Hunger strike

[carrie.a.gordon]

Hello, I purchased 6 new discus juvies on Saturday. It's now Monday evening and I'm not sure they've been eating. I've been trying to give them space so adding food and leaving room since I think they aren't used to me yet. But my lemon tetras are looking awfully fat and pleased with themselves at this point. Should I be worried yet?

[a volar]

Wellcome to Simply.....

Tell us a little more about your tank and fish, maybe we can find the problem

[ROOK45]

What's your tank temp and what size are these juvies? What are the other tankmates?


Jon

[carrie.a.gordon]

Temp is 83. 6 lemon tetras, two rams, two checkerboards, about 7 otos. It's a moderately planted 75 gallon tank. Water chemistry looks good. Should I bring the temp higher?


These guys are tricky. Btw. I'm sitting on the floor with my back to the tank and they are staring holes in my back but as soon as I approach to feed them they move away.

[carrie.a.gordon]

Oh sorry. The discus are 2.5 inches

[a volar]

size?

[a volar]

you read my mind....... lol

[a volar]

They are too small; you'll have better luck if you grow them out in a bare bottom tank and maybe a little higher temp.

[carrie.a.gordon]

Thanks!

[Kal-El]

Tank is too big for your small juvies. Put them in a smaller tank until they are 4-5" before putting them in the 75 gallon. They will be happier in a 29gallon BB with low lighting. After they get use to you and the lighting you can adjust the lighting back to normal if you like. I personally like to keep my temp for small discus at 84 degrees and adults at 82. They will come out and eat once in a smaller tank as long as they are healthy and not sick.

[Etek]

Also when you add them to the 75 get rid of the octos unless you like suction marks on your discus

[dagray]

I raised out some dicus to dollar size in a breeder box inside my main tank feeding two to five times a day. when I felt the first breeder box was too small I put a second breeder in the tank and split up the discu until they were almost two inches when I let them out into the main tank.

The advantage is they come running when someone is by the tank looking for food and now they are all but one in the 3.5-6 inch range. The idea is localized feeding so that they don't have to compete with other tank mates for their food.

I have seven 2-2.5 inch discus in a 20 gallon tall BB and am getting them used to me now (if I had a smaller tank I would have put them in there).

[carrie.a.gordon]

So I turned up the temp to 86, and I was going to partition the tank to give them their own end of it but they started eating bloodworms as soon as the temp went up and they have been hunting around together like they should. http://img.tapatalk.com/d/13/03/07/ugybedam.jpghttp://img.tapatalk.com/d/13/03/07/uja9ureg.jpg