Not eating!

[Aurora]

Hi all,

I got two new discus last wednesday night. I know that it can take a few days for them to settle and start eating, but its now monday and they still havent eaten. How long can they go without food? They seem happy enough now, they swim around, the male (I think) likes to chase and scare the crap out of my cardinals :) but they still wont eat. Even when I had frozen bloodworms sink right down past their face. What can I do?

Dave

[weird]

Do you know what they were being fed before ? Might help to entice them with the same food.

[Aurora]

Yeah they were being feed frozen bloodworms, thats what I was told to start off feeding them.

Dave

[weird]

They can easily go one week without eating I believe. Try not to overfeed, just give really small meals of different types , and what is not eaten after 15 mins vacuum up. Even though they are not eating try not to overfeed.

Some foods to consider:

Live Brine Shrimp
Frozen brine shrimp
Beef heart mix - readily available as Discus Dinner

They may still be stressed or shy.

I would only really be concerned after the one week mark.

Only then you might wonder if it is sickness.

How are all the other parameters of the tank ? Temp, ph, ammonia, nitrite, other tank mates (are they the first discus in the tank ?).

If you can supply a pic.

Best of luck , I have had some horrible initial starts with Discus, but they usually they turn good with perservence.

[kalebjarrod]

i agree with dave wholeheartedly!

[Bad Inferno]

I know they can at least last two weeks without feeding as this is how long it took for a couple of mine to start eating. When I had trouble I think flukes suggested epsom salts in the water although I never did it and just waited.

[Budi_Armyn]

Aurora,
Don't put any medicine without a good and realiable diagnosis about the disease. First, try some tricks as follows :
- Set a higher temperature using heater. Maybe you can raise the
temperature gradually. 28-30 degree Celcius is an ideal temperature
for keeping discus.
- Introduce one or some healthy discus into the tank. Some times new
tankmates stipulate their activities (mostly eating).
If it doesn't work, maybe we must use some medicine to solve the problem.

best regards,


budi armyn

[Aurora]

Hi guys.

Sorry my internets been down all day.

I did some tests last night.

Temp is set at 30C
Ammonia = didnt do
Nitirite = didnt do
Nitrate = near 0
gH = 2
kH = 3
pH = 7.0

This is constant from my last water change about a week and a half ago. So theres no fluctuations.

Tank mates are 10 Black Widows and 20 Cardinals.

Dont worry theres no food left after 15 min........with my Black Widows theres nothing left after 15 seconds :p

I have food drifting down past their face and they still ignore it like its not there.

I cant take a decent pic of the tank. Trust me I've taken like 150 pics and only a couple have come out only a little blurry. I will keep trying and try to put my best one up tomorrow.

They are still a little skittish too at times even though conditions are perfect and stable, and the only real traffic in my room is me. I just dont get it.

Thanks for all your help so far.

Dave

[kalebjarrod]

do another water change, this may make em want to feed

P.S get an Ammonia test kit, worth it :wink:

[jim]

if nothing works...try live black worm...it works for me everytime...
but only use live worm to lure them to eat...it's not a very good food source in the long run...

[DiscusMan]

It has been suggested to me on many occasions that he addition of a angel fish is a very good way to get discus eating. Angels are very eager feeders.

I agree with adding other discus to stimulate the feeding if you start to get very concerned or the addition of an angel fish will do the same.

So if you dont have another discus get adn angel its probably cheaper.

Hope the litte bugger gets into the tucker for you soon.

Wayne

[weird]

I once had that suggestion made to me Wayne, of adding angels to a discus tank to make them eat. But this guy in a certain North Shore aquarium store, only cared about selling more fish , and I knew this from previous experience so I ignored him.

Will adding angels really encourage a non-eating discus to eat ??

[Aurora]

Hi guys.

I was planning on doing a water change today. I also planned on getting the live blackworms, so its good to hear that that might work. I was also going to see what other foods I could get while I was there.

