Fish Distress

Need help! Everything was great in my discus tank until this morning. Most of the discus are clamping their dorsal fin, colour is dark and they are slightly tipped on an angle. A couple are hiding inside a flower pot thats in the tank. Water parameters are good. I did my standard 50% water change yesterday morning, same as I always do. WC done twice a week, same as I’ve always done. i have a sponge filter going, along with an air stone. I have a canister filter on the tank as well, and when I saw the fish this morning, I added a hang on filter as well. I think I added to much Prime yesterday, could that be the problem? Ammonia-0, Nitrate-0,Nitrite- 0, Ph -0, water temp 87 deg. Any suggestions? Thanks, George

How old are your discus? I don’t think you can overdose prime. May be your water company cleaned the pipes.

I wondered if something could have happened with the city water as well. I’ve had my fish since January and they are a variety of sizes from 3” to 5.5”
My routine has been the same, 50% water change twice per week then all of a sudden this morning they’re breathing heavy, colour is dark, they’re huddling together, some at the bottom some at the top at a tilt. All are clamping there dorsal fin

This is the time of year that we see water related issues with the change of seasons. Also, I would re-test your water. Nitrates can't be 0 in a cycled tank...

Ok I’ll test water again. What should nitrate level be in a cycled tank?

George, you're not alone. I've been in the same house since 2008, with the same tank, always with discus, same type of setup, and lately I've had problems. We are going to move soon and I plan on ageing my water at the next house but I may have to start doing it here before moving (never needed to age except few months during winter) . I always use Safe and always use more than instructions... it's never hurt. I'm wondering if I got bad container of Safe. I measured ammonia of tap, tap with safe (current bottle), and tap with Prime (picked some up at LFS)... same readings for Prime & Safe (so it didn't prove my hunch). Still wondering what the hell change... local water company adding something new & undetectable? Hope not but I'm to the point I can't figure it out!!!!!!

I WILL state that today's smaller, 40% WC using that bottle of Prime went GREAT... discus back to dancing around rather than darting, breathing heavy, giving me the "I hate you SOOOOO much"-look, etc...

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Originally Posted by Tagski99

Ok I’ll test water again. What should nitrate level be in a cycled tank?

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Ideally 5 or less.
Pat

He also said his pH is 0.

That was a typo, ph was 7