Four Discus in a 50 gallon tank; bad idea?

Four should be fine in that sized tank. I was thinking there was something about their temperment, thinking they might be aggressive but it’s the other way around. They’re very social and need to be in a group to develop properly. Don’t get just one.

Yeah, I was wondering if I need more than 4 (for them to be happy), and in that case, a bigger tank?

I do have a 50 gallon tank.

An inch of fish per gallon is still the general rule so you could go with more fish.

@Adirondackwannabe that is an extremely basic rule that doesn’t really apply when talking about more difficult fish to keep like discus.

There are some discus that stay smaller so I’d look into them. What are your plans for filtration? Discus require extremely stable and clean water quality to do well.

@uberbatman Yes, I know it’s general, an inch of discus is a lot more fish than an inch of guppies but that’s a pretty big tank. Which discus are smaller?

@Adirondackwannabe To be honest it’s been a long time since I dealt with discus. I just remember there being some species that would top out at around 4 inches while most others got 8+inches

I’d also consider getting around 6 Discus as apposed to four. If I recall correctly that was always the minimum people said you should have, otherwise they don’t really do well.