How long can a discus go without eating?

[Alltimegreat]

I've got a young discus that hasn't eaten since I got him (2 weeks). He looks to be pretty healthy but simply will not eat. How much longer can he hold out before starving to death?

[dirtyplants]

I will no longer purchase fish with out knowledge of eating habits. I had one hold out for a month. Water quality just fine, I am still nursing him back to a more robust self. Now I get from breeders or Kenny's Discus which have an excellent track record. The ones I got from Kenny eat everything from the get go, real chow hounds. I can only say absolutely great things about Kenny's Discus.

[jsullins]

What is the temp of your tank?

[Kal-El]

I've got a young discus that hasn't eaten since I got him (2 weeks). He looks to be pretty healthy but simply will not eat. How much longer can he hold out before starving to death?

How many discus do you have in that tank and what size?

[DiscusLoverJeff]

I had an adult hold out for 3 months and I finally won that battle but it was a rough go of it as he was a beautiful male for breeding.

Knowing what variety you are trying to feed may help. If you can QT the little guy and raise the temp that mght help.

[Kal-El]

I had an adult hold out for 3 months and I finally won that battle but it was a rough go of it as he was a beautiful male for breeding.

Knowing what variety you are trying to feed may help. If you can QT the little guy and raise the temp that mght help.

Agreed. I've found that a group of young discus of 5-6 does best together and once the feed frenzy starts everyone eats even when their little belly is full. As Jeff said increasing the temp will help increase their metabolism and make them want to eat more (I like to set my juvie tank temp to 86-87 degree). Once they are in a good eating regime I lower the temp back down to 84.

[Alltimegreat]

I just have one discus (solid light orange). The tank is about 8 gallons. There is no heating or chemicals. My other fish are black tetra, red tetra, sumatra barb, and goldfish.

[Kal-El]

I just have one discus (solid light orange). The tank is about 8 gallons. There is no heating or chemicals. My other fish are black tetra, red tetra, sumatra barb, and goldfish.

There's your issue there. Discus are school fish. They do much better in a group of 6. They don't do well by them self, plus that tank is very small to be keeping discus in it. It will take this fellow much longer to get use to your place and routine.

[derekhayes1]

No heater? another problem. The waters gotta be to cold

[DiscusLoverJeff]

Wow, you have got to either get it a bigger home and more discus or sell it. Hell give it someone who has discus already. poor little guy is lonely, cold and sad.

[DiscusLoverJeff]

Where are you located? Maybe someone here can rescue it for you until you have the ability to go a lot bigger.

[Tony C]

The tank mates are part of the problem too, there are three fin nippers (tetras/barb) and a messy pig (goldfish) which are likely to compound the stress of being alone and cold with aggression and poor water quality.

[Second Hand Pat]

Is this the discus which was separated from it's mate in your other thread? If so and the mate is still available maybe consider picking up the mate and a larger tank so you have a proper discus tank without the dithers.

[strawberryblonde]

I'm really confused. You have 2 other threads that you posted.

The first one says that you purchased this discus and that it's only about 2" in size. The second post says that you got it from a friend and that it was half of a mated pair. And it's a year old already? Did I read that correctly?

Here's the basics that you need to know if you are going to keep that discus alive.

1) They require clean fresh water daily if they are juveniles (only you know if that 2" fish is actually a juvie or a 1 year old adult from a mated pair) and that water needs to be about 84F or 28C.

2) Discus do much better in a group. If you MUST keep just one, then it must be in the temps listed above, will need special food since it requires more protein than standard tropical fish AND it needs 10 gallons of water all for itself. Take that into account when you purchase a larger tank. 10 gallons for the discus, plus more for the rest of the fish. If you can't buy a larger tank, return the discus. It's the only humane thing to do.

3) Discus foods should consist of a variety of discus flakes, spirulina flakes, freeze dried blackworms or bloodworms, and possibly frozen beefheart - depening on whether or not it's a juvenile and still has room to grow.

4) Discus don't live well in community tanks with certain other types of tropical fish. This can be because of aggression, fin nipping or water temp incompatibility. Read up on the forums and ask questions in order to learn whether your current tank inhabitants are going to be compatible with your discus.