Discus acting very skittich

[Laney47]

Hi all,
This is the first time I've posted on here and my husband has asked me to see if I can get some answers. We have five beautiful discus that we have had for approximately 3 months. We do a water change twice a week, they are in a 55 gallon tank. We have noticed in the past month or so, a couple of them are "fighting" and by that I mean, hitting each other nose to nose. Not hard but nevertheless, enough to know they are not happy with each other. The other day we did a water change and also re-arranged the tank with the driftwood, rocks and plants. Since then, they have all been acting so unusual, scared if you will. When we walk up to the tank they freak out and start darting back and forth and trying to hide. It doesn't matter if we walk up very slowly either because they try to hide in the plants and all seem to gather together. Also, we've been feeding them bloodworms, black worms and beef heart alternately but yesterday and this morning when we try to feed them they stay in the back of the tank, hiding. They are not eating and we are very upset because we are getting ready to leave on vacation in 3 days and we're freaked that if they don't eat, we will lose them.

Can anyone give us any suggestions as we are pretty new to owning discus and they have already because our "sons and daughters". The thought of losing any of them is very upsetting. Could the re-arrangment of their tank have anything to do with this? Water temp is good, water tests out perfectly. The light comes on around 4 AM every day and stays on for 4 or 5 hours during the day when we're gone. We do have a TV in the room that they are in and there is almost always lights on until around 8PM.

Typically we put the cubes in our fingers and the minute we put it in the water, they all come up and feed right away but lately that isn't the case. This morning when I opened the top of the tank one of them jumped up and almost jumped out of the tank. He splashed so much water my shirt got drenched as did the floor and my table! I'm really worried as this is just not the normal behavior of them. Any advice or suggestions would really be appreciated.Thanks so much!

[Braydon00]

Since you changed the décor around they are just adjusting to the new layout. I wouldn't worry yet, they are deciding new boundaries and will be skiddish for a few more days. As for your vacation discus can go a couple weeks without eating. Make sure you do a water change the day before you leave. Mine are in my living room as well, and I walk around the tank all the time. They will adjust, give them a week or so.

[Laney47]

Since you changed the décor around they are just adjusting to the new layout. I wouldn't worry yet, they are deciding new boundaries and will be skiddish for a few more days. As for your vacation discus can go a couple weeks without eating. Make sure you do a water change the day before you leave. Mine are in my living room as well, and I walk around the tank all the time. They will adjust, give them a week or so.

Thank you so much...I already feel better, but would that be the reason they are not eating also? I supposed it's best to not mess around with their environment. I feel so bad when I see them so scared. :)

[Braydon00]

It could be the reason, new environments can cause them to not eat for a couple days. They wont starve themselves to death, they'll eat once they acclimate. Only other reason I can think of them not eating is fluctuations in the water: ammonia, nitrates, pH, temp, new added fish, different light cycles. Add little food at feeding time so you don't fowl the water. Mine had the same behavior when I changed my set up, took them about 5 days to finally stop hiding and start eating. Don't worry they're just figuring things out and establishing boundaries.

[Laney47]

Again, thank you so much. I'm going to keep a close eye on them but I feel much better thinking it was the change of environment. One more question, I'm wondering if it's better to maybe do the water change two days before we leave just to be sure there are no problems, and someone mentioned possibly using an automatic feeder? Or would it be best to just feed them good the day before we leave and then not worry about feedings for the 10 days we'll be gone? Just your opinion. Again, Thanks so much!

[bluelagoon]

"we do a WC twice a week".Is that a 50% or 100%.They will fight for dominance,which is natural.

[Braydon00]

Yes a BIG water change 2 days before leaving would still be ok. Automatic feeders are good to use for freeze dried blackworms, just make sure to break them up so it doesn't get clogged. Nothing frozen or liquid in the feeder. When I leave I set it to feed 2X per day with a little more in the morning. Don't feed too much or you'll come home to an algae covered tank (I know I've made the mistake). Honestly if you feed a good amount the day before you leave they can go 10 days without eating. Its your call really. I would recommend keeping the lights off in the tank longer while you're gone. Maybe leave them on for 4-6 hours a day, this will help with algae as well.

[Laney47]

"we do a WC twice a week".Is that a 50% or 100%.They will fight for dominance,which is natural.

