Discus
Symphysodon spp.
A tall, disc-shaped Amazonian cichlid kept for its colour and presence, and demanding in temperature, water quality and diet.
Ideal Conditions
- Temperature
- 28 – 31 °C
- pH range
- 5.5 – 7
- Hardness
- 1 – 8 dGH
- Adult size
- 15 – 20 cm
- Min. tank size
- 250 litres+
- Lifespan
- 10 – 15 years
- Diet
- Carnivore — frozen and prepared cichlid foods
- Water flow
- Low
- Preferred setup
- Tall, warm, softly planted tank with wood and dim lighting
About the Discus
Discus is treated here as a genus-level catalogue record because the commercial trade mixes several species and many hundreds of line-bred strains. Husbandry across them is essentially the same: very warm, very clean, soft water and a group of tank mates that can cope with it.
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Is it right for your tank?
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Where Discus comes from
Native range
Amazon basin
Countries / regions
Brazil, Peru, Colombia
Habitat
Warm, slow floodplain lakes and side channels among submerged roots and branches.
Illustrative native range only, not an occurrence dataset.
Similar species
Angelfish
Pterophyllum scalare
Blue Acara
Andinoacara pulcher
We’re adding more full species guides as the catalogue grows.
Compatible tank mates
Reviewed guidance based on this species' recorded traits.
- Great
Cardinal Tetra
Paracheirodon axelrodi
Tolerates the same very warm, soft water and is large enough not to be eaten by adult Discus.
- Great
Corydoras
Corydoras sterbai
One of the few Corydoras that thrives at Discus temperatures.
- Compatible with caution
Angelfish
Pterophyllum scalare
Parameters overlap, but Angelfish feed faster and can out-compete Discus at feeding time.
- Compatible with caution
German Blue Ram
Mikrogeophagus ramirezi
Shares the warm soft water, but both claim substrate territory when spawning.
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