Discus Tank + Planted

[tim_s]

Hi Everyone,

I am just double checking everything,

Today I bought beautiful discus and I have added them to my tank and they seem to be adapting well from what I can see but my question is relative to planted tanks.

Right now I have the following,

Lighting

Tek Elite - 2 actinic white, 1 daytime, 1 coralife all Giesemann brand

Pressurized CO2

I have a pressurized CO2 20lb cylinder running but as I have a sump saturation is very limiting I.e. gassing out - I have not recorded flucuations within my pH

(I record weekly my tank parameters.)

Dosing

I am currently using the following Seachem products

Seachem

Flourish Comprehensive
Flourish Potassium
Flourish Iron

I am doing as per the bottles recommendations per water change.


It is a really simple setup but is their anything I should be worried about in regards to the Discus? - I am not witnessing any negative behavour.

I have had Bolivian Rams within the tank for over a month and I have only seen positive colouration.

[discuspaul]

Tim,
You'll have to tell us more about your set-up if we're to give you any meaningful input.
What size of tank do you have ? How many discus did you get and what size are they - & how long ago did you get them ?
And where/who did you get them from ?
Is your tank heavily planted - & why did you decide to place discus (as a new newbie to discus I presume) in a tank using pressurized CO2 ? Did you do do a lot of research on discus before you proceeded as you have ?
Give us some more background, and we'll try to give you some info that may be useful.

[pastry]

Tim,
Pics!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (when you can of course).

[tim_s]

Hi Discus Paul,

Here is the answer to your questions


What size of tank do you have?

90 gallon Display Tank
30 gallon Sump


How many discus did you get and what size are they

I purchased 6 and they are approx. 4-5"


how long ago did you get them?

Today


And where/who did you get them from ?

Local and well known breeder that is walking distance from my house


Is your tank heavily planted

I have 5 plants at this time and all our low maintaince but I am looking to acheive more.


why did you decide to place discus (as a new newbie to discus I presume) in a tank using pressurized CO2 ?

Being 10 years in the hobby with a good understanding of the dynamics and have had planted tanks before - I looked for a new challenge.

I also spent considerable amount of time testing the tank before adding discus.

I purposely stuck to an over easy dosing strategy!


Did you do do a lot of research on discus before you proceeded as you have?

Months of reading and back and forth communication with local breeders.

[tim_s]

Tim,
Pics!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (when you can of course).

I would love to :)

Tomorrow I will pop-up with the camera, right now the lights are out in the room!

[tim_s]

Day 2

2 Discus come out when I approach the attempt to feed

4 remain in a hurdle circling each other - a little pushing.

Tank parameters are spot on and solid.

[discuspaul]

Your set-up sounds good, Tim - Your discus are of a good size, seemingly obtained from an experienced, qualified supplier, so all seems well.
You've done your homework, and it seems you have the necessary experience to monitor and properly maintain your CO2 dosing, with little in the way of pH swings, so I would expect you should be A-OK. Pics would be helpful when you get around to it.
It's not uncommon for discus to take some time - up to a week or two, sometimes more, to become fully comfortable with their new surroundings, and your routine around them. They will be a touch stressed for a few days, but should come around fairly quickly, with all of them beginning to eat well sometime soon. Relax, be patient & give them some time.
All the best to you.

[Oscarsx]

I love the mix between planted tank & Discus, I'll be waiting for pictures :)

[tim_s]

Everything is still running smoothly,

Discus are actively exploring the tank, do not show any sign of fear when I approach the tank - In-fact they go to the surface for feeding.

Taking beef heart readily and as of yesterday and this morning I saw decent feeding off pellets as well.

Showing lots of movement!

Tank parameters are still showing the same as yesterday morning.

My testing is a little extreme - both morning before work and on return from work to insure nothing has changed.

It has been a busy week - pictures are on their way! My water is a little dark still from the Malaysian Wood.

[discuspaul]

If you want to remove the tannins quickly, simply use a bag of Purigen in your filter for a while.
A small caution:
Be careful of the frequency & amount of your beefheart feedings -be sure to clean up very well after each feeding.
BH can very quickly pollute a tank if you're not real careful, particularly in a planted tank.
In fact, I recommend avoiding BH feedings in a planted tank - wouldn't do it myself.
And keep in mind that 4" to 5" fish like you have, don't need BH for growth - there's lots of other high protein foods you can give them.

[tim_s]

If you want to remove the tannins quickly, simply use a bag of Purigen in your filter for a while.
A small caution:
Be careful of the frequency & amount of your beefheart feedings -be sure to clean up very well after each feeding.
BH can very quickly pollute a tank if you're not real careful, particularly in a planted tank.
In fact, I recommend avoiding BH feedings in a planted tank - wouldn't do it myself.
And keep in mind that 4" to 5" fish like you have, don't need BH for growth - there's lots of other high protein foods you can give them.

For sure! - I used the beef heart to encourage feeding quickly. As expected on day 1 food rejection rate will be high and this was seen as I dropped slow sinking pellets and although a reaction did occurred I.e. they came to the location the end result was the discus just watching the pellets drop. Being the only food I had on hand without pellets I.e. Beef Heart I have been testing with this and having a great response.

