# Stocking 75 Gallon Discus Community



## Philip.Chan.92 (Jun 14, 2010)

I am currently setting up a 75 gallon planted Discus community tank. I plan to get 6 juvies in a few months after everything has been running for a long period of time. I will be running an eheim 2217 and an Emperor 400. As for stocking, how is this list?

6 Discus
25 Cardinal Tetra
2 German Blue Ram
6 Peppered Corys
2 SAE (may remove when they get larger and stop eating algae)
A dozen Amano Shrimp
Albino BN Pleco


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## TheFishGuy (Apr 21, 2005)

I would lose the 2 SAE. simply because you'll have to tear the entire tank apart in the future to get them thus stressing the discus and the albino bn will do a fine job on it's own!

Aught to be an awesome looking tank when done and mature!


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## Darkside (Feb 6, 2008)

Philip.Chan.92 said:


> I am currently setting up a 75 gallon planted Discus community tank. I plan to get 6 juvies in a few months after everything has been running for a long period of time. I will be running an eheim 2217 and an Emperor 400. As for stocking, how is this list?
> 
> 6 Discus
> 25 Cardinal Tetra
> ...


SAE's nevers top eating algae. Why would you remove them? They are hands down the best algae eating fish available in the trade!!!


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## dwarfpike (Jan 22, 2008)

I would switch the peppered cories for one that has been know to handle the heat discus like, even if not native to said temps ... like pandas or sterbai's.



Darkside said:


> SAE's nevers top eating algae. Why would you remove them? They are hands down the best algae eating fish available in the trade!!!


But there have been reports of them enjoying discus slime coats as well when older. Not as many reports as Otos, but more than bristlenose. I wouldn't add any of the three algae eating fish though, letting the shrimps do the job. Especially if doing a typical low light discus tank, there won't be any algae left for the fish after the shrimp get done.


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## Darkside (Feb 6, 2008)

I highly doubt that SAEs actually eat the slime coat of Discus, or any other fish for that matter. I've never experienced that behaviour in my groups. I think too many people confuse them with Flying foxes and CAEs. I have true SAEs in all of my tanks and they don't even eat the tiniest of fry. I mean I have a breeding group of Psuedomugil getrudae and the SAE's don't even eat the fry.

The only problem I can see arising from keeping SAEs with discus is that they may out compete the discus for food when the discus are young. Beyond a certain point this isn't a problem. I highly recommend SAEs to anyone keeping a planted aquarium. SAEs are actually one of my favourite fish. They do like to be kept in groups as they shoal, I do 5-6 in a 75 gallon aquarium.


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## dwarfpike (Jan 22, 2008)

I wouldn't think oto's would nip at slime coat either, but that's been well documented. I'd suspect SAE's of it over oto's if I didn't know better. I agree normal people confuse them with flying foxes, but most of the discus reports come from long time planted tank keepers that keep SAE in all their other planted tanks and are trying discus for the first time. Maybe keeping the SAE's (or oto's or bristlenose for that matter) at such higher temps than they are used to rev up their metablism enough that they seek out more protein than in their normal diet. Just a thought.


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## Darkside (Feb 6, 2008)

SAEs aren't related to plecos or ottos and I've never heard of them going after the slime coats of any fish, nor have I seen it myself. I have them in 4 tanks right now that are 82 degrees and above and they don't bother any of the inhabitants, be them nano barbs, Tropheus, SA dwarfs, chromides, xenotilapia etc. I think this is a case of misidentification and bad press. When I had discus they were never bothered by my SAEs and I wouldn't hesitate to recommend the combination to others. :thumb:


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## dwarfpike (Jan 22, 2008)

I've never had oto's pick at the slime coats of any of my fish either, but there are to many reports of it dismiss it out of hand. I've also know many discus keepers that have never had an issue with oto's in their tanks for years. Doesn't mean I'd want to risk it. Just becuase it's rare doesn't mean it couldn't happen, hence the warning. There are even less reports about bristlenose doing it than either oto's or SAE's, and I still would never put a BN in with discus. But as most that follow my posts know, I tend to be ultraconservitive when it comes to stocking. It has happened enough with people that I know can tell the differance between SAE and flying fox that I thought I would mention it is all, I didn't place odds on IF it would.


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## Darkside (Feb 6, 2008)

dwarfpike said:


> But as most that follow my posts know, I tend to be ultraconservitive when it comes to stocking.


 :lol: I tend to be the opposite. Nothing ventured, nothing gained! :thumb:


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## Dutch Dude (Sep 14, 2006)

Just my opinion on your stock list.

