# 75g Discus tank, schooling fish suggestions



## msjinkzd (Mar 18, 2009)

I have a 75g moderately planted discus tank with 5 sub-adult discus, 20 sterbai cory, and 1 abn. i would like to add a schooling fish and would like some suggestions. Temp is 84, wc's 3x50% weekly.
Pics:


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## Dutch Dude (Sep 14, 2006)

Nice tank and nice fish :thumb: I would love to see some more close up pics of the discus :wink: Unfortunately you used dark substrate cousing the turquase discus to turn quit dark. Bright colored sand would have made the fish brighter colored.

I think your already reached the limit if it comes to stock levels. The tank is a planted tank and will be more work and harder to keep clean when the discus have grown to their adult size somewhere around around 5 1/2 to 6 1/2 inch. If you do want to add a schooling tetra you might consider larger water changes.

I suggest cardinal tetras or rummynose. Rummynose are the best schooling tetra moving from left to right and keep in a group most of the time. Other tetras only show that behaviour when something is threatening to them. At first they will school but once they are used to the discus they only rarely school. A drawback on rummynose is that they are realy sensitive to water qualety and good qualety is hard to find. Cardinals are good availeble but a specie everyone keeps with their discus. I expect lemon tetras is also to be a good possibility but never tried it. Apisto's are a very nice alternative IMO.


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## msjinkzd (Mar 18, 2009)

Yes I realized the dark substrate was not ideal but I got these discus as a "surprise" trade when they were about 2" and at teh time, the 75g was what i had to raise them in. Until they hit about 4", I did daily 40% wc's and fed 6x a day. Once they got about 4x,i dropped the temp to 84 and do 3-4x feedings and wc's of 50% ever few days. The ammonia and nitrite are always 0 and nitrate rarely registers. I also have 20 or so amano shrimp and a half dozen clithon corona in this tank so there is rarely anything left to clean up. If i had to do it over, i woud have picked a different substrate for sure.

As for pics, I have a terrible kodak easyshare camera and the discus rarely stay still, but here is a few more shots. Those pics above really do make them look very dark.

















I never realized how few pics of my discus I have *scampers off to try better*


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## msjinkzd (Mar 18, 2009)

*scampers back with marginally better photos*


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## illy-d (Nov 6, 2005)

I agree with Dutch Dude about Cardinals & Rummies being the best options... But I feel the Rummies sensitivity to water quality is a good thing - the old "canary in the coal mine" addage... If the rummies are not bright red in the head time to do a water change - even if it is mid-week (I know that's not usually a problem for Discus owners. Who for the most part seem prepared to do large volume W/C's at the drop of a hat.


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## Dutch Dude (Sep 14, 2006)

Nice fish! :thumb: Thanks for the aditional pics! 

You obviously knowing what you are doing and taking excellent care and give them the same treatment I do. I kept cherry shrimp with my RT discus when they were around 4 1/2 inch but ended up as snacks, haha! Well no problem becouse I have plenty of the shrimp. I would not be surprised if your fish start down hunting shrimp either. What size and age are your fish right now? I'm curious,...what are you feeding them?



> But I feel the Rummies sensitivity to water quality is a good thing - the old "canary in the coal mine"


 Definitely true and thats exactly were the rummynose were used for in the 80's when keeping discus wasn't as "easy" as it is today. The problem is to get healthy and good qualety rummy nose. I lost 2 batches of 20 becouse of a mysterious bloat like illness. Don't ever buy rummynose with pail looking heads. Best is to go with real H. bleheri and the best qualety fish show red on their gills as well and sometimes even a short line pointing towards the tail. You should defenately quarantine them for abouth 6 to 8 weeks to make sure you don't introduce ill fish. If I could get a hold on decent qualety I definitely would go for rummynose my selves.



> I know that's not usually a problem for Discus owners. Who for the most part seem prepared to do large volume W/C's at the drop of a hat.


 :lol: ......the water changes is realy the biggest part of keeping discus healthy. After a while it starts to become a routine.


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## DiscusQueen (Jul 16, 2007)

Hi there... I agree.. nice fish and tank and I love rummys.. They are without a doubt the best schoolers I had with my discus... Just qt them first for about 3 or 4 weeks or more if you can stand it.. it will give them a chance to adjust to your conditions and have them better equipped to adjust to the big tank afterwards. Good luck with the tank. Sue


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## msjinkzd (Mar 18, 2009)

they are about 5" now, I have had them since November when they were just under 2". I have amanos with them; amanos get to 2" so are a good choice as far as shrimp go for discus and are excellent algae eaters as well. Right now I feed pellets(hikari discus or NLS) 1-2x a day, hikari frozen bloodworms once a day, and a homemade food based on tilapia, market shrimp, some veggie matter, vitamins and some naturose. Do they seem to be growing properly? These are my first discus, I did research, but am still pretty new to the game as they are my first cichlids.

