How many discus can a 175 litres tank contain?

[wahboy]

Hello everyone,

How many discus can I keep in a 175 litres planted tank?

Will a discus grow to its maximum size in a 175 litres aquarium?

Thanks
Wahboy

[apistomaster]

Maybe 4.
I tend to recommend allowing about 50 liters per Discus.

It is much harder to grow juvenile Discus up in a planted tank than it is in a bare bottom tank.
That is why most experienced Discus keepers who intend to keep any in a planted tank will raise them to about 10 cm in diameter before introducing them to a planted tank but their ultimate size should be at least 15 cm in diameter. Given their size perhaps you can better appreciate how small your tank is to be housing other than a single mated pair of adult Discus and how badly you would be pushing the limits to keep even only 4 adults? I could make it work but only because of my experience and assuming this tank has enough surface area and is not one of those narrow tall style aquariums. I would allow at least 625 sq cm of surface area per discus and this guideline supersedes the volumetric guideline in importance.

The way Discus form pecking orders it can be challenging to not raise at least 6 in a tank so the stress of the pecking order is distributed among more fish. I speak an an elder Discus breeder who first began keeping Discus in 1967 and began breeding wild Discus in 1969.

Your questions indicate to me that you need to research Discus keeping much more before actually buying any.

[sglascow]

a 175 litre tank can contain more than just 4 discus. IT depends on the size of them. I'm keeping 5 blue saphires in a 2ft tank. And they are very happy and lively. My LFS who has won over 8 trophies for his discus and goes to Germany for competitions and stuff for his fish advised me completely on it. He said my 2ft can carry at max 6 discus. IF you're getting the big discus of course less. But other than that your tank should be able to hold at least 8 and happily too .

[hck]

Oh...I have 11pcs 5.5" to 6" discuses in a 150 litre tank w/o problem for many years already. I also had 6pcs 5" discuses in a 2ft tank and have been raising 10pcs of fry, now 3.5", in a 2ft tank. I have always been raising 10pcs of fry from 1.5" to 4.5" in a 2ft tank before moving them to bigger tank, though not always recommended by many experts.

[sglascow]

Haha. I don't know much about discus. I just love the way they look. 150litres is plenty for lots of disxus. Plus you'll naturally know if it is over-stocked because of the look. Don't worry

[hck]

Ya, but stocking many in a tank means daily large water change is a must lor, but can't be helped when we do not have the luxury of that many tanks. My fishes are only living in a 3-room flat whilst, 4pcs in a 175 litre, these fishes are living in a bungalow, but just wondering if discuses will be scared to death with so little companion and so much space. Anyway, also good, because can do lesser water change.

[apistomaster]

hck,

You should continue making large water changes deswpite there are few discus. The water changes should always be maintained at about the same despite a tank not being as heavily stocked as your other. This is one of those things one should change unless the tank is overcrowed. In that case changing more water and more frequently is always best.

[apistomaster]

Despite that you have fewer Discus in the new tank you should continue to make water changes as if there were more Discus in the tank. This will promote better growth.
I do not believe in making 90% water changes at once as some practice but the ideal regime is like that used in professional breeding hatcheries where they have a flow through aged water system that does change 100% of the water gradually every 24 hours.

[apistomaster]

I couldn't edit my first post in time so the system wouldn't let me. That is why there are nearly identical posts.
I find that changing about 75% of the water every 3 or 4 days gives me good results.

I am not presently keeping any domestic Discus. I now only have six wild adult Alenquers and 16 F1 from a pair formed between a male wild Royal Blue X Semi-Royal Blue female. I am concentrating on breeding wild type Discus now although I have raised several thousands of domestics over the years.
Wild Discus respond even better than domestics to frequent, large water changes but it is always a good practice no matter what kind of Discus you keep.

[hck]

Wow, 75% every 3 or 4 days, if I did that, my fishes will fall sick because my tanks are all over stocked (greedy lah, want to keep all the fishes that I bred). My fishes have never once enjoyed the luxury of space.

My daily water change regime is 80-90% or sometimes 100%. It is always during the CNY period when I do just 1 water change every 2 days that gives me problem. My fishes takes very well to large daily water change direct from tap. I am very curious how people manage to keep their discuses without daily large water change. And are their really hobbyists who keeps only that few discuses in a large tank and resisting the temptation to adding more? (discus craze).

Did you manage to breed any wild ones successfully? Wish you luck and success. Sorry, if I have highjacked the original thread, and going off topic.

