Discus not eating

[Ryven]

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?

Before I get the QT tank ready, just looking for advice. He hasn't been eating this, week. He hides, but during feeding he will swim to the surface with the others, just not eat. Raised temp to 32, to try and stimulate appetite. Any guidance welcome.

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. Still swimming to surface during feeding, just not eating

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

NT labs internal disease.

Tank/Water

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

225L 1 tear, 4 discus, 10 Neots, 2 ottos, 1 x zebra pleco, 3 x cory sterbai, 2 Congo. 6 rummy nose

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

2 x 30% to 40% weekly

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

1 tear, 2" silica sand substrate

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

Yes, ph settles on 7.0 to 7.2


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


4 day aging, 80% RO with 20% tap with seachem prime prescribed dosage


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 _20_

- ph _7.0____

- ammonia reading _0.25___

- nitrite reading _0ppm___

- nitrate reading _20ppm___

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 __0__

- municipal water __20%__

- RO water _80%___


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

Onto after 6 week qt

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.

Stednkerb goodheart 3 to 4 times per day

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.

[Second Hand Pat]

Hi Ryven, I think bring the temp up is a good starting point but would also suggest increasing the water changes to daily to bring the nitrates down below 5. May I know why you are using RO water?
Pat

[Ryven]

The kh and gh sit around 15-17ppm, and the ph is 7.8+ (usually 8.2) out of tap. So RO allows me.to better control those variables by adding tap back in to stabilise. I will start doing daily w/c as per your recommendation.

[peewee1]

The temp says 20 but is it 30 by chance? Try a variet of food. I have fish that prefer some foods while their tank mates prefer another. I mix TetraColor, Bug Bites, freeze dry beef heart, and freeze dry black worms for the main food sources. Then sometimes frozen brine shrimp, or frozen beef heart, or frozen blood worms, or freeze dried black worms without the mix.

[Oxboy]

Unless you intend to breed, high Kh/TDS/ph tap is the best water you can have for discus IMO. Why? Super stable and no guesswork. Sure it's liquid rock and not "amazon approved" but that ph never moves and you're never chasing water parameters. It's also cheaper in the long run.

[peewee1]

Unless you intend to breed, high Kh/TDS/ph tap is the best water you can have for discus IMO. Why? Super stable and no guesswork. Sure it's liquid rock and not "amazon approved" but that ph never moves and you're never chasing water parameters. It's also cheaper in the long run.

Some merit to that observation. I use tap water with Prime added. The pH remains constant at 7.6 while the TDS varies from one tank to the other. One at 98 the breeder tank at 198. The KH is 50.