Discus Behaviour in a Discus Tank

It has been several months since i put some plants in my year old 110 g discus tank. I've enjoyed watching the discus swim through and around the amazon sword, java fern, anubias, and corkscrew val. They are easy lowlight plants that grow well in an 85 degree discus tank. It got me thinking about the benefits of a planted vs barebottom or hardscape tank for sub adult and adult discus. I think these beautiful creatures are intelligent, inquisitive, and curious of their environment. They love swimming though the branches of my driftwood, sometimes arching lying virtually flat to grab a morsel of food at the bottom of the branch or beneath a large leaf plant. IMO, these stimuli help in keeping the discus happy, not to mention that the plants give them a place to hide if startled.

Of course, planting in gravel requires a little extra work on my part in keeping it clean, but it's been well worth the effort. Of course, this is not to say that discus can't be happy in a hardscape tank. But, watching how they interact in this environment, and with each other, is fascinating. I think the fact that it is a lightly planted tank with space for the discus to swim in is also important to their well-being. We'll see how it goes in the coming months but thus far it's been a rewarding experience and one I'd recommend others to try.

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Were do you buy your plants local or online? They are beautiful.
Carlos

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Originally Posted by Charlyc11

Were do you buy your plants local or online? They are beautiful.
Carlos

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Thank you Carlos. I buy them from a store belonging to a large chain of aquarium stores in Canada called Big Al's. The store has a manager who really knows his plants and has an excellent stock. However, I would NEVER buy discus from these stores. I buy from a wholesaler in my area.

Ricky what’s funny about your tank is the background really makes that tank look planted!! You are what considered outside the box!! And because of that it looks great! Your plants all look healthy are you adding any liquid ferts or ferts in general? Thing with a planted tank is you must vacume the gravel regularly. So this kind of defeats root tabs. My tanks are planted too. But because of a CC I had last year I’ve now moved my plants into planters. For easy removal. A must for a planted tank is a qt tank for any new fish or plants. I keep a 50g with a pair of hero discus in it.Attachment 132637

D’bunk your right for yourself! Yes many tanks are overcrowded! Ricky’s isn’t for today’s standards :). Yes today’s standards. If you been on Facebook (where many are and start their discus hobby) the tanks are unbelievably crowed. I mean 20-30 discus in that tank. Yes if you enjoy just a few that’s fine but for me I’m happy with the one per 10g. Why I have 3 tanks of discus now!!

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Originally Posted by D'bunk

I wouldn't call that a "lightly" planted tank, but I absolutely agree with your observation about discus behavior. You simply will not see natural discus behavior in overstocked, bare bottom tanks. I am also impressed with your dedication to plants. Personally, as much as I enjoy a planted tank, I've found anything other than anubias simply too much trouble.

I do think you are slightly overstocked. Most will disagree with me on this, but I don't believe the 10 gallon/per fish rule has any merit. At least I am not alone in this. The owner of this site agrees with my assessment. At least he certainly implied as much in a presentation he gave, suggesting a stocking of 8 fish in a 125 was optimal. I'm even more conservative. If you want too observe natural behavior you simply can't have too much space.

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D'b, I agree about the lower stocking levels in principle. However, with a planted tank that has low-light, and a few root tabs for ferts, the plants will get their nutrients mainly from fish waste. So, I need the 1 fish/10gal stocking in this tank. I feed 3 times a day, and change water and gravel clean every 5 days as a way of balancing discus needs and plant needs. In addition, my fish range from 4" to 6", so at this point they haven't reached maximum growth. They use the entire tank and it is a tall tank so I think there's plenty of room to swim. Besides, although the tank looks fairly planted, as Tom mentions, I think the background gives the illusion there are more plants than there actually are.

Thus far, a month and a half since I added plants, the plants are doing really well and fish appear happy and healthy. I measure the ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate levels weekly and they are great. The greatest concern I have regarding maintenance is keeping the gravel clean. I'm sure I'm not getting it all but then again, some of it is nutrient for the plants. Measuring water parameters regularly I think is crucial in what I'm attempting. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that this will continue.