I dont know if I need an angel because its a vigorous feeder. My black widows are vigorous enough I think. Besides I read their not great to keep with Discus, even though some people do.

I had an ammonia test as part of my kit, but it ran out. So I'll get another one soon.

I dont think its to do with disease. They dont show any sign of disease, and they were kept in qarantine for weeks and weeks and give treatments for various things just to make sure before I got them.

Thanks again

Dave

[weird]

Good plan of attack Dave. Keep up the water changes, I reckon they will eat soon enough.

I would avoid the angels, only because they are susceptible to the same diseases as discus, and unless they are also kept in quarantine, you may be very well adding a disease with their introduction.

[DiscusMan]

I agree about bringing in the new fish and quarantine etc.

I think that angels are very similar to discus and i wouldnt go out and buy one if you didnt want to have any of them in your tank :)

from my little knowledge angels and discus do go together quite well and there would be no problems of keeping them together. I think they are very similar fish in many aspects.

Live food is a very good way to go and this has worked for me before to get sick fish eating in my case and i put flagyl in the live food as well to med at the same time.

Wayne

[africandiscus]

I would defrost the blood worms and put them in a syringe and squirt them at the discus

[Billy]

hi all,

i will try feeding live black worm as one of my discus was sick and didnt eat for weeks,

This discus was in a hospital tank on its own, i tried feeding all the normal food that this discus was eating before but no luck. then i feed it with live black worm and my discus loved it.

But except live black worm, my discus wouldn't eat anything else. so this is a problem.

A few days ago I put another smaller discus just to accompany it. Now the sick one is bullying the small one when there is food (other than black worm) around and it actually taking the food so i can get it to slowly taking other food !!!


So new tank mate will help getting your fish to start to eat !!

so dont worry about it !!! be patient !! :D :D

also what is your tank size ?? and got any other discus as tankmates ??

[Aurora]

Hi all.

My tank is a 4' x 18" x 18".

The fish are the breeding pair of discus, 10 Black Widows and 20 Cardinals

"so dont worry about it !!! be patient !!" - Billy

Well I think I am worried about it. They are starting to look a little more run down this week and less vigorous than they were. I dont know how much more patience they have left. It has now been over a week since I got them and they havent eaten.

I have tried Tetra Colourbits, the make actually ate one bit of that, but then they ignored the rest. I tried the live blackworms. They wiggled right down past their face, but they just looked at them like 'what the hell is that?' I also got some 'Discus Mix' which I havent tried yet, but I dont hold much hope :(
I havent tried the syringe thing yet either.

Dave

[jim]

it happend to my friend's discus....when it really don't eat anything at all for long time...he took his discus out and inject tetra bits into their mouth..and release it back to tank.(have to be very quick).he tried several times....and saved some...

[bob]

new fish?
lower ph slowly 6.6 raise water temp to at least 84 feed defrosted blood worms
good luck bob

[weird]

Aurora post some pics of your tank. Even if the pics aren't perfect. Atleast it will give us an idea of your tank setup and the condition of your fish.

Discus are tough buggers. Hang in there mate.

[Aurora]

OK here are two pics of my tank.

The first is actually OK quality. It was taken awhile ago before I got the discus. The second is taken after I got them. I had the light off, thats why it is so dark.

I have a small 77cm x 30cm x 30cm tank that I am not using. I thought maybe I could move them to that as it would be easier to get the food to them without the others eating it first. But I dont know if the stress of moving them again would be worst than just leaving them in the main tank. What do you all think?

Thanks

Dave

[weird]

I was seriously knocked back by the beauty of your tank .... FARK !! sorry for the language but plants have that effect on me. Why your guys are not eating beats the jeeves out of me ... its not like you have dumped them in a cess pool or anything.

As posted before discus may not eat in the most extreme case for 2 weeks or more .... but the last time my guys were not eating was sickness and poo was the key to seeing it was hex. If they are not eating u might not be lucky to see that symptom.

Lets start exploring sickness as it has been sometime now. What sort of behaviour are they showing ? Any sort of dartiness ? etc.

