Soon to get a Discus Tank

[MaNkiND]

Hi every1,
This forum looks real good and i can see the people here are very helpful. I have kept fish for 4 years and now i am planning to keep a Discus Tank. The tank is going 42"Long x 24"Wide x 24" Deep = 104.68 gal(US)
My main questions are:
How many Discus can i keep in the tank?
Is there a male to female ratio?
Are the dimensions ok? If not, I can increase the depth.

Any advise would be appreciated

[sammigold]

Someone correct me if I am wrong...

you could keep up to 6-7 adult discus or about 10-11 Juveniles (they grow though!)

there doesnt have to be any specific male to female ratio in fact it is very hard to sex discus until they become sexually mature and start pairing off and attempt to breed.

The dimensions of your tank sound fine... 4ft x2ftx2ft Yeah?

HTH.

[FishLover]

Increase the depth will not help you to hold more discus. It is the surface area that count.

About 10 G per adult discus is needed. Since your tank is deep, you may need more g per fish(less surface area).

Watch the water parms and temp you will be OK. Check the tankmate section to make sure no unwanted tank mates. Make sure you have two good heaters, you will need them.

If I had the 280 G tank, I would put discus in there for sure. Hey, 104 g is fine. I have a 125 g tank with 11 discus in there. Just added the last 5 yesterday.

[sharn]

about the O tank (please feel free to delete if you feel it is off topic mods!)

that tank is a awesome size! but you may encounter probs with the two Os as they hit adolescence (unless you get a friendly older pair). with such a huge amoutn of space it will be minimised, just a heads up though ive heard of many a story where peoples O's have just turned on each other (including a pair that was mating one week the next the male killed the female!!, they have been living together for years :? ) JDs can be awesome tank mates just watch for agression, you may manage to pick the most agro out of the bunch lol. i would suggest adding some dithers like Silver dollars etc etc. i would give you a medal for such a tank- you are one hell of a good fish parent to give 3 fish a tank that size! if you would like any further help on oscars www.theoscarspot.com is great and you have found the best site around for discus!

[MaNkiND]

Thx for the compliments for the O tank.
Anyways for those who arent fimiliar wit inches my discus tank size will be 3.5ft x 2ft x 2ft

I would like to keep my Discus to adulthood so i will probaly keep 6. I know for a begginer i should go with barebottom but can i maybe add sand or gravel? Is it really that hard?

[sammigold]

Hi Mankind, I am a new discus owner (Like you have kept other fish for years) have had my discus for about 6months....

I have a planted tank which you can see in the photo appreciation gallery.. I only have a thin layer of gravel and keep most of my plants in little glass jars of gravel which seems to be working at present disguised with pebbles and driftwood... I believe it is not that hard... go for it!! just keep up the regular water changes and gravel cleans...

You will find if you look through the forum that alot of people keep planted discus tanks as well as Barebottom.. HTH

[Merrilyn]

A very warm welcome to the forum. The other members have already given you some very good advise.

That tank you have sounds lovely, and would make a wonderful home for around 6 to 7 discus. In theory you could go to a maximum of 10 adult fish, but with those dimensions, I think you'd be better adding some of the tetras and the rams from your 30 gallon and staying with around 6 discus.

Discus are a large and spectacular fish, they can grow to 7 inches in diameter, so you don't need many of them to make a stunning display.

Your main factor is going to be water changes. How often you can change the water will dictate the number of fish you can keep in a tank.

Planted tanks are fine. There's no doubt that the plants help to keep the water clean. Using a gravel vac at each water change will keep your substrate free of excess food and fish waste. If you have a look at some of the pictures of planted tanks owned by members, you'll notice that the plants are set so that the fish still have plenty of open spaces for swimming. :P

[MaNkiND]

I will do water changes every 2-4 days and every time i do a water change i will vacuum the substrate.