It could be the difference in care from his place to yours as I know Hans never changes that much water at any given time, with those large water changes are you checking your parameters
Jeanne
Hello,
I am new to discus and bought 7 3" discus from hans discus and 2 of the discus seem to be hiding pretty close to each other in the back. I havent seen the 1 really eat all that much but I figured with 7 I wouldnt get too much aggression and I dont think I have seen any even when feeding. I have been doing about 80-90% water changes every other day.
Tank is
70g Rimless
Fx6 filter
black sand
black background
planted tank
85*f
All the other fish have been swimming around no issues. I have dont think its too much flow. I also have an airstone going 24/7
Thanks for any input. They dont seem super discolored or anything.
It could be the difference in care from his place to yours as I know Hans never changes that much water at any given time, with those large water changes are you checking your parameters
Jeanne
They were looking dark when i was doing less changes. But I can try for a while and see what happens. Drop to 50% every 3 days
Do you age your water? Do you know your pH swing? If the water is stable there is no such thing as too much WC.
Mama Bear
Water is pretty stable, it comes out of the tap at like 7.8-8 then raises to 8.2 so its not a large swing at all. I also dont buffer it at all. The one that hides and isnt eating that I can tell is more active after water changes but still has pretty good color and just hides behind the log and inbetween a crypt. the others are really starting to attack the food so maybe he is just still aclimating?!? I got them on the 31st so its only been 2 weeks.
These are my first discus but I have 2 other successful planted tanks.
180g High tech, 60g sump single black piranha and neo shrimp
8g low tech cube with King kongs red/blacks and blue bolts.
then this one. which was going to be High tech when they got bigger/more comfortable.
Thanks,
I take it back, he is fairly pale and his red eyes arent as red
I add a small bag of crushed corals in HOB filter to make a staple pH.
Grasshopper
Francis
Slythy if your pH swing was 0.2 I would say don't worry about aging your water, but at 0.4 that is getting to safe upper limit. Reducing the size and frequency of your wc's as Jeanne suggested may help, but can I suggest you try aging your water for this week's wc's and see if that helps to correct the problem?
Also watch for white stringy poop. The stress of moving and being in a new environment can give the immune system a hit and give hexatemia an opportunity to over colonize causing sickness. If you don't have pure metro on hand I would get some from JehmCo.com to have on hand.
I agree with Danny. My swing is just .4 and not ageing was stressing the fish. Still, it's strange that it's just the two of them. My kH is 4 and I have never needed coral.
Mama Bear
My KH is high like 13 so its not going to swing by much.
So its weird, here are pictures of him right before the waterchange.
And then during the water change when the water is low he comes out, colors up and swims with the other 7 no issues.
Then after water change is over then he goes back to hiding in that spot and loses some color. I dont really have the ability to age water right now. I will retest water with my ph meter tonight and get back with you guys.
Thanks,
Small discus in a planted tank is a real challenge. "Maybe you should think about getting them out of that tank". First, those discus have never seen anything but a bare tank and clean water and no surroundings, just a bunch of other discus in their past. Now, you have then in a planted tank; a big difference. A whole new environment with possible different bacterium, food and even chemistry change from where they were.
It would be interesting to see if things would change with those 2 fish if all the fish were moved to a BB.
Mama Bear
I dont really have the ability to set up another tank. And the other one comes out and eats and swims with the rest but keeps the albino company the most.
Wonder if i just keep up with water changes and give it some time it will come out of its shell like the other fish.
I have a silly question, and I'll let you answer before I go into detail, do you only have one albino
Jeanne