IanGreer
03-10-2012, 12:24 AM
Hi everyone. This is my first post on SD, but I have been reading threads on here for a good part of this year. I finally decided to make an account because I have come across a problem and I don't know what to do. My last aquarium was over eight years ago, so although I remember most of the basics, I would consider myself a newbie.
I apologize in advance for this very long post. My previous fish were all tetras, which I have found require much, much less care than discus do. I am covering every aspect of my tank I can think of, because I am not an expert, and I only hope that one of you experts here will be able to isolate my problem. Thanks in advance :)
I have a 20-gallon tank with two 3.5-inch (roughly) pigeon blood discus, and a small pleco to clean up algae. Since I put the discus in a couple of months ago, I have had various problems with my fish and equipment. I recently upgraded my filter to a Tetra Whisper 20 because my last filter seemed to not move enough water, and my tank grew cloudy and unappealing. With the new filter installed, I have not had any problems with cloudy water. I also have a live ammonia monitor inside my tank, and although it usually detects no harmful ammonia in the water, it has been turning more and more green the past several days. I am planning to remove the gravel in my tank in the next couple weeks, because I have a feeling that it is trapping tons of food and waste which is causing my ammonia levels to rise. I will also remove my plastic plants and just keep a rock in there for them to hide behind. According to the meter, I would estimate my levels of "dangerous" ammonia at around 0.05-0.10 ppm. I have doing 20% water changes every other day and using various chemicals I will list below. Every chemical I have tells me to add 5mL per 10 gallons in my tank, so I add 10mL each time. I'm hoping this is what I should be doing?
10 mL of Stress-Coat every time I change the water.
5-10 mL of Ammo-Lock every other day, since a couple of weeks ago.
10mL of Stress-Zyme every Sunday.
10mL of Accu-Clear once last week, because my water started getting cloudy again.
For the Stress-Coat, I am unsure about whether I should add it to my tap water before adding it to the aquarium, or after. I have been doing the latter since getting my discus.
The Ammo-Lock tells me to add 5mL per 10 gallons to my tank every two days until harmful ammonia is not detected. Although I continue to use it, I don't feel like it has really been making a difference in my tank.
The Stress-Zyme is really beneficial, I think. It helps me clear up the water if it ever gets cloudy, and my discus seemed to grow much more lively after I added it in for the first time.
Now some about my fish. I have two female (I think?) Pigeon Bloods. One is usually dominant over the other. I will call the "dominant" fish Fish 1, and the smaller, secondary fish Fish 2.
Fish 1 is not much larger than Fish 2, only about a quarter inch or so, but she will always get first picks on food and will chase/bully Fish 2 on occasion, usually after eating.
Fish 2 seems to have permanent black marks running down her sides. I know (at least, I have been told) that these mean the fish is stressed. Many times they are hardly visible, though you can still see them faintly, but sometimes Fish 2 will grow very dark, from an orange-juice like color to a rust-like hue with many thin, dark black stress lines and dark fins. Lately, however, Fish 2 has had a very healthy complexion.
Since getting my new filter, Fish 1 has developed a light stress line running vertically along her body, over her eye. Up until today, her behavior did not change since I first got her.
I feed both fish 2-3 times per day with TetraColor pellets. They appear to eat everything they are given, and I clean up their excess food after 15-ish minutes because I am wary of over-feeding them.
When I feed my fish pellets, Fish 1 will eat the overwhelming majority of them, leaving Fish 2 only 5-10 pellets for herself. However, when I feed them bloodworms, which I do every third afternoon, Fish 2 will eat as many, or more, worms than Fish 1 does. I give them one cube of Hikari brand frozen bloodworms to share.
Usually, the two fish will be staying near each other at various places around the tank, usually behind the rock or plastic plants in the aquarium. When I enter my room, they frequently will swim up to greet me, putting their noses close to the glass and swimming around near the top of the water. I am assuming this is normal behavior and doesn't mean they are hungry or need help.
Until about a month ago, Fish 2 seemed to be in really bad shape. She was constantly tormented by Fish 1, chased around and berated nearly every time I would sit down to watch them. Fish 2's stress lines were very vivid throughout this time. When I fed them pellets, Fish 1 would eat nearly all of them, and Fish 2 would be lucky to get maybe five pellets at the most each feeding time. Since I started feeding them bloodworms, Fish 2 has grown much, much healthier and more comfortable in the aquarium.
This is where my present problem begins. I woke up late this morning for school and rushed out the door. I've been busy this week organizing a dinner for a nonprofit I volunteer with, as well as studying for my SAT's, which I am taking tomorrow. (I imagine if I was a discus, I would have had gigantic stress lines all week!) Anyway, excuses aside, I left the house without thinking of my discus. I didn't feed them, nor did I turn on their aquarium light. Partway through school, I realized my mistake, and spent the day hoping that nothing bad would happen to my fish. When I got home today around 4 PM, I popped out a cube of bloodworms immediately to feed them. When I entered my room, both of my discus were hanging around near the filter intake, which I have never seen them do, and they didn't come up to greet me as usual. I dropped in the cube of bloodworms and waited for it to melt. Usually by this time, the fish will have noticed the cube and will be darting towards it to knock some of the thawed worms loose. This time, neither fish moved. Only Fish 2 slowly turned around and nipped at some of the descending worms as they sank to the gravel. I watched for the next few minutes as Fish 2 slowly proceeded to eat a few more worms, maybe ten in total, and then lose interest. Fish 1 continued to hang at the bottom of the tank, not moving or eating anything.
