Quarantine questions

[Johanna]

Yes! The big guy's breathing looks normal now. He still only wants to eat artemia though... for some reason, he's not very keen on fd tubifex cubes anymore either. When I first gave them he came up immediately and started nibbling on the cube and ate some loose worms too. Now it's just a few nibbles on the cube and then he spits them back out. What would be the best tactic to interest him in eating different foods? Just offering something else until he's hungry enough? Or feeding artemia every day even if he picks and chooses, just to make him eat more, hoping he'll eventually start accepting other foods? I have already tried mixing other foods with artemia and letting it all soak in the same cup for a while.

[brewmaster15]

Tubifex really isnt a great food for him(collected in polluted water..high in heavy metals and bacterias.). can you get freeze dried australian Blackworms in your country? Or frozen hikari bloodworms?

Artemia is not a bad food food but it would be better to have different ones.. you might try shavings of raw frozen salmon diced fine.. initially mix it with the Artemia..

[Johanna]

Sorry for the delayed reply, had a really busy weekend.

Good thing is, the new big guy was hungry today and ate a little of the frozen seafood mix as well! The other three eat everything from flakes to granules to frozen foods with a great appetite already. The problem is, my selection of foods is unfortunately quite limited... I've tried to find Australian blackworms, but I don't think they're sold in the EU at all? Frozen bloodworms are easy to get but they're other brands than Hikari... I've been advised to not feed those. My seafood mixes are salmon-based (Akvarie Teknik Discus Life series). That's the main food I give my discus, plus Tetra discus granules and Sera granules and Tetra crisps and flakes. Artemia and Mysis as a treat but not all of the discus eat Mysis. The FD Tubifex is by this brand, called Discus Hobby https://zoo-hobby.pl/lliofilizowane/...74-rozmiar-50g which is marketed as pathogen free... I got it from my fishes' breeder with instructions to feed as a snack, not as the main food. All my discus seem to love it so I thought it'd be a good bet to get the new big guy to eat but he doesn't seem to like them anymore either. I'm running out of Artemia soon and my LFS won't have them available until a few weeks later so I'm kind of in a hurry to get that fish used to eating something else. The fresh frozen salmon is a good idea and easy enough to make (I won't try making anything complicated with beef heart etc), I'll try that first and see if it works.

[Johanna]

I'm puzzled. Something's not right with the 'problem fish' but I can't see what the problem is. Yesterday and today he doesn't seem to show much interest even in artemia. He looks somehow tired and avoids the feeding frenzy but occasionally picks at some food still. Mostly spends his time under the driftwood, no more attacking the others as they swim by - just a tiny shuffle towards them at most. All the other fish are doing very well and this one doesn't show any signs of a particular disease. The breathing is normal. Just a general decline in appetite and activity level just when I thought he was starting to look good. He's still a bit dark in colour, too. Any ideas?

[Second Hand Pat]

Hi Johanna, your "problem" fish is telling you something is up. I would suggest creating a thread in the https://forum.simplydiscus.com/forum...Emergency-Room part of the thread. Be sure to fill out the questionnaire.
Pat

[Johanna]

Ok, back to this thread as I think this question is more appropriate here... The fish have been in qt for 5+ weeks now, so the planned quarantine period is soon coming to an end. I'm wondering how to go about moving the new fish into my main tank and WHEN, given that one of them now has some kind of a serious health issue and is isolated in a hospital tank. The others seem to be doing well, eating greedily and sparring with each other. Would it be safe to proceed with the three that are healthy or should I still wait until the issue with the sick fish is resolved one way or another until I try combining the groups?

[brewmaster15]

Johanna, the 3 remaining appear healthy and have gone through your quarantine. The 4th fish in the hospital may not have something contagious at all but theres no way to know 100%. This is where gut instinct and using what you have seen as indicators of health comes in.

Generally whats done at this point is to take your least liked fish from your existing tank and add it to the quarantine tank. If nothing bad healthwise happens after 1-2 weeks its probably safe to mix both groups. This is called the " Hero fish" method.

Al

[Johanna]

I think I'm going to wait for a few more days until adding the test fish... thinking that if there are some harmful bacteria left in the water from the sick fish, then a few more water changes would do some good. In a week all water should theoretically be "new" and have fewer bacteria in it.

[brewmaster15]

I think I'm going to wait for a few more days until adding the test fish... thinking that if there are some harmful bacteria left in the water from the sick fish, then a few more water changes would do some good. In a week all water should theoretically be "new" and have fewer bacteria in it.

With Quarantine.. patience is everything.

[Johanna]

I made the move yesterday morning, so one and a half days and so far so good! No signs of any problems either in the new or the old discus. Everyone is eating and swimming freely (not hiding), but the new ones are still skittish, darting away from sudden movements etc. No bad aggressions either, although the new fish get chased a bit. 10 looks so much more than 7!

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[brewmaster15]

Looks good so far Johanna! Hopefully all settle in well. They usually do when take your time and Qt.

Al