New Fish Not Eating - When is it time for Concern

[Jlif1025]

Hello All,

I have a particular situation

I recently purchased 6 new 5.0-5.5 Discus on the 6th of March. Since the 6th I have seen the fish eat some blood worms once slowly. It has now been a little over two weeks and the fish do not actively eat if food is added to the tank?

Should I be concerned or is this a common event for new Discus in a QT environment?

[geo57]

Hi Jlif, I would be concerned if they haven't eaten well in a couple of weeks, usually my experience they eat within 24 hours. The fish are adults which is a good thing as they are strong. What are your water parameters as far as ammonia. nitrite and nitrate? Is your PH consistant? How often do you perform water changes? Do you stabilize your water for at least 24hours? How large of a tank did you put them in? Whats the temp? This info will give folks a good start at trouble shooting your system or tank.

[Jlif1025]

Our QT situation is a 55 gallon rectangle tank running a hang on back filter and a spong filter. The HOB filter is there for additional surface agitation and its has a uv light built into it.

Water parameters are: temp 85 to 86. No nitrates, nitrites, 0 ammonia. I change 20 to 25 gallons a day. Over the weekend we will do one larger wc of 75%. We have marked the qt so that we know exactly how much water is removed or added. Our water is 7.5 ph. I would love for my ph to be around 6.5 but that is just not happening in nv.

Normally during my qt process my fish usually start eating after the second day, but with these fish just seem scared and show no interest.

[geo57]

7.5 PH is just fine as long as it is consistent. Are they doing any better Jlif? Do you age your water for acclimation? From what you state it sounds like your doing everything correctly, maybe try some different food to stir up their appetite. You could try live food, dan's Calf Black worms are safe and clean. If anything will get them to start eating it's live food I would think. Good Luck.

[Jlif1025]

Hey Geo57,

Thank you for all of your advice. The Fish are now doing amazingly well. Apparently what I had was a case of the nerves. Because, it was only a QT tank what I had was a 55 gallon tank with a heater and a sponge filter. It has worked in the past;however, in this shipment I must have received some very skittish fish and their darting would cause a fear reaction in the rest of the group. (Or at least my Opinion) As a result they would all just crowd in the corner. Our solution was fake plants from "Micheals".

The Fake Plants made a world of difference. After a few days the fish became calm and began eating some freeze dried black worms. The fish are now out of QT and are in the main display. Two of the fish have even paired up.

IMG_4895.jpg

[Oldcabin]

Great news, congrats!

[geo57]

That is good news.