overfeeding??

[gypsy3]

hi all...sorry, this could get a little long winded. i have a6x2x2 set upwith 12 discus, mostly in the 10-12 cm range as well as a few catfish.my problem is that there is an awful lot of debris(food leftovers i assume)on the surface of the substrate. i do 2 40-50% water changes per week, have loads of filtration ,water paramaters are all fine except for nitrates which hovers at about 20 ppm.the discus get fed 3 times aday, usually 2 different things per meal - eg. 2 pinches of granules and say the equivalant of 3 blocks of beefheart or 2-3 blocks of frozen brine shrimp and 2-3 blocks of discus dinner....are they being overfed? a lot of the flake and frozen stuff seems to get scattered and sinks all over the tank, a lot of it landing in the plants and hard to get to areas. the discus forage for quite a while and find the food, but a helluva lot must get wasted for the tank to foul up. can someone advise roughly what measures of food are suitable for this fish load? i know you're supposed to give them what they'll eat in a certain amount of time, but in a heavily planted tank its hard to know what is enough. i guess what i am asking is how do i clear up the debris without taking the risk of underfeeding.

[ILLUSN]

I've got a 6x2x2 VERY densly planted with 13 discus in it (2.5-6.5 inch). i feed twice a day. 1.5 cubes of discus dinner each time, with eitter as much tetrabits/live brine shrimp/breeders blend flake that they'll eat in about 3 min. theres never any leftovers, 7 kullis, 7 whiptails, 3 SAE's and 4 dwarf loaches take care of all that (they eat all the small food the discus cant reach between the plants)

[gypsy3]

thanks mate....it seems i've been giving mine way too much....looks like they're all going on a diet!

[DIY]

Hmmmm :oops: :oops:

In my 6x2x2 I have 12 discus and around 25 tetras, and I feed at least 2 times a day, sometimes 3

A typical feed would be 12-15 blocks of beefheart (cut into small blocks) or around 5 blocks of frozen bloodworm or 2-3 heavy pinches of tetra bits. it usually takes them only a few minutes to eat most of it, some does get stuck amongst the plants though which the snails cleanup.

Yes I know I overfeed them :roll: :roll: but I like having fat greedy discus :lol: :lol:

[Stevepet23]

Geez, i think i might be overfeeding mine then too!!
I only have 4 discus so far & they eat 3 blocks of blood worms in the morning & 3 at night. When I feed discus dinner i give them 2 blocks in the morning & 2 at night. Is that a lot??

[djceri_g]

I think the more you feed, the increas you should do in water changes and that will make our disucs grow big an healthy! And ofcourse, feed dried peas or treat with epsom salt regularry junst incase they feel beloted

[samir]

feed one cube at a time and you'll know how much