Maybe Discus Aren't All That Great? Discus vs Angelfish

Hello Everyone,
In this video we compare Discus vs Angelfish and maybe why angelfish are the better option for most people.

If you want to learn more about Discus and Angelfish check out these videos:

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[_lucid_one]

While I cannot speak to anyone else's experiences, I will say that I have kept both. Started out with angels as the centerpiece and we loved them. They are beautiful and durable. The group ended up with two who paired off and that's when things changed. They spawned regularly and while doing so occupied the ENTIRE 55 gallon tank - pushing everyone to the side except for the corys. They literally dominated the tank and were super aggressive. We ended up splitting the group of 7 up among friends. In hindsight, I should have probably added more angels to the group.

I finally made the move to discus and couldn't be happier. Our water is well suited to them and I always enjoyed the maintenance aspect of the hobby so that was not a put-off. I have a group of 7 discus in a 90 gallon community tank and wouldn't you know it - two of them paired and spawn pretty much every 5 days. Unfortunately, our water isn't quite soft enough for the eggs to hatch but they behave very differently than the angel pair. The discus parents won't push anyone away unless they're within about a 5-6 inch circle and even then, it's nothing of concern. They are nowhere near as aggressive as my previous angels were and the rest of the tanks many inhabitants are free to be themselves. My water is 3-4GH, 7.8pH and 85F with 20-40ppm nitrates between water changes for all the plants.

I always appreciate that you encourage continued learning and help educate others, and I come to this channel as well as others to help further my own knowledge as well as other non-youtube sources:) I have also learned from the experiences of others and appreciate comment threads (usually) for this purpose. I think the true end result most of us are after is enjoying our tanks and their inhabitants, much of which comes with continued education, experience, consistent maintenance as well as learning from others. This channel helps me do just that. Keep up the great videos!

[dhammaboy]

I have never owned Discus but my Angles are adorable. They have so much character - they are curious and line up to investigate new things when I add them in my aquarium. They turn 90 degrees upwards to eat, they stare longingly at the top of the aquarium when I’m not feeding. I love my triangles!
And yep in Australia discus are $120-160ea compared to $5-25ea for various angles - depending on breed.

[mjpfl]

Many years ago, I co-owned an aquarium shop. As the only shop in the local area, we knew our regulars quite well. We routinely had both angels and discus. While the prices were considerably lower back then, the spread between the cost of a discus and and angel was the same as you stated. While it would have seemed that we had a financial incentive to push the discus, we we much more apt to be guiding our customers toward the angels. Only the true, educated hobbyists were able to cope with the finicky discus. My husband would sometimes comment that you could raise and breed angels in a garbage can! Big exaggeration, of course, but as shopkeepers, it was a lot more fun to have a customer excited about his brand new baby angels than to try to figure out why someone's discus wasn't thriving. Home visits were sometimes the only answer. Go angels!

[heydddd]

I was fortunate as a beginner getting dicus i ended up with two breeding pairs within a year but as a beginner you need to do your homework first especially buying your discus they tend to stress more than the larger and be gentle and eventually they will eat off your hand and follow you around they swim to me as soon as i walk in they know thier owners..

[terrymartins]

Really love the Angel fish patterns and colors and their fin varieties. I like my aquariums to be low maintenance and my fish to be hardy, so I would always choose the Angel fish.

[turdferguson]

Loved how you changed scenes periodically throughout the video, let’s us admire the fish room while we listen

[audrisampson]

I'll take a wild caught Angel over any other discus or Angel. An Altum is a dream fish of mine.

[briacarter]

I just got a pair of marble veil tail angels and I absolutely love them! They have the funniest personalities. They always want to know what I'm doing and never miss the opportunity to beg for food lol

[marksguitars]

excellent info, I've kept both over the decades. I find angels to be less sensitive than discus. Lately discus are a little more hardy then wild caught of the past. I do find that angels fight a lot and even a large tank of them will result in a pecking order and some of them getting beaten up as angels almost always want to pair up and breed. Hard to pick a winner, get a tank of each!

[joestoddart]

I just got 3 Blue Pinoy Angels and added them to a 90 gallon tank with 4 Red Scribble Discus and a dozen Neon Tetras. I am looking forward to keeping them together!

[blujeans]

Discus are beautiful...to watch in someone else's tank. :-). I've always been drawn to the angels. Just getting back into the hobby and plan to have some angels as my show piece.

[VPicksGuitarPicks]

I am now keeping 2 angels and 6 discus in 112 gallon tank. Over a year now and everyone is thriving. I do a partial WC every 2-3 days. Bare bottom tank. Temp at 81 degrees.
Also some clown loaches in there. I feed mostly frozen foods.

[brucescanlan]

I love the looks of the fish room. I would take my PC and sit on a comfortable chair and do all my work there. It gave me ideas for a future office.

[johnlynch]

I have the German Discus. I'm on well water with a ph of 7.8 with a hardness of 150. My fish are growing and doing great. Temp is 85 and change 12% water every 2 days on average .

[James_Hande]

I always wanted discus since I started in the hobby. But back then they were mostly wild caught and a bit difficult to keep. Setting up a 125G and considered getting a couple but don't really like the higher temps and my limited tank selection of tank mates and plants. I've kept and bred angels since the early 70's so I'm not sure if I'll put a few of them in instead of discus. 🤔

[Vcaser]

I grew up with angelfish, they are among my favorites. I miss having them, but I don’t have space for an appropriate tank at the moment

[invaderjoshua]

I have both and find them water sensitive wise to be identical, as long as you keep water at around 6ph 3kh low gh and around 82f they are all easy to keep. As far as personality Angelfish are far more aggressive when breeding, though even though discus do fight less their fights are way way worse when they do happen, and have a nasty habit of attacking eyes. I have also noticed that discus show significantly higher signs of longer memory then angelfish. Also I like the fact you can keep a lot more discus together then angels, since male discus will form harems and don’t breed with only one female as the whole discus pairing thing is simply a rumor. Where as angels will pair up with only one other and attack all other angels. Overall I find discus to just be the better pet, they are smarter, more interactive, and more colorful.

[cichlid_kings]

Great topic. Just picked up a few silver angels a few weeks ago. Getting back to one of my first fish in the hobby 😎

[plumber]

Hey Jase great video I just started getting into discus I have them in a 180 gal mixed tank with anglefish and a few mollies I got a bit carried away. have a few to many fish in there but running an fx4 and 6 on the tank and do a 25 % WC every week so far so good. Then in a 75 I have 8 of them the first two I bought have laid eggs don't know if they are male and female i never see who Lay's the eggs they both protect the eggs so far eggs are not fertile. There are some great sites I've bought my discus from that are running great sales now and even ebay.

[serviowilches]

JASON is there any way you can make a video in the future about pleco proof a aquarium plants ? My BNPs have cost me a fortune over the years in plant replacement