Stocking Tank

[Andy123]

Hey.
I have an AR 850. Its a 3ft, 165L Tank.

I am looking at getting more fish soon. Current Stocking includes 3 red turqs, 6 cardinal tetras, 2 LG6 whiptails and 3 small bristlenose.

i would like to have a few more discus(how many oculd i hav in there? 5 or 6 total?), 2 royal whiptails, 2 ottos for algae cleaning and a nice size school of cardinal tetras(how many could i get of these too?). I will be removing the bristlenose and the LG6 whiptails soon.

what is that like? i do 25% water change every week. it is a planted aquarium. Do you think it is far too overstocked.

thank you

[Andy123]

??

[Andy123]

??

[lpiasente]

I think that you are at your max with the discus, you couldn't put 5 or 6 in a 135 ltr. I currently have 5 small/med in a 3ft and already I can see there isn't enough room for them and they have plenty of growing to do. I pick up my 4x2x2 on the wekend.I am not too sure about the cardinals

[Andy123]

its 165L not 135L. does this change anythinng? what would u change?
thank you

[Merrilyn]

If you're prepared to do a 30% water change twice a week you could add one more discus with the other tankmates you have.

General rule of thumb for discus is one adult per 40 litres of water. As you can see, one more discus will bring you up to the limit.

Add more cardinals by all means. They put very little strain on your bio system. A school of 20 or 30 looks great and would compliment your 4 discus beautifully.

I know in aquarium shops they pack them in twenty or so to a tank, but they are only there for a very short time, and most shops would be doing daily water changes on their discus tanks.

We want our discus to thrive, not just survive.

[Andy123]

quote: We want our discus to thrive, not just survive: quote
thats a good point. so if i up my water change i can add just the 1 more discus or the cardinlas? or both cardinals and 1 more discus?
how many cardinlas do u think i should put in a tank that size with 3 or 4 discus?
thank you all for yuour help

[Merrilyn]

Both. Add one more discus and bring your school of cardinals up to 20 or 30. I love to see cardinals in with discus. They compliment each other beautifully.

The rest of your tankmates are fine. You could even add a school of 4 or 5 cory catfish. Then you'll have something going on at each level of the tank. The cardinals will inhabit the top of the tank, the discus the mid area and the cory cats the bottom of the tank.

The catfish are such busy little people, they'll spend all day buzzing around the bottom of the tank looking for scraps of food. They do so much better in a group, so get 5 or 6 of them. You'll be fascinated, and you tank will look stunning.

[Andy123]

thank you for this information. great help.