro species.

With the puffers, is it that the puffer would be in danger or the discus?

Current set up has 3x figure 8's and they are definately lower in the pecking order than pretty much every thing else. Even the botia loaches chase them away.


Many thanks for the advice so far.

Steve

[Merrilyn]

I'd be very worried about keeping zebbies with any other bottom dwellers, particularly cories and loaches. You may well find out that your zebs are missing out at meal times, and as you know, they need a high protein diet and don't compete well with more aggressive feeders.

I've only ever kept zebs in a species tank, high current and high oxygen. I'm really not sure how they'll cope in a very low current tank.

[RipSlider]

Hmm...

if discus and Zebra's are in-compatible, then the discus idea may have to be dropped.

The zebra's are my star fish, and live in the big tank in my front room.

Not really sure I want such a stunning fish ( and such a high cost one ) living in a smaller tank in the spare bedroom where it won't get seen.

This needs some thinking about.

Steve

[Merrilyn]

Nothing wrong with keeping zebs and discus together. They both prefer higher temps, up to 30C and soft, slightly acid water suits both of them. You can overcome the current problem by adding a small powerhead in the bottom corner of the tank, and putting the zeb's caves near the outlet. It won't affect the discus, and the zebs will have the current they like.

What I'm worried about is the food competition with other bottom dwellers.

We're talking about a big tank here, over a thousand litres so there's plenty of room to create a biotope to suit both your favourite fish. Discus will inhabit the top to mid areas of the tank, and you could certainly add a huge school of cardinals or rummy nose tetras. They would compliment both your discus and zebs and not compete with either.

If you want some bottom dwellers, how about some apistos or rams, but not too many of either.

Have you got your zebs yet? They are a pretty secretive fish. I had ten of them in a three foot species tank with lots of caves and driftwood, and I can honestly say I hardly ever saw them, except at feeding time.

I don't think you're going to see much of them in a huge tank.

[RipSlider]

I've had them for around 5 months now.

Initially, I saw nothing of them, to the point where I pulled the tank to bits looking for ( expensive ) bodies. However, now they've got used to the tank and the various different distractions that occur around it, they trundle out to play a fair bit.

They aren't the most lively of fish, but I do get to see them fairly often now. Like my plec, they seem to be only active in the evenings, even when the tank lights are still on.

[Merrilyn]

Yep, awsome little fish. They seem to have an internal time clock and know that night time is playtime.

Love to see some photos of yours.

[dwilder]

the puffers love to fin nip and can harm the discus

[taksan]

Zebs and discus ....errrr nooooooo
Zebs require too much current

[RipSlider]

OK, have been thinking about this.

Was initially going to place spray bars around 3 sides of the bottom of the tank, so that debris will constantly be lifted towards the filter ( just as in marine systems ).

However, if I make the return a single pipe, at the bottom of the tank, this will givee plenty of flow for the l46's, while leaving the middle and top layers relatively still.

Will see how it goes. If the l46's look like they are not dealing with the situation, then I will re-home the discus.

Steve

[RipSlider]

Sorry to double post, but I have a secondry question

I've beeen doing a bit of reading about tank mates.

Some places say that most tetra's are fine, other places say that some species can't deal with the tempeture.

I'm hoping specifically to have a shoal of Black Phanton tetra's. Most sources seem to think these would be OK, and they do look fantastic in the tank, but fenner thinks that they won't cope, and I trust what he says a lot.

has anyone kept this specific species with discus? How did they cope?

Thanks

Steve