I am breaking it up and feeding slowly -- Right now the discus are taking pellets, I drop about 7 in at a time (repeating for a minute to insure all food is taken) and the discus generally will take them from the surface even before they start to sink. Right now they will take food they had in the past from the breeder I.e. Tetrabits (formly color bits) and they are not responding to higher grade foods like NLS or Hikari Gold.

Based off the comments you have made and the reaction I am seeing I have two questions,

1: Outside of the food sources I am providing - NLS (Always have been my go to brand), Hakari Gold (Backup solution for high protein needs.) and Tetra Bits (The food the breeder was using.), would you suggest any further supplements and if so - what might those be.

2: My smallest Discus breaks from the group during feeding, I.e. I have 6 discus - 5 will group during feeding and one will retreat into the plants and watch. I am trying to feed but the main challenge I am having which as I have researched would become a problem! - The Rams are far more adapted to eating the food within the planted areas I.e. I am having trouble feeding 1 Discus.

Now before I over react on point #2 the smallest discus IS eating but only approx. 1/3 of the feedings of the others at this time. (EDIT: Possibly slightly less as when within the group - the amount of pellets taken is still smaller than the others.)

[discuspaul]

For protein you might want to try freeze-dried blackworms (inexpensive, and available by mail order here on sd from CT Discus (Al Sabetta) - check the sponsors section), or frozen mysis shrimp, frozen brine shrimp, frozen bloodworms, frozen krill.
My discus take all of these readily (they go crazy over the blackworms), as well as NLS and Omega One flakes, Discus Bio-Gold pellets, Tetramin Crisps, Tetra Color Granules, even Algae Wafers.
Hopefully your smaller one will come around soon and eat well with the others - you've only had them a few days - give it some more time.
Important thing is, it is eating some - a good sign.

[tim_s]

Absolutely! So the usual go-tos ..

I have NLS / Hakari on hand - They attempt to eat it but it appears due to being such a small size (what I was feeding the Bolivian Rams with) it is a lot of effort. They have zero issues with Tetra Bits (Formly Color Bits) granular, they respond immediately. The smallest is feeding with the others, just needs a little patience as it works its way through the larger discus to get to the surface.

Years ago I have tried the frozen food but I found the deployment was far than ideal - examples,

1: I use to take a cup of tank water and defrost the cubes first but when throwing it into the tank - it would make a mess and generally leaves the fish frustrated looking for the food that is no longer visually present but clear as day as a scent.

2: When I throw them into the tank I am always concerned with a fish that requires a high temperature in that holding a frozen piece of food internally cannot be healthy - I am sure I am over thinking it.

Today I will expand my food options - should help a lot.

The discus are supplementing their diet with my plants as well LOL

[bogia99]

I tried the same approach as you are doing and found that discus (slow eater) just don't eat enough when competing with other community fishes or larger fishes. So either you have to overfeed until the slowest members have enough or accepting the fact that the underfed fishes will not grow as big/fast or stunt. I had two discus in an planted angel tank and they were not able to compete with the (pig) angels :). I had to pull them out after a month or so. One was doing okay and the other one was getting skinnier.

[tim_s]

For sure! The Rams are not overly competitive - they sneak in but the tight click of the Discus is hard to penetrate and the Discus are more than happy to push the Rams out of the way.

[pastry]

discuspaul... thanks for the tip on freeze dried blackworms! i've read somewhere lately that bloodworms aren't too full of protein/nutrients so i was wondering what else to do supplement for bloodworms (which they love, of course) and i'm hoping they take the freeze dried blackworms as they do FBWs.

of course i feed them mixed flakes, sbhf, and beef heart prior to WCs but just looking into improving the food i give them while minimizing fouling of the water. thanks!

tim, sorry! not trying to hijack your thread!

[tim_s]

Hi Everyone,

My tank is a little messy and the tannins are skewing the colors and washing them out but here is some *quickly* taken photos.

The plants need to grow in but I am working on it ;)

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8196/8119427722_36a271e2cd_c.jpg

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8333/8119431006_e12e0dfc48_c.jpg

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8326/8119429810_cf21a890c4_c.jpg

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8054/8119416295_192b721a6d_c.jpg

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8466/8119413131_c2331843d6_c.jpg

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8323/8119411767_afe4aa0a0d_c.jpg

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8192/8119422704_52798f69ea_c.jpg

[discuspaul]

As I mentioned before, Tim, run some well-bagged Seachem Purigen in your filter for a few days and the tannins will quickly clear up and eventually disappear.

[tim_s]

As I mentioned before, Tim, run some well-bagged Seachem Purigen in your filter for a few days and the tannins will quickly clear up and eventually disappear.

For sure!

I was providing justification for the random photos and they are a few days old. Tannins do not bother me, the glass needs a cleaning and all sorts - right now I am focusing on feedings and monitoring parameters - it's a long term project.

[timmac69]

Good luck with the new additions...the tank looks great! We are enjoying our 90g planted tank...our fish TV provides some stiff competition for our cable company!

[tim_s]

Many times have found myself hypnotized watching the tank.