Red Melon Discus hiding in corners of tank

[fyoolshell]

Dear all,

I moved my fish tank to a different location and moved all my fish about 2 weeks ago. All of the fish appeared to be okay with the move until recently. I found one of my discus acting strange since yesterday. The fish stayed on the floor of the tank and hid laying on its side under a log. Today, I found it staying in the top corner next to the pump. The fish hasn't eaten since yesterday and I also found a couple white spots on the chin and next to the fins.
The only treatment I have tried so far is adding a tablespoon of epsom salt into the tank.


I have a 100 gallon tank. Currently residing in the tank are 6 discus (2 red melon, 2 cobalt blue, 1 turquoise snakeskin, 1 red pigeon), a couple rummynose tetras, panda corys, cherry barbs, and otocinclus catfish.
I've had these fish for about a year now and they haven't shown any stress symptoms since.

I have been doing a 15% weekly water change.

The tank has been running for about 2 weeks since the move. The tank has sand and soil for substrate and is a planted community.

For water conditioning, I use SeaChem Stability and Prime. I add the stability into my sump and prime into a new batch of water when doing water changes.

Here are the water parameters:
Temp: 81 F
pH 7.2
Ammonia:0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 0

I have been feeding all the fish twice a day with frozen bloodworms, tetramin flakes, and/or biogold pellets.

[Willie]

If you don't have a quarantine tank to move sick discus, there's no way to treat them. If you do, I'd move that fish away from the others.

[Iminit]

Ok the move cause stress and probably brought stuff out of the substrate. Water quality I’d say is the problem. 15% weekly on a planted 100g is bad for regular fish. Planted tanks and discus are much harder and more demanding than bare bottom. 0,0,0 are great reading if the tanks cycled. 0 nitrate is pretty hard to get even in a planted tank. But that doesn’t mean you don’t need to change the water. Those are discus pimples on the fish. Probably from the stress of the move and the new whatever from the substrate releasing whatever’s in it from the lack of cleaning and the move. Water changes of 50% daily for a few days and than every days should help that fish.

When you did the move did you remove the soil or the substrate? Did you move the tank with the fish in it?

[14Discus]

Try raising your water temp a few degrees while doing the WCs. 81 (imho) is a tad too cool. I also might suggest you recheck the nitrate again. 0-0-0 is a very rare ratio w an established tank.

[CliffsDiscus]

Move the Discus to a quarantine as Willie already recommended and treat with Furan-2, also make daily 100% water changes. As for the 100 gallon tank 15% waterchanges should be larger say 50%, since the moving the aquarium water is not balance. Water changes more often will help with growthrate.

Cliff