what's going on?

[lexjae]

I have 5 young discus with 10 neon tetra in a 60g planted tank.
I changed water about 40% yesterday. In this morning, I found they are at the upper corner of the tank right below the surface and do not eat or play.
A few tetra also stay near the surface and not very active.
PH 6.6
Nitrate 0
Nitrite 0

I'm in my office now. But I'm very worried.
Is there anything I can do?
:confused:
TIA

Justin

[plecocicho]

Them at the surface indicate lack of oxygen and /or poisoning. Try to agitate surface more by placing filter outlet nearre the surface, add air pump, shut down co2 supply. Do a 50% wc change wit prepaered water.

[poconoboss]

May sound like a stupid question, but have you turned everything back on after the water change?

I know people who forgot to turn their filters and heaters back on after water changes. :sleep:

I knew one person who did a big water change right before going away for a week, forgot to plug the heater and filter back in and came back to a tank full of floaters.....DOH! :crazy:

[lexjae]

thank you for replies.
Everything is working properly and I turned off the CO2 last night.
My wife at home told me they still don't eat and stay near the surface. Sometime they swim up and down, but mostly stay still.

Before water change I put enough Stress Coat.
What kinda poisoning are you talking about?

[mlw]

Them at the surface indicate lack of oxygen and /or poisoning. Try to agitate surface more by placing filter outlet nearre the surface, add air pump, shut down co2 supply. Do a 50% wc change wit prepaered water.


thank you for replies.
Everything is working properly and I turned off the CO2 last night.
My wife at home told me they still don't eat and stay near the surface. Sometime they swim up and down, but mostly stay still.

Before water change I put enough Stress Coat.
What kinda poisoning are you talking about?

Did you do the surface agitation or add an airtstone as suggested? I had the same problem when I got my discus. I was feeding beef heart and even with the water changes there was a slight film on the waters surface. I added and airstone and almost immediately they began to perk up.

Immediate fix is to add an airstone long term fix keep water agitated on surface. I just added a new filter and the spray bar is horizontal at teh surface instead of vertical now and it makes a world of difference.

[Spardas]

thank you for replies.
Everything is working properly and I turned off the CO2 last night.
My wife at home told me they still don't eat and stay near the surface. Sometime they swim up and down, but mostly stay still.

Before water change I put enough Stress Coat.
What kinda poisoning are you talking about?

Maybe he meant chlorine/chloramines poisoning. How soon did you apply the stress coat and water change? I'm looking at the stress coat description and it does say it removes chlorine instantly but it doesn't say that about chloramines.

"Stress Coat instantly removes chlorine and heavy metals such as copper and zinc from tap water. Stress Coat also removes chloramines by breaking the chlorine-ammonia bond."

It doesn't give a time frame for removal of chloramines, so it may be your problem if you changed the water too soon right after applying the stress coat dosage?

[mlw]

Them at the surface indicate lack of oxygen and /or poisoning. Try to agitate surface more by placing filter outlet nearre the surface, add air pump, shut down co2 supply. Do a 50% wc change wit prepaered water.


thank you for replies.
Everything is working properly and I turned off the CO2 last night.
My wife at home told me they still don't eat and stay near the surface. Sometime they swim up and down, but mostly stay still.

Before water change I put enough Stress Coat.
What kinda poisoning are you talking about?

Did you do the surface agitation or add an airtstone as suggested? I had the same problem when I got my discus. I was feeding beef heart and even with 50% water changes every other day, there was a slight film on the waters surface. I added and airstone and almost immediately they began to perk up.

Immediate fix is to add an airstone, long term fix keep water agitated on surface. I just added a new filter and the spray bar is horizontal just below the surface instead of vertical. It makes a world of difference.

[lexjae]

I see thin film or oil on the surface.
I thought that comes from leftover food...
OK. I will adjust the filter outlet, so it can agitate the surface better. In the meantime I will put an air pump this evening.

I will keep you posted.

[DonMD]

It sounds to me like you have a planted tank. If you are adding CO2, and there aren't enough plants to produce 02, you may have an oxygen deficiency for your fish. That would explain their behavior at the top of the water.

The obvious fix is to put an air stone in, which of course will blow out your CO2, and your plants will not do as well.

It's an art to keep a planted discus tank, that's for sure. I think that's why so many discus nuts keep un-planted tanks with air stones. But you know, there are some great planted tank discus keepers here on the forum. Patience, and time will help, but if the fish is the priority, I agree that air stones will help. And, LOTS of water changes.

Good luck!

[lexjae]

Thank you all

I re-adjusted the filter outlet to maximize the surface agitation. After the adjustment, they seemed to become calm. So I thought that was it.

In the mean time, I received a reply from the breeder. He told me to put Metronidazole ASAP and change the 50% water before each dosage everyday.

There was no way I could get that medication at night near my area.
Guess what. We have a casualty.
One found dead in the morning. It was not well fed due to heavy bullying.
And other two are losing balance.

So I am not sure what cause the death. But I can't take a chance.
I will give them medication.

I will keep you posted.

[plecocicho]

If they dont show white feces i WOULDNT ADD metro, by no means. Change more water and add prime. By poisoning i meant something in your municipal water (which can be deactivated by carbon or prime) or co2 poisoning. What are water parameters?

[lexjae]

My tank is fully cycled. All numbers are 0. And I over filter the tank. I don't know much about GH, but the test strip shows the water is soft.

I met the breeder and talked about the cause of the problem in detail.

We decided not to give them medication for now.
But as other members suggested, O2 depletion may be main cause of the problem.

I got home and put an air stone in the tank. Of course I shut down CO2.

One discus has black eyes...

Well... beginner's mistakes... Poor discus...

I will keep the air stone running a few days until they become healthy.

Maybe I should run CO2 day time and O2 at night together.
Does anyone do this?

[zamboniMan]

If you have an oily film on the surface it means you don't have enough surface agitation. These oils are organic residue which will dissolve with surface agitation. I would do two things:
1. Do a large water change.
2. If possible on fill the tank so that the output from the filter is above the water to create surface agitation.

If this doesn't work add airstones. I had the same problem on one of my main display tanks. I didn't want to lower the water level (it is a display tank) so I cut small piece of wood to put under the output of my canister filter. This way it breaks the surface tension and aerates the water.

Hope that helps,
Josh