New discus, frayed white tail?

[Beautiful.aquatics]

My new discus's tail is slightly white on the tips and a bit frayed, he also isn't very active and just staying in the same spot. If anyone knows what this could be it would much be appreciated.

[Paul Sabucchi]

Hi, firstly welcome to this forum (maybe if you feel like it you could introduce yourself on the welcome thread), it would be useful to have some more information such as where you purchased the fish, how long ago, did you buy just the one or are there others and if so how are they?
It could be a bit of ammonia burn occured maybe during transport. If so with plenty of clean water it will mend, bit of a worry as the same might have happened to other delicate exposed structures as the gills - is his breathing fast or laboured?

[Beautiful.aquatics]

Thank you! I purchased him from my local aquarium two days ago, I only bought one and it's the only one in the tank. He is breathing normally and is starting to swim around a bit. I tried feeding him some bloodworms but he didn't eat them. I'm guessing he is still stressed from being in a new enviroment with no other discus around.

[Paul Sabucchi]

Not unusual for newly purchased fish to take a few days to settle in. Giving it plenty of fresh water will do it good. Are the bloodworms fresh or frozen? They have been known to be a bit of an issue because they are farmed in less than salubrious conditions so often carry nasty bacteria. Getting good quality granusel for discus would be sensible. Are you planning on getting more fish? How have you set up the tank (if I may ask)?

[Beautiful.aquatics]

The bloodworms are frozen, I'm planning on probably getting one or two more. Here is a picture of my tank. discus tank.jpg

[Paul Sabucchi]

It is a great looking tank but if I may express my opinion unfortunately it is not best suited for discus, particularly while they still have plenty of growing to do. They do best in a tank that is practically free of all decoration and substrate. In your tank over 50% of the volume will be inaccessible also for the discus, and you would need it to house 6 or 7 discus that are kind of the minimum number to minimize problems with bullying as they grow. It would be a real pity to have a great looking planted tank hampered by discus not thriving. Havinga number of planted tanks myself I think there are a whole range of Southamerican or Asian or Western African fish far better suited to a heavily planted tank. I would seriously consider taking your discus back to the LFS and see if they would swap it for something more appropriate.
An example of Asian population would be some rainbow fish (praecox or bosemanni), some peaceful gourami (Trichogaster chuna), some Daisy's ricefish (Oryzias woworae), some peacock gobies (Taeterundina ocellicauda) and any rasboras of your liking. Southamerican species offer a variety of small cichlids (Apistogramma, Dicrossus, Nannacara), carachins -tertras- (I keep neons, lemons, rummy nose, ember), pencilfish, hatchet fish and loricarids such as Otocinclus and Ancistrus.

[Beautiful.aquatics]

Thank you so much for all the help, I’m going to ask my local fish store if they would swap it for some other fish. Maybe in the future I will get a larger tank just for discus. Thanks again

[Pices]

Your tank is beautifully scraped, but I agree with Paul that it is not suited for Discus. I hope you’ll show us a pic in the other freshwater fish section so we can see what you do with this tank. Very nice wood piece and I like that terraced look.
Patty

[Beautiful.aquatics]

I’ll definetly update when I get some new fish for the tank, thank you!