# Some advice please...



## Cosmic Charlie (Jun 14, 2005)

I understand that discus are community fish. Can I add a couple or more discus to my tank with the fish that I have listed below? Should I take any of these out and put them in another tank in order to make it more discus friendly? Also, can I add pearl gouramis to this tank? How many? Sorry for the barrage of questions...


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## flamingo (Nov 5, 2005)

Discus need a tank devoted to themselves or some other fish like chorydoras or neon tetra that need the same or close to the same water conditions.

So my answer would be no, don't add any discus.

I've never kept pearl gouramies but most of the gouramies i've ket are slightly aggressive. Pearls are supposed to be less aggressive than most but i've never personally kept one before. I don't know but to me your tank sounds a little overstocked to be putting another fish in there. Especially considering you have a black ghost knifefish that gets over a foot in length and will eventually prey on your smaller fish.


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## Cosmic Charlie (Jun 14, 2005)

Ah...didn't realize this about the ghost knife. This is information that I need because I will most definitely be doing the discus. I just need to get the right community. Ghost knife may be put in a different tank very soon. What are good tank mates for him?

Thanks for the quick reply!


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## wildtiger (Jun 8, 2005)

Anything that won't fit in his mouth. :lol:

May I make a suggestion? I see in your list that you only have 1 cory. Cories are shoaling fish and really dig the company of their own kind. They like to be in groups of 6 or more and since you have such a large tank, I defintiely don't see a problem with getting several more buddies for him.


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## flamingo (Nov 5, 2005)

Good tankmates for the knifefish are usually catfish or smaller bichers like a senegal. Just make sure you only have one knife in the tank though, they use electrical signals to find there way around and when theres two of them they have difficulties since theres two electrical signals. They ultimately will quarrel with one another.

If you get rid of most of your fish in your 75 it might work. Setting up another 75 would be better though.

Do your research on discus, they are a fish that demands soft water and have different requirements than most other fish. others on this board will help a lot more with your discus, im not an expert on the subject but m willing to help with what I know.


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## DavidDoyle (Jan 18, 2005)

1. Discus need extremely clean water, plan to do a minimum of 3 water change/week.
1.a. Be prepared to vac at every wc.
2. Discus need warmer than normal temps. Many do mid 80s, some low 80s and many fish dont do well this warm. Your swords wont like it and I would bet some others you have may not either.
3. Discus, for a larger fish, have a relatively small digestive system. This means they need to be Fed several times/day. Clowns are very agressive eaters and the smaller other fish are not too shy at feeding either.
3.a. Discus tend to graze rather than compete agressively for food. Clowns are very agressive eaters and the smaller other fish are not to shy at feeding. Discus may not get suffiecient food.
4. Discus dont do well in big current, how you filter is a consideration.
5. Some will say Discus need ro water and/or low pH water. Others say they dont. I have a pair over eggs the past 24 hrs in my well water which is pH 7.4. 

I started with 4 in a planted community 75 similar to yours- lost 2/4 discus there after 10 months and almost the other two- they went about 16 months later. Now I keep only a pair in their own tank- bare bottom, plants in clay pots and a piece of wood.

If you are willing to do the maint/feeding routine discus need then I would suggest you consider a school of sterbai corys which do fine in discus temps; a couple of the smaller vegetarian plecos such as bristlenose or even zebras (meat eaters) if you have a fat wallet (do some research into which plecos tolerate warmer water and stay smallish) and then school of decent sized (ie too big for discus to eat) cardinal tetras.

btw- bkg needs a cave- clowns also love caves. This may result in a conflict at some time.


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## Cosmic Charlie (Jun 14, 2005)

I really appreciate all of the feedback. David Doyle...very detailed, but which of my fish are you referring to as clowns? I'm a little confused about that I guess.


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## flamingo (Nov 5, 2005)

Clown knives.....you know the ones that get ginormous? lol

My best advice would to start a new 75 and do your research. Discus are more delicae than most fish and are very expensive when you get a little group of them. Most of them around here are around 40 dollars.

I love them. I saw some at a pet store once and they acted like a little adhd kid. lol. But I don't have the money or the patience of keeping them.


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## DavidDoyle (Jan 18, 2005)

Oops- it was late when I posted- for some reason I was thinking you had clown loaches in your tank. I think it was in another post I had just read about a similar situation.


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## Fishfirst (Jan 24, 2005)

> Just make sure you only have one knife in the tank though, they use electrical signals to find there way around and when theres two of them they have difficulties since theres two electrical signals. They ultimately will quarrel with one another.


I actually have recently found this isn't true... they actually can modify their electrical signals to create a custom one that will not interfere with other knifefish signals. However, due to the sheere size of the fish, I would never recommend getting two... just a tid bit of information that seems to have been a misconception in the hobby for quite some time. The bgk will get around 20" when its full grown, you may want to think of getting a 120 for him. Good tankmates for bgk's include pictus cats, bala sharks, silver dollars, plecos, larger loaches, angels, and gouramis.


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## Cosmic Charlie (Jun 14, 2005)

How long will it take my BGK to get 20" long? Do I have a couple years, or do they grow faster than that. I've never seen one that big before. Right now, he's about 6-8" long, and that's the largest I've seen.


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## Fishfirst (Jan 24, 2005)

well generally fish slow down in growth as they get older... he probably will add on a few more inches this year (if conditions are right) and then slow down to an inch/year later on... just a guess mind you


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## flamingo (Nov 5, 2005)

Hmmmm... I've read with bgk's you can't do that. Some dude kept some together and they were always fighting. Oh well......

And I think it'll take a while for a bgk to get fullgrown.


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## Fishfirst (Jan 24, 2005)

there is a possibility that they are aggressive toward one another. I was just stating the current research that it isn't because of their electrical signals getting messed up.


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