Another newbie

[quocphu]

HI, i ve been into discus for about 6 months, during that time i have 8 of my discus died due to illness. I was so stress out, i made many mistakes, i ask many questions and now i still have more questions. I am just wondering if you can help me.

1. Is it ok to use CO2 with discus?, i have a 2L bottle good quality CO2 system, if i use air stone to get oxygen to the discus my co2 will evaporate. If i dont use air stone, my dicus has no air to breath and they went on the water surface to breath......some of them stress out and got sick (gills flute, parasites, rotten fin) i didnt know what do, i tried to salt bath them (only half recover), now i was told you can break the water surface to bring air into the water, that is true but will that reduce my CO2 effectiveness?. I also hear Dicus need lots of air in the water, plants wont grow good with too much air, also if water has fertiliser, daily growth, tables, irons add on, ect.......that will add polution to the water? and bad for discus?, i also have a 6 stage RO system that i bought on ebay which can reduce the TDS to 5, our bottle spring water here is about 20, i was told now that it is also no good for discus because it is too pure.

2. I was told frozen foods are not as good as life foods, i tried to dig up earth worms ( earth worms has no parasite?), chop up and feed the discus.....but it too messy :lol: i only feed my discus frozen discuss foods and they really grow, black worms are very bad due to parasites ect....and must FEED GARLIC to your Discus regularly to deworm them, my discus never eat Garlic, Can you please advice how to Deworm discus??

3. I was also told that if your discus poo jelly like stuffs, it cannot be curve and will die ( 3 of my discus had that before and they never recover), some said it can be treat with some human medicine that you can get from the doctor can that be possible?, when my fish was sick i took them to the local shop they told me to use those tape worm and anchor worms, anti parasite ect.......i bought the whole bunch of medicine to treat but my fishes still die, they just getting too much stess, stop eating and die, some told me to rise the tempeture to 32-34 degrees and that killed two of my discus. I took the fish to the VET also but he said he doesnt know anything about fish, i rang a fews vet shop but they dont know how to treat discus........they are expert in dog and cats though.

4. Some also advice me not put lots of stuffs in the tank for the discus to hide coz they will be shy, i personally notice that some discus are chasing you for foods other just go on hiding, they dont appear to be sick but jut shy.......is that true that sick or weak discus are SHY? and may need special attention?.

5. I have a 400L tank with 3 canister filter 1200lph , full coz system two UV 15W light and lots of plants, but since then i took out nearly all of the plant and only leave the back ground plants. I stop all co2 fertilisation and stop adding fertisier into the tank, i change water once a week with added chlorine neutruliser. Should i REMOVE all SANDS and gravel in the tank? because each time i vaccum the bottom i see heaps of rabbish deposited deep into the gravel can that bring up the amonia level?, i ve never test my nitrate, only amonia.........above average a little.

After 6 months of trying.....now i have 12 Discus, two of them pair up and laying eggs on the canister intake :D , but the eggs gone white, two of the small discus i just bought, just keep out shaking so i took them out into a hospital tank and add anti parasite medicine plus antibitic, i notice when the discus get sick they grow very slowly......now i have a little more experience and some of them survive....they become stunt.....got big eyes and small body.......what can i do with them??? will they ever small and ugly like that?, if you keep your light on for too long will that stress out for discus too?

sorry i have too many question, it ve been like a journey for me....and now i found home......i always wish to find a forum which with lots of Australian Discus lover so i can learn from and one day become an Expert like many of you here.

Thanks
Steven

[Merrilyn]

Hello Steven, and welcome to the forum. I'm glad you finally found us. Seems like you've had a pretty tough start with your discus. Reading through this forum should help you a lot.

I'll try to answer your questions one at a time.

1. Yes, you can use CO2 for your plants, in a planted discus tank, but first you need to know how to care for the discus. For someone starting out with discus for the first time, I would not use CO2 in any form.

Treating your water with a Reverse Osmosis unit will remove all the impurities in the water, as well as all the essential calcium and minerals. On it's own, it's just too pure to support life, so you either need to add some tap water to the mix, or add one of the commercial products especially made to add to RO water to make it suitable for fish keeping.

I'd like you to check your water straight from the tap. To do that, you'll need some test kits from the pet shop. At a minimum you'll need pH, General Hardness and Carbonate Hardness (known as GH and KH tests) Ammonia,, Nitrite and Nitrate. Get a clean glass of water from the tap, let it stand for an hour, then do all the above tests. Let us know the results of your tests. You may find your water is suitable for discus just as it is, straight from the tap.

2. Frozen foods are excellent for discus. The only live food I feed to my fish, is adult brine shrimp. Never feed live black worms, they are thought to carry too many diseases, which your discus can get.

I feed a mixture of frozen beef heart, bloodworms, brine shrimp, mysis shrimp as well as a good quality dry food. Sometimes I give them live brine shrimp and garden worms, but the worms are first cleaned and frozen, then chopped up into small pieces.

A lot of make our own beef heart mixture, with prawns, green vegetables and garlic in it. You'll find detailed instructions on how to make it right here in these forums.

3. Very few vets know anything about treating fish. We are lucky here, that some vets have experience with fish, and have shared their knowledge with us. Now we share the knowledge around amongst the members, and we all try to help each other when fish are sick.

The disease you are talking about, with the white jelly like poo, is a symptom of a disease called Hexemita, and yes, it can be treated with an antibiotic called Metro or Flagyl, which is also used for humans. Most vets will sell it to you if you know what to ask for. There are a number of articles on Hex or Hole in the Head as it is also known, right here in the Illness and Medication forum. It's a common problem with discus, and it can be cured.

One of the main problems with discus, is that people want to give them all sorts of medicines. Sometimes it's just better to give them some good food, and do some daily water changes, and the fish will often recover. Anytime you think a discus is sick, change the water every day for a week, and then see if the fish looks better. You'll be surprised just how strong discus can be, if you give them the right conditions.

4. Discus are naturally a shy fish, and the smaller ones will spend a lot of time hiding to keep out of the way of the bigger fish. You should have some plants or driftwood in the tank for the younger ones to hide behind, but still leave plenty of swimming room for them. When feeding, it's important to make sure that the little ones get their share of food too, so drop the food into two places in the tank at the same time. Then the little ones will have a chance to eat.

5. A four hundred litre tank is a lovely size for discus. You can still have your plants and gravel in the tank, but you should be doing your water changes at least twice a week, of about 30% each time. The replacement water should be aged in a drum for at least 48 hours, and should be the same temperature as the tank water, before adding to the tank. You can filter and treat your water with chlorine remover while it is in the drum and putting a heater in the drum will bring it up to the right temperature.

When you test your tank water, as you should be doing every week, you should find you have a zero reading of ammonia, a zero reading of nitrite, and a small reading of nitrate, around 20 to 30 PPM before you do your water change. The pH should be around 7. Ideal temperature is around 29 to 30 degrees and you can go up to 32 degrees in special cases of illness.

You should be feeding your fish about 3 times per day, as much as they will finish up in about 30 minutes. Discus are very slow to eat, and like to spend time picking over the bottom for their food. If there is food left after 30 minutes, then remove it, and feel them a little less next time.

Young growing fish need to eat a lot more food than adult fish. If you have fish that you think are runts, make sure they get their share of food at meal times. Sometimes you need to separate the smaller fish from the big fish until they have grown big enough to compete with the bigger fish for food.

Hope that helps you Steven. Discus are not very difficult to keep, but they do demand the best food and water that we can provide them with. Once you get that right, you'll find your discus can live for 12 years or more. :P