Scared Discus

[Christian74]

I have been having trouble lately with some of my tanks and was wondering if anyone could help me. Some of my discus have been acting very spooked lately when i walk passed the tank. Any one have an idea why this might be please help if you can

[Skip]

I have been having trouble lately with some of my tanks and was wondering if anyone could help me. Some of my discus have been acting very spooked lately when i walk passed the tank. Any one have an idea why this might be please help if you can

are you keeping up with water quality?

sometimes the personality of the fish in the tanks are a bunch of scaredy cats.. from my experience.. it goes away after some time.. now, i am assuming you have more than 6 discus in the problem tanks..

[OC Discus]

Like Skip said, many/most are skittish by nature. One thing that can bring them around is to drop a small pinch of food in the tank every couple of hours when you're home in place of larger feedings. Soon they will start to rush the glass when you come by.

[Christian74]

well i have a 125 with 14 discus and most of them are spoked and some dont eat. then one of my pairs is acting weird and i have 4 tony tan heckel crosses i just bought have them around a month now in a 20gal and they act the same way

[OC Discus]

Water quality is probably the mother of all discus problems- stress, disease, parasites.

With those bioloads, are you doing 50% wc daily? If not, a couple of large 80-90% wc in a row followed by daily 50% will help.

What ages and sizes are they?
What are your water parameters?
What has been your maintenance schedule for the past month?
How long have the fish been together?
The questionnaire would be a good place to start to give people a picture of what is going on.

[aquadon2222]

Discus are skittish by nature. Even if they were raised in a tank they have a hardwired instinct to flee from danger. Fast movement that scares one fish will instinctually tell them all to scatter. Have you ever seen a peacock bass? They are wicked predators in the Amazon, and there are birds that swoop down and pick off the slowest discus - shadows from above really freaks them out, too.

[Skip]

Hmmm..

Makes me wonder... discus are a good size fish in Amazon.. what predators would they have.. to flee from.. and why would fish like guppy . Molly or other community fish not be more skittish since they are even smaller and would for sure have more predators...

[John_Nicholson]

Some good info here and some BS......While all fish can be spooked healthy well care for discus should not be. Young fish should come to the front of the tank immediately to beg for food. I have seen tanks that had bad locations where shadows and such affected the fish but 99% of the time the thing that makes them spooky is ppor water and or health. How much water are you changing and are you aging it before you do the changes?

-john

[BODYDUB]

I agree John. Healthy discus should always be out and about looking for food, especially juvies.......................

[aquadon2222]

Healthy discus spend most of their time just chilling out or foraging for food. But like all prey fish will scatter with anything that spooks them, and discus are prey to the many large predatory fish and birds in the Amazon basin. Their stress bars and coloring have evolved to help them hide from these predators, one being a peacock bass, which can grow to 4' and can eat several large discus a day.

This instinct is present in all discus, even tank raised ones, albeit to a lesser extent. A loud noise, a kid smacking the glass, or sometimes just a sudden movement can trigger their quick flight instinct. The good news is that with time, your discus will get used to their surroundings and will become less easily spooked by normal motion around the tank.

[John_Nicholson]

I am sure you are a nice person but this post is lke so many of your others.....It shows that you have little real experience and you are constantly posting suggestions based on your limited experience. You need to stop giving out this bad advice. You are often in over your head and posting misleading advice. Not trying to be an arse but why don't you just enjoy the site and enjoy the fish. This need you seem to have to come across as an expert on discus is just going to cost someone in the future.

-john


Healthy discus spend most of their time just chilling out or foraging for food. But like all prey fish will scatter with anything that spooks them, and discus are prey to the many large predatory fish and birds in the Amazon basin. Their stress bars and coloring have evolved to help them hide from these predators, one being a peacock bass, which can grow to 4' and can eat several large discus a day.

This instinct is present in all discus, even tank raised ones, albeit to a lesser extent. A loud noise, a kid smacking the glass, or sometimes just a sudden movement can trigger their quick flight instinct. The good news is that with time, your discus will get used to their surroundings and will become less easily spooked by normal motion around the tank.

[stereopaul511]

I am sure you are a nice person but this post is lke so many of your others.....It shows that you have little real experience and you are constantly posting suggestions based on your limited experience. You need to stop giving out this bad advice. You are often in over your head and posting misleading advice. Not trying to be an arse but why don't you just enjoy the site and enjoy the fish. This need you seem to have to come across as an expert on discus is just going to cost someone in the future.

