New discus will not eat!

[Marinemom]

Hi, I just joined this site and find it to be very insightful and interesting. I just keep reading and reading until I think my eyes are going to fall out of my head.

I have 5 new discus that I just got home last Thursday night and they are all doing well except that they will not eat. They swim around exploring thier new home and seem to be quite active in the tank. What can I do to entice them to eat. I have been keeping fish for more than ten years and this is my second attempt at keeping discus. The first attempt ended tragically when my heater malfuntioned and heated the tank to 110 degrees. Everything in the tank died ; discus,pleco, cories, and all the plants in this fully planted aquarium. It made me sick to even look at the tank because it would make me cry. However, I just had to pick myself up and try again.

O.K. so the problem is my discus still will not eat. I know I have only had them for less than a week. I have tried to feed them krill mixed with some garlic xtreme, and waited another two nights and last night I tried to feed them daphnia mixed with garlic xtreme. They will not touch it no matter what. I have other things I can try such as squid, mussels, brine shrimp, mysis shrimp, and others but I'm getting a little discouraged. I cannot feed them bloodworms which I think they are used to because I have a severe allergic reaction to them. I cannot come in contact with them in any way, shape, or form;even if it is airbourne because it could spell deadly consequences for me. What can I do to entice them to eat? I know fish can go quite a long while before eating, but I'm sitting on the edge of my seat here.


Any help and or suggestions to help me resolve this matter would be greatly appreciated.

Marinemom

[oodi]

Hi Marinemom,

I can understand why you would stay away from the bloodworms... seems more than a few have allergies to them, and they can be deadly for those with serious allergies.

You might try raising the temp to 85 or 86 degrees... increased temp will usually help. It will just take some time for them to adjust to foods they aren't accustomed to getting. Another option may be CBW (California Blackworms). The only source I would recommend for those is Dan at Aquatic Foods. He has a banner at the bottom of this page.

Judi

[Andres]

What temp do you have them in??? Also have you changed the water when you feed them or take out the food. How many gal is your tank? Is this a new set-up or old? A week with out food is not a good sign!! garlic xtreme never used it. Just water changes and some salt from your local pet store did the trick. Have you tried beef heart?

[White Worm]

Up the temp to 88, add non-iodized salt at 1 tbspn per 10g and leave the lights off for a couple days. A week without food is nothing to worry about as long as there are no other symptoms of illness (darkenss, clamped fins, etc). They sometimes just need time to get comfortable. Some discus are very picky eaters and BW's are one of their favorites. Too bad....no blocks or dried either huh? Only problem with cbw is that once they have that, I've heard it is hard to get them to eat other stuff. Plus, if you dont get it from a reliable source and dont prepare it correctly, it can give you problems. It may just take some time to get them used to other foods. If after 3 weeks to a month, and no eating, then time to be conscerned. Lots of clean water and keep an eye on them. Just some ideas... Mike
Plus, let us know your tank setup (substrate, temps, parameters, filtration, tank size, etc)

[Marinemom]

The tank has been set up for four and a half years and is a fully planted aquarium. The substrate is eco-complete that is about an inch thick. The tank is 46 gallons but eventually they will be moved to a larger tank such as a 125 or larger. The filteration is a canister filter that is an eheim 2215 that filters about 90 gallons of water with a gph of 164 gallons an hour. There is also a penguien 170 running on the tank.I tested the water and the ammonia is at 0, the nitrites are at o. and the nitrates are undetectable. The plants probably use them up as fast as they are produced. The temperature is at 85 degrees consistently. I'm a little afraid to raise the temperature because of what happened last time and we have been experiencing a heatwave of about 100 degrees every day for the last several days.I have been doing small water changes evey other day even though the reading are perfect because I know that discus like super clean water.

I hope this helps. What else do I need to do besides wait?

Marinemom

[Andres]

Well I'm not a plant person but what I have read 88 deg or more is to hot for plants. So non-iodized salt dont know if that would also kill the plants. How much w/c do you do. Also whats your PH level? Does anybody know about planted tanks that could help Marinemom.

[Dissident]

They will take time to settle in. Espically aldults they are more sensitive to changes. As long as they look healthy I wouldn not stress it, they are just adjusting to the new enviroment. It is common that they will not eat for a few days.

[AADiscus]

Do you have another tank you could move them to? I think you need to move them to a bb tank, temp at 86. Feed them some bh, flake or try some earth worms (clean really good). What were they eating before you got them?

[swinters66]

Sounds like what I am going through marinemom! Fustrating isnt it? Mine seem to be more interested in picking things off the wood than the food they were eating at the fish store! (they gave me some when I got them). I havent tried salt...and I am going to do a small water change tonight (theyve been in the tank 3 days now), so I dont know what salt will do to get them to eat.

I hope both of our discus decide to make us happy and eat for us!!

[Andres]

swinters66 and Marinemom, I had the same problem so I raised the temp to 90 deg with no plants or other fish just discus and salt by the next day they were eating like crazy?? Well hope this well help and please dont try this if you have a planted tank. I had a friend that tried and forgot to tell me that he had plants. Keep us posted if you try this.

[Marinemom]

I do have plants in this tank, in fact it is a fully planted aquarium but the plants were chosen that can take higher temperatures and are low to moderate light plants. This way I do not have to worry about co2 injections. I do not have another aquarium I can put them in. All of them are in use except for a 10 gallon tank. This I know will not work for them. What is bh? Beefheart? Isin't that kind of a pain to clean up if they choose not to eat that too? I can try raising the temp. gradually if you think that will help, but I do not want to fry my discus. I have thought about the blackworms but it kinda grosses me out right now. I guess I will just have to get used to it. When I started my saltwater reef, cleaning the protien skimmer was kind of gross(it smells like a dirty diaper)and now I don't think twice about it. I clean it every day usually. I thought that I would only resort to live food as a last resort. I'm afraid of the live food bringing in parasites. Do I need to worry about this? So raising the temp. and feeding some blackworms. Anything else I can do? If I do feed the blackworms are they going to refuse everything else? Isin't a varied diet better for them?

Marinemom

[swinters66]

Hmm well I have no live plants as of yet, but I do have 2 cory cats in that tank, and I read they do not tolerate 90 or higher...so what would a safe temp be for all the fish in the tank? My tank is sitting at 87.1 and I just finished a small water change, maybe 10%, just vaccuumed the gravel and got some....stuff out of it. Would 88 be ok? The tank was staying at 86.6 steadily since Thrurs. and I got the discus Sat. I got tense doing the water change, as I dont want to freak the discus out...they hid the whole time my vaccuum was in there.

Should I get aquarium salt and add a little? Whats the long term effect on that with the discus? UGH if I could just see them actually eat, I'd be ok!!

[Marinemom]

P.S. I don't think that the salt is good for the plants.

Marinemom

[Marinemom]

I feel the same way! If I could just get them to eat everything would be good in discusworld.

Marinemom

[White Worm]

Discus dont mind the higher temps, just ensure good aeration. Even into the 90 range is ok for short period. Some do 1 week high temp around 90 during QT after meds. Salt is not good for the plants. They just need time, lots of clean water and lights out. Beefheart is a mix of multiple ingredients and yes it fouls the water quickly if they dont eat it. Plus, alot will rot in the substrate unless you have a good cleaning crew. For new discus, you should be doing much more frequent wc's and a higher percentage around 30-50% or more daily. Dont get nervous when doing wc's, they will get over it. Dont baby them because before you know it, you will be tiptoeing into the room afraid to disturb them. Go about your business as normal and they will adapt.