Help me design feeding regimen

[harris611]

Hello!

I am a former reef tank guy that is switching to Discus -- so although I know my way around a tank, I am a little clueless on some of the elements of keeping discus.

I am about 1/2 way through a fishless cycle (220 gl) and will be adding 100-150 cardinals first to make sure the bugs are worked out. A month or two later, I'll add 8 adult (5-6") discus.

Now, I have read a lot about all of the different types of foods -- pellets, Formula flake, blood worms, black worms, beef heart, etc.
I am a little confused on what would be best for my particular set-up.

Money is not too big of an issue (although a consideration). No one is in the house 8am to 6pm, but I have two pretty solid auto feeders. What would be the best mix and schedule to feed both the discus and cardinals?

Thanks for the help!

Matt

[ed8t]

Will this be a planted tank with substrate? What is your planned frequency of water changes? Any bottom feeders ie. corydoras or bn plecos?

My bb tanks receives 4 to 5 feeds a day, I throw all sorts of food at them: pellets, flakes, bloodworms, mysis shrimp, ON Formula 1 cubes, even algae wafers they'll pick at. But they get at least 50% water changes daily. These are juvenile discus.

My planted display tank receives once a week water changes and I feed twice daily. Pellets in the morning, 2 sizes: New Life Spectrum growth for the little tank inhabitants, larger 1mm size and color bits for the adult discus. In the evening, I toss in flakes or blood worms. No beef heart or other messy foods just because I don't want the job of competing against algae or diminished water quality because of fewer water changes.

What you may decide to settle on depends on what your adult discus is willing to take. I'd ask your supplier to find out what they are feeding on and I'd use that to start and you can slowly wean them to your preferred foods and feeding schedule.

[harris611]

Sorry, should have given more info--

I will be sort-of in between your two tanks. It is a heavily decorated tank with very fine gravel / sand (Tahitian Moon actually), huge pieces of driftwood and a lot of rocks.

I know I will be fighting clean up a bit, but I have it arranged so that I should be able to vacuum well. Anyway, since it has no live plants it gets less than one watt a gallon -- so not overly concerned about algae, but will have to watch fouling and nitrates.

I will be doing a constant 150 gl per day RO/DI drip (and auto dosing of RO Right). I have to do some more experimenting, but I think that will be the equivalent to a 30% - 50% daily water change. Then I will probably do weekly 50% manual change to hoover out the substrate. I also have an Eheim Sludge Extractor for daily vacuumings (that thing rocks, BTW).

So the upshot is that I am going to have to be a bit more careful than a BB tank, but I will be buying adults. I have a BB 65 gal that I will be setting up for juvi grow out eventually.

I can feed manually once in the morning, twice in the evening, and can use auto-feeders for one or two more during the day.

Thoughts?

[harris611]

Oh, and I was thinking about bristle-noses and a couple cory cats, but would take some advice...

[ed8t]

Tank that size can easily handle several bn plecos. Albinos would be a nice contrast. Sterbais are my fav corys in a discus tank, they seem to handle the higher temps better. You should get a shoal of them, they're schooling fish so a dozen would look nice.

One thing to point out though a darker substrate like Tahitian moon sand will probably darken the colours of your discus. If they are pigeon blood based fish, you may get peppering on the body.

You may want to try some anubias or java fern on your driftwood, they can live under low light. I'd wait about half a year or so, they're such slow growers that brown algae/diatoms (common in a new setup) will cover them up.

Adults really don't need to be fed so many times daily, they can do well on just a couple, but your choice. Let the fish and water parameters tell you what you should do. Don't need to make it more complicated than it is.

It sounds like a nice setup, post some pics once your fish settles in.

[harris611]

Thanks a lot for the help. This board is a lifesaver (the fishes' mostly) :)

Matt