Devastated by incident: thoughts of giving up

[DiscusBR]

Hi all,

I have been part of this wonderful community since August 2010. I have read this forum for months preparing to return to discus-keeping after a 15-year interruption. I put together a beautiful (I think) tank:

http://forum.simplydiscus.com/showthread.php?86996-Finally!!-My-new-80g-tank-for-wilds-is-ready!-But-still-cycling-…

I then went through a long process of cycling:

http://forum.simplydiscus.com/showthread.php?86871-Is-my-cycling-going-well

I then got 6 beautiful wild cuipeua discus. But on the 9th day, I made a mistake. I trusted that the water of the storage barrel was in the right temperature and changed 60% of the water. Well, it turns out that the circuit of the electrict extension where the heater was connected had a shord circuit. I did not notice that the heater had stopped working. Long story short, introduced cold water in the tank and my discus are now very sick with ick, especially one of them:

http://forum.simplydiscus.com/showthread.php?87891-Rough-start-I-think-my-wilds-got-ick

So months of preparation and expectation collapsed in one mistake. One of the fish looks awful and another does not look good. I gave all I could in the 9 days before the incident, changing water at least once a day and monitoring them closely. The feeling now is of defeat. I am seriously thinking that these wonderful fish might just not work for me. I wonder if people had to cope with such a rough start.

Sorry for the collective therapy. I just wanted to vent.

Best,

Mauro

[Dudley Eirich]

I'm sorry to hear about your rough start, but all discus keepers have had times that make you want to quit. I've definitely had my times of trials and tribulations. My best male jumped out of his tank (left the lid open) and he laid on the concrete floor until he was dry on one side before I found him and quickly put him back in the tank. Fortunately he survived. I've had my favorite juvenile drop dead with no warning at all. I had my best and largest breeding male become a head-stander and died a few weeks later. For various reasons, I've stopped and restarted keeping discus about five times over 40 years. Despite all the hardships, the joys of discus keeping cause me to always come back to these beautiful, intriguing, but often frustrating fish. Hang in there and one of these days you will be posting pictures of your discus breeding and raising fry.

[DiscusBR]

I'm sorry to hear about your rough start, but all discus keepers have had times that make you want to quit. I've definitely had my times of trials and tribulations. My best male jumped out of his tank (left the lid open) and he laid on the concrete floor until he was dry on one side before I found him and quickly put him back in the tank. Fortunately he survived. I've had my favorite juvenile drop dead with no warning at all. I had my best and largest breeding male become a head-stander and died a few weeks later. For various reasons, I've stopped and restarted keeping discus about five times over 40 years. Despite all the hardships, the joys of discus keeping cause me to always come back to these beautiful, intriguing, but often frustrating fish. Hang in there and one of these days you will be posting pictures of your discus breeding and raising fry.

Thank you, Dudley. You are right, mistakes and tribulations are part of the hobby. I remember in my early twenties that a malfuncitioning second-hand, cheap heater killed all my discus. I kept other fish after that, not discus. I guess what makes this incident particularly difficult is working for so long to get started well and see everything collapse because a silly mistake, because I was just lazy to check the water parameters before a WC.

[moon_knight1971]

I lost a rare Disckson Gold 3" discus juvie because I squeezed the sponge filter clean, killing all the bacteria on it. I had 9 other juvies in the tank doing fine but the DG was dead on the floor. I immediately knew what i did wrong, scooped him out and did a 100% water change and added Seachem Stability. Hard lesson to learn but one I will never make again.

[dbfzurowski]

Sorry to hear that. Venting is good but I wouldn't blame equipment failure on my self. Hope they get better.

[Second Hand Pat]

Mauro, I do not think you should quit. You knew what happen and know what to look for. It is well, part of life with discus. I have lost two of my better discus and I do not know why. Knowing is way better then guessing which is where I'm at. So hang to then and it can only get better. All the best.
Pat

[DiscusBR]

Thank you all. I will try to hang on.

moon_knight1971: I squeeze my sponge filter in a bucket, with tank water. Am I doing something wrong?

dbfzurowski: I know, it is the equipment, but I could have been more careful.