-john

Hello to all! I've been enjoying this site and learning a LOT from reading. Please excuse my ignorance Mr. Nicholson. I do consider myself a novice ( to say the least ) when it comes to raising healthy Discus. I've read and re- read aquadon2222's post and I don't see where he or she has given "bad advice". Please help me by pointing out the misleading advise in this post. I want to learn as much as I can so I can be as successful as you and others on this site! Thanks to all of you.

[John_Nicholson]

He has given bad advise in several threads. The biggest problem here is that a healthy, well cared for discus is not shy or spooky. Usually when this happens they are either sick or are suffering from poor water conditions. Telling someone that discus are supposed to be spooky is misleading and in this case could keep the orginal poster from finding the true source of their issue. I have been doing this for a very long time and I don't have any clue how many discus I have raised but the only year that I really kept count I raised and sold 6000+ discus. Lots of things have changed through the years but the one thing that has remained the same is there is always some internet expert. That person usually has very limited real experience but yet they want to be big time so that answer lots of questions....most of them wrong.

-john

[nc0gnet0]

http://forum.simplydiscus.com/showthread.php?111853-Beefheart/page3

http://forum.simplydiscus.com/showthread.php?112256-Shy-discus-and-my-planted-tank&p=1071645&viewfull=1#post1071645

http://forum.simplydiscus.com/showthread.php?112331-best-shape-of-a-discus-tank&p=1071317&highlight=#post1071317

http://forum.simplydiscus.com/showthread.php?112186-when-and-who-developed-the-Rafflesia-Discus/page2

http://forum.simplydiscus.com/showthread.php?111941-Is-inbreeding-and-perfect-food-and-water-leading-to-a-weaker-species&p=1064594&highlight=#post1064594

http://forum.simplydiscus.com/showthread.php?111161-Is-bigger-better&p=1055671&highlight=#post1055671

Nothing wrong with trying to help new users, but it always helps if your information is correct.....just sayin......

[yim11]

Hello to all! I've been enjoying this site and learning a LOT from reading. Please excuse my ignorance Mr. Nicholson. I do consider myself a novice ( to say the least ) when it comes to raising healthy Discus. I've read and re- read aquadon2222's post and I don't see where he or she has given "bad advice". Please help me by pointing out the misleading advise in this post. I want to learn as much as I can so I can be as successful as you and others on this site! Thanks to all of you.

Hopefully the above posts clear it up for you, but to reiterate what John mentions, healthy fish wont be jumpy or spooky at loud noises, kids hitting the tank, etc, in my experience. I don't know how many times I've knocked on a tank trying to get a fish to move for a pic. (never works lol)

Where were need to be careful is leaving folks with the impression that their jumpy/spooky fish are ok or that its normal (going back to OPs post) so in this case there is more than likely a water issue that needs to be resolved.

[aquadon2222]

Im relatively new to discus but have been an aquarist for 20 years and I will stick by my observation that fish can spook if they're frightened. Of course water quality and stress would be the first things to look for, but that has been stated several time on the thread and I'm merely trying to offer some comfort to a fellow member that it could be something else. Also trying to diagnose a situation based on a couple of sentences has an element of uncertainty to it. We don't have all of the formation of the OPs situation - how often does it happen? has the tank been moved recently to a different part of the house? Have you rearranged any wood or plants? Is the tank in a highly trafficked place? Very hard to make a black/white diagnosis withou knowing all of the facts, and there very well may be several things at play here.
Two of my posts were indeed intended to foment debate about differing philosophies and personal goals of fish keeping, I think it's fun to discuss but apologies to anyone who was offended. I read the other posts that were linked above and it just looks like forum chatter to me so I can't say for sure what the issue is with those.
Good luck with your fish Christian74!

[John_Nicholson]

Well I could agree with you but what good would it do for us both to be wrong.

-john


Im relatively new to discus but have been an aquarist for 20 years and I will stick by my observation that fish can spook if they're frightened. Of course water quality and stress would be the first things to look for, but that has been stated several time on the thread and I'm merely trying to offer some comfort to a fellow member that it could be something else. Also trying to diagnose a situation based on a couple of sentences has an element of uncertainty to it. We don't have all of the formation of the OPs situation - how often does it happen? has the tank been moved recently to a different part of the house? Have you rearranged any wood or plants? Is the tank in a highly trafficked place? Very hard to make a black/white diagnosis withou knowing all of the facts, and there very well may be several things at play here.
Two of my posts were indeed intended to foment debate about differing philosophies and personal goals of fish keeping, I think it's fun to discuss but apologies to anyone who was offended. I read the other posts that were linked above and it just looks like forum chatter to me so I can't say for sure what the issue is with those.
Good luck with your fish Christian74!

[aquadon2222]

Ok, truce...I'm just in this cool hobby for fun.