Advise for Skiddish Discus

[jeep]

I've seen several posts recently on concerns about skiddish and bouncing off the wall discus. I've been experiencing the same problem recenty and I thought I'd relay my experiences. My female has been hiding her face in the corner and spazzing out for over a week now and I was very concerned.

This may only relate to my situation, but Frank (Fcdiscus) recommended I maintain a regular temp. and treat with salt at the rate of 1TBS per 2 gal because he believed the problem may be bacterial. He also advised neomycin but I didn't go that far.

I treated with salt only today and 4 hours later she is calm, swimming around and eating like a horse.

Like I said, this may be unique to my situation, but it sure is a way to start. Hope this helps those experiencing this problem.

Thanks Frank!!!

Brian

[Tad]

Jeep,
I use salt too....I use a little bit more than the recommended amount and it works fantastic...it really will calm down the fish when they are skittish...
Tad

[Francisco_Borrero]

Every time I have had skittish discus, I have been able to trace it not to disease, but to something that they didn't like. Some of these things have been:
- filthy canister filter/high nitrate. I don't use canisters in discus tanks anymore. Too easy to put off their maintenance.
- stray voltage. Now I have rid-volts.
- flashing lights (faulty light fixture).

I also sometimes see panicking when I am not careful openning or closing the glass lid after putting food in. Apparently the light reflection (flashing) from the glass top can be such that sends them panicking even when they were eating off my fingers seconds before. I forget this often and have promised myself to be more careful.

I would start looking for the simple things before assuming diseases and appying medicines. But then again, something else may also be going on.
Good luck! Cheers, Francisco.

[RichieE]

Jeep, Frank knows his stuff and has recently helped me also. I would check with Frank on the following and would aso like to know the answer: If the problem is bacterial is the salt only reliveing the fish and covering up the problem? Is the Neomycin necessary for a complete cure? Is this problem likely to return when the salt levels are reduced? Rich

[Butch]

Hi Jeep....I had the same problem last year. I at first thought that it was because they were new. I checked the lights, the wall color etc etc.
The real problem turned out to be water quality. My filters had not fully cycled and these guys can't stand ANY
ammonia. I had small traces of it and was told to put some Prime in the water until the filters had a chance
to fully cycle. I did and it worked like a champ. They almost
immediately calmed down. When I was sure, six weeks, that the filters had to be cycled, I stopped the Prime and no problems.
I don't know where you are in your fish keeping but maybe this will help.

Butch ;D

[Tin Pusher]

Butch how often did you add Prime? I have Discus in an uncycled tank and was worried if I add Prime too often that the ammonia and nitrites would not build up enough to get filter cycled. Although I did'nt want them to build too high either for the fishes sake. Feel like I am walking a tight rope not wanting to fall eaither way.

[jeep]

Thanks for the info Butch, but my water and cycling is fine.

Something to note; she didn't really start acting up until I placed a metal screen around the eggs. My guess is that zinc leached into the water and did create a quality issue or enhanced a slight existing problem.

I just wanted to post my outcome because I've seen several posts recently and thought this may be a place to start if others are having the same problems.

Brian

[Steve_Warner]

Hi all,
Brian, what's your pH? I would venture to guess metal salts leaching into the water. Been there, done that!

Steve

[jeep]

My pH was a steady 6.2 before and during the illness. I had seen the same screen being used by others and even though I had some concerns, I went ahead and used it. I guess stainless steel or plastic would have been better, huh??? I didn't even think about it...

By the way, 1 day after she came out of her shell she laid about 200 eggs last night. I know they're not good due to the high salt content in the water and the fact that I treated with Fluke Tabs last weekend. After treating for flukes, this would be the first time the eggs have not been eaten by the male.

Maybe next time???

[RichieE]

Jeep I agree metal and water dont mix. Stainless steel might be OK but I would use plastic. Rich

[Butch]

Hey Tin Pusher...I just added what the bottle said to add
for the size of the tank. I even treated my holding tank. Each day I would add the amount needed to treat any new water added to the holding tank. You can do the same just for the tank. Dave C put me on to Prime and it saved my
fish.

Later
Butch

[Tin Pusher]

Thanks Butch, sorry for the late response.