Discus Dreaming
01-28-2008, 11:47 PM
Hi Folks,
New to discus. Just changed my community tank over to a mellow community tank for discus (cory cats, male +2 female rams). Over the last three weeks I have added 5 Blue Diamond Discus in the 3" to 4.5" range, 25 cardinal tetras and 8 cory cats. Unfortunately, I don't have a quarentine tank to use.
Since I don't have a QT, I thought it best to put them all in at once. So far, they are doing well. However, I have noticed three things:
1. One or two ick looking spots on two of the discus
2. The largest (minor bully) of the BD has an ever so slightly cloudiness to his eye. It has been this way for at least a week
3. The smallest will take into its mouth all of the various foods I feed (frozen BW, frozen glass worms, frozen mysis shrimp and frozen brine shrimp) the fish, but will spit everything out, except the brine shrimp. And with the brine shrimp, it is not like he scarfs it down. All of the others are complete pigs, accept this one.
When I first got the Discus, I fed live California Black Worms for a few days. I no longer do that, since they eat the other foods. However, I'm wondering if the CBW may have given the little one worms, and thus it is not eating a lot.
Tank parameters are great: Planted tank, 6.6 pH, nitrates about 6 ppm, I'm running a UV filter, and have turned the heat up from 84 to 88 degrees.
My questions are, should I treat the white spots, or see what the higher temp and water changes do? Should I treat the lightly cloudy eye? And lastly, does the little one sound like it has something that is turning it off from eating the other foods, and if so, how should I treat it?
Since it is a planted tank, I can't use salt.
Thanks so much for your advice.
New to discus. Just changed my community tank over to a mellow community tank for discus (cory cats, male +2 female rams). Over the last three weeks I have added 5 Blue Diamond Discus in the 3" to 4.5" range, 25 cardinal tetras and 8 cory cats. Unfortunately, I don't have a quarentine tank to use.
Since I don't have a QT, I thought it best to put them all in at once. So far, they are doing well. However, I have noticed three things:
1. One or two ick looking spots on two of the discus
2. The largest (minor bully) of the BD has an ever so slightly cloudiness to his eye. It has been this way for at least a week
3. The smallest will take into its mouth all of the various foods I feed (frozen BW, frozen glass worms, frozen mysis shrimp and frozen brine shrimp) the fish, but will spit everything out, except the brine shrimp. And with the brine shrimp, it is not like he scarfs it down. All of the others are complete pigs, accept this one.
When I first got the Discus, I fed live California Black Worms for a few days. I no longer do that, since they eat the other foods. However, I'm wondering if the CBW may have given the little one worms, and thus it is not eating a lot.
Tank parameters are great: Planted tank, 6.6 pH, nitrates about 6 ppm, I'm running a UV filter, and have turned the heat up from 84 to 88 degrees.
My questions are, should I treat the white spots, or see what the higher temp and water changes do? Should I treat the lightly cloudy eye? And lastly, does the little one sound like it has something that is turning it off from eating the other foods, and if so, how should I treat it?
Since it is a planted tank, I can't use salt.
Thanks so much for your advice.