Jumping Discus

[jeff12]

Two of my discus in my runt tank has jumped out. The 1st one happened about a week ago and that one has some whirling disease so I thought it was maybe the frantic swimming around the tank caused it to jump. Now today, I found another one, Golden Lollipop, on the ground in front of the tank. The golden lollipop showed no signs of whirling disease. I wouldn't even consider it a runt, it was placed in the runt tank because there was no more space in my other tank. There is only a small opening the back of the tank because of the lid design. Are they jumping because they are sick? Both has died.

[Filip]

Not necessarily Jeff. They can jump even if they are perfectly healthy.
But having seen Whirling behaviour before, this could be the main cause of your jumpers IMO .
When my discus had whirling symptoms I saved them from the floor dry out a couple of times .
Luckily it has happend right after WCs or feeding , and I was there to put them back onba couple of occasions.
Put the complete lid on the tank ASAP.

[DISCUS STU]

Discus jump regardless of whirling disease. Mine seem to do it when they're overcrowded, which they they often can be. During heat waves like this I would normally like to keep the lids open but I've lost at least one like that, the other jumped into a 5 gal. bucket of RO water that happened to be next to the tank and lived to be placed back into the tank.

Both had originally been wild fish, neither had whirling disease and both did this during hotter than normal weather during the summer in non air conditioned rooms. Coincidence? Maybe, maybe not.

My only conclusion is that tight tanks lids make for healthy Discus!

[monilovesdiscus]

If the tank it too hot, you can buy screens from a hardware store like the kind which has holes for underneath lamps. It's called Egg crate. I just break off the sections with a metal tool then use a metal hand sander thingee [dad has all sorts of tools] to smooth down the edges. I put it on top with a rock and then no fish can jump out. I switched back to glass when I went to LED and got my tank temperature back to normal. My HOT5 lamps were really hot but the LED's dropped the temperature so I went back to glass.

Oh, I can't bypass my parents water softener system so I convinced them to change to potassium chloride and since I've done that I haven't seen any whirling. I also wonder whether or not nitrates cause whirling because I finally learned more about Discus and do bigger water changes. Since then, I haven't seen that issue appear. I keep my nitrates between 5 and 10 and treat my water with Seachem Safe to neutralize it. My plants need some nitrates to grow so I can't go to zero. I also switched to a better breeder so my fish are coming from cleaner water. I think the whirling fish I got came from a local aquarium store that didn't clean their water enough so they were getting nitrate poisoning.

I don't know if anyone else has ideas on what causes it but that's what I think might do it.

Monica

[jeff12]

There is only 4 discus left in the runt tank now. Is whirling disease contagious? It seems only my runt tank seems to have symptoms and the ones that did died. I am planning on selling all the ones in the runt tank, but there is 1 golden lollipop that I want to keep and will put it in the main tank? Should I?

[monilovesdiscus]

I read they thought it could be a parasite. It's hard to say. I wouldn't put that one in your main tank until you know they are all ok. If not, within a month you'll see them go one after the other. I'd recommend doing water changes and checking your chemical levels.

[Filip]

There is only 4 discus left in the runt tank now. Is whirling disease contagious? It seems only my runt tank seems to have symptoms and the ones that did died. I am planning on selling all the ones in the runt tank, but there is 1 golden lollipop that I want to keep and will put it in the main tank? Should I?

With this info I'm almost positive they did jump because of their whirling behaviour.

From my observation in my case it was not contagious.
I had a discus from my display tank along with the whirlers in my QT as a test fish and yet he never exibited that kind of behaviour.
Now they are all together and well in my display tank.

If he don't show any whirling symptoms for more than next 2 months you can put him in the other tank with the bigger batch.

[jeff12]

With this info I'm almost positive they did jump because of their whirling behaviour.

From my observation in my case it was not contagious.
I had a discus from my display tank along with the whirlers in my QT as a test fish and yet he never exibited that kind of behaviour.
Now they are all together and well in my display tank.

If he don't show any whirling symptoms for more than next 2 months you can put him in the other tank with the bigger batch.

I think I won't risk it and just sell them. Don't want 1 to destroy the whole group. Most of them grow slow anyway.

[MD.David]

Discus display whirly behavior usually because they are in excruciating pain or stress.
Just my opinion though... But it would make sense, that if your suffering and fighting some illness and your environment was horrible and it was irritating you, you would finally have enough And flip out. This is what I think is occurring in the discus.


I think I won't risk it and just sell them. Don't want 1 to destroy the whole group. Most of them grow slow anyway.

[Ryan925]

I experienced whirling with my very first discus. Unfortunately I purchased it from lfs about half dollar size with no suggestions on proper care. I'm surprised he lasted a year before dying. Everything about the way I was keeping it was wrong.

Not saying you are doing the same but I noticed my whirling began after a nitrate spike. Possibly the cause? Prob didn't help. Could have also been accumulation of a year of improper care

[DISCUS STU]

Whirling symptoms have usually occurred after water changes. Here's a good thread on this.

http://forum.simplydiscus.com/showthread.php?125023-One-discus-that-darts&p=1221350&highlight=#post1221350