I don't want to give any ideas but hex and major treating with metro was a turning point with me.

[kalebjarrod]

if the black widows are eating maybe its scaring the discus off?

thats about my only conculsion. do you have accsess to another small tank so you can remove the widows?

then try the food, maybe they will graze from the bottom if there is "less movement"?

[Aurora]

"I was seriously knocked back by the beauty of your tank .... FARK !!" - Weird

Thanks. It is still a fighting battle with the algae though. And with my UV not working, a fight Im slowly losing...but its ok :)

Their behaviour is strange. During the day they will just sit near the bottom in a corner not moving much. Maybe they will move to the other side and sit there. Then at night, they will suddenly liven up and start swimming around exploring the tank, scaring the other fish. They dont seem bothered by the other fish at all. When you come into the room they will stop swimming around and look at you for a bit. Then if your not moving around too much they will keep on swimming. Even if you are up fairly close to the tank. If you didnt know you would think they were happy, healthy disucs.....and yet they still wont eat. Although on occasion they do sometimes do a small freak out.

In the week and a bit I have had them I havent seen any poo from them.

I thought it would be best to move them to the small tank, as then there is no plants or driftwood or lights above to stop me being able to get the food right to them where they cant hide. I will just put the sponge filter from the main tank and a heater. If they are more active when Im not around then I could just put some of the black worms in the worm feeder and leave them there and hopefully they will eat them when Im not around.

The guy I got them from said that they probably in their lives have never seen gravel or driftwood or plants or even other fish, so maybe that was why it was taking so long for them to settle in. They dont seem that freaked by their surroundings though. But if I put them in the bare smaller tank they might feel more at home.

What do you think?

Thanks

Dave

[kalebjarrod]

might be the trick, give it a go and keep us posted


it does make sense though :wink:

[Aurora]

Hi guys,

Well I moved them into the smaller tank today.

The move went pretty well. They were a little freaked at first but they have settled in a bit now.

I only put in a heater, the sponge from the main tank, and pumped water in straight from my main tank.

A weird thing though. When pigeon discus get scared they pepper up right? But my male, which is fairly heavy peppered in a pattern on his body, a soon as I put him in he had nearly lost all of it. I dont know if its because of the light (theres no light on that tank) or wether he is just happier in a bare bottom tank. As long as its a good thing Im not complaining though :)

Dave

[Aurora]

OK, I finally figured out how to take some decent pics of the fish. I have to use the flash, even though it reflects off the glass. I always thought it just made it brighter, not clearer.

Anyway, these are just some quick pics to show you that I dont think they are sick. Keep in mind that theres no light, its mostly all coming from the flash, thats why its so dark. Also the waters a bit tea coloured as it came from my main tank that has driftwood.

Pic 3 and 6 really show the (suspected) females colour.
She is not sick in pic 5, just looking for food under the sponge.
Pics 6 is my favourite, followed by 4.
Hopefully I can take some better ones in a few days.

All the males peppering has basically gone from when I put them in. Including both of their goaties :) Its harder to tell them apart now than it was before.

What do you think?

Dave

[Aurora]

more...

[ozarowana]

This has happened to me before, but it was only one of two that wasn't eating. I think adults don't move as well as smaller fish.

Increasing the temp to 32, daily water changes and having some food lying around solved my problem. They're probably not settled in yet.

I agree with others that having other vigourously feeding discus around will stimulate them.

http://www.simplydiscus.com/forum/showthread.php?t=40691

[Aurora]

Good news. They have started eating.

They are eating the live black worms. They are still quite causious, but putting them in a bare bottom tank seems to have made all the difference.

I guess once you go bare, you cant go back :)

They dont eat from the surface, only from the bottom or ones that are floating down to the bottom.

Now I will leave them in there and fatten them up again. Also try to get them eating other foods again. Then hopefully I can get them to spawn in there, then after the fry are 3 weeks old thats when I'll try and move them back. Could take awhile though.

Thanks for all the help.

Dave