The plants that are in there are all suitable for the warm discus tank. The Java Ferns, Amazon Swords, Red Flame Sword, Hadi Red Pearl Sword, Anubias Barteri, Corkscrew Val, and Red Tiger Lotus are all low maintenance imo.
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Originally Posted by Iminit

Ricky what’s funny about your tank is the background really makes that tank look planted!! You are what considered outside the box!! And because of that it looks great! Your plants all look healthy are you adding any liquid ferts or ferts in general? Thing with a planted tank is you must vacume the gravel regularly. So this kind of defeats root tabs. My tanks are planted too. But because of a CC I had last year I’ve now moved my plants into planters. For easy removal. A must for a planted tank is a qt tank for any new fish or plants. I keep a 50g with a pair of hero discus in it.Attachment 132637

D’bunk your right for yourself! Yes many tanks are overcrowded! Ricky’s isn’t for today’s standards :). Yes today’s standards. If you been on Facebook (where many are and start their discus hobby) the tanks are unbelievably crowed. I mean 20-30 discus in that tank. Yes if you enjoy just a few that’s fine but for me I’m happy with the one per 10g. Why I have 3 tanks of discus now!!

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Tom, you are so right about the background. It's quite deceiving as to how many plants are actually in there. You're also right in that this is a rather unconventional way of keeping a planted discus tank. Besides having inert gravel, it's a lowlight tank (Current Satellite+ LED lights) with only a few root tabs next to the amazon swords. I am most concerned about the gravel. I'm cleaning it every water change, but it's difficult to clean around the heavily rooted Swords.

I have a friend in England who told me it's possible to have fish waste as being the only ferts that are required in a discus tank. His tank is gorgeous so I decided to try it. Then, I came across your planted tank before your CC, and I was hooked. Thus far, the fish and plants are healthy, I can only hope it continues.

D’bunk- for the most part, I agree with your philosophy. I have 8 discus in my 120 gal, most between 4-8 inches. I have lots of drift wood in a sand substrate. I also have about 15 cardinals and 6 corys and 1 BN pleco. I enjoy see the discus go horizontal while scavenging for food and swimming through and around the decorations. That said, I’m beginning to subscribe to the philosophy that less is more. As the fish grow I want to provide optimal swimming space and be able to keep the tank cleaner. I’m sure by removing most of the drift wood their behavior will change (less hiding spots/territories, less cool swimming around and through as they forage) but I think it might be worthwhile to try. I have one large piece of driftwood I was thinking of keeping in the tank.. The other smaller pieces provide a lot of cover for the corys and cardinals, but this is a discus tank… I’m worried about increased aggression although maybe it will decrease agression? My discus are only really aggressive when feeding- I saw 2 try to lip lock yesterday which is funny with their small mouths. Would love to hear others peoples thoughts/experiences with removing driftwood etc… I could always put them back in if I don’t like how it turns out…
Thanks!

I'm obviously a sucker for planted tanks. I really do think the fish act so much differently. Hopefully I can figure out a way to have a few grow out in my detached garage this year because I'm also a HUGE SUCKER for a tank of consistently BIG discus. Well then of course I'll throw them in my Showtime. In the meantime, I still got young ones growing in my show tank. I definitely feel like I have gotten better over time getting the average growth larger and larger in my planted tank but, with my own discus keeping (in a semi-"to each their own"...) I won't achieve a group with a tight 7" average unless I do a grow out. I just want one big *** tub (no less than 200 gallons... but I'll still have one large DW piece) in my garage to grow out some studs.

Why did you choose gravel? (curious) I haven't used gravel in probably 25 years. I basically steal sand from a local beach and my swords, crypts, and lillies go bonkers.

Great question Elliot. I started with a community tank of pretty gouramis, swords, platys, and mollies way back in 1992. I quickly got hooked on the colour and behaviour of Malawian African Cichlids about a year later, so I started keeping and breeding those in that same tank. That blue gravel was in the original tank. When discus caught my eye, and I got bored of africans, I began to convert the tank over a year and a half ago. Knowing a lot less than I do now (before joining this forum), I never thought of taking out the gravel. My wife loved the blue colour so taking it out was not an option regardless.