I scooped up the bloodworms and wondered why the fish still were so interested in the filter intake. I opened up my filter compartment and noticed that my filter cartridge was nearly black with debris. Checking my calendar, I noticed that it had been a little over four weeks since last changing my filter. When I first purchased this replacement filter, the water in the aquarium was disgusting, almost opaque-white, and tested extremely high for both ammonia and nitrates. I decided that the filter could probably be changed early since it had cleaned up all that grossness previously. I removed both internals of my filter, washed them with warm tap water, and inserted a new cartridge.
It was at this point I noticed something was definitely wrong with Fish 1. Although Fish 2 was acting completely normal, (actually, looking and acting better than ever!) Fish 1 was hovering behind the rock now, bottom nearly touching the gravel, and fins quavering extremely quickly. She also has a single, very dark stress line going over her eye. I tried dropping in a few pellets near her, and she gave no response. Fish 2 even came in to clean them up for her after a bit. I put my finger against the glass, which usually will get her to move, but nothing happened.
After this, I did a 20% water change, following my schedule, and added 10mL each of Stress-Coat, Stress-Zyme (since I had a new filter cartridge), and Ammo-Lock. My ammonia meter is at the same level (0.05-0.10 ppm) after all of this. I am beginning to doubt the effectiveness of this ammonia meter, unless the levels really didn't change at all after all those modifications to the tank.
Now, here I am, three hours later, and Fish 1 hasn't moved from his spot behind the rock. The fact that his fins are still waving so quickly is what worries me. I won't do anything more to the tank tonight, but I also am not happy with Fish 1 going an entire day without eating because previously he was an extremely voracious eater. Is there anything I can do to remedy this situation? Is the fast fin-waving an early symptom of some disease I do not know of? Are there any other tips you can share with me about my tank? I would like to know whether or not it's a bad idea to keep a bare-bottom tank, or if I am putting too many chemicals into my water. Also, if anyone has recommendations for an ammonia test or water meter, I would appreciate that too!
Once again, thank you so much for reading this whole long post. I'll check back tomorrow after finishing my SAT to see if there's anything that needs to be done. I'm not sure how active this forum is or how quickly I will get a response, but I appreciate any help you can offer me! I am happy to finally be a member of SimplyDiscus.
I apologize in advance for this very long post. My previous fish were all tetras, which I have found require much, much less care than discus do. I am covering every aspect of my tank I can think of, because I am not an expert, and I only hope that one of you experts here will be able to isolate my problem. Thanks in advance :)
I have a 20-gallon tank with two 3.5-inch (roughly) pigeon blood discus, and a small pleco to clean up algae. Since I put the discus in a couple of months ago, I have had various problems with my fish and equipment. I recently upgraded my filter to a Tetra Whisper 20 because my last filter seemed to not move enough water, and my tank grew cloudy and unappealing. With the new filter installed, I have not had any problems with cloudy water. I also have a live ammonia monitor inside my tank, and although it usually detects no harmful ammonia in the water, it has been turning more and more green the past several days. I am planning to remove the gravel in my tank in the next couple weeks, because I have a feeling that it is trapping tons of food and waste which is causing my ammonia levels to rise. I will also remove my plastic plants and just keep a rock in there for them to hide behind. According to the meter, I would estimate my levels of "dangerous" ammonia at around 0.05-0.10 ppm. I have doing 20% water changes every other day and using various chemicals I will list below. Every chemical I have tells me to add 5mL per 10 gallons in my tank, so I add 10mL each time. I'm hoping this is what I should be doing?
10 mL of Stress-Coat every time I change the water.
5-10 mL of Ammo-Lock every other day, since a couple of weeks ago.
10mL of Stress-Zyme every Sunday.
10mL of Accu-Clear once last week, because my water started getting cloudy again.
For the Stress-Coat, I am unsure about whether I should add it to my tap water before adding it to the aquarium, or after. I have been doing the latter since getting my discus.
The Ammo-Lock tells me to add 5mL per 10 gallons to my tank every two days until harmful ammonia is not detected. Although I continue to use it, I don't feel like it has really been making a difference in my tank.
The Stress-Zyme is really beneficial, I think. It helps me clear up the water if it ever gets cloudy, and my discus seemed to grow much more lively after I added it in for the first time.
Now some about my fish. I have two female (I think?) Pigeon Bloods. One is usually dominant over the other. I will call the "dominant" fish Fish 1, and the smaller, secondary fish Fish 2.
Fish 1 is not much larger than Fish 2, only about a quarter inch or so, but she will always get first picks on food and will chase/bully Fish 2 on occasion, usually after eating.
