Replacing Departed Fish

[mabrandt]

Hi. I haven't posted much, but I do do a lot of lurking. I have had 4 Discus in my planetd 55 gal since January. Everything was fine until last week and something happened during a water change. I did the change Thursday evening and when I got home from work Friday afternoon all the Discus were up at the top of the tank gasping. I immediately did another change and they seemed ok for a while and then started again. The second change my dither fish, tetras and rasboras also started to gasp. I did a 3rd change and that quited things down. One discus didn't make it. The other 3 are fine. All I can think of is due to some bad storms in our area, something got into the water. I have done a change since then with no ill effects.

Here tho is my question. These fish are 5" to 6" fish. I want to replace the missing one but am wondering if I get 1 or 2 smaller ones whether they will get picked on. Would it be better to plan on getting bigger? I don't have anyway to seperate the fish, so what I get will just be added to the community.

Thanks for any advice.

[mmorris]

I would get an adult. They will probably reestablish pecking order and it's hard to say whether he will be picked on excessively or not. Four isn't a good number. Five isn't great, but a 55 gal planted tank really can't support more, especially with other tankmates. I had much this same scenario once but my 55 gal wasn't planted. I went to Al's for a replacement and he convinced me I needed a 125 gal. Great advice!

[DonMD]

Yeah, I'm upgrading to a 125, too, from a 90 g. This weekend I hope to bring in the cabinet and tank, and start the setup. Hey, looks like I'll have to get some more fish!:D

[Elite Aquaria]

I would also pick up a few adults if I were you.

[mareshow]

i have a couple wild adults with a couple domestic juvies and they get along fine, but when feeding them you HAVE to feed extra and then just scoop it out, ive found out that the adults with go crazy in defense of the food but if theres a little too much every gets to chow down :)

[Jhhnn]

When something like that happens, it's really important to test the water, particularly for ammonia and nitrites, to maintain or increase aeration, and to make sure your CO2 injector isn't wonky, if you use one...

Municipal water suppliers will do what they deem necessary to provide water safe for human consumption, including jacking up the chloramines if they're having problems dealing with their source water... and they won't bother to mention it, since it's still safe to drink, right?

A couple more adult or near adult discus (at least) from a reputable supplier is the easy answer. Helps keep down bullying, keeps aggression more dispersed rather than focused on the weakest... 5 or more together is the general rule, iirc...

Since you're setting up a new tank anyway, you can quarantine any new arrivals in it before mixing into the general population, as well...

[mabrandt]

When something like that happens, it's really important to test the water, particularly for ammonia and nitrites, to maintain or increase aeration, and to make sure your CO2 injector isn't wonky, if you use one...

Municipal water suppliers will do what they deem necessary to provide water safe for human consumption, including jacking up the chloramines if they're having problems dealing with their source water... and they won't bother to mention it, since it's still safe to drink, right?

A couple more adult or near adult discus (at least) from a reputable supplier is the easy answer. Helps keep down bullying, keeps aggression more dispersed rather than focused on the weakest... 5 or more together is the general rule, iirc...

Since you're setting up a new tank anyway, you can quarantine any new arrivals in it before mixing into the general population, as well...

Yes, I guess I'll stick with adult fish. It looks like that is the way to go. Unfortunately, I'm stuck with this setup for a while. It was one of the other posters that was upgrading. Unfortunate about the water situation. That's the first time in 15 years that I have had a problem. It's a shame, because all 4 fish were thriving. The other 3 seem to be fine and it's been a week, so hopefully I be all right. I did a water change today with no problems. I'll start looking around for some new mates.

[mabrandt]

I picked up a pair of fish from Mike at Central Ohio Discus yesterday. He really has some nice fish. These two have blended right in. They both ate right away and are actually helping the others overcome their shyness. The original fish were very shy. Always hiding behind something when you approaced the tank. Not sure of exactly why and was hoping they would get over it, but after 6 months they still were doing it. The new fish are not shy at all and last night it actually looked like they were bringing the older fish out of their shell. They still looked nervous, but didn't hide when I came close. Maybe it's just the extra fish, going from 4 to 5, I don't know. Either way, everyone is doing fine.