tired of my 55 gal... dont know what to do next

oscar83 said:

My 55 gal tank is boring to me and I pretty much just don't care about it anymore. ive got a pictus cat, 5 silver dollars, a small pleco, a banded leporinus, a tiretrack eel, and 2 parrot fish (my gf really wanted them so i gave in). I was planning on tearing this tank down and getting rid of the fish except for the pictus cat. However, when I do this I dont know what to do with the tank. I really really really want to do a heavily planted discus tank, but I don't think I have the time to do all of the maintenance that is required for keeping them healthy. My other option is to do a SA/African Cichlid tank. Ive always loved cichlids and this would be pretty sweet. If I go the discus tank I could probably teach my gf to help me keep up on maintenance when I cant do it. From all of you're experiences which would be more rewarding I guess.

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If you don't have a lot of time i woudn't do the discus. they are very hard to take care of if you don't do the maintenance on them. Also when you loose a discus you are looseing a 60 dollar fish. it sounds like your best bet is to go with the SA/african. good luck

go with the cichlid, they are sweet fish

I voted for African Cichlids, partly because you've pointed out you don't have the time for maintenance for discus, and partly because of my own preference for African Cichlids (I'd like to set up my own tank eventually). However, it sounds like you'd really prefer to have discus. Would your GF be willing/interested enough to help with the maintenance? If so, then maybe discus *is* the way to go!

First, I want to point out that discus are in fact cichilds from south america.

If you don't have a lot of time i woudn't do the discus. they are very hard to take care of if you don't do the maintenance on them

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Absolutely not true.

Adult discus do perfectly fine in a planted tank with 50% weekly water changes. The "maintenance" is most important for growing juveniles into well rounded adults (quite literally). Not that I recommend this at all, but I have an adult and a juvy in a slightly over-crowded tank that went almost a month w/out a water change (I had been extremely busy)

However, since this will be your first venture into discus if you so decide, then I recommened you research heavily into their care... which is probably something you will need to do with any of the other choices you have along with going very lightly with the stocking. I also recommend, even though more expensive, that you go with 5"+ discus as they are fully developed. Four adults will go nicely in a planted tank with a few other fish which can tolerate the temperatures that they demand, such as cardinal tetras.

HTH

Though the tanks are BB, several experienced discus keepers that keep discus keep 6 adults in a BB tank, sometimes more... general rule is 1 fish per about 8-10g. Though, when not in a BB tanks w/ daily water changes, their stocking should be less.

55g are perfectly suitable, considering 29g are a staple breeding tank for pairs.

I do agree that bigger is better, but that applies to most species .

If I had a 55 I would definitly go with the heavily planted discus tank. I kept reading about how hard german blue rams are to care for and I havn't found that to be true at all. Of course...if you do find it to be true..you're out alot more money than a few german rams cost.

If you go discus, go with good stock...and if you want other fish in there pick ones that like the higher temps that discus prefer.

I know Emg and RacingJason are going to kill me for saying this( Lol ), but I prefer the SA, even though discus are SA, but you know what I mean.Africans are good too, I guess we all ways go for what we are used to.
Btw I have raised discus before, it just that they do not destroy tanks ect.Lol(uninteresting).

Time and maintenance is everything for discus, they need your hard work doing 50% at least every few days, or everyday.