Strange Behavior

[rphox2003]

I have a 1 meter, 220 liter tank with 7 discus, ranging between 6-10cm each. I've had them all for over 1/2 year. All bought, around 4 cm each, from the same breeder on two occasions.

I do a weekly 30% water change, vacuum the gravel, and do not overfeed.

Two days ago, one of the 3 Blue Diamonds started hanging around in the back corner behind the heater. He just hovers in one place literally with his nose in the corner. Plus I've noticed that he's stopped eating. Other than that, he looks fine - nice color, clear eyes.

Any suggestions?

[ILLUSN]

Could be a couple of things have you noticed any white poo from him or any other fish? Have you checked your nitrate levels?

[rphox2003]

No to both questions.

I'm not a big believer in water testing. I've had Malawis for over 5 years and found a steady diet of 30% weekly water changes/gravel vacuums leads to healthy fish. I've never had problems with them.

I've even completely replaced the gravel in my Malawi tank 3 times without removing or losing a single fish.

I converted my second tank from Malawis to Discus over 6 months ago and this is the first sign of problems. Today the guy is back to swimming normally, but did something strange at feeding time. He swam to the middle of the food and blew the particles away, instead of eating them. Very weird.

I'll just have to keep a vigilant eye on him.

[BigDaddyAdo]

You can't expect help if you are unwilling to test the water.

It really gets on my nerves when I hear people say things like 'well I havent had problems before !!!". You have one now and without any useful information it will be impossible to give you any reasonable advice other than taking a wild guess.

[ILLUSN]

No to both questions.

I'm not a big believer in water testing. I've had Malawis for over 5 years and found a steady diet of 30% weekly water changes/gravel vacuums leads to healthy fish. I've never had problems with them.

I've even completely replaced the gravel in my Malawi tank 3 times without removing or losing a single fish.

I converted my second tank from Malawis to Discus over 6 months ago and this is the first sign of problems. Today the guy is back to swimming normally, but did something strange at feeding time. He swam to the middle of the food and blew the particles away, instead of eating them. Very weird.

I'll just have to keep a vigilant eye on him.

no worries you need to remember there are massive diffrences between africans and discus, where as id consider africans robust i'd call discus delicate, a quick NO3 test will tell me what condition your water, substrate and filter is in. its not absolute but generally being the end prodict of a waste chain when its levels rise you can assume a the levels of DOC's have also increased.

It will also allow you to fine tune your feeding and maintence.

your describing symptoms of stress in your fish unfortunately with out some more info (pH, temp water prep etc) it's going to be hard for me to sort out the cause.

[Mr Wild]

Ditto BDA
ILLUSN your a saint!

[BigDaddyAdo]

Ditto BDA
ILLUSN your a saint!

And I'm a cranky bastard. ;)

[Mr Wild]

lol well that must count for me too then ! lolololol