I am just scratching my head on this one!

[dirtyplants]

Two new discus bought locally. Beautiful fish. Turk Red, Brilliant Blue 5 to 6 inches my guess.
The BB was hard to get and got smashed fairly hard on the drift wood from breeders tank.
This is not a bash on the breeders. Placed in a large planted qt tank. Removed discus from that tank. Removed all the barbs that breed in there but left albino bristle nose in. They breed in there also.
The two would not eat but did pair up.
Visually they both looked fine, color good bright, eyes bright, but very shy would run in opposite direction when I would feed them. They just would not eat. Fins looked great no sign of parasites. Started getting thin, and at this point I am stressing out more then these discus seem to be. After about a week the Turk started looking around for food. Managed to get some frozen blood worms down her. Now she runs for food and eats from my hand. She looks good.
My BB (Brilliant Blue or Bad Boy) was wasting away, I pulled him out of QT and placed in sick tank. Oh before I did that I read on some forum to place my least favorite fish in tank to see if it would become sick since no visual symptoms. I have no least favorite fish the barbs are a cross and have spawned extremely silver fish.
So I put my aggressive little discus pigeon - whom I love dearly - looks like a trigger fish in markings, with the two in QT. He was and is just fine.

Ammonia zero
Nitrites zero
Nitrates almost zero (Get only from tap water)
PH around 7.6 after aging water.
88.degrees

Water from tap placed into 55 gallon then run through high quality charcoal for about an hour, then run through micron socks until I remember to turn the pump off. Water then aged for stability. Looks like glass!

BB just would not eat. So placed in sick tank which is only a ten gallon, added a table spoon of salt. raised temp to 90. Added a clove of garlic you could smell it in the room.
Did this for three days, now very skinny he looks great visually, color, eyes, no sign of parasites. Changed water 75% every day adding the salt back in each time. Read everything I could find.
Still not eating. As time went on I did note his eyes were fixed he was hiding in a corner. Still no visual signs of disease.
Today he looked a bit more alert. He was watching me! Hmmm scary! :) but I noticed he was listing to one side a bit. I tried the FBW again, he showed interest! Started picking around a bit in the corners. OK this is good but the listing had me worried so I placed some broad spectrum anti protozoan agent in (Marc Weiss Product for Discus). With in an hour he was pecking for food, swimming around, and eyes moving again.

So what am I to do? He wants to eat now that the meds is in the water? Do I feed like normal (very skinny) with the meds in or do a water change then feed him and after eating place meds back into tank?
I guess I am asking will the meds make the food toxic? Will the formaldehyde, roughly about 15%, in meds pickle the stomach if in the food?

[dirtyplants]

No advice?
Well I have an update! My Brilliant Blue did show signs of eating. A frozen blood worm maybe two. But that is about it. He looks great swimming around, yes he is active again. He even begs for food, yet when I feed him he turns away, tail facing me. I am beginning to get a complex here. :( His med. time is over so I thought I would throw in his girl friend to see if her eating habits may spawn more interest. He is well enough to declare territory, and keep his girl at bay from the food yet still he will not eat himself. So out of frustration I placed him in a community tank thinking he eats or he dies. Well he is happy he looks great acts well but still will not eat. He is interested but still turns his tail to me. I decided to spend my Saturday morning watching him, I had offered all food flakes, pellets, shrimp brine, BH, FBW, shows interest but not enough to eat. But then I saw him nibbling on something, from the glass. Watching him closely I noticed he was eating baby snails! I never heard of snail eating discus. :confused: So the battle is on it is him or me, meaning he eats or he dies, I will no longer pamper him.

[strawberryblonde]

I'm glad he's doing better. How long have you had him and how long was he in QT?

It's pretty common for adult discus to have a hard time adjusting to a new tank and surroundings. Mine can easily stop eating for several weeks if I move them to a new tank. It might be that moving him to the hospital tank restarted his "I don't like this so I won't eat" clock. And now that he's in the main tank, he might do it all over again. All you can do is to leave him alone, keep the lighting fairly low, but NOT turned off! If you turn all lights off, he'll simply go through this again when you finally turn the lights back on. LOL

I wouldn't worry too much if you don't see him eating for another week or two. I'd bet that he'll find food somewhere in the tank and eat it when you're not looking. And eventually he'll acclimate to his new surroundings and get more outgoing.

[dirtyplants]

Thanks for your input! It helps me very much, discus refusing to eat with no signs of disease drives my mind into an unfathomable list of possibilities. I had him for three weeks my qt tank has plants (all tanks have plants except sick tank). After I threw him into a small community tank and said eat or die he got the hang of it. So I think he will make it. He is skinny but he is now coming to my hand.
He was bashed fairly hard as breeder tried to get him from the tank. Do you think they have long term memories? Do they hold grudges? I know you are wondering if I am a little out there but damn I think they think sometimes.

[strawberryblonde]

I don't think they hold grudges, but the stress of catching him plus the knock on the head may well have left him timid and afraid of hands. They can get a nice bruised head too...or concussion if you want to get technical, which can set them back for a couple of week while they recuperate.

Just clean water, no bright lights in his eyes and time to recover should do the trick for him. I know how hard it can be to have to watch and wait while they hide and refuse to eat.