New Discus

[Demon31]

Hi all,

I just got 3 new discus. A yellow diamond, red mellow and a cobalt. I seem to be having some trouble with them. My tank is about a year old. The water is very clear. I checked ammonia, nitrite and nitrate and all are at 0. I have some live plants in there that suck up the nitrates. The temp is around 85-86F and I have a few german rams in there that have been doing well for a few months. I've had them for about 10 days. They seemed to have been doing better in the first few days than they are now. I feed them frozen bloodworms since they dont eat anything else. When they eat, sometimes they'll spit it out, sometimes they'll swallow. But they're very shy to react to the food. They'll mostly just hang out in the corner all the time. The red one lost a good bit of color. After a couple days, they used to come to the front after a minute of me standing looking at them. Now they dont. I do see them swimming around the tank when I come into the room.

I got the fish from a local breeder. The fish looked pretty lively when I saw them in his tank.

Do I just need to wait or is there something else I can do?

Thanks

[JoeDiscus]

I had somewhat of a similar experience with my 4 discus fish...they were eating somewhat well, though kinda shy and hiding. But, then they were just hiding in all the time in the corner and back of the tank and not really coming out to eat...at least, not when I was around, I think.

Anyway, I got the idea that perhaps I ought to try treating for a hexamita internal parasite infection using metronidazole, and did a couple cycles of that by adding it to the tank as well as maintained 30% water changes every other day. Well, that seems to have done the trick coz now they are very actively swimming around, eating well, and developing good color and size.

So, maybe you ought to consider treating for hex...it seems to have worked for me! ;)