Eratic behaviour causing damage...

[dvarnay]

Hi all,

Hope all had a great christmas, my problem is about 4 months ago I purchased 2 juvenile ss, I quarantined them for 6 weeks then added another discus from my community tank in with them for another 4 weeks to make sure nobody had any problems.

They are growing well and have been put in with other discus their are 5 in the tank at the moment, but these 2 discus have never settled, they eat well enough but always hide and one in particular keeps smashing into things, (which caused me to have to take all removable objects out of the tank) spooking the other discus and doing damage to itself including bruising, taking a piece of fin off and most recently taking a large piece out of its side.

My question is what could be causing this, I have seen it occasionally rubbing up against the filter tube.

These discus are 8 months old.

I am doing 70% water changes every second day and on the other days replacing about 20% water vacumning the tank so it is kept very clean. I use aged heated water treated with prime. Ph is 6.2, temp 30 degrees C, amm. 0, nitrate, 0 nitrite, 0. Any ideas would be very much appreciated as I have never had such a nervous, self descructive discus before.

Pictures of damage attached.

http://i225.photobucket.com/albums/dd48/valkyrie-01/IMG_0720.jpg
http://i225.photobucket.com/albums/dd48/valkyrie-01/IMG_0707.jpg

[Rod]

Hi Debbie,

Sorry to see the damage to your discus, i wish i had an answer for you but i don't. But if it were me and this was happening i would remove the nervous discus. Being a schooling fish by nature the whole group responds to the actions of any individual. If one is nervous, so the rest will be!

The main causes of nervousness are sudden reflections, poor water and pathogens. Perhaps even individual discus are more nervous(wary?) than others. Do you preheat your waterchange water before use, perhaps causing some major parameter shifts? What about heavy metals in your tapwater, copper from new pipes in the plumbing? and a 0 nitrate reading?....i'd get that tested with another kit as that normally doesn't occur without special filtration techniques. But from what you described in your post i'm tending to lean towards a pathogenic cause.

I hope it works out for you

Rod

[fredox]

How old are your test kits? I know when mine were out of date they showed zero readings.

[Terrybo]

Debbie - Is the bottom of the tank painted? I had one that was not, and the fish seemed a little spooked until I taped paper to the bottom (outside) :) of the tank.

Terry

[dvarnay]

How old are your test kits? I know when mine were out of date they showed zero readings.

The test kits are about 6 months old. I will take the water to the lfs and have it retested.

Terry

The bottom of the tank has substrate, it once was a display tank until this started and I then removed all plants & drift wood to try and stop the damage.

Rod,

I have a water filter on the tap that takes out any heavy metals in the water and yes the water is aged in large barrels in my laundry for 48 hours before use and heated to the same temp as the tank 30 degrees Celcius. Have tested the water in the barrels and they are ok. Ph is only slightly higher at 6.5 and the water is treated with prime.

I am leaning towards the possibility of external parasites and will have to treat the tank accordingly and see if this works, if not will have to rethink keeping this fish.

Thanks for the replies.

[GrillMaster]

If I were having this problem, I would add 3-4 tbsp of salt after a 70% WC an leave the lights out for couple of days. No feeding or anything. I imagine that the 2 juvies are smaller than the rest an are just gettin bullied. This might allow them to get aquainted. Now I am sure that the more qualified guru's will express thier thoughts...:)

After that I would add food before the lights go on an see who eats what. If they are all eating, I would turn the lights back on an feed them just a little every hour or so. This will feed the original discus and allow less time for the new ones to get bullied. They will get use to you coming in the room an recognize you as a food source instead of a threat. If the new guys are still not eating, I would leave the lights off for another day or so an repeat the process.

Thats just me though...:)

take care an GL
Mark

[dvarnay]

Mark

Thankyou for the reply, normally I would agree with your assessment but these two have been in this tank a while and their are no signs of bullying and they eat like pigs and growing well just the erratic behaviour of this particular discus. I have just treated the tank prazi. and if this doesn't work I give him a pp dip. As a last resort I will have to rehome this discus as I can't let it keep hurting itself and stressing the other discus to boot.

[Don Trinko]

Are they in a low tank? Shadows from above sometimes frighten them. Don T.

[dvarnay]

Hi Don

Tank is at chest height and the top of the tank has a hood so not likely to see anything unless someone opens the hood to feed. Also the tank is in a dimely lit part of the family room.