Dark Discus

[Annie]

I have had these 5 Discus for a year now. All Blue Diamonds. I think I have mentioned before that 2 of them are stunted...But actaully one is really starting to take off and grow some. :) But the other, well... this little guy is very tiny. Not much bigger than when I got him a year ago. I call him Baby Discus because he really never grew when the other Discus have.
The other Discus seem to pick on him, but he holds his own.
The bad thing is, he has been very bloated for a couple of months. I have taken him out and put him in a QT tank, but he does worse in the QT tank. He barely moves and then will not eat. He gets very very dark in color while int he QT tank. I have used some meds, salt and epsom salt for the bloating, but to no avail he is still the same. As long as he is in the tank with the others, he eats and moves around, seems to be normal with all, but he still tend to hide in the corner more to hide from the others.
But yesterday, he was hiding more and was getting really dark in color, very ugly...so I moved him to the QT again...I think it is because he needs to be with the others, but I am not sure. I have tryed figuring this out, but I do not get it...wouldn't I see meore than this? I mean, no parasites, no ohters issues, so what? any suggestions would be appreciated.

[Merrilyn]

Hi Annie - I have had discus that never seem to do any good, despite being in the same tank with others doing well. They do exactly as you have mentioned, hiding and going dark, but still eating. Try a good tape worm remedy. That has helped some of mine. Others just seem to grow out of it, and although they do not reach full size, seem to be happy and healthy.

[skoom]

I was just wondering how big are your fish?

[Annie]

skoom,
I am a really bad judge of fish size...I am going to say they are around 5". Is there really any way to measure with out guessing? Maybe soon I will be able to post a pic...still wotking on the unpacking of the office..it is the only thing in the house left to unpack, but it has so much stuff!!! I just keep putting it off.

And ladyred,
thanks for the advice, it is nice to know that you have had the issue too. I will look into treatment for tape worms and see how that helps.