Dense Planting

[h317]

How much do you plant in a planted Discus tank?

I read articles that, since Discus is a bottom feeder, you should not try to create a carpet effect (i.e. Riccia Fluitans, Chain Swords) when planting. This is to avoid excessive food trapped in the gravel. Also, the Discus may not be able to pick up food from the gravel as well.

Any comments?

[Ralph]

Discus will and do eat off the bottom but the term bottom feeder is used for cories, plecos, etc. They can make their way through plants to get to their food, but the chance of them missing something increases with plant density.

A thickly planted floor of the entire tank would be a bad idea. Not only would food get caught but it becomes very hard to vacuum, both of which will affect your water quality eventually.
A couple of options:
Use chain swords or riccia on just part of the tank and feed your fish in a different part.
Thin out your plants periodically.
Use foods that don't sink or sinks slowly so that the fish eats it before it hits the bottom, e.g., live blackworms, frozen bloodworms, or flakes.
Feed smaller amounts but more often.
Put sinking food in a container on the floor of the tank.

As far as the overall density of the plants, my discus spend about 80-90% of their time in the open area of my tank, and I've heard similar comments from others. It's good to give them a choice I think and let them vote with their fins.

[ronrca]

:thumbsup:

Agree with Ralph! I planted densly in the back and corner of my tanks leaving the front and middle open with some low growing swording spaced apart. For discus this is the best as they do need their swimming room. If you do plant more densly, you should limit the discus you put in then also. ;)

[gj555]

h317,

Post a picture of your tank in this thread for people to see. It may be easier to provide comments in such cases.

IMO, and I am sure some will disagree but, as long as the tank is not planted so densly as to cause the discus to get stuck in the plants, I think you can do what looks the best. Just make sure there is enough swimming space. A short dense foreground does not take away any of the swimming space and is much different than tall dense plants.

I feed bloodworms, frozen mysis shrimp and some bio-pur freeze dried tubifex which I stick on the glass, so most of the food is attached by the discus before it reaches the bottom. Once it does reach the bottom, the discus eat off the bottom for the next 10-15 mins. This is with an e. tenellus foreground that is thickening up each day.

You have an adult breeding pair in your tank which does not require 4 times a day beefheart feeding, so the chances of uneaten food fouling the water is remote. One thing you can do is add a few khuli loaches. They can make their way through thick foeground plants better than Corys or other bottom feeders and act as a good cleaning crew in a densly planted tank.

For good info on planted discus tanks go to:
http://www.dphnet.com/sub-article/dph-project/dph-project.shtml
and reach each month's entry.

Greg

[h317]

Here is my tank (90G):

Full view:
http://www3.sympatico.ca/albatross/images/DSC00051.JPG

Left side:
http://www3.sympatico.ca/albatross/images/DSC00052.JPG

Right side:
http://www3.sympatico.ca/albatross/images/DSC00053.JPG

The reason I posted the question is that the pair has not been eating well since I got them two weeks ago. The male did eat beefheart and bloodworm. The female has not eaten at all. I noticed that they spend most of their time on the right side of the tank (i.e. the gap between the Hygro Polysperma and Rotala Indica, behind the driftwood). The female does explore a lot around the area where the Tiger Lotus is, as if she is searching for food.

I feel that I did not give them enough space to swim around. Please let me know what you guys think. (I am setting a hospital tank now just in case I have to treat the female). Thanks.

Lawrence

[Ralph]

Lawrence, what a beautiful tank.

I don't see any problem with the plant density. If your fish are like mine, they rarely go into the thickly planted areas, but there is plenty of open space for them.
Not eating for two weeks is serious though and could be several different problems. You should post your situation on the "Disease/Sickness and Medication" section. Include as much info as you can about your water conditions, fish behaviors, food, their conditions where you bought them (if you know), and any treatments that you have tried. There are some very experienced people here who can probably diagnose the problem or at least give their best guess.
Good luck and great job on the tank.

[h317]

Thanks, Ralph.

I have seeked advice from the breeder that I bought the discus from. That's why I am scrambling to put together a hospital tank for treatment, especially the female.

The good news is that the breeder is very patient to help me whenever I have questions (I just started plant/discus/fishkeeping two months ago, after researching on the internet!)

Once the hospital tank is set up and cycled, I will put the pair in if needed.

[ronrca]

You do have a nice tank! In fact, I probably would not change anything unless trimming/pruning! If your discus are not eating, that is a problem and you are doing the right thing on getting a hospital tank going. As Ralph says, lets post this in the disease section and included all info like ph, kh, temp, ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, filteration, tank mates, basicly everything even fece color! Very important also is observing them for any tadletale symptons. If you can get some close ups of the discus themselves may help! I do hope it is nothing serious! The discus are beautiful!

Btw, what is the temp?

[h317]

Thanks for the reply.

Temp is 28 C (Don't know how high it is in F).

Last time I checked:
As of last night, iron is below 0.25mg/l

As of the night before (before 25% water change), nitrite is close to 0 and nitrate is below 20 (my test strip has steps of 20. Any recommendation on test kits that measure better?)

I have a pH controller connected to a compressed CO2 bottle. I have also re-calibrate the probe a few days ago. pH is set between 6.7 to 6.9.

Will check the other water parameters and post the message in the disease section tonight.

What is a tadletale sympton?

[EthanCote.com]

*grin* I think Ronrca meant to say "telltale" symptoms ;)

And what a beautiful tank indeed. I should be asking you how you got it that beautiful ;)

Hey Ralph great job for your first assignment as MOD ;)


Cheers,

Chi.

[h317]

Appreciate all these compliments. You guys have been encouraging and helpful.

I am more concerned about the discus than my plants :(

Got to run to the fishstore to get the canopy (the one I got did not fit the 20G I bought >:()