Recurring odd behavior

Problem

1. Please explain the problems with your fish. When did you notice the problems and did anything unusual happen that you think started them?


My favorite Discus (blue diamond--Gob Bluth ;]) and the number 1 in the hierarchy has been having pretty frequent reoccurrences of reclusive and seeming uncomfortable behavior. So the first instance happened about 6 months ago. The first few occurrences happened simultaneously with spawning behavior from another fish. So one of our snow white discus (amos) has been demonstrating spawning behavior, shivering and picking at plants. Once I saw some eggs on the wall but this only happened once.

Anyway, one day I walk in and my blue diamond is not behaving as usual (see video for his morning greeting routine or basically his reaction anytime he sees us). Gob and Amos were shacked up in a corner of the tank. Amos was shivering and plucking at plants and being territorial and Gob began having flashing black eyes. Periodically, his eyes will shift from their normal pale orange to black . These two hung out in a corner for a couple days and Gob remained strange in behavior for a couple days after Amos stopped shivering.

So this happened two more times and the pattern persisted, Gob would become reclusive with flashing black eyes (black vs normal), a darker shade of blue and the behavior corresponded with Amos' spawning behaviors. So I had assumed that this behavior from Gob was an expression of spawning behavior.

This was until a month ago when Gob started exhibiting this behavior on a nearly weekly basis for a day or two independent from any spawning behavior from Amos. Well one day I sit down and Gob starts sporadically racing through the tank and shivering and then I see the most giant fish poop I have ever witnessed (see picture). We put him into the quarantine tank with some Epsom salt and that seemed to help him pass the other half of the remaining feces. During this time, in his discomfort, his eyes were also shifted to black.

So after that incident, I wondered if perhaps Gob had been constipated for a long time (although I have never noticed any bloating). Perhaps the increase in reclusive behavior is associated with discomfort from constipation. Gob seemed normal for a week or two.

But this past week he had a bout of reclusiveness with Amos and then today he came out to eat in the morning but has since gone to the corner and remained there.


2. Symptoms (i.e. turning dark, excess slime, not eating, clamped fins, flashing, darting, clamped gills, white/yellow/green poop, hiding, headstanding or tailstanding, white on tips of fins, rotting or fungus, blisters/white zits on fish, bloated, cloudy eyes, wounds).

As mentioned the one blue diamond, Gob, becomes a darker hue of blue, has black eyes, stops responding to human interaction (which he is particularly known for) and stops eating.

3. What medications/ treatments have you already tried and what were the results. Include dosage and duration of treatment.


Epsom salt, 2 tsp per gallon.

Tank/Water


4. Tank size and ages, numbers and sizes of fish.

55g planted tank. 6 discus of varying sizes. Two are younger and about 4-4.5 inches. The youngest is about 3.5 inches. These fish have been around for about 4 months since the smallest addition. The other three discus have been around since the tank was cycled essentially, around October 2020 (got them from a terrible owner; never expected to have discus in my first tank!). Other than that we have 8 rosy loaches, 2 zebra loaches, 2 cory's, 2 dwarf frogs and 2 rainbow kribs.

Run with 2 fluval 407s, 1 spray bar, 2 heaters.

5. Water change regime (What percentage and how often).

50% water change with aged water twice a week.


6. How long has tank been running? Is it bare bottom? If you have substrate, what type and how deep is it?

Fine sand substrate. The tank has been running since August 2020.


7. Do you age your water? If you do for how long and what is the ph swing.

Water is aged for 48 hours and typically only alters ph around .2.


8. What type/brand water conditioner do you use? Do you add it to the tank or aging barrel? How much do you use?


Prime when water is added to barrel.

9. Parameters and water source;

Note: Water Parameters are important in diagnosing problems within a tank. If you don't own test kits for the following information, you can purchase them, test your parameters and post this info as soon as possible.


- temp 83

- ph 7.38

- ammonia reading 0

- nitrite reading 0

- nitrate reading 10

What type of water or combinations of water sources do you use? If it is an RO/tap/well water mix, please list percentages in the mix.



- well water ____

- municipal water X

- RO water ____


10. Any new fish, plants or inverts added recently.

Not within the past 4 months. Behavior precedes the addition of new fish and doesn't seem to be exacerbated by the additions.


11. Please tell us what you feed your fish and how often. This can be critical information for solving the problem so be as specific as you can.

Prior to the constipation, they typically recieved Freeze Dried California Blackworms in the morning, beefheart flakes in the afternoon, and frozen mysis shrimp at night. After discussing my LFS suggested that the freeze dried food may expand in his stomach if he over eats. And as I would press the blackworms against the glass, Gob did like to stand guard and peck at it if anyone else tried to eat it.

For a while I soaked the blackworms to make sure they weren't overeating, but they have been getting mysis shrimp in the mornings for about 2 weeks.


12. Include any pictures or videos you have which shows the symptoms. If you can't add them to this post, please provide a link to them.
Links and pictures included throughout post.

Additionally, my quarantine tank is occupied, my partner's brother decided to mail us a surprise tiny discus as a gift. So now our quarantine tank is a grow out tank because this new fish is way too small for the tank. I'd say when this new fish comes of age we will be substantially overstocked. We have a 125g that we are unwilling to set up because of structural concerns, however, we are currently looking for a 75g until we can move to a location where we can reinforce our floors.

Thanks all!!

Dom

Things look normal, just look like they need more time to settle in and be comfortable with you. The only thing I see in your post that might be of concern. Does your water supplier use chloramine or chlorine? The reason is you should not put your conditioner in your barrel and leave it set there and should be used right away after adding to the barrel. Chloramine is ammonia and chlorine. Chlorine will air off in that length of time whether you use a conditioner or not but the ammonia stays behind after the bond breaks in about 24 hours in the barrel. So, it's best to use the water after using a conditioner. No need to leave conditioner sit in the barrel, whether it is chlorine or chloramine.