Discus in Planted Tank

[Abu Talha]

Hello, this is my first post on this forum but I have been reading forum archives since last few months. I do not consider myself experienced hobbyist, as I am keeping African cichlids and related variety from a year and a half only. Now my question (rather situation): In October 2015 I set up a low tech 100G (60" x 18" x 24") planted tank. Tank mates were 2 dozen each of neon tetras, black neon tetras, silvertip tetras, rainbow tetras, and zebra danios, 6 ramarosy and corydoras and 4 golden Chinese algae eaters. Tank got stabilized by Dec 2015 after hurting me hard, I lost more than 50% of my plants and lots of fish also (mostly tetras and zebra danios) but after Dec 2015 I have not lost any fish or plant in that tank, both fish and plant are doing great now. I am not sure about quantity of tetras and danios now in my tank, as I lost a lot from 2 dozen each of initial purchase. About 10 days back I added 12 discus in my planted tank. I understood from reading on this forum that one should not put smaller than 3 inches discus in a planted tank as it is next to impossible to raise smaller discus in a planted tank, or at least next to impossible for me as I can not do water changes daily, max I can do is change water twice a week. So I bought minimum 3.5 - 4 inches discus for my 100G planted tank. But unfortunately I have lost 4 out of 12 discus in last ten days and remaining 8 are also not looking great. They kept hiding behind wood all the time and haven't taken food at all in all these days. I kept changing 80 - 90% water daily and doing gravel vacuuming also, but it did not help the situation. Yesterday I transferred remaining 8 discus in my medicine tank (24" x 15" x 18"), before transferring I cleaned my medicine tank thoroughly and took out all decorations and gravel from it. Now my 8 terrible looking discus are in a bare bottom tank with no decorations (means no where to hide) and I have no clue what to do next. I am looking for advices to keep remaining fish alive and back to good health. I also want to learn reasons due to which I lost 4 discus and was not able to keep remaining in my planted tank. They did not seem to accept my planted tank even for a moment, I kept lights, of tank as well as room, off for 2 days but they were not swimming freely even in dark and did not eat anything at all. I tried feeding tetra bits, discus bits, blood worms, algae wafers and live fruits/vegetables but they did not even come close to any food I tried. I might have missed some critical information required to answer my questions, please ask for any more information required to help me and my fish in this situation.
BR, Abu Talha

[FishFanMan]

We're the discus eating at the place you got the discus? I always want to see them eat if not a shop I trust. If your new discus died in 10 days, either they were really sick already or your water params are way off. So what are they? Find out we what they were eating. Now that they're in a hospital tank do lots of water changes and feed them what they are used to eating.

[Filip]

I would leave them in a Barebottom tank and do daily > 70% Waterchanges for prolonged period of time.
Keep the filters and bottom spotless without any poop or food , on daily level. Is your filter in QT tank Cycled?if not use a cycled sponge from your main tank.
Use aged water for water changes or if you can not do it at least use a decent dechlorinator with WCs.
Keep up this routine so far and expect slow recovery and getting back to normal in terms of weeks not days.

P.S. in disease section of forum there is a questionnaire form .Fill it up here to help others in helping you solve your problem.

[Abu Talha]

Here is the filled form, filled up to the best of my knowledge:

Problem

1. Please explain the problems with your fish. When did you notice the problems and did anything unusual happen that you think started them?
I bought 12 fish ten days back. From the moment I put them in my tank they are hiding behind bog wood piece (I have a big bog wood piece). I notice it right after I put them in my tank and I thought this to be stress from transportation and supposed that they will get fine in few hours. I switched off my tank and room lights for 12 hours when I put fish in my tank to give them time to settle down. After 12 hours they were stunned and lethargic, not swimming and eating anything till now. I have lost 4 fish in ten days and remaining 8 are in a bare bottom hospital tank.