I have a tank already with cardinals so didn't really want more of those and am not a particular fan of rummynose. I was hoping for an alternate choice. I know it can be challenging because of the temperature requirements but that is why I came to the pros :thumb:


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## Dutch Dude (Sep 14, 2006)

A nice size for their age and they are on track and at normal growth rate. You have done a great job :thumb: Foods are great! My RT received more frozen bloodworms at that age and it lead to an issue. As small fish their metabolism seem to be diferent and they tolerate large amounts of food (large compared to their size). When they hit the 5 inch larger portions of bloodworms coused gas build up in their intestines cousing some of them (the eager feeders) to bloat en compensate the gas build up by flattening their swim blather. Luckily I had no casualties! So good to read you feed them a better balanced diet with great foods. Your recipe with the fish mix is good balanced as well and I know similar recipes with tuna and salmon. The alenquer youngsters seem to become less and less interested in the beefheart mix and more interested in pellets, bloodworms and artemis. Lucky me becouse beefheart can be quit messy and foils up the water rather fast.

Considering this are your first Discus and you received them at a small size you have done a very good job. I'm fairly new to discus as well and my RT (red turquase) are now 1 1/2 years of age and just over a year in my posesion. Currently I'm growing out a new group of domesticated alenquer and with a bit of luck I will have wigglers of the RT by tomorrow morning. So be careful,....discus are addicting :lol: I keep and kept several other SA cichlids before I switched to discus but discus are definitely something diferent if it comes to behaviour. I wish I didn't wait so long before taking the step.

Other tetra species can be done but the fish will have to make a compromise if it comes to the high temps. This will shorten their live span. I expect the lemon tetras will be fine and geographical very close to the discus natural habitat (Santarem aria). From the north I expect the head and tail light to be a specie that tolerates more. Those are peaceful little fish but from a distance not so attractive colored. Up close they have lots of details dough. Nannostomus beckfordi should also be a suitable specie but I'm not sure if the have the tendency of fin nibbling (never owned them my selves). I remember them as suitable discus tankmates but it is whise to check that out. They would be a nice addition to your discus if it comes to coloration.


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## exasperatus2002 (Jul 5, 2003)

I've kept threadfin rainbowfish & cardinal tetra schools in my old discus tank. The rainbows did a good job filling in the wasted space at the top of the tank.


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## illy-d (Nov 6, 2005)

Oh yes - QT'ing new fish like rummies or cardinals or whatever to insure you don't introduce disease is a must - especially with fish & plants like you have... Even a 'simple' disease like ICK can absolutely ruin a tank like that - not so much the ICK itself but the treatments to get rid of it - like using salt - is really hard on plants.

And I have noticed a decline in the quality of rummynoses in the last 5 or so years... I still have a few from my first batch that I got 6 years ago and they are big and very bright red with the same markings you describe Dutch dude... The newer members of the school do not have the same intense colour - I was hoping that with good water and a good diet they will colour up, but maybe they won't reach the same intensity as my older stock...


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## msjinkzd (Mar 18, 2009)

With 25+ tanks running, I always qt everything for a month of health. Not just because I am concerned about the plants and discus, but because I have invertebrates in most tanks and they do not tolerate medications 

I guess I will just keep it the way it is for now. I really don't want rummies or cardinals and just haven't come across anything that really strikes my fancy. I do need to find a space for 9 sub-adult diamond tetras I have, but don't think the discus tank is the tank for them.


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## illy-d (Nov 6, 2005)

Are you looking for colour, activity? What do you feel is lacking - if anything, from your tank? Nowadays fish farm raised tropical fish come from a pretty homogenous environment which means you may be able to keep something that would be 'outside' the box of traditional thinking? The thing is with soooo many species out there it may be easier to identify your need (or want) and then work towards satisfying it rather then just suggesting what we know has worked in the past.

Looking at the photos of your tank I can't really identify any sort of deficiency. It looks good in still life. However, from watching how 'inactive' or methodical discus can appear in fish stores I can imagine that your tank could do for a little bit of _movement_ - but nothing spastic enough to stress the discus...


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## msjinkzd (Mar 18, 2009)

The issue i am having is that my discus startle very easily. I would like to add something that will provide some gentle activity so that they are less startled and also a diversion from my cories. I have ample hiding spots and cover for all the tankmates, but the discus are picking on my cories. I have seen it happen, and I now have a couple blind cory cats from this. Short of tearing the tank apart, its not feasible to remove the cories. here is a pic:


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## illy-d (Nov 6, 2005)

ahhh. I see. My keyholes did the same thing to my cories - it's amazing, but a blind cory can still be a useful inhabitant as they don't seem to lose any abbility to find food...

Gentle actiivty would lead me to stay away from barbs - at least the barbs I've had were a buzzsaw of motion - continusly. That may preclude congo tetras as well as mine were fairly active swimmers - not spastic like the barbs but more active then what you maight be looking for... What about Harlequinn Rasboras? I've never kept more then a few at a time but I have seen them in large schools in planted display tanks (with Altum Angels) and they seemed to be mellow... I don't know about their ideal temp range but like I said earlier most farm raised fish come from a pretty homogenized environment so maybe they will do okay? or maybe a slight compromise on the temp would make it work - like 82f or so? I'm not really that informed on Discus but from what I have read that could be a little low - or at least at the bottom end of the acceptable range.


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## dwarfpike (Jan 22, 2008)

Harlequin Rasboras seem to handle the 84F without issue, and the copper color would bring a color to the tank discus just don't have. Plus they are tight schoolers even though they aren't south american specific. Lemon tetras would be my choice, they are pale as all get out in stores but once settled in, they are one of the most beautiful tetras with the red eye, black edged fins, and yellow bodies.


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## msjinkzd (Mar 18, 2009)

thanks for the suggestions! I will see if i can find some lemon tetras locally!


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