Many Discus Die Same Way Different Times

[Chinatown]

Here's the deal. I currently operate a 40 gallon planted discus tank. It is ran with an ideal Aqueon heater and an Aqueon Quietflow 55/75. The lighting is a single tube Tropical Fish light, somewhat better than what came packaged originally. There are around 3 small plants and 2 medium. I keep the ph around 6.6 and temp. at 84*F as recommend by a reliable source (my not-so-local discus breeder) Ammonia and nitrite are 0 while nitrate is 40ppm.

I started my tank roughly 6 months ago having 2 medium size discus. They did fine for about 2-3 weeks until i started having forever lasting issues. One would start losing an appetite for the Hikari frozen bloodworms I feed them 3 times daily even when put directly in front of. Then would constantly cower away at all times behind the filter in the corner of the tank. I called my discus seller and asked them. I ended up purchasing $40 of Dr. Discus meds. I treated for parasites among others and still no reconciliation with the fish. My discus eventually lost energy and will to live. It's body showed no signs of aggravation. I called back telling asking what could have happened. They told me a supposedly heart attack or kidney failure could have took place. I didn't believe that and later purchased 2 more discus soon. So then i had 3 medium size discus in doing well in the tank. The same thing happened to one of the new ones and the existing one by one. 3 lived for 3 weeks until one slowly died and then 2 weeks after that death the other died. I didn't purchase another discus for 2 months while the one i had in the tank lived on healthy but lonely.

I decided to purchase 3 baby discus for the tank. They lived for a while (month or so) until the cycle started again for the youngins. Soon I am left with 1 baby currently cowering away but still eating; body appears healthy along with my long-lived medium discus. It seems the odds are against my darling baby discus. I'm starting to think I never fully rid of the original parasites although has not affected just one of my discus. Help Please?

[strawberryblonde]

I just answered another thread tonight with someone who is having the same problem.

I'll offer the same advice: Water quality is the issue, along with what you are feeding your discus.

Discus in general, and in particular juvenile discus, need large daily water changes and 5-6 feedings per day of high quality discus foods. Frozen bloodworms don't provide all the necessary nutrients that they need in order to have a healthy immune system.

For water quality, the goal is to keep nitrates between 5-10ppm.

If you want to grow out discus, remove the sand and plants from your tank. Once that's done, paint the bottom and back of the tank white. The next thing is to thoroughly clean your filter media in some used tank water, then place a pre-filter on the intake before placing it back into the tank. Also wipe down the entire tank itself and sterilize it so that you don't pass along anything to your new discus.

After you've done all of that, you can purchase more discus. If they are smaller than 3" plan to do at least a 60% water change every single day. Check your nitrate levels for the first few weeks and adjust the amount of the daily WC according to the results. Aim for 5ppm with young discus.

Feedings can be frozen beefheart cubes, freeze dried blackworms (won't foul the water as quickly as beefheart), discus flakes, spirulina flakes, tetra bits and discus pellets. Be sure that they get at least 5 small feedings per day and that you carefully clean all uneaten food out of the tank each night when you do the water change.

Also be sure to rinse the pre-filter well in tap water at each water change and then rinse the filter media in the filter with used tank water once per week.

Once they reach 4"-5" you can cut back on the number of feedings, but increase the amount at each feeding slightly. Water changes should remain the same for at least the first year of their lives.

[Chinatown]

Thank you very much for the reply. I am just worried that such a large water change daily might affect the fish negatively? Where do you reckon i should purchase such omnifarious discus foods?

[strawberryblonde]

I hear that a lot from people who are new to discus keeping and it always surprises me. Can you tell me why you are worried that large water changes will negatively affect the fish? I'm trying to understand where that idea comes from so that I can help other people understand the concept of large water changes in the future. =)

I can assure you that a large daily water change won't harm your discus at all. The thing that will harm them is NOT doing the large daily water change. Discus have very particular needs and clean water is one of them. Juveniles need it more than adults! They will quickly get sick and die off if you don't change their water.

I'm not sure where you're from, but you can purchase great discus foods online at several places. If you do a search on google you can check for pricing and choose someone who doesn't charge an arm and a leg for shipping.

For my frozen beefheart I choose to buy from Doctors Foster and Smith. They have a hefty overnight shipping charge for all frozen foods, but the nice part is that it's the same price no matter how much you buy. So, I buy at least a dozen packages of frozen foods at one time. My last order was for 24 packages (they also have some nice bulk discounts). Kept in the coldest part of your freezer, 24 packages of cubes should last nearly a year.

For the freeze dried blackworms, I go straight to Al, the owner of this forum. My discus LOVE his worms and though they seem expensive when you first look at them, they are super high quality protein, they don't foul the water, they are easy for any size discus to eat and a 1 kilo package is HUGE! Store them in a cool dry place (I prefer to keep them in a dark place as well since light can destroy many types of vitamins and minerals) and they'll soon be your favorite food to offer.