Help with my Discus

[stu96ss]

Hi everyone, This is my first post so be easy on me.

I have a Planted tank with Discus (obviously) I have read numerous articals and post on nuerous forums and books. But my question is about eating. Now before everyone starts with the links to the other post on Discus not eating, I have read everyone on the forum, Took about 2 days.

If you look at the photos you see my babies. I have a total of 4 but would like to solve this problem before I get 4 more.
2 are Jack Watley Turquoise Striated and the other 2 are J. W. Striated Red

Now they were all purchased and hand delivered around October.
As you can see the one Turquoise is about 2 times larger then the rest. He is the best eater of them all. But here is the problem. I can never see the other 3 eat every time I feed the other 3 run away never touch a thing. I will even hide around the corner thinking they are shy, look in a mirror and still nothing.

Now they must be eating something. I mean it is March and thats 6 months in the tank.....

What can I do? The other turquoise is much smaller and hides the 2 reds hide also and now the fins don't look good.


I will add some photos so that you can see

thanks in advance for any help

Stu

http://www.sofasst.com/picture%20022.jpg

http://www.sofasst.com/picture%20021.jpg

http://www.sofasst.com/picture%20023.jpg

[Carol_Roberts]

Hi Stu and welcome to simplyDiscus :wave:

Yours is the standard post I read every couple of weeks from folks that have started out with 3 or 4 discus in a planted tank.

One (usually the best eater) becomes the boss, dominates the tank and the food. Since there were only three other discus in the tank he can easily run them off and intimidate them. If you had started with 6 or 12 juvenile discus some would have been able to snatch food while "Hitler" chased the others. Young discus also feel more secure in larger numbers.

So here we are 6 months later . . . You can try a bare bottom hospital tank and follow the directions to dose metronidazole for hexamita http://forum.simplydiscus.com//index.php?board=4;action=display;threadid=16348 Even with treatment they may not grow much more.

All of us have had beginner fish. The ones we learn and make our mistakes on. Then we begin to fill our tanks with better quality fish and grow them out to look like the pictures in the discus books.

[henryD]

Stu,

Welcome. You will be surprised how long discus can stay alive without eating. I had 1 hellspawn that stayed alive for 3 months before I put it down.

But back to your problem...

First of all do you have a hospital tank? I know you mentioned having a planted tank. Most treatments that I know of are pretty hard on your plants. So it is better to have them in their seperate tank for treatments. You will also find that the meds are cheaper that way also because you only have to medicate a smaller volume of water.


You never mentioned your water conditions. What is the PH? Hardness? Ammonia and nitrate? What about temp?

My first line of treament has always been salt, higher temp and observation. So I would increase the temp to 88-89. Add 1 tablespoon per 10 gallon. And observe for a couple of days. I would also try to feed in a couple of spots so that the bully is not hogging up all the food.

If you see white feces then you need to treat for heximate with metro. There is links in the disease section for dosage and such.

HTH
Henry