Sissys

[kakes11]

Alright I have had these discus now for over a month and they are sissys. They are fine with me and other people in my room when my lights are off, but as soon as i am in the room and flip the switch they act like someone is going to kill them, they smash into everything. When they do this I feel bad and think they are going to injure themselves so i shut the lights off. If I sit infront of the tank for awhile and dont move they slowly come out. I want to be able to perform tasks in my room without worry about them breaking their heads. I have tried leaving the lights on in my room for as long as I could throughout the day so they would get used to it, but they dont. Has anyone had this problem before? What should I do?

[bennyblanco]

discus are sensitize to light.you should leave a light on in the room they in at night not a bright light something soft!!!

[greyhoundfan]

You are talking about room lights right?? not your tank light?? If you are in a dark room and than turn on your room light it'll certainly startle your discus. My discus are in my living room and I always feed them before I go to work.

I start work at 5:30am, I give them a gentle wake up call since it is pretty dark when I see them. I have a standing lamp light that I can turn on by turning the control knob. IF I do this slowly enough the light just barely turns on and I slowly and gradually bring the light to 25% of its brightness.

This gets them motivated b/c they know its feeding time. They don't dart around or act scared, they swim directly to the top of the tank. I also need to do the same thing when I turn off the light, a sudden light to dark freaks them out, so I slowly turn the knob to off and they are fine with that.

As someone else posted in another thread, they need to adjust to you instead of the other way around. You've almost trained them to prefer the darkness. Add soft light and try feeding them when you turn on the light. Maybe they will associate the light with a positive experience such as eating like my discus do.

[White Worm]

Depending on how bright the light is in your room, you look like a big dark shadow coming towards them. Spooks them every time.

[AADiscus]

You could try leaving a night light on for them. (just like kids lol) That way you don't look like the big dark shawdow as Mikscus said.

[Moon]

As long as there are no deep shadows, leave your lights on when you feed them and do other chores around the tank. They may panic initially but will get used to your being there eventually.
A few weeks back I got some new discus. They are in a qt tank and would flee when I approached the tank. Four weeks later they eat off my hands. Don't spoil your discus, persistancy will pay dividents in time.
Joe

[kakes11]

Thanks guys, Ya my room is in the basement with no windows so only a little light come in through the door and the lights I have are bright. I have been keeping the lights on for long periods of time during the day but they have not made much improvements.