Still Shy

[jwight]

Ok it has almost been two months and the discus still hate me! I can see them from a distance and they come out and play chicken with a school of rummy nose tetras. Then I enter the room and they all scatter behind a piece of driftwood. I feed them and they wait until I leave or they timidly come out and often freak out and I fear for there lives. My question is what can I do? Could it be disease (They all eat well)? Could it be a water problem (pH 7.2 constant, Ammonia 0 nitrate 0, nitrite 10 [if thats the last stage I get confused])? Water Changes 20% 3 times a week.

[Rossco]

i am having abit of the same problem,though i have had my 8 young discus for 4 weeks.I really hope my discus stop getting skiddish and dash around madly.

Sorry to hear your having that prob,i feel your pain.Its sad to see the discus feeling unsafe.

For myself,i am going to give my discus another 2 months,then if they are still skiddish,i will remove my gravel and plastic plants/rocks,make it bare bottom,so they wont injure themselfs.

Sometimes i think letting them have shelter and cover encourages them to be shy.I will see in time.

Hope all works out ok for you jwight.

[goldenpigeon]

hi jwight,
it depends how far you are willing to go but if you dont have many plants or a aquascape you are really proud of you could take all plants and objects they can hide behind out including the gravel or you could just leave it in. gravel will make absolutly no difference with their behavior, but if you want to really feed these fish up you might want to take it out just for about 2 months while you get your fish friendly.

you can start off with having a good suply of live black worm and hand feed that (not 1 at a time, you will go crazy lol) just get a clump and hold it in there and let a couple go to the bottom so they know its there. this may not work atfirst but if you take all they can hide behind out i could almost garentee it will work. it has in my experiences.

leave everything out untill they are very friendly. this may not be that much fun but did you pay good money to see nothing but rummy-noses and a nice piece of driftwood :?:

[Merrilyn]

Well, there is one last thing that you can try. First, make sure your water is pristine, no ammonia or nitrites and nitrates under 10.

Second, remove anything that the fish can hide behind, or hurt themselves on. That means plants, driftwood, rocks etc. and do a thorough gravel vac.

Next, feed your fish, pull up a comfortable chair and a good book and sit right in front of the tank. Sit there for as long as you are able, preferably at least a couple of hours. Do this as often as possible, at least 4 times a week.

With nowhere to hide, the fish will have to accept your presence, and hopefully get so used to you being there, they'll stop freaking out.

Good luck.

[Kaza]

I use to have a big castle in my four foot tank. My new discus spend the whole time behind it. I thought they wre sick! I ended up taking it out and problem fixed, they are really friendly now. One other thing I also added two of my older discus who were use to me that made a big difference, once they saw the others were'nt scared they seemed fine. I also fed live blackworm for 6 weeks before they would touch other foods.

[kalebjarrod]

i have found that by doing larger water changes they beome a little friendlier

might be water quailty? :wink:

[jwight]

They do come out if I stay in the room for a long time I might sit in the room and do uni work Architectural sketches and what not. I dont want to take the plants out because the java ferns are about to take to the wood but I am getting a new tank soon. They are getting better. Thanks for the advice guys hope it get better.

[Mattzilla]

try moving the tank to an area of the house where there is more people traffic and remove as many hiding places as uyou can. this will get them used to things moving in front of their tank. remember that they don't necessarily see you as you, they probably see you as a big dark object moving towards them quickly....no wonder they freak out.

secondly, try to feed them A VERY SMALL AMOUNT of food each time you pass them...they will begin to associate you with food and not a big black scary object. given time they will come to even recognise you and not fear you. i swear my discus know who i am.... when i approach them they come to the front of the tank for food, but more often than not when someone else comes to the tank they dart away and are more cautious.

water conditions are as allways a hige playing factor. good water conditions will relax them and they will thrive....poor water conditions will stress them and may cause illness and other problems.

hth
matt

[Ben]

my theory is it is a stage some discus go through, you will fing that they will grow out of it.

[jwight]

There is plenty of traffic and moving the tank is not an option. However instead of going around the tank (I have a circle designed house) I will go through that room.

[lambo]

ok comming in late to this.....how bout adding some cardinal tetras to the tank to act as Dither Fish?