is it possible to shut down the darkness of the discus?

[AniMallh2You]

I am new to discus, i am wondering if we can erase the darkness of the discus? i come from NYC, and i have visit many of the fish store, most of them do not take care of discus well, and most of their discus look dark, therefore i would like to know if it is possible to shut down the darkness of the discus by giving them better water condition and care! also i dont know why my discus go dark sometime(showing the sick side) and go original light color sometime(showing the healthy side)

also can anyone tell me how can i feed the discus with dry worm, i mean i try give them dry worm, but the worm stay on the top of the water, my discus never come up and eat them, right now, all of them are eating Tetra-fish's ColorBits! i am thinking to give them some shrimp sometime next week!

BY THE WAY, ANYWHERE NEAR NYC HAD NICE DISCUS???

[Doug A]

You could try soaking the dry worms (I'm assuming you mean freeze dried blood worms) for awhile before feeding them to your fish. This should help them to sink. Something I have done in the past is after soaking them in a cup of water I would squeeze them against the side of the cup to press the air out of them. You should try feeding them frozen blood worms instead of the freeze dried.

As far as the darkness goes. I really can't help you with that. I would stay away from discus at the fish store.

hth,

[AniMallh2You]

You could try soaking the dry worms (I'm assuming you mean freeze dried blood worms) for awhile before feeding them to your fish. This should help them to sink. Something I have done in the past is after soaking them in a cup of water I would squeeze them against the side of the cup to press the air out of them. You should try feeding them frozen blood worms instead of the freeze dried.

As far as the darkness goes. I really can't help you with that. I would stay away from discus at the fish store.

hth,

thanks a lot, i will try it tomorrow!

[RyanH]

When a Discus goes dark, it's often because it's not feeling well. It could be getting sick or just stressed from dirty water or improper care.

Light-colored backgrounds can also lighten up the color of your fish. Many will paint their backgrounds white or a light blue. I use a light blue background on my tanks and it's worked well for me.

-Ryan

[CAGE-RATTLER]

The LFS around here have theyre discus in tanks with dark backgrounds with dark gravel and not very good lighting and all the dicus look dark because of it.

How they expect to sell the fish like that is beyond me!! :confused:

I have enough breeders near me that i dont need to worry about LFS discus but one of them carry some wilds ive been thinking about getting ........... but when you can hardly see them in the tank cause its so dark ......... thats a big turn off. Cant tell if they are sickly or not.

Discus do have a chameleon characteristic as well. With a dark background they will be dark ............ and if they are near any dark decorations or even a dark sponge filter they will be dark.

When mine are near the black sponge filter ............... they look dark but as soon as they swim away from it they look normal again.

This is very noticable when i do WC's. I remove my sponges to clean them and put them back in after the refill. The fish will look perfectly fine and when i put the sponge in ......... they will huddle near it and be dark again till i move back and then they'll swim away from the sponge and look fine.

I just wish they would make some white or blue sponges for these large sponge filters ..... lol. If anyone knows of any ....... please let me know.

I had some feeze dried BW from some other fish too .......... and thats about the only thing my discus wont eat .... lol. Go frozen!!

[pcsb23]

Look in the sponsors section for breeders and suppliers

http://forum.simplydiscus.com//forumdisplay.php?f=42

PM them, phone or email them. They'll be happy to help and you will get better fish and probably save some money too.

[AniMallh2You]

i just change the bg of the tank, it really helps, my discus turn out nicely, thanks!

[goheel]

what did you change it to?

[AniMallh2You]

what did you change it to?

no background, nth at all in the tank!

[goheel]

Can you post a pic of your tank now?

[AniMallh2You]

here is !

[goheel]

Hmm, I was thinking about buying one of those plastic background and tape it on the back of my tank. Maybe I should try leaving as it is first.