Discus not eating

[tdnine]

I bought 5 discus over 3 weeks ago. All of them have been eating blood worms, a little flake, and mixed dry foods. The past 4 days how ever one has seemingly lost interest in eating. She still acts interested and sometimes goes after food but never eats it, except for once last night. There is a lot of bulling in the 55gl and she does her fair share making her 2nd in the pecking order. Do I need to be worried and use some Metro or is this a normal thing.

Tank Conditions:

55gl with cobalt blue tile covering 2/3 the floor 1/3 fine gravel with bubble wall underneath covering the intire back. 385 gpm filter, 80 watt light, black backround on 3 sides. PH 7.4 temp 85 , 5 discus 6-7" 1 juv at 2" (Juv is the most active, eats the most and never gets bothered) WC 20% daily with pete aged water.

Let me know what you think?

Tdnine

[candyl70]

Tdnine,

What are your other water perameters?
ammonia, nitrite, nitrate?

Are you aging your tap water? It sounds like you might want to do bigger water changes if your fish are that big in a 55 gal. But that is just my opinion. Others will be along to help ya out a lot more than i can!! Good luck with them!!


Candy

p.s. Have you seen any stringy white feces?

[tdnine]

As of last night 0's acrosed the board. I age my water with pete to bring it down to 7.4 and no white poop from any of them.

tdnine

[Bainbridge Mike]

Hey Tdnine:

What is the pH of your tap water without peat? Have you tested the pH of your water right out of the tap? I would also test it after leting it sit overnight in a bucket with a heater and an airstone. You probably don't need the peat and it can cause your pH to fluctuate. It is better to have stable water even if the ph is a little higher.

Your fish probably has hex--that is a very common cause of hunger strikes. I would not medicate, however, unless you see stringy white poop. Until then I would increase the temp to 88 degrees to jump start metabolism and add aquarium salt. there are a bunch of people here a lot smarter than me who might recommend further treatment--but heat and salt are almost always a good start.

Good luck,

Mike

[candyl70]

0 Nitrates indicates that your tank is not cycled. What type of test kit do you have? What is the experation date?
How long have you had it running? Did you clean your filter recently?
Do you rinse your sponges etc in warm dechlor. water? If you have another sponge from a cycled healthy tank, i would add that to your discus tank.

If i were you i would keep a close eye on water pms and up the water changes, aquarium salt is good.

Good luck, someone will add more soon, and correct me if i am wrong.


Candy

p.s. have you recently added any new fish or plants?

[tdnine]

Mike and Candy,

Thank you for all your advice.

The tank has been running for over 3 months and I am using a filter that has already been in use prior. My test kitts are hagen and I bought dec of last year through ebay. I may be miss reading them so I will take a sample of my tank water and tap water to the local hardware store and be tested there. As for ph from the tap it is very very high 8.8 or so and if sat over night with a power head with airation it is 8.5. Pete brings it down to 7.4 and I have had no spikes.

Plans of action:

temp to 88 /add salt /try frozen brian shrimp.

Some one also told me that she maybe ready to lay eggs and with the change of envirnment that may be a part of it as well.

Thank you again for all your help.

TDnine

[Ryan]

Hi TDnine,

You should have some sort of nitrate reading. It's a product of nitrites being broken down. So if your filters are established, the beneficial bacteria in your tank should be producing nitrates. With that many discus in a 55 gallon with only 20% water changes daily, there should be some sort of nitrate reading in the tank. You might want to check the expiration on your kits.

Does the fish look alright? Does it have good color, erect fins, and bright eyes? Is it active like the other fish in the tank? The increase in heat and addition of salt may help, but you might want to also increase your water changes for the next several days if you possibly can, just to see if that helps. Sometimes a bioload in a tank gets high and it's as easy to fix as just doing larger changes.

Ryan

[Alight]

I have a hagen nitrate kit, and it reads way, way below my AP test kit. No expiration date on it, so I can't tell if that's because it's old, or that's just the way hagen kits read.

For example, with an AP nitrate of 20 ppm, I can barely get a reading with the hagen.

[Carol_Roberts]

First line of defense is always extra water changes and clean the tank. Any substrate collects uneaten food and feces. Bullying alone will stress them until they stop eating.

[tdnine]

Thank you,

You all have been much more helpful than Discus as a hobby.

I will get a new test kit and also up my water changes. I have 50gl water storage, so upping my water changes will be no problem. The discus are all very active, great color, and very personable. The one with the eating disorder acts just the same as the rest, seemingly very content.

From all my reading I wouldn't think that having 5 adults and one juv would be a problem in a 55. I feed them 3 times a day and do my water changes/ cleaning every night. But I do have 100gl that I'll work on getting them into in the near future.

Thank you again for all your help,

Sincerely,

Tdnine

[pcsb23]

Hi TDnine,

The disucus that has stopped eating, has it darkened in colour and/or does it shy away and look at he back of the tank?? If so it could have 'hole in the head' (also called discus disease but usually cause by hexamita). Raising the temp to 88 won't fix this, you need to go higher. If you have other fish in the tank make sure they an stand the temp or move them elsewhere, after all its the discus that matter! 92 -94 for a week then 90- 92 for another wekk or two with regular water changes. Also I see you store your water, make sure you use a power head/airstone and preheat it to the same temp as the water you are changing.

As well as testing for Amonnia, nitrite and Nitrate, test for phosphate too, I had high phospahate and it put mine off eating.

One last question, does the discus thatis not eating seem to defend a particular place in the tank?? May be getting ready to spawn, mine still eat though!

Good luck.

[discus2010]

mho is that you should buy some bio-spira and add it to the filter after a large water change like 70% to seee if its that your tank isnt cycled.