Second Hand Pat: I can only guess how puzzled one becomes when loved fish die with no appearant reason. But I guess it is worse to know it was your own mistake

I doing a salt dip with the most stressed fish right now. It has been darting violently agains glass and ornaments, a sad thing to see. I hope it will get better.

[discuspaul]

Mauro - I feel you & I, among others you have pleasantly bantered with, have had a very enjoyable 'discus forum working relationship' lately, albeit relatively brief and at a distance, but I have thorougly enjoyed our back & forth, and I was very impressed with your dedication and desire to do the right thing, not to mention your superb aquascaping efforts.
So, I'm very sorry to hear of this latest setback and sincerely hope it doesn't deter you from maintaining your fine interest in this wonderful hobby of discus-keeping.
Looking forward to hearing further from you in a lighter vein.
Best,
Paul

[DiscusBR]

Mauro - I feel you & I, among others you have pleasantly bantered with, have had a very enjoyable 'discus forum working relationship' lately, albeit relatively brief and at a distance, but I have thorougly enjoyed our back & forth, and I was very impressed with your dedication and desire to do the right thing, not to mention your superb aquascaping efforts.
So, I'm very sorry to hear of this latest setback and sincerely hope it doesn't deter you from maintaining your fine interest in this wonderful hobby of discus-keeping.
Looking forward to hearing further from you in a lighter vein.
Best,
Paul

Hi Paul,

There is one thing about this site that really puzzles me. Why people like you spend so much time and effort to help others who live far away and who you might not ever meet? You have always provided generous and extensive comments and advice to me and others with such an elegance and care that is hard not to feel touched. I guess I will keep trying because I now feel that I am a member of a broader community, which you can always count on during hard times. Thank you!

[wendy9722]

That is the way the Lord would want us to be. Loving, sharing, and kind.

http://i1185.photobucket.com/albums/z345/wendy9722/james_2_8_love_thy_neighbor.jpg

[DiscusBR]

Thank you, Wendy.

[ZX10R]

When I first starting keeping discus I had a big mistake also and killed 7 fish. I just about gave up on the hobby also but I stuck with it and am glad I did. Don't let one set back get you down just learn from what happened and apply that new knowledge. Keep your chin up!!!!

[Disgirl]

Don't give up Mauro. Just learn and keep going forward. Even after my many years of fishkeeping, I still have an incident once in awhile. Two weeks ago I was very distracted by bad weather going on outside and did my usual 50% water change. But I forgot to add the dechlor. I almost lost my whole 125 gal tank of 12 full grown healthy and beautiful discus. But I got the stuff added before it was too late and they are fine now. Things happen, but if you love discus like most of here do, you will just keep moving along the discus path!
Barb:)

[jimg]

I waited months for a special pair of leopard ss next morning they were dead, I must of left residual ethanol I used to sterilize the tank.
another time my co2 tank dumped and almost killed every discus in the tank,l saved a few though.
I check tds and temp while I'm changing water every time, one time my storage water was cold too, but since I always check, I caught it.

you don't want to hear about the floods do you?!!!!!

[ericatdallas]

Don't give up... they're strong, so hope they make it.

I was cleaning my tank and I was moving a rock out of the way and I accidentally crushed one of my discus. Another time, a juvie got sucked into the siphon which resulted in a lot of physical trauma. I think it happens to all of us... :(

[ockyra215]

Dont give up, I had accidently killed over 20 discus late last year when I moved. I had Stendkers Wayne Ng Reflection D Some nice leopards and white butterflys and some virgin reds It sucks big time. I now have a nice collection of Discus, So dont give up think of it as a learning experience.

[moon_knight1971]

Thank you all. I will try to hang on.

moon_knight1971: I squeeze my sponge filter in a bucket, with tank water. Am I doing something wrong?

dbfzurowski: I know, it is the equipment, but I could have been more careful.

Second Hand Pat: I can only guess how puzzled one becomes when loved fish die with no appearant reason. But I guess it is worse to know it was your own mistake

I doing a salt dip with the most stressed fish right now. It has been darting violently agains glass and ornaments, a sad thing to see. I hope it will get better.

