Planted Tank Discus stressed

[Bumbala]

Hi!

This is the first time I am keeping discus in my tank. I had experience on tetras and always kept them successfully. But, I'm kinda bored with tetras :)

Tank details:
Size: 60 G (heavily planted)
Lighting: 3 WPG, 7 hours
Temperature: 82 F
PH: 6.0-7.0 (Pressurized CO2)
KH: 4.0
GH: 4.0

First I bought 4 younglings (around 1.5-2"). After a day they started eating food, swimming around, chasing other fish. Then I got 3 elders (3-4"). These elders are stressed from the day I introduced them to my tank. They don't eat food, hide all the time. They only come out when the lights are out. Even when I walk to the room, they start escaping, swimming wildly around. I am fed up with this situation. If I can not solve this situation, I will give these fish away and try angel fish :)

Thanks.

[Second Hand Pat]

Hi Bumbala and welcome to Simply. If you want long term success with these fish I would suggest some time spent in the beginners section may be worth your time. A rough guess to the issue with your larger group is the lights are too bright. If the lights are off and you walk into the room, what happens?
Pat

[Solid]

It could be a number of things, including sick fish, tank location, etc but try to stick it out at least a few months. I can tell you from my experience, it can take a few months for discus to become acclimated to planted tank. Most discus are raised in bare bottom tanks with white backgrounds and with 20+ other fish in the tank. When they get thrown in a planted tank it is a whole new environment for them. You should also try moving slowly and smoothly around the tank for a while. When you feed them hang out around the tank where they can see you. This will cause them to associate you with food and then they will start begging at the front of the tank every time they see you. They might still get scared and bolt every now and then, but they should calm down after a while.

Good luck and welcome to SD!

[JohnniG]

Last time I had discus. A few years ago. Same thing happend to me.