Help with sick discus

[Cringe]

Hi all, new member here and I'm having problems with 2 out of my 5 discus that I recently bought. I originally bought three red turquoise 4 inch discus first from a local breeder because that was all he had. (I know I should have at least 5 but he only had 3 inch juveniles left and I heard it was more challenging). The three discus were constantly stressed and they got dark and hid in a corner next to my overflow for the first couple of days. I left the lights off for the first week and fed them beef heart, bloodworms and tetra granules from the breeder that I bought them from but they barely ate. After a couple of days one of them (I'm assuming the highest in the pecking order) began to eat consistently and swam around more but the other two remained in hiding and ate very little. I decided that I needed at least 5 in the tank for them to feel more comfortable so I went to another local breeder who had 2 snakeskin four inch discus for sale and put them into the same tank right away.(I know it is not recommended but I was afraid I would lose the three from stress). I put the two new ones into the tank and right away they were completely fine. They never got dark, never hid, and ate like pigs. The 5 of them chased each other around and re-established the pecking order and the original red turquoise who was the highest in the pecking order stayed the boss of the tank. It has been about two weeks since I had all 5 in the tank and the two red turquoise are still hiding. Only the biggest red turquoise stays out with the two new snakeskins. The biggest red turquoise has now gotten noticeably larger than the others, I estimate he is around 4.5 inches now. What I have noticed is that whenever the two come out of hiding to eat a little or just to swim around, they are constantly being chased around by all three until they go back to their hiding spot. Should I separate the two who are constantly hiding into a quarantine tank? Also anything I should change and improve for the tank? Any help would be appreciated thanks again.
DISEASE QUESTIONNAIRE


Problem

1. Please explain the problems with your fish. When did you notice the problems and did anything unusual happen that you think started them?
Two of my discus are constantly hiding and are extremely dark.


2. Symptoms (i.e. turning dark, excess slime, not eating, clamped fins, flashing, darting, clamped gills, white/yellow/green poop, hiding, headstanding or tailstanding, white on tips of fins, rotting or fungus, blisters/white zits on fish, bloated, cloudy eyes, wounds).
They are only extremely dark and occasionally dart around the tank if spooked. No clamped fins or anything. Haven't noticed any poop coming out from them for the past few days, but I have seen stringy white poop from one of them last week.


3. What medications/ treatments have you already tried and what were the results. Include dosage and duration of treatment.
I just started using API general care for the white stringy poop but I don't know if it is working.


Tank/Water

4. Tank size and ages, numbers and sizes of fish.
90 gallon tank (48x24x18)
21 cardinal tetras
4 sterbai cories
5 four inch discus


5. Water change regime (What percentage and how often).
50% every other day


6. How long has tank been running? Is it bare bottom? If you have substrate, what type and how deep is it?

Tank has been running for about 2 months. 1.5 inch layer of sand with manzanita driftwood


7. Do you age your water? If you do for how long and what is the ph swing.
I don't age water, haven't noticed any ph swings or any gassing off.

8. Parameters and water source;

Note: Water Parameters are important in diagnosing problems within a tank. If you don't own test kits for the following information, you can purchase them, test your parameters and post this info as soon as possible.


- temp __83.2___

- ph __7.2___

- ammonia reading __0__

- nitrite reading __0__

- nitrate reading _5___

What type of water or combinations of water sources do you use? If it is an RO/tap/well water mix, please list percentages in the mix.

- well water ____

- municipal water _100%___

- RO water ____


9. Any new fish, plants or inverts added recently.


10. Please tell us what you feed your fish and how often. This can be critical information for solving the problem so be as specific as you can.

Frozen Beefheart, Hikari BioGold, Tetra granules, Frozen bloodworms

11. Include any pictures or videos you have which shows the symptoms. If you can't add them to this post, please provide a link to them.

Tank Picture
https://i.imgur.com/XOsyg7w.jpg
The three that are always out
https://i.imgur.com/9bJqIod.jpg
Biggest one in the tank
https://i.imgur.com/R7RSCxy.jpg
Sick discus
https://i.imgur.com/LAKzgXn.jpg

[fljones3]

Do you have a hospital tank?

[Cringe]

Do you have a hospital tank?

Yes, I have a 20 gallon tall that I could use with a spare sponge filter.

[Swedgin]

Seems to me this is due to the understocked situation. It’s a fairly large tank for 5 discus. In the long run you will need at least 3 more, better another 5-7. That way the aggression will be more distributed.

The white poop doesn’t necessarily mean they are sick as such, but if they are stressed to bits and don’t eat, their digestive system will have issues. But of course it could also be parasites.

Since you have started treating the tank with general cure you should finish the treatment as per the label, and then reassess when treatment is done. In the mean time I would recommend you set up a quarantine/hospital tank, as you might either need it for further treatment if it turns out they have an infection, or to quarantine additional fish to ease the stress in the tank, should you choose to do so.

Great looking tank by the way, and welcome to the forum

[fljones3]

Agree with Swedgin.

[Cringe]

Seems to me this is due to the understocked situation. It’s a fairly large tank for 5 discus. In the long run you will need at least 3 more, better another 5-7. That way the aggression will be more distributed.

The white poop doesn’t necessarily mean they are sick as such, but if they are stressed to bits and don’t eat, their digestive system will have issues. But of course it could also be parasites.

Since you have started treating the tank with general cure you should finish the treatment as per the label, and then reassess when treatment is done. In the mean time I would recommend you set up a quarantine/hospital tank, as you might either need it for further treatment if it turns out they have an infection, or to quarantine additional fish to ease the stress in the tank, should you choose to do so.

Great looking tank by the way, and welcome to the forum

Thanks for the reply, I really appreciate it! I will probably go and pick up another 5 within the week. Do you think I should still quarantine the new stock for 3-4 weeks before adding them into the tank? I'm worried that it would be bad for them to be stressed for so long. Thanks again!

[Mando]

Since you recently bought them, say less than a month, I wouldn’t qt. Howver, this is only if I’m buying from the same vendor.

[Cringe]

Since you recently bought them, say less than a month, I wouldn’t qt. Howver, this is only if I’m buying from the same vendor.

Just picked up 5 more juveniles from the same breeder today and the two are coming out with the group now, thanks for the help!

[Swedgin]

Well, good luck. Keep a close eye on everyone and keep us posted