It hasn't been easy, and I've lost a few fish, but the gravel did make the conversion to planted a little easier (particularly for the amazon swords and vals). Since I've planted, the fish have been healthy and happy. I'll see how long this will last, but I believe it will if I can keep that gravel clean and consistently check water parameters.

If I had to do it over again, I would put sand on the bottom, and keep plants like java ferns and anubias attached to driftwood. Maybe someday.

I went from rooted plants to java fern & anubias on wood (even while having sand the whole time), but now I'm doing both. I can explain how I got to that point if interested ;P

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Originally Posted by pastry

I went from rooted plants to java fern & anubias on wood (even while having sand the whole time), but now I'm doing both. I can explain how I got to that point if interested ;P

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Of course I'm interested, do tell :)

maybe some your fish are republicans others democrats

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Originally Posted by RickyB

Of course I'm interested, do tell :)

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Ricky, the few times my fish (discus & tankmates) were doing fantastic, I had a ton of rooted plants (a jungle almost). I still don't think that was why everything (fish) were breeding like crazy (discus, several tetra species, plecos, dwarf cichlids, etc.) and more entertaining than I've ever seen since there was so much crap & crud trapped... but each "non-rooted, minimal DW touching sand" set-up I tried over the past ended up with "...ehhh" for level of activity in the tank. I'm not confident nor comfortable at this point to state that that's "the why" since there's other sorts of uncontrolled variables over that time and I'm strong in beliefs that an easy to maintain layout is the way to go if you're going to keep discus in a substrate/FW/planted laiden tank ---- but that's the primary coincidence that sticks out. So I'm going to try it again.

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Originally Posted by pastry

Ricky, the few times my fish (discus & tankmates) were doing fantastic, I had a ton of rooted plants (a jungle almost). I still don't think that was why everything (fish) were breeding like crazy (discus, several tetra species, plecos, dwarf cichlids, etc.) and more entertaining than I've ever seen since there was so much crap & crud trapped... but each "non-rooted, minimal DW touching sand" set-up I tried over the past ended up with "...ehhh" for level of activity in the tank. I'm not confident nor comfortable at this point to state that that's "the why" since there's other sorts of uncontrolled variables over that time and I'm strong in beliefs that an easy to maintain layout is the way to go if you're going to keep discus in a substrate/FW/planted laiden tank ---- but that's the primary coincidence that sticks out. So I'm going to try it again.

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Fascinating, Elliot. You're not the only one to have noticed how "happy" they appear in a planted tank. I mentioned earlier I have a friend in England who has had a planted discus tank for years and he confirms what you and I have noticed. I still believe this will work best with sub-adult to adult discus, but it is worth noting.

I know spawning isn't always an indication of how healthy a tank is, but I think it is one of the indicators that things are going well. A pair spawned on my tidal intake tube for the fourth week in a row yesterday morning. I say try your jungle again and let us know how it goes.
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Ricky, I'd definitely say to a certain degree that spawning is a level of healthy... but LOVE how you see the difference. Sort of like, "they're happy now"... but longterm stuff can be building. I'm trying to get better on that... as best I can with planted tank. It'll never be as healthy as BB... but I couldn't imagine a world without cocktails ;)

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Originally Posted by pastry

Ricky, I'd definitely say to a certain degree that spawning is a level of healthy... but LOVE how you see the difference. Sort of like, "they're happy now"... but longterm stuff can be building. I'm trying to get better on that... as best I can with planted tank. It'll never be as healthy as BB... but I couldn't imagine a world without cocktails ;)

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Or chocolate, or donuts, or ice cream, ... sure you can live without them, even be healthier, but think about the joy you'd be missing ;). You'd better be doing other things to stay healthy though. In a planted tank, that would be frequent WC and diligent tank maintenance.

Yup! LOL