Help please; discus has not eaten for 5 days.

[darkpandora]

hi
i have 6 discus.
my discus was in 200liter bear bottom tank for 1 year and they was very healthy and eat and loved beefheart mix. i posted here and asked how to move them: http://forum.simplydiscus.com/showthread.php?87113-How-do-i-move-my-discus-from-my-200liter-BB-aquarium-to-540liter&p=747217#post747217
now i have moved my discus to my 540liter aquarium. the problem is they are not eating and im worried.

i tried feeding them beefheart mix(they eat this food for 1 year now), black blood worm, artemia, discus tetrabits.

the colors of the discus are fine, no sign of disease or infection. the aquarium are in a quiet room.

540liter aquarium info:
2x eheim pro II 2028
some woods and some plants and some catapa leaves.
temprature 30c
waterchange 20% everyday (every other day when they start eating and behave normal)
fishmates: 15 corydoras steabai, 2 otocinclus affinis and some sandsnails.
ph: 7 (old test, havnt tested today)
no2 and no3: yellow (im not sure and dont remember, i tested it last week before i moved the discus in the aquarium. i will test ph, no2 and no3 again tomorow)


any suggestions, help and comments are appreciated.
thanks for the help:)



http://img543.imageshack.us/img543/5285/88945769.jpg

[moon_knight1971]

Sounds like they just need some time to adjust. Just keep up on the water changes until they settle in.

[darkpandora]

Sounds like they just need some time to adjust. Just keep up on the water changes until they settle in.

thanks for the reply.
thats what im counting on, waiting until they settle in, but it been 5 days now and they still havnt eaten anything. :( im worried about them.

[TURQ64]

If I'm reading this right, they've been in this tank eating beefheart etc. for over a year and now they've stopped?..Keep up with higher amounts of water change, but something is up..we're going to have to jump this to the Disease page....JMO sounds like mebbee parasitic action aboard..

[Discus Origins]

Gary I think he meant they were eating in the old tank and after the move they haven't eaten. I would also think stress has something to do with it but 5 days is pushing it. The colors look good and not darkened, but I do see stress bars on most of the fish. Is the lighting more than before? Have you tried live blackworms to get them going?

Mark

[Vee]

Very pretty tank and fish.

[darkpandora]

If I'm reading this right, they've been in this tank eating beefheart etc. for over a year and now they've stopped?..Keep up with higher amounts of water change, but something is up..we're going to have to jump this to the Disease page....JMO sounds like mebbee parasitic action aboard..

no, they were in a 200liter bear bottom tank for 1 year and i moved them to 540liter 5 days ago. they were fine and eating beefheart mix 3 times every day and laying eggs every other week (2 males and 4 feemales).
im changing 20% water every day (aged and warm water that have the same temprature as the aquarium 30c).


Gary I think he meant they were eating in the old tank and after the move they haven't eaten. I would also think stress has something to do with it but 5 days is pushing it. The colors look good and not darkened, but I do see stress bars on most of the fish. Is the lighting more than before? Have you tried live blackworms to get them going?

Mark

yes, moved them from the old tank to their new home. the colors are fine and no darkness and they dont hide that much, they swim around normally and they dont have nose down or up and they are not out of balance:( the fish are fine, i just dont understand why they wont eat. the light are a bit brighter then their old home but it is not that bright at all (2x 80w T5) because i have seen discus in planted tank with very bright light. almost on all of them i see stress bars, sometimes the stress bars go away and sometimes they are there. and they did not have stress bars on when they were in the 200liter tank and they were not afraid of me at all, even when i cleaned the 200liter bottom and had my hand in the aquarium.
i dont have live black worm and i dont think there is any in norway, i have tried frozen black worm, im gonna buy frozen red worm tomorrow, by black or red worm i mean mosquito larvae, is that what you mean by black worm?

[Discus Origins]

NO I did not realize you were in Norway, blackworms are actual aquatic worms found in California and Australia. I'm not sure what live foods are easily accessible in Europe but that may get them going if you can find some.

Mark

[darkpandora]

my discus are still not eating, they act and look like they are not hungry at all and just ignore the food. they are shy and hide sometimes.
been 6 days now since they stopped eating.

[moon_knight1971]

Can you get some live brine shrimp? Not much nutrition wise but I've heard live foods sometimes get them eating.

[TURQ64]

From Aquaticsuppliers.com, a sponsor here, order freeze dried black worms..they'll ship just fine, and should get them going...None of my tanks of Discus would tolerate that much light, as they are raised on ambient room lighting....

[darkpandora]

Can you get some live brine shrimp? Not much nutrition wise but I've heard live foods sometimes get them eating.

i can get frozen brine shrimp, but they have ignored it. its very hard to get live fish food here in norway.

[darkpandora]

From Aquaticsuppliers.com, a sponsor here, order freeze dried black worms..they'll ship just fine, and should get them going...None of my tanks of Discus would tolerate that much light, as they are raised on ambient room lighting....

im gonna try to reduce the light, but if i take out one of the t5 80 tubes then the other wont work. im gonna fix a light for them tomorrow, i have 1x30w that works gonna try that light.

gonna order dried black worm right, but it will take another week or tow before i get it here in norway :(

[TURQ64]

They'll live without food for a goodly spell .... Since live fish food isn't readily available, then I'd strongly suggest looking up a seafood mix here, as you have that edge over me...

[darkpandora]

they are still not eating, been 11 days since i moved them from the 200liter to 540liter and they has not eaten anything. now they are very shy, they hide behind the wood all the time.

im still chaining 20% aged water every night. tried to reduce light for 4 days, it didnt work. i just have to wait and see if they get better, there is nothing more i can do. i cant leave the house for them so dont get afraid of me, i have tried everything i can. i just watch them every day and they are dying slowly :( im hopeless and if they die, i say bye bye to discus hobby and buy some normal angelfish or altum angelfish. i spend a whole year rising these discus and i fed then 4-5 times beefheart everyday and changed 40% water every day when they were in the 200liter aquarium.

any help and suggestions are appreciated, please help.
thanks.


http://img849.imageshack.us/img849/6969/img5107x.jpg

[moon_knight1971]

Have you tested your water recently?

[strawberryblonde]

Is the pH the same in both tanks and even though there is more water in the larger tank, they will still need large water changes in the first few weeks because the bio-load goes up when you add new fish. You are actually working with just one 200 liter sized filter that has bacteria, and if I'm not mistaken, the other filter was brand new a couple of weeks ago, right?

At this point, is your other tank still up and running? If it is you might want to move them back to that tank just to see if you can get them eating again...and if that works, wait till they've made a good recovery and then try the move one more time.

I really think it might have to do with water quality, along with the lighting and perhaps even water current. Changing from a BB tank to a tank with substrate and driftwood can be a pretty big shock for a fish. It's a lot to get used to.

If you can't move them back to the old tank, try increasing the amount of the water change per day, lower the lighting again and recheck your water parameters.

SB

[Second Hand Pat]

Darkpandora,

I would suggest creating a thread in the disease section of the forum and filling out the disease form (sticky on that section) so you get more eyeball on these guys. You might consider turning your lights off for a day and feed using overhead lights (if possible).

[Father&SonReef]

Have you treated for Gill flukes. sometimes Discus become ill from things they tolerate in their body when they are moved. I'd consider gill flukes or internal worms.

[TURQ64]

Darkpandora,

I would suggest creating a thread in the disease section of the forum and filling out the disease form (sticky on that section) so you get more eyeball on these guys. You might consider turning your lights off for a day and feed using overhead lights (if possible).

As Barbossa (Capt. Barbossa) said, they're more like 'guidelines'...