[sglascow]

Ohhhhhh.... I do like water changes every 2 weeks ? I'm quite lazy to do them. I do 100% changes every week or so. It seems to be fine for me. The discus have grown substantially in the few months I've had them. They have no stress lines either. So it all seems good to me.

[apistomaster]

I have bred four different pairs of wild Discus but I am still trying to breed my wild Alenquers. I have one pair set up alone in a 29 High. The other four are in a 125 gal tank to allow them to pair. Looks like I have one more pair and a couple extra females. So yes, there are some people who do allow their Discus much more space than you do.
I still change 75% of their water every 3rd or 4th day.

If you want of breed Discus you will find it is much easier to obtain pairs in uncrowded tanks.

[hck]

Wooo!!! interesting. I haven't seen a wild discus fry before (haven't been visiting fish shop or breeder in recent 2yrs).

[hck]

Ohhhhhh.... I do like water changes every 2 weeks ? I'm quite lazy to do them. I do 100% changes every week or so. It seems to be fine for me. The discus have grown substantially in the few months I've had them. They have no stress lines either. So it all seems good to me.

Once every week and still ok, that's new and anyway, good for you, lesser stress in fish keeping. Now I know of 2 people who don't do daily large water change and fishes still doing fine.

[apistomaster]

I have been keeping and breeding wild and domestic discus for more than 40 years. In all those years it has been my custom to change 2/3 to 3/4 of their tank water ever 3 or 4 days.

I only mentioned that in some commercial discus farms where they have a large reservoir of aged water they will set up a slow flow though in tanks equipped with over flow plumbing which equals 100% of the water daily. If this is done one can keep more fish in less water and still achieve high growth rates but this is rarely practical for home Discus aquariums.

I do not think it is good practice to change all the water once a week.
That could mean your discus are flopping around on the bottom and unless the new water is well aged you run a greater chance of shocking them.

Avoid drastic extremes of too large of a water change at one time or too few and too small of water changes.

[Condor]

I change more than 100% in every two days
drain until the discus is flat
hehe...

Done this for years
lucky nothing bad happen

I think its depend on the country water and weather too
over here in Singapore
we dont have four seasons
so the temperature dont drip as much

of course water change
anti-chorine is a must
some of my friends who stay near my place said they dont add anti-chorine
but for me
I cant afford to make any mistake

[apistomaster]

I became used to making 70% water changes every 3rd or 4th day without using any declorine/dechloramine product then one day I had fish in distress with some losses in all the tanks changed.
The water depts can be very approximate with their dosing of these disinfectants or if any maintenance work or repairs is done just upstream of your supply lines an extra dose may be added at the repair to provide added disinfection. It just takes one of those kinds of events to cost you some expensive fish so I "got religion" after the last time and always use Prime made by SeaChem.

I don't know if you were joking or not but I do know some Discus keepers who do change so much water daily at a time that their Discus must lay flat on their sides. I think that is cruel and completely unnecessary. Discus do like fresh water but this can be carried out to unreasonable extremes. Many Discus panic when the water gets too shallow and injure themselves.
I only keep wild Discus and I never subject them to more that 75 to 80% water changes and always allow enough water to remain so the fish can remain oriented completely vertical. Domestic Discus have become so tame that their behaviors may allow one to literally let them lay over on their sides but to what ends? I do not understand those who practice that kind of discus husbandry.
I have lost interest in domestic Discus in general because they have become more like Koi and lack many of the behaviors that make wild fish interst me. i began keeping and breeding wild Discus over 4 decades ago and since then i have raised and sold 1000's of domestics. They just became a business and were no longer a hobby. I learned nothing new about them after a certain point but even after all these years, I continue to learn more about wild Discus and I know I will never know everything about them.
I always wanted to breed Heckels but I finally concluded after trying to spawn 3 different groups over the years that they are difficult to breed in captivity probably because they need much larger and deeper tanks than anyone can provide in a home. They need about 6 feet of water to be in their spawning zone. That kind of an environment is virtually impossible to duplicate. The S. haraldi often spawn within 2 feet of the water's surface so that and their greater tolerance for variable water chemistry is what makes them easier to breed and why they were so easily domesticated.
Each wild Discus species has different needs and domestics have many fewer demands.

[Condor]

Ofc I am not joking about the draining of water until discus laying flat
this is to clear all the dirt in the water
maybe the discus are trained as I dont see any of them darting when the water shallowed in fact, they just lay flat until water is fill

Only new discus may as you say panic when I drain too much water
but from what I observed they dont panic after the quarantine period.