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Thread: Need help with fish not eating

  1. #1
    Registered Member NCDiscus's Avatar
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    Default Need help with fish not eating

    Hello everyone. I'm concerned that I may start losing some of my discus. There's no apparent signs of disease but I have a couple that have stopped eating. They act like they want to but either stop short of eating or spit out their food. Any help would be greatly appreciated.


    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?
    About a month ago I had one discus that started hiding and wouldn't eat. It would try but always spit out it's food. I also noticed white poop. Nothing unusual had happened. I moved this fish to a hospital tank about a week ago and have started treatment with Metroplex but no improvement yet. I now have another fish that has started this about a week ago.


    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).

    Not eating, hiding, white poop


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

    First fish in hospital tank with Metroplex and Melafix. No treatment on the other one


    Tank/Water

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

    75 gallon. One to two years of age. 7 discus, one pleco, three cories, two rams, and 9 tetras


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

    50% every two weeks


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

    Tank has been running for 4 months. Sand substrate 1 1/2" deep.


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

    Use spring water with no aging.


    8. 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 ___85__

    - ph _5.8____

    - ammonia reading __0__

    - nitrite reading _unknown___

    - nitrate reading ___40ppm_

    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 ____

    - RO water ____

    Spring water


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

    No


    10. 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.

    Beef heart flakes, Marineland cichlid flakes, FDBW, Discus Gold, & live blackworms



    11. 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.

  2. #2
    Administrator and MVP Dec.2015 Second Hand Pat's Avatar
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    Default Re: Need help with fish not eating

    Hi NCDiscus, sounds like you need to treat all your discus. How big is your hospital tank and you really need to increase your water changes to daily at about 50% or better. The nitrates being at 40ppm is not good for your discus. I suggest is to get all your discus in a bare bottom tank so you can start a daily treatment of pure metro.
    Pat
    Your discus are talking to you....are you listening


  3. #3
    Registered Member NCDiscus's Avatar
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    Default Re: Need help with fish not eating

    Hey Pat, thanks for the reply. I have a 20 gallon hospital tank. I made a mistake in my original thread. Nitrates are 20 instead of 40.

  4. #4
    Moderator Team LizStreithorst's Avatar
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    Default Re: Need help with fish not eating

    That's still too high. You want to have a nitrate reading of 5. Pat is right about treating all of them in a BB tank. Dosage is 500 mg. of pure metro daily for 10 to 12 days. It's helpful to raise the temp to 90. Be sure to add more air. I get my metro from Jehmco.
    Mama Bear

  5. #5
    Administrator and MVP Dec.2015 Second Hand Pat's Avatar
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    Default Re: Need help with fish not eating

    Quote Originally Posted by NCDiscus View Post
    Hey Pat, thanks for the reply. I have a 20 gallon hospital tank. I made a mistake in my original thread. Nitrates are 20 instead of 40.
    Hi NCDiscus, seven adult discus will not fit in a 20 gallon. Do you have plants in the 75? and if you do can they be removed so you can treat in the 75. Really best to remove some of the substrate also. I know it's a bit of work but best for the discus especially when treating with metro.

    Quote Originally Posted by LizStreithorst View Post
    That's still too high. You want to have a nitrate reading of 5. Pat is right about treating all of them in a BB tank. Dosage is 500 mg. of pure metro daily for 10 to 12 days. It's helpful to raise the temp to 90. Be sure to add more air. I get my metro from Jehmco.
    Liz is totally correct on the nitrate reading and the treatment protocol for metro.

    Pat
    Your discus are talking to you....are you listening


  6. #6
    Registered Member NCDiscus's Avatar
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    Default Re: Need help with fish not eating

    Thanks everyone for the advice. I ordered some Metro from Jehmco today and will be treating with Metroplex till it get's here. 500 mg per day?

    Another question I have is why should I remove the plants?
    Last edited by NCDiscus; 05-24-2019 at 06:54 PM.

  7. #7
    Moderator Team LizStreithorst's Avatar
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    Default Re: Need help with fish not eating

    It's not the plants so much the substrate. If your plants are glued to driftwood you can leave them. Sand and gravel harbor the pathogens we're fighting so that the ones that you've killed off with the metro will soon will re-appear and infest your fish all over again.
    Mama Bear

  8. #8
    Registered Member NCDiscus's Avatar
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    Default Re: Need help with fish not eating

    Got it, thanks Liz

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