SEA= bad choice becouse they are to active and can easely stress discus. For eating algea a BN pleco will do very well with discus

Oto's,.....sometimes they work with discus and sometimes they don't. People have very diferent experience with oto's. In my experience they can go well togeather but there must be enough food for them (slimy algea, diatoms, small food particles). If not they can feed from the slime coat of discus and spook them especialy during the night when discus rest and oto's become more active.

Peppered cories probably won't handle the high temps. C hastatus is compatible and do handle the high temps. In stead of cories I recommend small Hypansistrus species or Peckoltia. Those feed on spoiled foods and take their share on algea as well. They can be very nice colored and feed much more spoiled foods compared to cories. One Hypansistrus feeds abouth the same quantity as 4 to 6 cories.

Amano shrimp sounds like a rather expensive food :wink:


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## Dutch Dude (Sep 14, 2006)

CORECTION,......not C hastatus (dwarf cory) but C. sterbai are suitable tankmates for discus. My mistake and sorry for that.


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## markscichlids (Feb 6, 2009)

is this your 1st time keeping discus? if so then my advice would be to steer away from the full on planted setup for now and keep things simple to start with. when i started to keep discus i dived straight in at the deep end and went planted , only to end up simplifying things later on. if you have a good level of experience with both plants and discus then go for it , a planted discus tank does look fantastic. but it is an awful lot more work than a more simple setup. 
keeping both the plants and the discus happy is quite a tricky balancing act .

the main problems encountered doing a planted discus tank i found were

flow. the plants want more flow than the discus , i found this to be a big problem
waterchanges , the discus like these , but the plants didnt do well with all the extra waterchanges .
keeping things clean enough. with all the plants etc it can be a real pain getting any uneaten food , detritus up off the substrate and water quality can soon deteriorate.

if you are still determined to go planted id reccomend low tech . as at the high temps for the discus the water is not able to hold as much dissolved oxygen, adding Co2 just compounds this.
plants such as echinodorus which are heavy root feeders would be the best choice , as with all the extra waterchanges for discus , dosing the water column soon becomes expensive , as the nutrient levels are always being dropped . with echinodorius species this is not such a proiblem as they are root feeders and you can give them ferts via root tabs . .

hope this helps


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## Philip.Chan.92 (Jun 14, 2010)

Thanks for all the advice guys. I am planning to get some emerald corys instead, I hear they handle warmer temperatures quite well. I may also get harlequin rasboras instead of cardinals. As for plants, I am definitely keeping echinodorus spp and vals. Also some hygros just for the early development of the tank just to help stabilize everything. This setup is still under construction, won't be adding discus for a few months. I am going to make sure that the plants are settled and are at full ammonia sucking potential as well as having a well matured tank. Will keep you guys posted.


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## markscichlids (Feb 6, 2009)

hygrophilia polysperma is a good plant ,fast growing , good for sucking up nitrates. reading back , i see you plan on getting small juvenile discus. in a planted tank i would advise getting larger discus around 4 inches plus. the reason being that , with growing out juveniles youre looking at daily waterchanges , where as with larger discus you can get away with less. i do 30% evry second day , which will give the plants a better chance .


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## Klave (May 4, 2010)

I have Sterba's and they work wonderful with Discus.
My temps average around 87F in my tank and all are just doing fine.

My setup work fine. 
The Ram's are good choice in my opinion and I also use a large filter "overload", i.e. I have about 900 gph in my 90 gallon and doing weekly 30% and it works very good. My Discus are very healthy... 

For plants, example of warm water Discus plants: Wendtii, red or green or bronze goes very good in warm discus water ( mine are growing like crazy, never used CO2 in a tank).
Sword, Amazon Sword (Echinodorus bleheri,
Anubias Afzelii 
Sag, Subulata (narrow leaf)(Sagittaria subulata
Coffeefolia (Anubias barteri v. Ã¢â‚¬ËœCoffeefoliaÃ¢â‚¬â„¢
Crinum "Dwarf" onion plant (Zephyranthes candida
+ 32 more different plants that just work fine in warm Discus water.


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## justflow1983 (Feb 26, 2007)

Philip.Chan.92 said:


> I may also get harlequin rasboras instead of cardinals.


I always find that harlequin rasboras end up looking kind of fat and ugly after a while, maybe its just my own bad luck with them. That beautiful elongated shape they have in the store seems to turn into Jabba the micro-Hutt... they seem to develop some sort of pot-belly (yes I know they're fish and don't have a beer gut)


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