2. Symptoms (i.e. turning dark, excess slime, not eating, clamped fins, flashing, darting, clamped gills, white/yellow/green poop, hiding, headstanding or tailstanding, white on tips of fins, rotting or fungus, blisters/white zits on fish, bloated, cloudy eyes, wounds).

I could see white damaged skin patches on the fish that have died, similar patches are also visible on some fish in my tank. I also brought a local breeder to my home and showed him my fish, he said they would get fine, else he offered me to shift my fish to one of his tank where he will take care for them (but I haven’t accepted his offer yet). Other than white damaged skin patches, they are not eating; fins look clamped, hiding and does not seems happy.

3. What medications/ treatments have you already tried and what were the results. Include dosage and duration of treatment.

Water changes, general cure all medicine but no good result observed.


Tank/Water

4. Tank size and ages, numbers and sizes of fish.

60” x 18” x 24” planted tank with sand substrate. Tank is cycled as it is about 6 months old. Tank mates are neon tetras, black neon tetras, silvertip tetras, rainbow tetras, and zebra danios, 6 ramarosy and corydoras and 4 golden Chinese algae eaters.

5. Water change regime (What percentage and how often).

Before discus, I used to change water every alternate week i.e. twice a month. With discus in the tank, I am changing 80 – 90% water daily.

6. How long has tank been running? Is it bare bottom? If you have substrate, what type and how deep is it?

Tank was established in Oct 2015, it has sand substrate of about 3”

7. Do you age your water? If you do for how long and what is the ph swing.

I use direct tap water, considering that water from government water supply gets stored in my underground water tank for few days than it goes to my over head tank and stayed there for few days then I use it for my fish tank.

8. Parameters and water source;
Note: Water Parameters are important in diagnosing problems within a tank. If you don't own test kits for the following information, you can purchase them, test your parameters and post this info as soon as possible.


- temp _____ 30 – 31C

- ph _____ 7.4 (I have API master test kit, on ph scale it shows max ph and on high ph scale it shows min ph, so I consider its 7.4)

- ammonia reading ____ 0 – 0.25 (It’s difficult to distinguish between colors of 0 and 0.25 on API master test kit color chart)

- nitrite reading ____ 0

- nitrate reading ____ less than 20ppm

What type of water or combinations of water sources do you use? If it is an RO/tap/well water mix, please list percentages in the mix.

- well water ____

- municipal water ____ Only use municipal water direct from my tap, though I have filter installed on the tap where we take water from. That is 3 cartridge filter, one has paper filter of 5 microns, other has carbon filter and third has UV light for killing bactaria.

- RO water ____


9. Any new fish, plants or inverts added recently.

I added 6 assassin snails along with discus in my tank. Assassin snails was added to kill other snails in my tank which got by themselves probably hitchhiking on some plants. There are hundreds of those unwanted snails in my tank, I remove them during water change also.

10. Include any pictures or videos you have which shows the symptoms. If you can't add them to this post, please provide a link to them.

Will see how to add pictures.

[Abu Talha]

FishFanMan thanks for instant reply, I did not see discus eating myself at lfs from where I bought them but he said they were eating, he also some fish from the same stock as mine.
Filip I will be doing 70 - 80% wc daily. My hospital tank filters are mature and clean. I am trying to feed them blood worms but they aren't taking :(

[Mustanggtandgsxr]

Try feeding Al's black worms. Mine were wilds that did not want to eat and they ate like pigs when I pressed that cube against the glass.

[Abu Talha]

Mustanggtandgsxr thanks for suggestion. But I am not sure whether Al supply his stuff to Karachi, Pakistan?

[Mustanggtandgsxr]

hope this helps. Maybe shoot him an email and find out for sure.


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[Akili]

Abu Talha call Fancy Aquarium City in Karachi and ask them and see if they have freeze dried australian or california blackworms

[Abu Talha]

Mustanggtandgsxr thanks for the quote, I will try to find something in Karachi, if not available, I will email Al.
Akilk thanks man for the suggestion in Karachi. I will check at Fancy aquarium city tomorrow.