Acclimating new Discus into an established Discus tank

[Joe Amazon]

I recently added a new Discus to my already established cycled Discus tank. He is the same size as the other Discus 4 inches and is the 7th addition to the tank. Like most hobbyist, I am going to upgrade to a bigger tank, but currently have a 60 gallon. He is still hiding off and on and is extremely skittish when I approach the tank after 3 weeks. He started eating after 1 week of being in the tank and now has gone on a hunger strike for the last couple days. I've tried adding garlic to blood worms to get him to eat, but still refuses to eat them, although he may be eating when I'm not watching. He spends most of the time hiding, however, he does come out to hang with the other Discus too. He also defends his territory and has no problem pushing back other Discus that provoke him. I know he is on the bottom of the totem pole, but usually my new Discus eventually adjust to the group. Any thoughts or suggestions on getting him acclimated to the group without him hiding half the time and getting him to eat? I feed the tanks blood worms with garlic and that didn't work. Any info would be much appreciated!

Water parameters
PH- 6.2 (ro water)
Temp- 86
0 Ammonia (actually ammonium?)
0 Nitrite
30 ppms (recently added Anubias plant and Java Moss attached to driftwood to help keep nitrates down)
Water changing twice a week, 20-25%
Feed twice a day, small portions (brine shrimp, blood worms, beefheart, discus cobalt flakes, etc)
60 gallon long
Marineland Cannister Filter 360 GPH with HOB penguin and two sponge filters on each side for added aeration.
Established tank running for 1 year.

[warblad79]

"Water changing twice a week, 20-25%" this one caught my attention

[Filip]

Did you quarantine him prior introducing? If not ,maybe he caught something from other fish.
Your WC regime is too small and nitrates are too big for discus .
Lower down your temperature to 82 Fahrenheit.
Also observe his feces, if its it brown or white .

[Second Hand Pat]

Hi Joey, I would suggest upping your water changes to 50% daily as a first course of action. Guessing you did not QT your new fish or introduce a hero fish. Here's a great thread on how to quarantine new fish http://forum.simplydiscus.com/showthread.php?21044-Quarantine-*questions. I would suggest reading the entire thread.
Pat

[Las Vegas]

Like the other posts say, you need more water changes. The Discus has been in the tank for a month now and you said it defends itself and eats. As long as you don't see any signs of illness on it or any of the other Discus I would say just let it be and watch them. But increase those water changes before the discus becomes ill and infects all the other discus.

[Joe Amazon]

I did a big good size water change yesterday around 40% and nitrates are currently between 10-20 ppms. The plants should help with the nitrates and give extra cover for security sense. I also de-wormed all of my Discus with Flubendazole and Praziquantel. I dip the lights down a bit and lowered my temp like filip suggested. Thanks for your response and to all others who responded.

[Phillydubs]

You forgot to mention if the fish in question was quarantined. ??

[Las Vegas]

I did a big good size water change yesterday around 40% and nitrates are currently between 10-20 ppms.

Hey Joe, I don't think you should be considering that a big water change. My minimum water change is 50% on every 3rd day. Minimum that is. When my discus had shown signs of gill flukes, I was doing med PP with 99% water change every 2nd day for almost a month. Now that they fine again, I do 50% wc on 3rd day and 75% wc on 3rd wc. So I think you still need to up that water change. Just my opinion. Goodluck.