discus help needed

[james1969]

Hi all Im new to keeping discus and wanting some help !! I have recently purchased 2 snakeskin discus one is good but the other one just seems to hide in the corner an has gone really dark since we got it, also it dosnt seem to eat even when the food goes straight past it.. any help would be great dnt want 2 lose my fish thanks

[swifto]

hi,some discus can take up to 24hrs to come out after being placed into the tank and eat,maybe they are just still a little bit stressed.how long ago did u place them in the tank.whats your ph,ammonia ,nitrite nitrate levels,also turn off the tank lights.this should help

[james1969]

i put them in the tank about three weeks ago the ph is 6.5 and im still doing water changes about every 4 day to keep the ammona out and i do regular tests and the nitrite is 0 im new so i hope im doing it rite any help would be great

[BobbyBruce]

Hi James,

To help people will need to know;

The volume of your tank,

How much water you are changing,

How you are preparing the water you are adding,

What your readings are for ammonia, and

How old is your filter.

You won't get a nitrIte reading until you have established a colony of bacteria in the filter to convert ammonia to nitrIte.

Once your bacterial colonies are producing nitrIte you will then be developing another colony of bacteria which break down the nitrIte into nitrAte.

If your filter has not been cycled to produce the bacterial colonies then it is not going to be effective in controlling the amounts of ammonia produced by your fish.

You need to get an ammonia test kit as soon as possible and measure your ammonia levels before and after water changes. You are aiming for ZERO ammonia after your changes. You may need to step up your water changes to a more regular basis until your filter is cycled.

There are a number of posts on here detailing how to determine if your filter is CYCLED

Regards,

Bob

[swifto]

hi,my tank is 300 ltrs and had ammonia spike of 50ppm.was changing 80ltrs aday and adding 80ml of stability and prime for 7 day and now it's good, it was a mini cycle.are u adding stability.

[james1969]

thanks for all the help my tank is 350L i change about 100l a time im useing tape water as i dont have any other way at the mo the filter is about 6 weeks old i will start doind water changes daily and i put bio booster in every week

[lpiasente]

Hey James if you only have 2 discus in there and they are not a pair is it possible that one fish is being bullied by the other? At feed time try and put food up bth ends of the tank starting with the end opposite to where the shy discus is hiding. This may just keep the other discus busy enough. What are you feeding? Quite possible that it isn't interested in the food. Maybe see if you can get some live brine shrimp from your local lps store and see if that gets him going. I would definatly be giving you fish a worming. get on Marlons discus page (here in classifieds) and get yourself some kusuri wormer, it is great stuff.
Tap water is all I use just make sure you are adding a water conditioner that removes all the crap that tap water has in it. Are you adding warm water straight from the tap???

[BobbyBruce]

Hi James,

Firstly, in regards to your filter unless you had been adding some ammonia to your tank to cycle the filter it would not have even started to cycle. As a result when you added the fish they would have been exposed to increasing amounts of ammonia due to their waste production. This may have "started" the problems for the fish that is in "hiding".

The other issue you are facing is that you are changing water using untreated tap water. Your water is probably treated with Chlorine, which is a problem for fish or Chloramine which is a combination of Chlorine and Ammonia which is even worse. If your water is treated with Chlorine only, aerating and heating (to tank temperature) for 24 hours before adding is an effective way of removing this chemical. Chloramine is somewhat more persistent.

Adding water directly from the tap is going to knock your fish about also as there will be fluctuations in temperature, Ph, Gh, Kh, and chemical structure of the water and Discus do best in stable conditions.

As an absolute minimum you must prepare the water before adding it as indicated above. You can also add treatments such as tri-start, ammo-lock and bio-start cultures. I have not used any of the preceding products as I use RO water which I heat, aerate and add essential minerals to before doing water changes.

While stability in water conditions is important it is also necessary to know what your water conditions are in regards to Ph, Gh and Kh. Discus prefer soft acidic water and while they will tolerate water outside their normal conditions you want to be as close as you can to the conditions as you would find in their natural environment.

Good Luck,

Bob