Discus swimming sideways

[Dbjork]

HI: I am also new to your website. Thanks for the help. I love my discus. Have 3, 2 females, 1 male. The male and one female are paired up. Have had them in a 65g planted, moved to a 27g bare bottom. They hatched a set of eggs, but lost all babies to predators in tank. Now, they are alone, have laid 2 batches of eggs, none have hatched. She is now swimming sideways, sometimes upside down. She eats well. Water perameters are 82-84 degrees, PH 6.2, NO2 .05, ammonia .25. Been doing a 20 % water change every other day. Use Ro water with Ro right added. Please help.

[pcsb23]

Welcome on board. First thing here is your tank is not cycled. Temp and ph are ok but NO2 and NO3 are not good. The NO3 is safe-ish as the ph is low, the NO2 is approaching danger levels.

Add salt, non iodised, at 2 tablespoons per 10 gallons. This will mitigate the nitrite poisoning. Up the water changes to 50% daily, add back the salt you remove.

[Dbjork]

Just added the salt. Hope to see a Big difference by morning. THANK YOU SO MUCH.

[pcsb23]

Lets hope so, and lets hope the damage isn't too severe. It is important to get the water qulaity up, levels of 0.5 ppm nitrites are not good for any fish. It will take some time to get the filter fully cycled so water management is at a premium. I've heard good things about a product called biospira that will virtually instantly cycle a tank, maybe worth checking out if you can get it.

I can't stress the importance too much of daily w/c until the nitrite is under control.

[marilyn1998]

Dbjork,
I used biopira on my 90g and it was fully cycled in 4 days. THe levels didnt get as high either while cycling as they did on a natural fish only cycle. IT is made by Marineland and any dealer that sends Marineland can get it. Whether they stock it or not depends on them.
Good Luck!

[aisarang]

I notice alot of stress on cycling a tank. I've set up plenty of quick discus tanks, simply with 50% prepared tap water, and a good 50% water change daily. I've never had any spikes or problmes of any sort, even when using an entirely new sponge filter. I think a fresh supply of water via water changes should mitigate any if not all nitrate, nitrite, ammonia problems IMHO.

[kaceyo]

aisarang,
Doing what you describe with new filters will certainly end up with high ammo levels. You may be getting lucky due to low pH, hardy stock with low stocking levels etc etc but it's far from safe setting up a tank without cycling. I have also had filters cycle with discus in the tank provided the tank is maintained to counter the effects of the ammonia, but to recommend it to others will cause alot of grief for someone down the line.

Kacey

[pcsb23]

I notice alot of stress on cycling a tank. I've set up plenty of quick discus tanks, simply with 50% prepared tap water, and a good 50% water change daily. I've never had any spikes or problmes of any sort, even when using an entirely new sponge filter. I think a fresh supply of water via water changes should mitigate any if not all nitrate, nitrite, ammonia problems IMHO.

I have to take issue with this. Cycling a tank is a function of a natural breakdown of wastes and building a bacterial colony capable of dealing with the harmful wastes so as not to harm the fish. Ammonia in high ph water is toxic, at relatively low levels it becomes lethal. Nitrite, whilst less toxic than Ammonnia, probably kills more fish.

In Asia with the large Asian breeders many do not run filters in their tanks, they do however rely on daily 100% water changes, some even doing this twice daily. They have systems in place that allow them to do this and access to very large volumes of water at low cost. In the vast majority of cases this is not practical for hobbyists.

In the normal course of events it takes between 4 and 6 weeks to fully cycle a tank. There are many products out there that may assist in reducing this time and there are many products which can help deal with the consequences of an uncycled tank.

To suggest or imply that cycling of tanks is unecessary, is foolhardy at best and for those with less experience is a road upon which the only outcome is dead fish.

[RandalB]

I don't cycle tanks either. Fresh or Saltwater. For Discus, I use very low stocking density and 75%+ Daily waterchanges until the biofilter catches up. With Saltwater, I use an Algea scrubber with very low stocking density.

I don't however recommend this to people just starting out. If you don't have the dedication to keep up with the w/c's your fish are doomed.

RandalB

[Dbjork]

Thanks so much guys for all the info. I am still changing water every day, she seems better. Will keep this up daily. Again, appreciate all your insight. DEB