Terrified Discus!

[leslie]

I just received 8 discus mail-order yesterday afternoon. They are terrified of me. I would like to vacuum and do a water change but I am afraid they will hurt themselves. Should I wait a couple days before the first water change? Today was the first time I fed them (I fed them twice - blood worms and freeze dried black worms).

Thanks,
Leslie

[dbfzurowski]

Hey Leslie,

I just got my new youngsters in couple of days ago.
I'm not sure if this is the right way but I just stick to my routine. Water changes, glass cleaning ext... They dart away a little, but they need to get used to it.

[jimg]

I would carefully continue cleaning and wc's. wc's very important especially first week

[Corona]

I just got some new discus in last week. I had to switch the type of siphon I was using. My previous siphon didn't have a pump and I had to immerse the entire hose and attachment in the tank first, this scared the discus like crazy. So, I went out and got a different siphon with a pump, so that only part of the hose goes in the tank, the discus don't get as scared anymore; sometimes they actually stay near the siphon hose now. The new siphon with the pump I bought was the BiOrb siphon.

[leslie]

Thanks for the responses. We went ahead with the vacuum and wc and they did great! I am glad we didn't wait. Thanks again.

[jball1125]

Yup they get used to it. My adults are so used to my hand being in the tank that I literally have to push them to the sides with my hand when I am trying to clean something that they are in the way of.

[aalbina]

They'll definitely get use to it. My juvies think the hairs on my arm are black worms and nibble at me when I do water changes now!

Good luck with them!

Adam

[gsteve]

I got 3 new ones that were calm in thier home tank and are/were terrified of me. Its been about 10 days and they are getting better. They didnt have any where to hide in the old tank now they have lots of dw. Hard to imagine but there were times i couldnt find any. Good hiders.

[JCRigsbee]

I've had my juvies for 3 weeks now. 7-10 days of the same routine they calm down alot. By week 3 it seems like they hump me on the arm begging (even though they just got fed) when I'm cleaning.

[Bill63SG]

Keep up a routine.I was talking with another member here on how I now have to push mine out of the way to get to spots on the tank.They'll be charging up to the front of the tank when they see you before you know it.