upgrade under way and mandarin and discus question.

hello all,

Its been a while, so my 180 liter tank has been running for close to a year now and all the in habitants are happy and fat especially my mandarin and my diamond gobby (that thing eats like a pig!) now i got myself a 450 liter tank for xmas and im letting it run for a solid 6 months before i add any fish also to get the pod population up.

i know im still months away from even considering this but i was wondering if i could get my mandarin female a boyfriend. i read that 6 liners are a food competitors for the mandarins and seeing as im not planning to add a sump/refu to my 450 i was wondering if the 90 kg of live rock (yes that is alot) would be enough to create pockets where the fish wont be able to reach and the copepods can thrive.

other than that i will be using a tunze reef pack 505 for mechanical filtration and let my live rocks and sand bed do the rest.

the 180 l will be turned into a discus fresh water tank, and in this regards im thinking of getting no more than a school of 4 fish. anyone have any experience with discus fish

oh yes and im assuming if i can have a pair in a 450 that i add them together yes?

cheers
-jeff-

 

A sixline wrasse is a very efficient predator and I would would not add it if you plan on adding a Mandarin or two. It will help if your Mandarins are eating prepared foods so you can supplement there diet as the pod populations tend to wax and wane in our aquariums. Also creating small mounds of rock rubble in the back of the tank will help give your pods a place to multiply if you are not using a refugium. If you plan on adding two I would add them together.At a little over 110 gallons I would say this may be enough for two Mandarins but getting them to eat something other then pods would be a good idea. I have one in my 90 and he decimates the population with NO competition.

 

thx for the reply as always vinny. i currently have a 6er AND 1 female mandarin in my 180 l, shes fat and seems happy (i do have a sump/refu for my 180 l though, so plenty of food for them both) i have not noticed if she eats other stuff, probably not considering the abundance of food. but yea i was wondering if when i transfer them to the 450 i could get a male for her but it seems like it might be risky move. shame

 

I used to breed Discus a few years ago. Your tank is a little small for Discus. Most grow to 8" in length. The Royal Blue or South American Discus Symphysodon aequifasciata is slightly smaller at 6 ". You may be able to keep two of these. Adding more could cause a problem. They get aggresive when breeding and with such a small tank that would be bad.
They like warm,soft,slightly acidic water. Great fish but do need stable water parameters to keep them healthy. Good luck!!!!8)