New Discus Wont eat

[Keep it Aquatic]

Hello everyone,, My new Red Turquoise arrived 2 days ago, They acclimated well,,But they will not eat,,I have tried NLS Pellets>>Ocean Nutrition Flakes>>Hikari Blood worms,,,The tank is 55g heavily planted,,Perameters are 0Ammo>>0Nitrite>0-5Nitrate,,They are swimming around ok,,Temp is 82,,What could be the problem???

[BigBoom217]

It's generally good practice to ask your supplier what they feed their discus and then use that. When my discus don't eat I also have garlic guard on hand and soak the food in that. I just got new discus on Wednesday, asked and found out they were eating beef mix so I soaked some beef heart cubes in garlic guard and they gobbled it right up.

[Altum Nut]

Welcome to Simply Discus Harvey.
I would not stress to much as any new environment may sometimes do that. In addition, Discus can go weeks without eating.
What size are they and are there any other fish in tank?
In most cases...good practice is to have a separate bare-bottom quarantine tank for them to settle into first.

...Ralph

[warblad79]

I have a hint, you might be back in disease section due to heavily planted tank.

[Filip]

It can be adjustment periiod.
it can be bad watter quallity due to a substrate heavily planted tank.
It can be cross-contamination with other fish due to lack of quarantine.
Its hard to tell givven your tank and fish info.

[Keep it Aquatic]

Thanks,, They are Medium size>>I have 3x gold barbs>8x cories>>1x Red Tail Shark>>1X Synendontis Cat>>2x Black Mollies>>1Platy>>And 2Angel Fish Male&FM,,I think I may have to remove the angels, when they spawn they are really aggressive,,,ur right, I really should have Quarintined first..

[Keep it Aquatic]

I hope disease is not the problem,,All other fish seem to be ok,,Eating good,swimming good,

[White Worm]

Get some dried worms from Al. If they don't eat that stuff, they won't eat anything. Every type of fish I have loves that crack he makes. It's also cleaner for a planted tank environment. Plants don't make for an unhealthy environment; the lack of clean water does and you have a pretty diverse group of fish that don't do well with discus. They will need time to acclimate but it becomes a lot more difficult when they have to compete in that tank.

[Jack L]

It's generally good practice to ask your supplier what they feed their discus and then use that. When my discus don't eat I also have garlic guard on hand and soak the food in that. I just got new discus on Wednesday, asked and found out they were eating beef mix so I soaked some beef heart cubes in garlic guard and they gobbled it right up.

+1
and ask what temp they keep them at too

[Jack L]

Thanks,, They are Medium size>>I have 3x gold barbs>8x cories>>1x Red Tail Shark>>1X Synendontis Cat>>2x Black Mollies>>1Platy>>And 2Angel Fish Male&FM,,I think I may have to remove the angels, when they spawn they are really aggressive,,,ur right, I really should have Quarintined first..

IME Discus didn't to so great in a community tank.

[walt]

I would get rid of all of the fish you have in that tank and only keep discus friendly fish with your discus. As far as not eating its only been 2 days I've had discus not eat for weeks and they come around, just change water at least 50% as many times a week as you can.

[Altum Nut]

I hope disease is not the problem,,All other fish seem to be ok,,Eating good,swimming good,
Discus when stressed can very easily develop disease. Medium 3-4 inches....
- No quarantine is not good practice.
- 3-4 inch discus will not grow to their full potential in your community tank
- Over-stocking is not a good practice.
- Should have researched further before taking the plunge with discus
Instead of separating Angels....I would offer a better environment for Discus.

...Ralph

[strawberryblonde]

As others have said, growing out discus in a heavily planted community tank is nearly impossible to do well.

You haven't mentioned how many discus you purchased. The tank sounds like it's already stocked to its limit, so if you want to give your discus the best chance at good growth and health, move them to a separate bare bottom tank and start doing large daily water changes. They will perk up and eat when they feel comfortable in their environment.

As far as numbers go, if you have fewer than 5-6 discus you are going to need to add more to the tank. And if you do need to add more discus, be sure to QT them properly.

[fishguy456]

I agree with what all of the others are saying... I have personally tried to put 3 or 4(I'm guessing thats how many you bought) in a 75 gallon planted tank. One of, if not THE biggest mistakes you can make behind too few water changes/not feeding enough. Once I converted to bare bottom and it makes everything 100x easier. Before I converted to bb I flushed, oh I don't know 100? 300? dollars replenishing discus like an idiot thinking it was just bad stock and not the tank, however after lots of research into this forum its obvious it was just the planted tank and the gravel I had. Whichever way you choose, good luck, and I highly advocate for the bb tank!;)