Discus care like angels?

[Kemppy]

Hi everyone,
As you know I have 5 tanks with angels. I have always wanted to try a few discus. My largest tank is a 29 gallon and I change about one third of the water twice a week. My questions are is a 29 gallon too small for a few discus it would just be the discus and a few BN plecos and would the water changes that I am used to doing now be enough for discus?
Thanks for any information,
Sue

[Northernguy]

They should be kept in schools of 5-6 and in large tanks!
http://www.aquaticcommunity.com/discusfish/discus.php

[ILuvMyGoldBarb]

If all you have is a 29 to put them in then I would do a breeding pair in that and just the breeding pair. As Northernguy mentioned, they do like to be in schools, but a school of 4 is sufficient for them, however the recommended minimum is 10gal per adult fish. That doesn't mean you can keep a single adult in a 10 but for a breeding pair, a 20gal would be sufficient. 1/3 water change per week is not going to be enough though, if you are only going to do a water change weekly, then you should do no less than 90%, that's what I do on my 46gal with a breeding pair. If you get them as juveniles then you should be doing 50-90% every day or every other day.

[Northernguy]

ILuvMyGoldBarb why so much water daily?
Just curious,it seems like a lot.
I knew they need fresh clean water,I never realized that they were that picky about it.

[Fishguy2727]

Discus are just mroe demanding with water quality, less forgiving. They need a very aggressive water change schedule. What angels will thrive in, discus will live in (at best). I would not do it, at least not as your first attempt at discus. You need much more wiggle room to allow for mess ups with your first attempt with them. A larger tank (75 or so), a full school (6), and a well selected cleanup crew would be good.

[ILuvMyGoldBarb]

Totally agree with Fishguy on this. Just to add to the water quality thing, as discus grow they do become a little less sensitive to water quality. Poor water quality for juvenile discus will actually lead to them being stunted. Most of the breeders in Singapore (one of the worlds hot spots for Discus breeding) actually do not run filters on their grow out tanks, but rather they do a pair of 100% water changes per day. If properly fed and given the right water quality a Discus should grow to it's full size withing the first year.