Artyharry
09-17-2019, 11:34 AM
Hi all,
I'm a newbie from the UK and have had my tank for three and a half months. I'd appreciate any advice you have to offer.
Set up:
Tank size: 360 litres (95 US gallons)
Community tank fish: 5 Jaguar Pigeon discus and 5 Red Melon. (Not sure of age but I got them at the end of May at about 3.5-4 inches) Gold and cardinal tetras, flying foxes, German ram pair and plecs.
Temp: 29.1 degrees (just over 84 degrees I believe)
Water: High KH and pH about 7.8 (we live in a very hard water area but the local aquariums and fish breeders breed fish that can tolerate this). Recently I noticed some chlorine creeping in but I've now dealt with this.
Water changes: About 20% daily and 50% every 3-5 days.
Food: 4-6 meals a day; a variety of frozen Discus friendly foods, with Tetra Prime granules. Tetra colour flakes for the community fish (the Discus tend to leave them) and introduced frozen cooked mussels on advice of breeder two months ago, to tempt smaller Discus to eat
Issues:
I've always had two dominant Jaguars, one of which is very aggressive towards the others whenever food is present, but they all seem pretty chilled at other times. The Jaguars are all nearly twice the size of the Melons, despite them being similar sizes when I got them nearly four months ago. One melon is quite fiesty and will try and hold it's own with the Jaguars, but I rarely see the smallest Melons feed at all and I don't think they've grown much. A couple are pale and can display vertical stripes, which I believe can be a sign of stress, but the breeder says the males will always be paler than the females. I've contemplated putting in a tank divider to move the two fiesty Jaguars at feeding time but this isn't a very practical solution for me, so I'd appreciate any other thoughts. I've tried restructuring the tank furniture a few times and they calm down for a while but it doesn't last.
One jaguar (large size but paler than the others) has been isolating itself for about five days. It's either hiding in the artificial plants or is at the top of the tank, with its head up. It doesn't move much and I haven't seen it feed at all for this time. It is pooping large amounts of white jelly. I had this poop from most of them when they first arrived, but as they settled in, it stopped. I haven't seen this for a good few months. It is losing its colour (tail fin is now pretty black) and is looking poorly.
I have removed the sand substrate completely in an effort to keep the water as clean as possible and to avoid the siphoned, washed sand disturbing the fish when I replace it. Previously it was flying around everywhere. I'm also being more careful refilling the tank gently (our hot water runs through a softener, so I have to do all water changes with kettles and buckets) to avoid stressing the fish. This could be another reason my Jaguar may be stressed. They all hide when I do water changes and look pretty stressed.
Questions:
How do I know if my Jaguar is sick, stressed or both?
If it is sick, could it be the introduction of the frozen mussels?
I don't have room for a quarantine tank (my husband will divorce me if I introduce a third tank in our kitchen!), so should I just wait it out, keep water changes going and see if it improves?
Shall I leave the status quo in the tank and ignore the fact that the Melons are much smaller than they should be or do I need to be proactive now and potentially separate/remove/rehome the aggressive fish? I don't want unhappy fish but is it ok to accept the results of them having a pecking order and some fish being at the bottom of the pecking pile?
Thank you so much for your help.
I'll try and attach some photos later (I'm not very techno savvy so it may be beyond me) but this Mum taxi needs to kick into action with two teens to transport.
I'm a newbie from the UK and have had my tank for three and a half months. I'd appreciate any advice you have to offer.
Set up:
Tank size: 360 litres (95 US gallons)
Community tank fish: 5 Jaguar Pigeon discus and 5 Red Melon. (Not sure of age but I got them at the end of May at about 3.5-4 inches) Gold and cardinal tetras, flying foxes, German ram pair and plecs.
Temp: 29.1 degrees (just over 84 degrees I believe)
Water: High KH and pH about 7.8 (we live in a very hard water area but the local aquariums and fish breeders breed fish that can tolerate this). Recently I noticed some chlorine creeping in but I've now dealt with this.
Water changes: About 20% daily and 50% every 3-5 days.
Food: 4-6 meals a day; a variety of frozen Discus friendly foods, with Tetra Prime granules. Tetra colour flakes for the community fish (the Discus tend to leave them) and introduced frozen cooked mussels on advice of breeder two months ago, to tempt smaller Discus to eat
Issues:
I've always had two dominant Jaguars, one of which is very aggressive towards the others whenever food is present, but they all seem pretty chilled at other times. The Jaguars are all nearly twice the size of the Melons, despite them being similar sizes when I got them nearly four months ago. One melon is quite fiesty and will try and hold it's own with the Jaguars, but I rarely see the smallest Melons feed at all and I don't think they've grown much. A couple are pale and can display vertical stripes, which I believe can be a sign of stress, but the breeder says the males will always be paler than the females. I've contemplated putting in a tank divider to move the two fiesty Jaguars at feeding time but this isn't a very practical solution for me, so I'd appreciate any other thoughts. I've tried restructuring the tank furniture a few times and they calm down for a while but it doesn't last.
One jaguar (large size but paler than the others) has been isolating itself for about five days. It's either hiding in the artificial plants or is at the top of the tank, with its head up. It doesn't move much and I haven't seen it feed at all for this time. It is pooping large amounts of white jelly. I had this poop from most of them when they first arrived, but as they settled in, it stopped. I haven't seen this for a good few months. It is losing its colour (tail fin is now pretty black) and is looking poorly.
I have removed the sand substrate completely in an effort to keep the water as clean as possible and to avoid the siphoned, washed sand disturbing the fish when I replace it. Previously it was flying around everywhere. I'm also being more careful refilling the tank gently (our hot water runs through a softener, so I have to do all water changes with kettles and buckets) to avoid stressing the fish. This could be another reason my Jaguar may be stressed. They all hide when I do water changes and look pretty stressed.
Questions:
How do I know if my Jaguar is sick, stressed or both?
If it is sick, could it be the introduction of the frozen mussels?
I don't have room for a quarantine tank (my husband will divorce me if I introduce a third tank in our kitchen!), so should I just wait it out, keep water changes going and see if it improves?
Shall I leave the status quo in the tank and ignore the fact that the Melons are much smaller than they should be or do I need to be proactive now and potentially separate/remove/rehome the aggressive fish? I don't want unhappy fish but is it ok to accept the results of them having a pecking order and some fish being at the bottom of the pecking pile?
Thank you so much for your help.
I'll try and attach some photos later (I'm not very techno savvy so it may be beyond me) but this Mum taxi needs to kick into action with two teens to transport.