My fiancee is gonna kill me!

[jeepdad]

My fiancee loves my discus, all animals in fact. I've had my 6 discus from Hans since late October, and they are doing great in spite of me! Since I got them I've had them in a sand bottom tank, then I changed it to a bare bottom black painted bottom tank. That lasted 1 day when within a few minutes they started to pepper up!

I didn't like the peppering or the black bottom so I went and put brownish natural looking gravel in it. I know most of you on here frown on gravel bottoms for juvies, and with good reason. The tank got filthy and was a pain to clean then also got extremely cloudy.

Now for why my fiancee is gonna kill me....I just spent the past hour emptying the tank, getting rid of the gravel, and painted the bottom white. The fish lost the peppering and also their black colored fins have lost the black. They look great, are obviously stressed out due to the change but look great with erect fins and nice coloring otherwise. My fiancee has been firm with me about "leave the tank alone the fish are healthy and doing well so leave the tank alone!" When she gets home in a few hours she's gonna probably be a little hot that I changed the tank again, but this is the final change and I know it will benefit the fish with the bare bottom. Can I get a little support from you all? Maybe I 'll show her this post if I get positive feedback! LOL!

[fishguy456]

I know exactly what you mean!! I've switched between bare bottom and graveled quite often and always get a little bickering when I do.

[jeepdad]

Thanks David! She's never had discus before, and definitely enjoys the looks of the gravel bottom. I need to convince her that the discus will be their healthiest with the bare bottom. And in the past I've tried my luck with discus many times and usually screwed them up with all the changes I did on my tanks. I usually went alternated between bare bottom and gravel with an undergravel filter.

[discuspaul]

Well, just tell her there's nothing better for discus than a bare-bottom tank with lots of fresh water changes - and that's a fact.
And tell her you read it here more than once, and that gravel is the worst substrate you can have in a tank for them - and that's a fact too.

[MKD]

Tell her bare bottom will provide more room for discus to swim around, easy monitor and maintain tank. Count me in if she wants to count how many keeping bare bottom.

[jeepdad]

Thanks Paul and Tony!

[Keith Perkins]

How about telling her you couldn't decide whether to buy another batch of fish and set up another tank of just change this one? :)

[discuspaul]

How about telling her you couldn't decide whether to buy another batch of fish and set up another tank of just change this one? :)

Sounds real good to me - that should work just fine ! :)

[jeepdad]

I was wrong, she was cool with the bare bottom tank. She said she liked the gravel but knows the health of the fish should come first. This is the first batch of discus in 20 years that I so far haven't screwed up due to changing water parameters or the tank setup. They are growing great, looking awesome and are always begging for food! I'm happy!

[Ryan]

You could get some clay pots and add a few potted plants with sand/gravel in the pots, if she thinks it looks too bare. Or you could add a couple pieces of driftwood. They are easy to remove and clean.

[pastry]

Hilarious. Sounds like me. I learn best the hard (often twice doing the same thing). Just tell her peppering brings good luck... :p