It all depends on if you want to keep Discus seriously!!!!! or just because they look nice. Discus can be expensive and if serious then keep them alone. perhaps a few Cory's , remember any thing that fits into it's mouth becomes food, as for angels if serious I would say No. they can become agresive if breeding and also fin nippers.

Discus like soft water pref below Ph 7. 6.5 is better. slow water movement and NO NITRATE.
There has been plenty said on Discus previously. suggest you read as much as you can first. Discus are beautiful fish and specialist care needed.

i think if u get only 2 its best to get a pair as if not a pair theyll fight until theres only 1

lampeye wrote:
i think if u get only 2 its best to get a pair as if not a pair theyll fight until theres only 1

What happens if they break up?

fins at dawn

Im sorry lampeye but i have to disagree there.. it very much depends on the fish.. 2 can live together without death being inevitable.

I keep my Discus with a large Angelfish and it does not bother them at all. As for water parameters, I keep them in neutral PH and carry out frequent water changes. Discus are able to adapt in the long run but the change has to be quite gradual. I always recommend to buy Discus from someone in your area so as to have same water parameters. Imported ones would always be very difficult to adapt them to new conditions. Lfs would not have the same parameters similar to that of the fishfarms.

it might be down to personality adam (of the fish!). my limited experience with discus is as follows: i had 4 discus (2 or 3 inch) in a 3 foot tank ,didnt work out at all. the 3 strongest bullied the weakest all the time. eventually he stopped eating and wasted away. as soon as he was dead the 2 biggest turned on the 3rd fella...same story again. horrible to watch. the two biggest then spawned (a good few months later). one day all of a sudden they werent lovers anymore and the bigger of the two turned on the smaller one. harrased the **** out of him and i traded them in.

my conclusions: to be kept they need large numbers to spread out the incesent bullying or pecking order...or if you are lucky a pair. my case might be exceptional but id be very reluctant to keep them again. if i was id either get a proven pair or keep 12 of them! (in a huge tank of course). but even then to be honest i dont think i could watch the constant "pecking".

just my 2 cents!

Discus are a shoal fish and should be kept in minimums of 8 and always even numbers. with any pecking order there has to be someone at the bottom. Discus will always fight until they have found out whos at the top and where everyone fits in. the little guy at the bottom is one you will always have to look after.. if you take him out.. another fish will take his place..

It could have been in your case that there were 2 males and 1 female.. the 2 males were fighting over the female, the female got all stressy and went down hill, meanwhile they male killed another only to find his prize was now sick..

my favorite pair of Discus were producing lovely fry until on 1 batch they started feeding a lot on one point on the parent and created a sore. within a couple of days the male was attacking her.

i removed her until she was better and placed her back in with him.. they are still all loved up now..


If you are having trouble with fighting fish, a good move around on tank ornaments can reset the boundries and calm things down. the other option is to buy all the fish you want at the start.. if they are gradually introduced there will, most likely be territory issues with stress bars flying all over the place.

I had 3 discus once, 2 of the bigger ones spent all the time picking on the smaller one untill it died, Lesson learnt here, keep 2 1 male and 1 female or a group 6-8

Q.1 The answer to this is probably pure speculation but why would a breeding pair of discus fall out of love and begin fighting?


Q.2 How quickly can driftwood affect the PH in a tank? (probably relative to size etc but would like to know if people have experience...)

thanks,
dave