[APD] Q's about Discus in planted tanks

["Byron J. Yu" <sixty9 at gmail_com>]

Hi,

Yesterday my dad dropped by and surprised me by buying me 2 discus.
I'd appreciate any advice you guys have about keeping them...

Here's my setup:

-23 gallon tank establish for 7 months
-co2 injected through tank via inline reactor 
-fish population: 10 rummynose, 3 otto cats, 4 sae's, 5 shrimps
-maintanence: change 4 gallons of water 2x a week.
-ph 6.7
-nitrates at 10ppm

I know, my tank is a bit small for the discus, but i have them now so
what can i do?


i have a couple of q's:

1. i usually trim my plants 2x a week, major trimmings once every
other week... is this bad for the discus? do they scare easily or will
they get used to it?

2. is 26 degrees celcius ok? or too cold? i know a lot of u do 28
degrees, but if i can get away with 26 degrees i'd prefer it so i can
keep some of my more sensitive plants.

3. because i turned off the lights all day yesterday (to acclimatize
the discus), and i found this morning all my fish gasping for air at
the surface. I know warmer water holds less o2. On a normal day when i
have the lights on and have my plants bubbling, will i have to worry
about enough o2 being in the the tank over night considering the
higher temps? (i have no tubulence on the surface)

4. do i have to change my fertizing routine? are the discus more
sensitive to it than my rummy nose?

5.for discus food i have Tetra Color Bits and Frozen Hikari Blood
Worms. WHat diet routine would u guys recommend? I want them healthy
and happy, but don't want them to grow too big. Would it be possible
to feed them just the tetra food? or is it true that they're healthier
with the blood worms? (I feed my cat just dry food, no meat.. my vet
recommended it and she's happy)

6. my gravel isn't covered anymore cause i sold my glosso carpet cause
it was growing too fast. I'm planning to replace it with a Hemianthus
callitrichoides ''Cuba'' carpet. Are these plants too declicate and
get ripped apart by the discus when i feed them? are glosso better? or
will any carpeted plant get ripped apart by the discus when they feed?
 if so, what do u think if i put a flat rock in the middle of the
carpet and just feed the discus on the rock? I figure i wouldn't have
to worry about gravel cleaning cause my shrimps would eat the
leftovers.

anything else i need to know?

I just wanna say again that this forum has been invaluable to me... i
know i wouldn't have gotten this far with my tank w/o everybody's
help.

thanks

Byron.
_______________________________________________
Aquatic-Plants mailing list
Aquatic-Plants at actwin_com
http://www.actwin.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/aquatic-plants