2 week old additions always hide...

[Xirxes]

Hello,
I have kept discus now for over a year, but decided recently after planting my 55 to add 4 more discus to the tank. I hand selected these fish from a breeder, they all fed and reacted well to my presence and the presence of the breeder here in san diego.

Now, 2 weeks later, and ever since i put them in, they hide behind my wood ALL DAY LONG! I never see them eat, ther most certainly do not come out to get flake or bloodworms when i feed, or after. I do not know how to make them feed/ come out. These 5 discus each about 3-4 inches all stay hidden in an area about 5"x 2".

Water in my 55 is all RO/DI, remineralized with Equilibrium, pH balanced with seachem 7.0 neutral regulator, With Discus trace and amino acids added to water change, Filtered with two emperor 800's, 40% water change once a week, full planted and lit with 2x 24" dual 24 watt t5ho for plants.

Tankmates: 15 cardinal tetras, 15 otocinclus, 3 rummynose, 5 glo-light tetras, 1 Bolivian ram and 3 clown loaches at 2.5 inches each.

I re-arranged the woodwork so that there was almost NO room behind it, and all 5 of them STILL stay back there all day long. I had one fish of the four who was out all the time before these 4 new ones trained him into the back and not to eat when fed as well.

I am at whit's end. What can i do? Thanks

[doc3toes]

try dropping the light output for a while. what temp?

[alan j t]

hi Xirxes
i had the same problem with my first discus they always hid behind the driftwood when ever i appoached the tank or even was in the room
my advice is to take out the wood and any other hiding places then they will have nowhere to hide and get used to it
then you can enjoy:-}

[target]

hi Xirxes
i had the same problem with my first discus they always hid behind the driftwood when ever i appoached the tank or even was in the room
my advice is to take out the wood and any other hiding places then they will have nowhere to hide and get used to it
then you can enjoy:-}

Do you have any tips for when there is no place to hide and they still stay in a corner? I have 5 discus in a 46 gallon BB. They have been in for a week and are always packed tightly into one corner of the tank. I have turned the light off to see if that helps. Any other advice? Thanks

Daniel

[alan j t]

i would leave the light off or a low light
and make sure your water quality is very good
how many times are you changing your water?
what the ph nitirte etc...

[target]

i would leave the light off or a low light
and make sure your water quality is very good
how many times are you changing your water?
what the ph nitirte etc...

Sorry if I am hijacking this thread.

50% WC a day
ph 6.6
ammonia 0
nitrates 0
temp 85

Daniel

[alan j t]

if your filter is cycled?
whats your temp?
did you add any salt yet?

just give it time they will come around

[cveks]

I recently had same problem :)

I have planted 400 litres (100 gallons) tank with 2 discus in it from which one was runt (very small) . I added 4 new discus and all 4 has been hept like 2 months in special quarantine aquarium and all 4 are bigger than runt for like double. And they are still afraid of him , he is chaising them around and they dwell most of time in left corner of tank where I have big bush of many plants . They come out corner when lights go off but doesnt take them too long to come back to corner. Probably aclimatisation to new enviroment. I am changing like 20% of water every day.

[cveks]

haha unbelivable. i removed runt from plant aquarium and place it into quarantine aquarium and 15 minutes after that 3 discus who were hiding 2 days in row immidiately come forward and started cruising all around aquarium. cant belive this little one cant be such a terror :D

[Apistomaster]

If you placed your runt back in after a couple weeks in isolation you should see how the tables have turned.
But I would just forget about the runt. It won't likely be much of a contribution to a nice collection of discus.

[Xirxes]

So they are all still hiding, but i am moving them all over to a 125 in 8 days, so I will not worry about it until then too much, but should i just give them time, if they all decide to hide in the new tank?

params:

No3 10ppm or below
ammo nitrite: 0
Planted aquarium, decently bright light
UV sterilizer
hardness 100-200ppm
RODI etc.

I know that the dominant fish in this tank is one of the new smaller ones, but should i just let them be and wait for them to get used to tank? or try and remove the most dominant? (Please note that i do NOT see them bothering one another). All of the fish are fully colored up, but will not come out from behind driftwood unless there has been no motion in the room for at least an hour.

I also have many cardinal tetras clown loaches etc for dither fish.