Discus stopped eating.

[Ocellaris]

Water Parameters:
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 5
phosphate 0
Kh 3
Ph 7.2
Temp 84
Water change frequency 40-50% every 2-3 days. 75 gallon tank 4 discus 5-6.5 inches. Diet is vibra bites, beef heart and xtreme flake, occasional but rare bloodworms circa less than one cube per month.
I recently added two new discus to my aquarium. Everything was normal and then the largest of my discus (naturally my pride and joy) stopped eating. This discus is six and a half inch and over an inch thick. He hasn't eaten in about a week maybe a little less. Almost complete with a course of General cure. The other three discus are eating voraciously. I've never had a problem with this discus eating. I am willing to go to pretty much any length to get this fish eating again. My next step will be a course of erythromycin, as well as the temperature increase even though this may be detrimental to my plants. The other fish in the tank are cardinal tetras. I am sure there are 100 posts asking a very similar question on here, but I enjoy getting new responses rather than just doing an archive search. Thank you for the patience and any advice you may have. And of course if it really comes down to it I can do the orange peel method but I would prefer to avoid that if I can.

[AquaticNerd]

If you could, it's easier for us to follow through with everything if you complete the disease questionnaire in full while attempting to keep the formatting to make it easy to follow.

With that said, there are a few things that come to mind. What was your QT procedure when you got the 2 new discus? Did you quarantine them at all or add them to the aquarium immediately? If you didn't quarantine them, my instinct tells me that this is simply a case of cross-contamination. The most likely suspects that are commonly carried among discus are Hex and other internal parasites. Hex is treated by slowly raising the temperature to about 92-95F and treating with pure Metronidazole - 500mg/10G every day for 10-12 days. Other parasites are typically treated with Levamisole.

There have been recent discussion that frozen bloodworms also have the possibility of causing internal parasites. I would probably stop feeding that as well as a precaution. I would also hold off on treating with any other medications after you finish your round of General Cure. Overmedication can become a problem due to toxicity as well as antibiotics affect on your biological filtration.

We can probably give more detailed answers with a complete questionnaire. Pictures are helpful as well (I know you're working on that part). At the very least, you can use an image hosting site like IMGUR and upload your photos there and share links.

[andy77]

Hi Occelaris,

I hope your fish has started eating.

I will offer an alternative scenario to that provided by Jake. In my experience in fishkeeping, my problems arose from stress on the fish. Stress can take a number of forms. The most common form is poor water quality. Since your parameters are excellent and the fish in question is fat, I suspect that the old fish just isn't comfortable with the new fish. With discus that can lead to one fish not getting fed or even hiding in a corner.

Stress can be poor water quality, aggression, medications, a sudden drop in temperature and I am sure many more things. I believe stress is the underlying cause to disease in fish as well as humans. Eat right, exercise, have a positive outlook and AVOID STRESS!

If I had a nickel for every time I HAD to add one more fish (stress) and destroyed the balance in a happy tank, I would certainly have a couple of dollars. Hee hee, I guess I am a slow learner.

Best of Luck,
Andy