New Discus not eating

[migdem]

Hi all,

6 days ago I bought my first Discus. I bought 3x 2inch (2x Blood and Turquoise) and 1x 3inch Red Diamond. After 6 days they are still not eating.

I have tried to feed them frozen bloodworms, Beef heart with spinach, Tetra Prima and Tetra Pro Colour but still they did not eat.

Temp is set to 29*C.
PH - 7.5-8
KH - 3
GH - 7-8
Nitrate - 25
Nitrite - 0
Ammonia - 0

The tank has some driftwood and a couple of plants. Tank mates Harlequins, Cardinals, Corys and BN's.

Volume 120 litres. After a week till now I do not see any parasites on discus (and I hope that I will not see)

[khaled]

raise the temp. to 32 and add 6 tea spoons of salt, then start again with blood worms, they will start to feed soon

[migdem]

What about the other inhabitants since I will be adding salt?

Also the plants will have a great impact right?

[Skip]

Hi all,

6 days ago I bought my first Discus. I bought 3x 2inch (2x Blood and Turquoise) and 1x 3inch Red Diamond. After 6 days they are still not eating.

I have tried to feed them frozen bloodworms, Beef heart with spinach, Tetra Prima and Tetra Pro Colour but still they did not eat.

Temp is set to 29*C.
PH - 7.5-8
KH - 3
GH - 7-8
Nitrate - 25
Nitrite - 0
Ammonia - 0

The tank has some driftwood and a couple of plants. Tank mates Harlequins, Cardinals, Corys and BN's.

Volume 120 litres. After a week till now I do not see any parasites on discus (and I hope that I will not see)

no telling.. maybe they caught something from your existing fish.. fish from different sources have different immunity.. plus.. they are still new.. it takes awhile for them to settle in.. give it a few more days...

[migdem]

Ok will try and give them more time. Hope they will not starve

[Skip]

they can go a few weeks without eating.. they will be fine

ps.. do you have gravel? are you siphoning.. un eaten food?

[PAR23]

Sorry to hear about your new discus.....It is always adviseable to QT your new stock......Do they have clamped fins/hiding/white poop?.....What is your WC rountine?........What is the pH 7.5 or 8? That's a big pH swing for discus.......Do you age your water?......Did you speak to your source and ask what they were fed before you got them.....

[migdem]

I do not worry too much about uneaten food because i have some corys :)

About QT when I bought them unfortunately the QT was full and saw these beautiful discus so I went for it. No clamped fins, not hiding, i cannot say about poop because i never saw them poop yet. I do 25% weekly WC. This week I opted for 30% because 1 had cloudy eyes now everything ok. ph is somewhere between 7.5 and 8 ( Color from Tetra test ) I think it is more on the 8 ph side. No I do not age water but ph does never drops or changes. The source was a LFS. When I bought them he had just received the shipment from Thailand and he did not give them to eat.

[PAR23]

I do not worry too much about uneaten food because i have some corys :)

About QT when I bought them unfortunately the QT was full and saw these beautiful discus so I went for it. No clamped fins, not hiding, i cannot say about poop because i never saw them poop yet. I do 25% weekly WC. This week I opted for 30% because 1 had cloudy eyes now everything ok. ph is somewhere between 7.5 and 8 ( Color from Tetra test ) I think it is more on the 8 ph side. No I do not age water but ph does never drops or changes. The source was a LFS. When I bought them he had just received the shipment from Thailand and he did not give them to eat.

It sounds like it may be water quality issue based on what you are telling us.......Juvies need a lot of food and a lot of WCs.....Daily WCs about 50% should be fine......You are fighting an uphill battle with your WC rountine in a display tank......
I would also recommend getting solution test kit to check your pH.......Check the ph out of your water source and then after 24 hrs of aeration....You may need to use aged water for WC.
Since your LFS never QT these guys......It is that much more critical that you QT these fish.......They could be sick and will infect the rest of your tank.
For now, I would up your WC to daily 50% and check your pH with a more accurate kit since they may be stressed from your water parameters.

[migdem]

The ph has been tested several times and always 8. About the WC it is a bit difficult to do that amount because of work so I have to play a card and do weekly WC's

[Skip]

The ph has been tested several times and always 8. About the WC it is a bit difficult to do that amount because of work so I have to play a card and do weekly WC's

If Discus were Easy.. then NOBODY would have problems.. ps.. thats is alot of fish/bioload for a 30gallon

[PAR23]

The ph has been tested several times and always 8. About the WC it is a bit difficult to do that amount because of work so I have to play a card and do weekly WC's

I am afraid that weekly WC is not adequate here........Anyway you can manage daily WC for a week and see if they improve.....Like I said, it's going to be an uphill battle with Juvies

[migdem]

hehe About the bioload I am trying to remove the harlequins in another aquarium.

Then I will have

3x 2inch discus
1x 3inch discus
6x cardinals
4x corys
3x BN's ( soon i will remove them and get some younger so I try to breed them )

[santababe]

these guys know a lot more than I but if these fish came from Thailand I can tell you a bit about source, as I live here and though new to the hobby I am a quick study. In Thailand the fish are kept at high water temps not lower than 30c with the norm around 32c, I would increase the temp as others advised. They are diligent with water changes (no mercy water changes) daily at 90% i watch them change but with very quick fills. I have yet to see any farms or fish stores feed them anything but blood worms, BBS and Tetra Flakes but the primary food source is live BW. They keep in bare bottom tanks with nothing not even a loach or a rock, in central Thailand (Bangkok) the ph is normally about 7.2 so yes maybe the ph is a bit high. My "Thai" advice would be (as they are a fresh shipment) would be to clear the tank, find some coconut husks (dry ones not still green) and add them to your filter (take out charcoal), increase the temp to 32c (i would not add the salt), get some frozen BW ( or fresh and treat them yourself) soak the worms with garlic juice, never shut the lights but mute them (i float long silk plant on the top torn off the stand to effectively simulate nature) and yes you have 2 fish too many for that tank good luck, I can tell you there is a bias here with the Thai and Malay think what applies to "western" fish does not apply to eastern this may or not be true but what is true is they were kept differently than how you are keeping them now

[Second Hand Pat]

these guys know a lot more than I but if these fish came from Thailand I can tell you a bit about source, as I live here and though new to the hobby I am a quick study. In Thailand the fish are kept at high water temps not lower than 30c with the norm around 32c, I would increase the temp as others advised. They are diligent with water changes (no mercy water changes) daily at 90% i watch them change but with very quick fills. I have yet to see any farms or fish stores feed them anything but blood worms, BBS and Tetra Flakes but the primary food source is live BW. They keep in bare bottom tanks with nothing not even a loach or a rock, in central Thailand (Bangkok) the ph is normally about 7.2 so yes maybe the ph is a bit high. My "Thai" advice would be (as they are a fresh shipment) would be to clear the tank, find some coconut husks (dry ones not still green) and add them to your filter (take out charcoal), increase the temp to 32c (i would not add the salt), get some frozen BW ( or fresh and treat them yourself) soak the worms with garlic juice, never shut the lights but mute them (i float long silk plant on the top torn off the stand to effectively simulate nature) and yes you have 2 fish too many for that tank good luck, I can tell you there is a bias here with the Thai and Malay think what applies to "western" fish does not apply to eastern this may or not be true but what is true is they were kept differently than how you are keeping them now

What do the coconut husks do? Soften the water and lower PH?

[santababe]

yes gently lowers without chemicals effectively