BAM
09-27-2013, 05:11 PM
Hi everyone. I have been a member for years, but have been busy and not on line much, although I have continued to have discus. I was reading an older thread a couple of pages back about gradual weight loss and eventual death of discus, and have an observation I would like to share and hear comments on. In a healthy, fat, and mature discus, the period from the beginning of weight loss to death can take six months or more, while body food reserves are used up, I would guess. I have lost fish for two reasons i can identify. The first reason is straight forward, and the second less so.
1. Withholding of a favorite food. I read years ago here that if a discus gets hungry, it will expand its acceptable food choices. I HAD a discus once that would only eat California black worms. It would rather starve than switch, and it did.
2. We all know that discus have a pecking order. I can list which fish is number 1, 2, 3, 4, and etc. The fish on the bottom of the list either does not make it past its youth, or learns to cope. That bottom of the list fish may be stunted, but surprisingly competitive. THE FISH AT RISK IS NUMBER ONE. For a variety of reasons, from time to time, another fish may do well and challenge number one. The stress of the challenges can wear a fish down. At feeding time the fish spends more time dickering and less time eating, but the problem comes if the number one fish gets demoted! They are stressed, scared, looking over their shoulder for the new number one, maybe won't eat off the surface, or won't eat off the bottom of the tank. The fish is too busy looking over its shoulder! As the fish drops weight, it continues to drop in the pecking order, and everything snowballs until the fish dies.
The fish is not sick, although may become sick due to the stress. I have successfully saved such fish by removing them to a less stressful smaller tank at may office, either alone or with its mate, in the company of a few tetras and a cory. Such fish have regained weight and lived for years. An attempt to bring one back to the 75 gallon tank at home after 2 or 3 years proved successful in the short term, but ultimately unsuccessful.
Have you had fish that could not survive not being number one?
1. Withholding of a favorite food. I read years ago here that if a discus gets hungry, it will expand its acceptable food choices. I HAD a discus once that would only eat California black worms. It would rather starve than switch, and it did.
2. We all know that discus have a pecking order. I can list which fish is number 1, 2, 3, 4, and etc. The fish on the bottom of the list either does not make it past its youth, or learns to cope. That bottom of the list fish may be stunted, but surprisingly competitive. THE FISH AT RISK IS NUMBER ONE. For a variety of reasons, from time to time, another fish may do well and challenge number one. The stress of the challenges can wear a fish down. At feeding time the fish spends more time dickering and less time eating, but the problem comes if the number one fish gets demoted! They are stressed, scared, looking over their shoulder for the new number one, maybe won't eat off the surface, or won't eat off the bottom of the tank. The fish is too busy looking over its shoulder! As the fish drops weight, it continues to drop in the pecking order, and everything snowballs until the fish dies.
The fish is not sick, although may become sick due to the stress. I have successfully saved such fish by removing them to a less stressful smaller tank at may office, either alone or with its mate, in the company of a few tetras and a cory. Such fish have regained weight and lived for years. An attempt to bring one back to the 75 gallon tank at home after 2 or 3 years proved successful in the short term, but ultimately unsuccessful.
Have you had fish that could not survive not being number one?