Discus and Angelfish

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CajunCC

I take pictures
Sep 10, 2004
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Here's something of an interesting question regarding Discus. Everything I've ever read says to keep Discus in species tanks or with peaceful, non-darty tankmates.

However...

A few months ago, I took a trip to the National Aquarium in Baltimore. While roaming around Inner Harbor, I decided to look around the Barnes & Noble store they have there. I walk in and look around and then venture upstairs. Right at the top of the escalator is a HUGE aquarium. Inside the tank, there are discus, Altum angels, cardinal tetras, hatchetfish, and a few others.

I thought to myself, "How does that work with the angelfish and the discus in there together?" I figured angels would shred the discus. But sure enough, they were fine together. Sure, every now and then one of the angels would chase after one of the discus, but certainly no more than my discus chase each other.

So what's the deal? Are Altum angelfish less aggressive than the Scalare angels that most of us keep? Or are Discus not as fragile as most people would have you believe? Or is it just a factor of the tank size?
 

PumaWard

In loving memory of Meeko
Jul 23, 2003
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I don't believe altums are as aggressive, but don't take my word on it... Discus are not the fragile beings many people make them out to be either. With plenty of space, even the scalare can coexist fine with discus. Adult discus are also much larger than adult angels.
 

clayt101

Registered Abuser
I have kept Atums with discus and had no problems. I am about to try common scalere and see how it works. I always thought that the Altums would be more agressive that scalere.

As for discus, it really depends on the personality. The discus I currently keep were well bred, and have no trouble at all fighting for food. I also have 2 wilds, and they are agressive as well.
In the past, I have gotten discus from an LFS, and they did not compete at all. They would let food just pass them by.

So my conclusion is that they mix fine, as long as you have hiquality discus that are agressive feeders.
 

NatakuTseng

I've got a lovely bunch of coconuts
Jan 3, 2004
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Being aggressive has nothing to do with how they were bred. Its purely a learned behavior from the fish. Characterizing this by who,or where the fish were bred is just a stupid conclusion. Any healthy fish should be an active eater. Discus will ALWAYS set up their own pecking order and you will have some fish that are more dominant than others when it comes to feeding time. It could be a wild fish, it could be a fish from a top breeder, or it could be a fish from your LFS. Discus are just as aggressive as any angel, Scalare or Altum. All 4 species (two species of discus, Heckle and a green in the picture provided) are cichlids, all come from regions where they cohabitat, and all compete with each other. The suggestion that you posed that aggression is all about breeding or being wild is unfounded, and completely wrong. BTW your grammar hasn't gotten any better from what it was at DAAH, nor your spelling. Stick to the catfish Clay, until your willing to learn some "good" info about S.A. cichlids.
 
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CajunCC

I take pictures
Sep 10, 2004
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Harrisburg, PA
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Those are P. scalare angels for sure? I know the sign next to the tank (all set up by the National Aquarium) said Altum Angelfish (Pterophyllum altum) as opposed to the one in the Aquarium itself that had P. scalare angels. Me calling them P. altum was based purely on the sign they had, as my knowledge of the species and its differences from P. scalare is pretty slim. ;)

On another note... if those are indeed P. scalare, then holy crap my angelfish have a lot of growing to do. ;) What are the chances of them actually getting that big? Those guys were 6-8" in diameter, not including fins!
 

Emg

AC Members
Jan 16, 2005
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I would bet it has more to do with the size of the tank and all the room those fish have in there. If you tried to pair the same fish in a smaller tank...like anything like the smaller size of most of our tanks..... I bet it wouldn't work.

Beautiful tank by the way.....love it ! :cool:
 
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