What can a discus live with?

As long as you have a heavily decorated aquarium (discuss like tall thin leaved plants like Vals and such) they can be put with a few different species.Just keep in mind that Discuss are a more peacefull fish.

Now I know you will read ALOT of stuff about discus requiring soft, acidic water. While that is very true from strains that are closer to the wild discus, its not so critical (but still sorta important) for the domesticated versions. What I found to be much more important is temperature, moderate current(not too strong) and clean water. I ran 82 degrees F, some people go even hotter. Just remember most pet shops dont heat thier tanks so gradually raise it for the new ones. To keep the clean water, I changed 40% of the water weekly with a gravel vacuum.

If you really wanna stick to soft, slightly acidic water, I HIGHLY recomend investing in an RO/DI unit to purify the water in your home. You may think I can just buy bottled water, and you can but the amount of $ and hassel of lugging jugs isnt worth it. Just be sure to buy some RO Right for freshwater. The water that comes out of the system is actually too pure and needs some minerals added back.

For food, I used a mixture of frozen blood worms, beef heart, and pellets. They also make a discuss specific formula you can find in the better aquarium shops in the frozen section, ask about it!

Also remember discus are a schooling fish, they do best in groups.

With all that being said you need to find a fish that fits into all those categories. For scavengers clown loaches have worked best for me. Otto cats are great algae eaters that stay small and dont harass the discus like the chinese algae eaters(they are good while young, but get nippy when older) or plecos (i know its rare but I have seen with my own eyes a pleco trying to suck the side of a discuss!). I liked having a few cardinals in the tank as well. Neons woudl be fine, but unfortunately its sooo hard to find healthy ones, most are disease ridden plague rats. If you wanna do neons in there, quaranteen them in a medicated tank (i like using copper, it kills the parasites)!! This is a good idea for any fish you buy. What you wanna keep in mind is that discus are very slow eaters, any fish that is very competive will steal all thier food.

I think thats enough

I am not an expert in discus but so far, I find that most discus I had when they're about the same size can live with one another without problem. There will be the occasional pecking and there will always be the bully. But otherwise they should be fine. To flipnotik, If there is enough room for the victim to swim away and there is enough other discus to disperse the aggression it's usually not too bad. If there is only two and they are not paired, the stress of constantly being harass could kill the victim which I unfortunately found out. If there is a big group and you take out the bully, another one will take over. I guess it's just their behavior.

Hey Sam,

I wouldnt get one if I were you unless you have a nice big tank just sitting all cycled and ready for one. Discus are really touchy and are best kept only with other discus. As a rule of thumb I would suggest never to add discus to a tank with other fish. Let the tank be well cycled but no fish in it when the discus move it.

This is one of those fish that people really should buy a book about them before they even try to keep them. Otherwise you will probably lose a lot of expensive fish making avoidable mistakes. They are that touchy to keep

MM

Discus are calm, timid fish who like to be kept in small groups of 6-8 fish. There is much debate to whether discus should be kept in community tanks or in species tanks. Since Discus coexist with other fish in nature, they can be kept with other peaceful fish. Discus feel more comfortable if combined with small schooling fish such as characins. When the discus see the characins in the open, they are likely to come out, sensing that they are safe to swim. Adult Discus may eat small fish if not brought up with small fish. Take care when combining Discus with greedy feeders such as Angelfish, and Discus may not be able to compete.

***This is part out of the site below. pretty fish btw.

depends on the size of the tank. you know they need extremely perfect water yes? just checking! they're sensitive beasties. they need about 50 gallons minimum i think.

keep with peaceful slow swimming non-nippy fish that don't mind the softer PH that Discus need.

if it's your first time with discus, a species tank may be better for you.

avoid plecs and other suckermouth fish, they have a habit of sucking off slime coats of large bodied fish such as discus. you can do it, but i think it might be risky.

you can however try corydoras, or khuli loaches. and cardinal tetras i've seen with discus too.

i'm not sure i'd keep them with Angels, especially an Angel pair, they get aggressive and nippy when they breed.

what i recomend for a discus is just another discus, because they are more peacefull fish, and most other cichlids(that is the family for discus) are very territorial and if a fish that doesn't go well with another fish goes into the tank, it will be killed within a few minutes.

swordtails and dwarf south american cichlids. the discus' have to be in a group of 3. and i heard they do better by them selves.

don't know