Minimum Tank Size on Discus
- Thread starter deeplove
- Start date
5 or 6 minimum fish, 8 to 15 gallons per fish
The thing about discus is that they are cichlids and are a problem if you have too few in the tank. Rumor has it that 6 is the minimum number to spread out aggression, but I have a tank with 5 adults, same size, and they do fine. They are all siblings, raised together for life.
Back to your question.... you need something like 8 to 15 gallons per adult fish. The difference between 8 and 15 gallons is your tank maintenance and filtration and water changes. Add more, better filtration, and more water changes, and you can crowd a bit more.
On top of that, young fish need a lot of food to grow to the large sizes that you want in an adult. More food means more waste. More waste means more water changes. So, if you are getting young fish and they need to grow, you need to be prepared to do daily water changes for the first year perhaps. I did this for my quarter sized babies, until they were about 3" to 4", then I slowed to 4x/week. Now they are near 6" I change water 2x/week.
As far as tank maintenance, all that waste means dirty gravel and daily gravel cleaning, so most folks use a barebottom tank until the fish are grown up. My fish are grown now but I still have barebottom, with large driftwood with attached plants, and the waste is blown over to one side and I siphon it clean each morning before feeding. Since the discus only catch some food as it falls, they pick a lot of food off the floor of the tank, so that floor needs to be clean.
So, back to your question again... as an adult, you will need something like 100 gallons to keep 6 fish at 15 gallons/fish with less water changes, like 50% to 80% 1x/week. Or with great filtration, say a wet/dry, and more water changes, say 50% 2x/week, you could go to 48 gallons at 6 fish with 8 gallons per fish. Remember this is actual gallons, not nominal tank size, as your tank actually holds less gallons than the external dimensions indicate.
But, if you start with small fish, you can crowd them if you tend to the water constantly. I raised my babies, 23 1" fish in a 20 gallon-long for a few months, siphoning twice daily and changing water 50% a day. Then they moved to a 55 gallon with dual and then triple filtration, still daily water changes. At about 6 months old, I moved them to a 110 gallon. Then eventually I separated them to a 110 and 55 gallon tank, and then gave away a few. Then unfortunately I killed a few in a dechlorination accident so I am now up to 10 and 14 gallons per fish in the 2 tanks and I am considering going to weekly water changes, maybe, once I get the plants growing nicely.
So, to make a short answer long... you need 55 to 100 gallon tanks to keep discus.
The thing about discus is that they are cichlids and are a problem if you have too few in the tank. Rumor has it that 6 is the minimum number to spread out aggression, but I have a tank with 5 adults, same size, and they do fine. They are all siblings, raised together for life.
Back to your question.... you need something like 8 to 15 gallons per adult fish. The difference between 8 and 15 gallons is your tank maintenance and filtration and water changes. Add more, better filtration, and more water changes, and you can crowd a bit more.
On top of that, young fish need a lot of food to grow to the large sizes that you want in an adult. More food means more waste. More waste means more water changes. So, if you are getting young fish and they need to grow, you need to be prepared to do daily water changes for the first year perhaps. I did this for my quarter sized babies, until they were about 3" to 4", then I slowed to 4x/week. Now they are near 6" I change water 2x/week.
As far as tank maintenance, all that waste means dirty gravel and daily gravel cleaning, so most folks use a barebottom tank until the fish are grown up. My fish are grown now but I still have barebottom, with large driftwood with attached plants, and the waste is blown over to one side and I siphon it clean each morning before feeding. Since the discus only catch some food as it falls, they pick a lot of food off the floor of the tank, so that floor needs to be clean.
So, back to your question again... as an adult, you will need something like 100 gallons to keep 6 fish at 15 gallons/fish with less water changes, like 50% to 80% 1x/week. Or with great filtration, say a wet/dry, and more water changes, say 50% 2x/week, you could go to 48 gallons at 6 fish with 8 gallons per fish. Remember this is actual gallons, not nominal tank size, as your tank actually holds less gallons than the external dimensions indicate.
But, if you start with small fish, you can crowd them if you tend to the water constantly. I raised my babies, 23 1" fish in a 20 gallon-long for a few months, siphoning twice daily and changing water 50% a day. Then they moved to a 55 gallon with dual and then triple filtration, still daily water changes. At about 6 months old, I moved them to a 110 gallon. Then eventually I separated them to a 110 and 55 gallon tank, and then gave away a few. Then unfortunately I killed a few in a dechlorination accident so I am now up to 10 and 14 gallons per fish in the 2 tanks and I am considering going to weekly water changes, maybe, once I get the plants growing nicely.
So, to make a short answer long... you need 55 to 100 gallon tanks to keep discus.