Discus keep hiding

[dragon]

Hi

I have a few discus for years but they still very shy and keep hiding at a corner of the tank. They will not dare to eat if they saw anyone near the tank during feeding but they start eating like pig once they find that there is no one around the tank.

The discus is keep in a 60 gallon tank with some plants. Total of 6 discus in different sizes. The tank has other tankmates include 3 x clown loaches, 4 x Rummynose, 1 x wood shrimp, 4x cory.

Water condition : PH =7, Temp =28 to 30 degree. 40% Water change every week.

Any idea to make the fishes not being so shy? Thanks

[jules]

Try feeding them by hand. I would increase your water changes - you have quite a heavy load for a 60 gallon.

[falcon]

Dragon, I have the same thing. But I think my problem is that there are not enough discus in the tank. I have 2 in there, pretty much grown. I will add two more within a couple of weeks and hopefully this will help. If not, my guess would be other tankmates. In your case, if it were other tankmates, it would be clown loaches. I have them too and hope that they're not adding to the problem.

Another thing...test your water for nitrates. I've read around that high nitrates at around 10ppm and above might make your discus skittish and this might be the problem in your situation.

falcon

[Valik]

In the past I have kept discus with clown loaches and although I didn't have any major problems(outside of a ick attack that started with the clown loaches) I did notice that the clown loaches are very very aggression eaters. They would even "attack" my hand every time I put it in the tank. This forced my discus to not even attempt to go to the top to feed, they would just stay away from the loaches and eat what they could. Personally I don't like the loaches all that much and never plan on keeping them in the near future:), but maybe this is part of the problem. It could be that with people present the loaches get more active and that in turn makes the discus more shy. Just a thought, good luck I hope you figure it out.
Matt

[dragon]

Hi Thanks

I tested nitrates every week and they are almost 0. thus I would not suspect nitrates. My crown loaches don't seem to be bothering the discus. In fact, they like to "squeeze" together with the discus at night :)).

Ya, I try add 2 more small discus, hoping that the small one will 'bring' out the bigger one but failed. Only the small discus seem to 'exploring' around.

Oh, 1 funny thing is that most of the discus will swim to the other corner of the tank around feeding time. But when I am near, they will swim back to the other corner. They seem to be very afraid of me :(

[falcon]

Dragon, it seems that some people's discus seem to act "shy", including mine. I bet you if you removed every plant, every piece of wood out of the tank, then you would see them more. It has been my observation, that's once presented with hiding places, discus will hide.

For example, once in a while one of my existing red turqs from the 120g community tank will start acting out. What I do, I remove him/her from there and put him in with existing discus in a bare bottom tank for recuperation for 3 weeks or so. In there, he acts totally different. He comes to the front and swims around without a problem. When moved back into the 120g, planted community tank, I can hardly see him as he's hiding out all the time.

The solution - I haven't found one yet. If anyone knows of one, it would be appreciated. In 2-3 weeks I will introduce two more discus into the planted tank and see what happens. The four of them will be around 5.5"-6".

falcon

[dragon]

Falcon, good idea. I will try putting them in another tank or do some arrangement in existing tank so that they are "forced" to be out :P

[falcon]

Dragon, let us know how things work out for you once you move things around.

falcon