SOS: My discus fish are not eating!

[inemendi]

Hello everyone! first post over here

I have a question, but first i´ll give you some intro.

i set up my 95 gallon fish tank about 3 weeks ago. It has river sand at the bottom and driftwood. I had some problems with high nitrites, but the situation seems to have improved today, thanks to stability, matrix and water changes. It was very high and now nitrite levels seem to be lowering.

I have 7 juvie discus, about 3 to 4". The problem is they don´t eat. I fed them frozen food which I bought from the discus breeder when they first came, but when I saw the mess it made and the high level of nitrites I had, i started feeding them granules and flakes. Out of my 7 discus, 4 eat some of the granules from the bottom (not as I drop them in the tank, but they shyly pick one or two from the bottom), but the 3 remaining ones won´t even come near them.

I know they are hungry because if I put my hand inside the fish tank, they come rushing to see if i´m gonna feed them, but as soon as I drop the granules or flakes, they lose interest.

I´m really worried because it´s been over a week since I last fed them frozen food. I tried making some "frozen granule food", by crushing the granules and making a sort of "dough", to get them used to the flavor and pretending it was the breeder´s frozen food, but the take a few bites and then swim away, while the remainig food rots at the

How can I "train" them to eat granules or flakes and look for food at the bottom of the fish tank? Any suggestion will be greatly appreciated!

[Pices]

Any new food I introduce to my discus is always given in the morning because that’s when they are hungriest. Have you tried the Al’s freeze dried black worms? My fish go crazy for it. I get the kind with spinach in it. Also frozen brine is irresistible. I hope your tank is fully cycled. I’d be checking nitrites/nitrates and doing big water changes with aged heated water. When I got my batch, I did daily 80-90% water changes so the biological filtration could catch up to the increased bioload of the discus. This also increased their appetites imo.
I learned everything on this site so you landed in the right place to receive help. They got me through with my first batch a yr and 1/2 ago and they’ll get you through it too.
Don’t worry about stupid question either as I have already asked them all and still do. Ha
Patty

[14Discus]

Pices is right on. The frzdried blackworms were the ticket for me as well. I started out w frozen bloodworms and soon found out that blkworms did the trick. You can put them in near the outflow of your filter or even try hand feeding them by holding a group of them in your fingers since you said they anticipated being fed when you put your hand in. Mine started to come to me as soon as I entered the room. Now, I come in and give just a bit nearly every time I come in so as to keep them trained. These blkworms don't seem to be as messy and what few are not eaten are snatched up by the CoriCats. One can, after getting them started, float a partial cube of blkworms inside an inverted feeding cone too. Very little waste with cones for me. Mine still have not taken to pellets and barely bother with flakes or frzdried brine shrimp, but I'll keep working on them. All I can do is offer varying foods. If they just want the blkworms, then fine as long as they stay healthy and are eating. Good luck and let us know how it goes.

Oh....I almost forgot......what is your water temp, ph, KH, and GH?

Lastly....there is no such thing as a stupid question. Stupid only is a person with a question who does not ask. Lord knows I've asked a few million myself.

[Filip]

Hi inemendi and welcome.
First problem you have can be related with stressed discus from high nitrates and maybe even some traces of No2 and NH3 from your uncycled / new tank . River sand if its too coarse or deep can contribute to that problem too.

Do they eat frozen foods from the breeder readily or they pick on them Too ?

If they eat their original breeder food readily but refuse dry foods , you have to be very patient and train them to accept new food in course of weeks .
Do not try to starve them but give them the new food as a first meal everyday while still feeding them their favorite meal through the rest of the day. Eventually if they are healhy and thriving they should start accepting the new food.