Looking for some information/advice if possible please

I have a 75 Gallon Aquarium. I have 8 (4.5"-5.5") Discus in it. I ended up removing my gravel and décor and putting white sand in it. I also added driftwood with some plants tied to them which I just recently removed due to the food and nasty that hid under them. Once I get a better feel of how much to feed I might put them back in but for now leaving it with just sand. I am using 2 Aqua Top cf400 Canister Filters filled with the good stuff. I am also running an Air Pump sized for a 100 Gallon Aquarium. I was running Tank Temp at 82.5-83 until I read some articles since then I just bumped temp up to 85 degrees. My Tap water parameters are PH-7.5 GH-306(18) KH-216(12) Ammonia-0.00ppm Nitrites-0.00ppm Nitrates-0.00ppm Chlorine-0.00ppm. Tap Water PH after it sits is 8.0. My fish are from Chicago Discus and they are great. Thank you Chicago Discus :)

This is my situation. My Ammonia and Nitrites are always at 0.00ppm. Thankfully as my tank was cycled in the night the Discus were being delivered. I have had them since Sept 16th. At first it appeared that all Discus were eating after the 3rd day in their new home. I had a spawning event about 2 weeks after I got them which was a little of a surprise. I will attribute it to the stress factor and probably a must have my kind live on mentality but that is just a guess. I noticed it once I realized I had 2 just hanging in the same corner constantly. At this time I noticed 3 Discus not eating anymore. As of now I have 3 that are not eating and are usually in the same spot in the tank. However since I raised the tank temp they have seem to be moving around a little bit more but still have not witnessed them eating yet. I have multiple foods I have been alternating to try to provide something they will like. Tetra Pro Tropical Color Crisps; Ocean Nutrition Red Prime Reef Flakes; Freeze Dried Brine Shrimp; Freeze dried Spirulina Brine Shrimp; Freeze dried Blood Worms; Freeze dried California Black worms with beef heart mix, and last night I picked up some Frozen, Blood Worms, Brine Shrimp and Misis Shrimp. I am not going to mess with a straight beef heart mix don't want to deal with making it and storing it and stuff. I am able to keep temp right on the money during water changes. I have a PH probe in my tank which constantly monitors this. I am keeping my Nitrates below 10ppm. I feed them 2 times a day on work days and 3 times a day on non work days I work a continental schedule. I have started doing smaller more frequent water changes due to the inability to age my water due to renting and unable to store water in a barrel. on big water changes my PH drops from 8 to 7.5 if I do smaller ones more frequently it drops from 8 to 7.7(7.8). I have noticed that a couple of the ones that are not eating have had the white feces which I read could be an intestinal issue which is why I have Seachem Metro Plex and another possible fix I read about here coming today. I have added only Prime and capful of Stability during my water changes except one time I added the Stress guard I have but did not add the Seachem Para guard I have. Not sure if I need the Prime as my tap water has no Chlorine I just kept doing it for a better safe than sorry attitude. I am adding 1 teaspoon of vitachem every week. I am not interested in the Bare bottom tank sorry. I am not interested in the Beef Heart mix due to not being motivated to make it. And cant age my water for water changes due to my living situation.

I hope I added all the information needed for advice and help. My questions are since I cant age my water what should I be doing smaller more frequent water changes so the PH swings are smaller but more often or should I doing bigger ones less frequently which will cause a bigger swing just less often. As far as the Discus not eating and feces looking abnormal what is the best path I should take. I have the medication recommended I think. I do think raising the temp temp has increased activity in the discus that seemed trapped in their corners but still not eating properly and it has been a while. I am hoping to correct the situation and save them before it is too late.

Hi John .
About the water changing . How much % do you change and how often?

Maybe you can try to fit a 30 gallon tank for ageing In your tank cabinet and that way you'll be able to perform big WC with half aged and half straight water with less or no harm at all to your discus .You don't have to age the whole % of the WC .

If you can't age any water , Period , than I guess small and more frequent changes would be the best bet for you .

About the noneating discus , maybe you should run a course of 10 days treatment with your seachem metroplex medialcation along with the higher temps . 32 C and see if that helps .
Be patient though ,cause non eating discus could take awhile until it regains its appetite back . it could take up to 2-3 weeks after you start medicating until you see its first bites .

Good luck John and keep us updated with your progress .

