Baffled and Confused: Three of Seven Juvies Stopped Eating

[CammieTime]

In my past discus experiences 8 years ago, all my fish would eat or none would eat, usually based on water quality. I never encountered a situation where half ate and half did not for no apparent reason. Back then, if one stopped eating it was always stressed and usually sick. Never did I have apparently healthy fish stop eating.

Now I am in a very weird scenario of uncharted territory. I have seven 2.5" fish from a SD sponsor and all were happy and fine after a couple of days after shipment, and all ate for a few days. What has occurred in the past two weeks is that four fish continue to eat like pigs and are growing like crazy and the other three stopped eating all together. I can't remember when the orange one ate last.

I do 90% daily WC and they ALL swim around happy/colorful/not stressed so they all appear fine. The strange non-eating behavior occurs at feeding time.

Despite swimming around all happy, the three that don't eat, they ignore the beef mix. The 4 pigs will eat it out of my hand. I would expect the 3 non-eaters to be dark, stressed in the corner hiding under the sponge filter, but nope...these three swim happily around in the main group all day.

I try to put food in various places in the tank so the four that are now bigger and more aggressive do not keep the three from accessing the food. This does not help, the three still ignore it. I turned the light off, that does not help either. Fresh WC, that does not help (but this makes the 4 pigs super hungry though!).

So - is this normal? Do you normally write off a third of your juvies? They can't possibly live that long without food. If I was doing something majorly wrong with water or whatever, the four pigs would not be eating like they do or growing as fast as they are. I am at a loss...any suggestions?

[Filip]

How long do you have them CT ?
From your texting , they arrived in good health an vigour and after a couple of days or weeks ? 3 of them stopped eating .

That would mean to me that something in your water or upkeep has been bothering them and 3 fish with the weakest immunity shows symptoms first.
That's completely normal , since not all of them have same immune systems and health.

Are they in BB tank or a substrate tank?
Did you mix them with any other fish or are they alone in a new tank without any prior fish in it ?
Do you feed live foods ?
Do they have white or some funny looking poop ?

And about discus hunger strikes , they can torture you and themselves for a full 2 months before they die .
So don't worry , you still have a plenty of time to figure and work things out before they went south.

[CammieTime]

Are they in BB tank or a substrate tank?
Did you mix them with any other fish or are they alone in a new tank without any prior fish in it ?
Do you feed live foods ?
Do they have white or some funny looking poop ?


They are in their own dedicated BB 45 gallon tank. Nothing else in the tank but two Hydro V sponge filters. No other fish. I feed them beef mix that is thawed with Hans discus flakes mixed in. The ones that eat poop, it's thick and white/tan in color. It does not look abnormal.

[CammieTime]

The ones that eat poop, it's thick and white/tan in color. It does not look abnormal.

They don't eat poop...I meant to say the ones that are eating, also poop normally.

[Filip]

They don't eat poop...I meant to say the ones that are eating, also poop normally.

Your approach and keeping routines are great so far , but yet something has compromised their immune system since 3 of them has stoped eating .
Is it possible that they had experienced ammonia spikes in the start because of noncycled filters ?
Observe their poop to see if they have white or translucent poop . You can bump up the temps to 92 F for a week to enhance their appetite and just observe their behavour for a start .

[CammieTime]

UPDATE: I did a 100% WC last night and another this morning, along with cleaning the sponge filters. I put in direct tap water instead of using my aging barrel water in case there was something goofy with the barrel water. I used Amquel conditioner. SO - crystal clear water now. The three non-eaters are definitely happier and even ate some food. Apparently they don't like beef mix and instead only eat Discus Hans Flakes.

So this is what I learned: The three non-eaters require impossibly clean water, way WAY cleaner than the four pig discus that are growing like crazy. I am not sure I will be able to do 100% water changes multiple times a day. The non-eaters also only eat Discus Hans Flakes, and not beef mix. So weird, they ignore the beef mix and eat the flakes, and the four pig discus are the other way around. I also think that the non-eaters do not like my water for whatever reason, I've had this happen before, the water just never agrees with a fish and they don't thrive.