It's about a 50% WC usually. We've noticed quite a bit of "fighting" going on. Now it seems they are all after one another. At first it was only two of them, but it seems they are all getting in on the act. I worry about them darting so much and hiding but since I'm understanding it could be due to the environment and them once again getting used to it, I hope that is the reason. They really do all have such unique personalities. I had no idea fish could be so much fun to watch. We've named them all and also believe that one, (maybe two) will be laying eggs soon. One of them already did but they were all eaten. Funny to see how the male and female (at least we're assuming they are male and female) seemed to guard one spot, a corner, and never let any of the others swim into that area. Also I was reading about how they don't like shadows or dark spots so will try to be more cautious when approaching their tank and with what I'm wearing. It just seems strange because when we first got them about three months ago, they were fine with us walking up to the tank, fine with feeding and all of them would eat right out of our fingers. Such a change of behavior really has us wondering.

[Laney47]

Thanks so much....I really didn't want to have to go buy an automatic feeder and I think maybe not feeding them for that amount of time would be best in our situation. I just hope they eat BEFORE we leave! I do have a friend who will coming over to check on the tank occasionally and make sure everything is okay. If need be, she can feed them for us, but we'll just see how it goes. Thanks again for your advice! It's really helping my peace of mind!

[zimmjeff]

how many fish and what size? Jeff

[Laney47]

We have five....one small, 3 medium size and 1 large (I'm sorry, my husband is the one who could tell you in inches).

[kris2341]

If the water changes cannot be met, DON'T feed them while you are on vacation, much more can go wrong than if they are just left alone.

Healthy adult discus can last over a month without food without problems and younger ones several weeks. With young fish, the 10 days of no water change and feeding will mess them up really good as far as growth and wellness.

Depending on how big the discus are, you generally are better off just leaving them alone for vacation and just have someone monitor them but NOT feed them UNLESS that person is willing to take up your maintenance routine.

I personally would fast the fish for a day, well yours are already fasted so this step has been complete, and then change 100% of the water with aged conditioned tap a day before your trip, but I'm sure just dropping the water to the top of the fish's heads and filling from there will do just nicely if you arent comfortable with your fish being drained out of their water for awhile (if they aren't used to this, not a good idea either).

[Laney47]

Thanks Kris....lots of good advice. I'm going to rum all this by my husband. My main concern was their behavior and not eating but I'm seeing that it's all probably nothing to worry about. Thanks so everyone for your help!

[Tankster]

Laney - My recommendation. Do the water change the morning of the day before you leave. Doing it in the morning will give you 24 hours to keep an eye on the tank to make sure nothing wonky happens with that last water change.

As far as feeding, the night before that last water change would be best. You want as little biological materiel (including poop) in the tank for the duration of your time away to avoid any ammonia spikes. Feeding the evening before the last water change will give them time to process and pass most of that last feeding before you depart. Discus can survive over a month without food so you will not kill them by not feeding them just before you leave. The biggest threat is ammonia and the best way to avoid it is to stop feeding a day before you leave.


*Edit - I see someone else posted pretty much the same thing while i was crafting this post :)

[kris2341]

yea, discus freak out when they are exposed to something they arent used to.

It was best not to rearrange the tank before leaving for vacation, but it shouldn't be a big problem.

As far as rearranging the tank is concerned, you either rarely do it ever, or do it constantly so they get used to it. If there is no need to rearrange the tank, just leave it.

...Though rearranging sometimes needs to be done for cleaning but I will leave whether or not that is necessary to your judgement, as long as there is no crevice where a lot of detritus can get trapped and still be exposed to the water column, there's no need to rearrange anything and just vacuum siphon the surface.

[Laney47]

Laney - My recommendation. Do the water change the morning of the day before you leave. Doing it in the morning will give you 24 hours to keep an eye on the tank to make sure nothing wonky happens with that last water change.

As far as feeding, the night before that last water change would be best. You want as little biological materiel (including poop) in the tank for the duration of your time away to avoid any ammonia spikes. Feeding the evening before the last water change will give them time to process and pass most of that last feeding before you depart. Discus can survive over a month without food so you will not kill them by not feeding them just before you leave. The biggest threat is ammonia and the best way to avoid it is to stop feeding a day before you leave.


*Edit - I see someone else posted pretty much the same thing while i was crafting this post :)

yes, I see that....I'm seeing that everyone is saying just about the same thing. The only problem we have with doing the water change the morning before we leave is because we both work and leave the house pretty early. We wouldn't be able to do the change until early evening or around 5:30 or 6pm. and then we're leaving the next day mid morning. I guess we'll just have to try to figure out what to do. At least we know now why they are acting the way they are and essentially what we need to do and not worry while we're on vacation.

[Laney47]

I want to thank everyone for the quick replies. We'll do what we have to do and take it from there. As long as I know we won't be coming home to fish floating on the water I'll be okay with that. Thanks again to everyone for all the input. this forum is great!!