She won't eat - scared

[BGTW]

My BD female has just paired with my Red T. Two unsuccessful spawns later I shifted them to a smaller tank. The male was not fertilizing the eggs well. Just thought a smaller tank with less water movement might help.

The female spooked and gave me quite a fight while shifting her. (No, there were no eggs on the cone). She stopped eating ever since.

Then I shifted them to tank at eye level. No improvement. Again a big fight. Treated with metro. No luck.

Then I shifted them back to their old tank. Still she won't eat.

Is she plain stressed out or does she need a dose of discus soup?

The male eats, but, very little.

I make one 70% water change everyday. The water parameters are okay. I even tried a little salt just to destress them.

I know it is a pretty stupid thing to post about. But you never know, maybe some has encountered something like this before.

Bob
India

[Cosmo]

No such thing as a stupid post when you have a Discus in distress :)

I had similar problems when I moved a mated pair out of the community tank and into their own apartment after a few spawns. Female ate, but very little, but then one day I came home and found her looking like she was near death... scared the bejesus out of me... gently put both of them back into the community tank, within half an hour she looked much better, and, the next day she was fine!!! two days later they spawned again in "their" spot...

Not sure if this is what you're dealing with, but have heard from others of similar situations.

If Carol Roberts doesn't respond, try IMing her... she's the resident doctor :)

Jim

[Cosmo]

BTW.. last post assumed water parameters and quality were very close to similar in the two different tanks, and if you did 70% daily WC's in both tanks that should be the case. Are you leaving the lights off?

Until you hear from Carol or Barb, leave em off if not so she can settle down... sounds like a territorial issue moreso than a disease issue... but... could be wrong about that so look into it further.

good luck
Jim

[Dkarc@Aol.com]

To me it sounds like stress from moving them so much is to much for the female and the male pushing her around isnt helping much. Just put them back into a community tank with other discus and go from there.

-Ryan

[Carol_Roberts]

Yes, I think it's all the moves. If she doesn't start eating in a week you may need to do a metro tx . . .and that probably means another move to a hospital tank . . . can you get metronidazole in India?

[acorn54]

carol
i'm curious. why medicate when discus are moved, and don't adapt to the move. do the discus come down with a sickness when they are moved sometimes.
also how long does it take for discus to get use to a new tank and start eating. i moved 4 discus about 5 hours ago. two are in a community tank and very lively already, while the other two ( the breeder pair) still seem to be exploring their new tank, and don't seem interested in eating.
acorn (guy)

[Carol_Roberts]

Generally discus do just fine when they are moved. I suspect the female is stressed from the male picking on her and multiple moves. Discus stop eating when stressed for a length of time and intestinal flagellates get the upper hand. I would not recommend metro if had stopped eating for just a week.

[FrankR]

I have read this before in my Jack Wattley book. The recommendation that many of the breeders gave was to raise the temperature a bit to 88 degrees. If you give this a try and it works, please write back so we can confirm.