Thanks for the response Filip. I am doing 25-30% water changes twice a day right now verses the big 75% change. It seems to be keeping my Nitrates down. I will try to fill up 4 5 Gallon Buckets and let them sit for 24 hours and see what the PH settles in at. I was hoping to avoid the dreaded bucket filling technique but I guess I might not be so lucky in that regard.

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Originally Posted by Ragnar73

Thanks for the response Filip. I am doing 25-30% water changes twice a day right now verses the big 75% change. It seems to be keeping my Nitrates down. I will try to fill up 4 5 Gallon Buckets and let them sit for 24 hours and see what the PH settles in at. I was hoping to avoid the dreaded bucket filling technique but I guess I might not be so lucky in that regard.

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Ditch the buckets and just go with your usual 30 -40% WCs daily if you can't manage the ageing tank with pump for filling water .
Water in ageing tanks has to be tempered and agitated to stabilises its PH and to outgass and you can't do that with 4 buckets . Plus with all the dread involved on top of it , im sure youll be sick and tired from all that hustle in short time .
Maybe lower down your feeding amounts and frequencies along with regular bottom siphoning would be helpful too to control your nitrate levels .

If you're seeing white feces and your fish are not eating then you may want to read this article. http://forum.simplydiscus.com/showth...nt-of-Hexamita

Jehmco sells metronidazole at a much,much,much cheaper rate than what seachem gives you in their metroplex bottle. I have a kilo of it on standby at all times.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Ragnar73

Thanks for the response Filip. I am doing 25-30% water changes twice a day right now verses the big 75% change. It seems to be keeping my Nitrates down. I will try to fill up 4 5 Gallon Buckets and let them sit for 24 hours and see what the PH settles in at. I was hoping to avoid the dreaded bucket filling technique but I guess I might not be so lucky in that regard.

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Just curious, but if you have space to age four 5 gallon buckets, why not just one larger container? You could get a 50 gallon decorative rain catcher and it would still have a pretty small footprint and look nice as well if you have to keep it in your living area.

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Originally Posted by fishbubbles

If you're seeing white feces and your fish are not eating then you may want to read this article. http://forum.simplydiscus.com/showth...nt-of-Hexamita

Jehmco sells metronidazole at a much,much,much cheaper rate than what seachem gives you in their metroplex bottle. I have a kilo of it on standby at all times.

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Ebay has the Hikari stuff


Metro-Plus-Hikari-Multi-Purpose-Powder-Fish-Disease-Medication-3-4oz-97g
for $9.97 with free shipping.

Is that an even better deal than the Jehmco? Is it the same stuff?

Jehmco sells pure metro for $36 for 500 grams. That's about 17.85 ounces which works out to around 2 bucks per ounce. I'm not sure if the Hikari is pure metro or if it has anything else added into it.

Thanks for all the responses. I have finally got my tank temp to 90 degrees today and have added the recommended amount of Metro 7 scoops for a 75 Gallon. I will let you know how it turns out. I didn't feed yesterday and medicated a little food today all ate even one of the 3 that I have not seen eating. So now it looks like 2 are extremely stubborn still as far as eating goes. Have Seachem Garlic Guard on the way Sunday. Hopefully that will get the other 2 eating.

Once I get them eating I mix the food and metro with very little water and after sitting 20 minutes I feed it to my sick fish each morning.
Ron

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Originally Posted by Ragnar73

Thanks for all the responses. I have finally got my tank temp to 90 degrees today and have added the recommended amount of Metro 7 scoops for a 75 Gallon. I will let you know how it turns out. I didn't feed yesterday and medicated a little food today all ate even one of the 3 that I have not seen eating. So now it looks like 2 are extremely stubborn still as far as eating goes. Have Seachem Garlic Guard on the way Sunday. Hopefully that will get the other 2 eating.

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I’m not sure which heater you’re using but I recently replaced my heaters with the finnex 500 watt titanium edition heaters with two separate finnex temperature controllers in my 55 and 75 gallon tanks and I’ve been able to raise my temperature to 94F very easily. I’ve noticed that there’s a big difference between 90 and 94 when it comes to getting a stubborn hex infested fish to eat. Even then sometimes it can take 5 days or more of 94F and 400mg per 10G of metro. I also add 2 tablespoons of salt per 10 gallons and replace the salt when I do my water change. The salt helps to reduce stress by preventing dehydration, it also promotes better gill functions for the fish to breath, and salt helps to prevent harmful bacterial proliferation.