# Single Discus in a community?



## Longimanus (Apr 21, 2010)

I have a 55 gallon and I was wondering if it is possible to keep a single discus in with my community tank? It would have a big angelfish as a tank mate, the angel is pretty non aggressive. Other tank mates would include BN plecos, corydoras, am emp tetra, a platy, a black skirt tetra, a Black ghost knife a few blue rams and a few others. It is a peaceful, planted community. Since most of the fish are small and stay around the bottom other than the angelfish, the platy and the emperor tetra, I was thinking one discus would be a really nice addition. I don't think I could support a group of five or six, but one might work. Thoughts? I know that they should do best in a group, but maybe it might hang with the other fish instead?


----------



## Steve (Mar 27, 2013)

That ghost knife is going to get way to big for your tank. I've kept single discus and they do survive alone but they're much less colourful and don't grow as well


----------



## Longimanus (Apr 21, 2010)

I am aware of that having had a 15" ghost knife in the past. However they grow extremely slowly, I won't need a larger tank for quite a while. Thank you for the info.


----------



## josephl (Apr 21, 2010)

I would say the only issues you would have would be (1) the angel, I would replace the angel with 3 small discus (2) how often you do water changes and (3) water temp. Looks like all the fish you listed can take the 80 - 82 degree temp that I keep my discus at


----------



## Livyding (Feb 6, 2013)

Longimanus said:


> I have a 55 gallon and I was wondering if it is possible to keep a single discus in with my community tank? It would have a big angelfish as a tank mate, the angel is pretty non aggressive. Other tank mates would include BN plecos, corydoras, am emp tetra, a platy, a black skirt tetra, a Black ghost knife a few blue rams and a few others. It is a peaceful, planted community. Since most of the fish are small and stay around the bottom other than the angelfish, the platy and the emperor tetra, I was thinking one discus would be a really nice addition. I don't think I could support a group of five or six, but one might work. Thoughts? I know that they should do best in a group, but maybe it might hang with the other fish instead?


Okay, this is actually something I have a little experience in, and have done research on. A couple years ago when I was planning my first SA community tank I had this idea that I wanted a "centerpiece" cichlid, and didn't want a pair or a group. I had a lot of trouble finding any info on this because all people ever write about is brooding / breeding... A lot of people said that they thought it cruel to keep any species by itself, and some people wrote about keeping singletons of various species together very peacefully, which appealed to me, and which I ended up doing myself... (single Bolivian ram, single Keyhole, single wild blue Ram, and a group of eight angels)

As for the cruelty thing, I did end up writing in to Bob Fenner of WWM and according to him, although some species are more social than others, there is no harm in keeping a single specimen of pretty much any of the SA cichlids, the only drawback being the lack of entertaining social interaction and impressive colours they have when they breed.

Personally I don't think there's any problem with you keeping a single discus and a single angel in theory at least, but I have heard about diseases spread from angel to discus or vice versa, so you might want to keep an eye out for that.

The single tetra is out of place though. It needs 5+ of its species or needs to be rehomed, and I don't know anything about knives but my gut feeling is that it doesn't belong. Other than that sounds like a really interesting community. I'd like to see more about how it progresses.


----------



## Fish rookie (May 21, 2012)

If you want the discus to be a "center piece" but he ends up always hiding or turning very dark then it is not much fun, is it? 
Most people would recommend to keep a few discus in a school. They seem to feel more comfortable and less stressed out in a group in very clean water. They should swim in the middle and the front more often when they are less stressed out.
It is not common to see beautiful discus in a community planted tank. A lot of them turn to football shape with big eyes and thin bodies--even when kept in a group, so my humble opinion is that it is not easy to keep only 1 healthy and beautiful discus in a community tank; but it can be done I would imagine if you know what you are doing.


----------



## Longimanus (Apr 21, 2010)

Yes I definitely don't want a dark, depressed fish, hence why I'm asking before doing.  I may rehome a few fish and try a few discus instead. what is the minimum one could keep in a school for them to be comfortable? My other option is to rehome many of my fish and get a more boisterous fish that is more entertaining. Or I could add more tetras or barbs for colour and activity. Hmmmm decisions. The tank is just kind of.... boring to watch at the moment. 

As for the tetra, I have two singletons, one emperor and one black skirt. Not be design though. I started out with ten emperors, this is the lone survivor after a battle with callamanus worms. The black skirt came from a friend at work, there was two, the other didn't survive the stress of being in a cup on my desk all day. So now there is one. The emperor is king of the tank to be honest, he has his territories and chases all the other fish, it's kind of funny. He doesn't nip, just chases.


----------



## April (Apr 21, 2010)

4 would be minimum. Three is bad and two ok if opposite sex. 5 or 6 is optimal.


----------



## Longimanus (Apr 21, 2010)

Okay thank you very much April. I think I may have to re-think a few things!


----------

