Don't know what's going on!

[DHDiscusMan]

I have two tanks with discus and inside the 45 Gallon one I have 6 discus. Three are about 4 inches each and three are about 2.5 inches.

This morning all the fish in both tanks greeted me as usual, waiting to be fed. They all ate and I went out to a LFS. When I came back with black worms they both got a portion and all seemed great.

Late this afternoon all the fish in the 45 gallon tank were huddled together in a corner. None were dark but it was as if they were trying to share body heat or something. I immediatly did a 75% water change replacing what I removed with tap water at the same temperature and treating for chlormine and chlorine. I usually do about 50% per day but I did extra in case something was wrong with the water that they were in. After I filled the tank back up and ran the filter for about 90 minutes they were still huddling and I did a second water change at 50% and raised the temp in the tank (and on the heaters) by 2 degrees.

Now they are moving around a little bit but when I step close to the tank they are getting skittish and a couple are bouncing off the acrylic.

Still none are discolored. I haven't tested the water but I will in the next hour. I want to see if they calm down first.

Any ideas what could have happened? Do they cuddle when they get cold?

Thanks for any comments.

Dan

Sounds to me like your black worms from the LFS were bad. If the worms are dirty they have a high bacteria count which can be transferred to your discus. I tried black worms from the LFS once and my fish were skittish, huddled, bouncing of the walls and acting extremely weird- I will never feed black worms again! My fish thrive and are extremely healthy without them. Just my experience....


however, I have a good friend who buys them through the mail from http://aquaticfoods.com/worms.html and she swears by them! She bought the containers and cleans them every night and her fish do great!

[DHDiscusMan]

Thanks for the info. I didn't know there could be problems with blackworms from LFS. The rest of them are going in the garbage. After the two water changes and some calming down time they seem ok for now. The temp in that tank is up to 88 F but I'll drop it by a degree or two in a couple days.

Water quality doesn't have anything out of the ordinary so maybe the just had a case of "Food Poisoning"... Hopefully all will stay well now.

Dan

[Denny]

dan,

did you feed both tanks equally? if so and only one had problems it may be a water problem in the affected tank. if both tanks were affected equally i would side with weezy

denny

[brewmaster15]

Hi Dan,
the probelm with the LFS blackworms is that they may not change the water in the worm container often enough. My suggestion is buy them direct...

If you buy them aquatic foods, you'll get a fresher/healthier batch of worms and they'll probebaly cost you less. Just rinse them daily and store in the fridge.

hth,
al

[RAWesolowski]

Dan,

I agree with Spluweze and Al in regards of buying fresh, healthy live food. Unfortunately, I don't think I would go through a pound or half pound of CBW and be able to maintain them for more than a week.

Instead, I only buy worms from the LFS on the day that they arrive and only if they look good. Noce color, no white slime...

[Ardan]

Hi,
I keep live CBW up to 2 months. I just keep them in the fridge, rinse daily with cold, dechlor water.

I get them at www.aquaticfoods.com

hth
Ardan