Discus eating gravel

[cactusboy]

Hi everyone,

One of my discus seems to be eating small pieces of gravel (2-3mm). He/she poops them out, which is how I first noticed the problem. I was wondering if this would cause it any problems, health wise. It seems normal otherwise, although he doesn't eat pellets with the same enthusiam as he did a month ago. Not sure if he was being fussy or if eating gravel was the problem. He loves bloodworms, and gets his fair sure during dinner.
Any advice would be much appreciated.

[DR.V]

eating gravel ??? well how about you move them into a barebottom tank ?

Do you have a barebottom tank ?

[cactusboy]

I only have one tank at the moment. Moving houses soon, and will get a much larger tank then. So I can you use my current tank as a barebottom if need be.

I have never seen him eat gravel, so I don't think he prefers gravel over pellet food. I've only seen small stone drop from midwater.

[DR.V]

Do you have other fish in the tank ?

Fish like Siamase algae eater/ corys often pick the gravel and drop t somewhere.

HTH

[AussieStar]

i have seen discus , what ooks like eat it and then swin somewhere else and split it out, i guess he is just moving the tank around lol

[nicholas76]

more than likely he is just sifting through the gravel bottom for food and consuiming the occasional pebble.


what are you feeding him / them?

[cactusboy]

Sorry for the late reply, haven't been on the forums recently.

I have 3 discus, 1 BGK, 1 pleco, and 2 peppermints. I am feeding them frozen blood worms, Oakleigh discus food, and sera pellets.

His definitely eating gravel because i have seen him poop them out the past week. They are about 3mm stones. he doesn't seem too bothered by it. He seems to have regained part of his appetite and is acting quite normal.