Fish 2 seems to have permanent black marks running down her sides. I know (at least, I have been told) that these mean the fish is stressed. Many times they are hardly visible, though you can still see them faintly, but sometimes Fish 2 will grow very dark, from an orange-juice like color to a rust-like hue with many thin, dark black stress lines and dark fins. Lately, however, Fish 2 has had a very healthy complexion.
Since getting my new filter, Fish 1 has developed a light stress line running vertically along her body, over her eye. Up until today, her behavior did not change since I first got her.
I feed both fish 2-3 times per day with TetraColor pellets. They appear to eat everything they are given, and I clean up their excess food after 15-ish minutes because I am wary of over-feeding them.
When I feed my fish pellets, Fish 1 will eat the overwhelming majority of them, leaving Fish 2 only 5-10 pellets for herself. However, when I feed them bloodworms, which I do every third afternoon, Fish 2 will eat as many, or more, worms than Fish 1 does. I give them one cube of Hikari brand frozen bloodworms to share.
Usually, the two fish will be staying near each other at various places around the tank, usually behind the rock or plastic plants in the aquarium. When I enter my room, they frequently will swim up to greet me, putting their noses close to the glass and swimming around near the top of the water. I am assuming this is normal behavior and doesn't mean they are hungry or need help.
Until about a month ago, Fish 2 seemed to be in really bad shape. She was constantly tormented by Fish 1, chased around and berated nearly every time I would sit down to watch them. Fish 2's stress lines were very vivid throughout this time. When I fed them pellets, Fish 1 would eat nearly all of them, and Fish 2 would be lucky to get maybe five pellets at the most each feeding time. Since I started feeding them bloodworms, Fish 2 has grown much, much healthier and more comfortable in the aquarium.
This is where my present problem begins. I woke up late this morning for school and rushed out the door. I've been busy this week organizing a dinner for a nonprofit I volunteer with, as well as studying for my SAT's, which I am taking tomorrow. (I imagine if I was a discus, I would have had gigantic stress lines all week!) Anyway, excuses aside, I left the house without thinking of my discus. I didn't feed them, nor did I turn on their aquarium light. Partway through school, I realized my mistake, and spent the day hoping that nothing bad would happen to my fish. When I got home today around 4 PM, I popped out a cube of bloodworms immediately to feed them. When I entered my room, both of my discus were hanging around near the filter intake, which I have never seen them do, and they didn't come up to greet me as usual. I dropped in the cube of bloodworms and waited for it to melt. Usually by this time, the fish will have noticed the cube and will be darting towards it to knock some of the thawed worms loose. This time, neither fish moved. Only Fish 2 slowly turned around and nipped at some of the descending worms as they sank to the gravel. I watched for the next few minutes as Fish 2 slowly proceeded to eat a few more worms, maybe ten in total, and then lose interest. Fish 1 continued to hang at the bottom of the tank, not moving or eating anything.
I scooped up the bloodworms and wondered why the fish still were so interested in the filter intake. I opened up my filter compartment and noticed that my filter cartridge was nearly black with debris. Checking my calendar, I noticed that it had been a little over four weeks since last changing my filter. When I first purchased this replacement filter, the water in the aquarium was disgusting, almost opaque-white, and tested extremely high for both ammonia and nitrates. I decided that the filter could probably be changed early since it had cleaned up all that grossness previously. I removed both internals of my filter, washed them with warm tap water, and inserted a new cartridge.
It was at this point I noticed something was definitely wrong with Fish 1. Although Fish 2 was acting completely normal, (actually, looking and acting better than ever!) Fish 1 was hovering behind the rock now, bottom nearly touching the gravel, and fins quavering extremely quickly. She also has a single, very dark stress line going over her eye. I tried dropping in a few pellets near her, and she gave no response. Fish 2 even came in to clean them up for her after a bit. I put my finger against the glass, which usually will get her to move, but nothing happened.
After this, I did a 20% water change, following my schedule, and added 10mL each of Stress-Coat, Stress-Zyme (since I had a new filter cartridge), and Ammo-Lock. My ammonia meter is at the same level (0.05-0.10 ppm) after all of this. I am beginning to doubt the effectiveness of this ammonia meter, unless the levels really didn't change at all after all those modifications to the tank.
Now, here I am, three hours later, and Fish 1 hasn't moved from his spot behind the rock. The fact that his fins are still waving so quickly is what worries me. I won't do anything more to the tank tonight, but I also am not happy with Fish 1 going an entire day without eating because previously he was an extremely voracious eater. Is there anything I can do to remedy this situation? Is the fast fin-waving an early symptom of some disease I do not know of? Are there any other tips you can share with me about my tank? I would like to know whether or not it's a bad idea to keep a bare-bottom tank, or if I am putting too many chemicals into my water. Also, if anyone has recommendations for an ammonia test or water meter, I would appreciate that too!
Once again, thank you so much for reading this whole long post. I'll check back tomorrow after finishing my SAT to see if there's anything that needs to be done. I'm not sure how active this forum is or how quickly I will get a response, but I appreciate any help you can offer me! I am happy to finally be a member of SimplyDiscus.