No what you're doing is correct. Just give it one or 2 gentle squeezes and put it back. Don't make the same mistake I did by squeezing it until I practically removed all of the beneficial bacteria.

[discolicious]

DiscusBR.. thanks for sharing your tragedy and your pain. And thanks to all the others who shared their unfortunate experiences. This thread is a great reminder of all the things we should make mental notes about to avoid or at least be mindful of. We do learn from our own mistakes and those of others. There's no doubt we are a bit "looney" about our fish. The way they greet us and seem so intelligent compared to other fish we've kept... not to mention just our beautiful they are. It hurts deeply when we lose them. It hurts more when we feel it was a simple oversight on our part that could have been prevented. So yes, learn from the mistake, but remember that each day you become a better, more knowledgeable discus owner. And you are more prepared than the guy just starting. Hang in there and one day you'll be like some of these seasoned veterans whose advice has helped the others of us so much. I've actually made a check off list of all the things I have to remember to do daily (cutting off pumps, cutting on heaters, testing tanks, checking cords, etc.) A couple of years ago I bought my first large tank (on Craigslist) from an elderly man who was selling it for his son who had been sent to Iraq. All he knew was that his son had kept a snake in it. I made sure I cleaned it really well. Unfortunately, I didn't notice that the son had also re-caulked it using a silicone with mold inhibitor. The first night my 5 beautiful discus were in their new spacious tank, they seemed as happy as I was for them. By morning, all but one was dead (I still have the survivor). I was literally sick and had to take the day off from work. I did learn a valuable lesson about buying used tanks. I've also become a bit of an "expert" on which silicones are safe for re-caulking. It was an expensive and painful lesson but I've built 3 tanks since then and haven't had a problem. Hang in there bud.

[lizziotti]

I'm so sorry you are having trouble. I know I lost 3 of the 8 I just bought.it all happened very suddenly I woke up to one dead on easter and 2 dark and hiding by evening the other two passed. Im not sure what happened but the night before we were rearranging furniture so I think all the noise startled them and they suffered darting injuries.its the only thing I can think of. I've been feeling the same way so I can relate to feeling like giving up. But we can do this. Stay strong!

I'm routing for you, I've been following your other thread and hope everything works out, sorry to hear about your loss. I wish I could offer advice but I have no clue but I see your under good hands good luck.

[strawberryblonde]

Losing discus, especially brand new ones when you've worked so hard to get everything set up correctly for them, is devastating. Just don't give up, give yourself time to get over the feelings of guilt and eventually the pain will fade. Mistakes are a part of living. You can NOT be perfect... humans just aren't capable of it!

So many people on here that I've been following have lost fish suddenly lately and I was counting my blessings with my new group of discus. I had one little guy who got off to a bad start, but seemed plucky enough to pull himself out of it and survive. Or so I kept telling myself. I really really REALLY wanted him to make it.

He died a few days ago and I've been so upset by it that I haven't even been able to talk about it. And yup, I feel like his death is my fault.

I put a thread in the sickness forum for him two weeks ago when I noticed brown "spots" on his anal fin. I followed the advice given for treatment and breathed a huge sigh of relief when it turned out to be fin ray damage as a result of his distress during shipping. SO, once his bath was done and I'd observed no ill effects from the spots, I returned him to the main tank. I still looked at the spots every once in awhile, but didn't panic over them anymore. And I should have!

Last week I was starting my morning WC after a healthy feeding of flakes...which he didn't eat because he hated flakes (so nothing unusual in him staying in his favorite sleeping spot in the driftwood) and when the syphon went into the tank, he flew out of the driftwood and started smashing himself against the glass. 2 good smacks and he fell to the floor of the tank on his side.

Again, I didn't panic because he'd done it twice before and both times I thought he was dead, but in a few minutes he'd be up and swimming around again like nothing had ever happened. I wandered off to do something else while he got himself upright again, then came back to start the WC, and he was twitching on the bottom of the tank.

I pulled him out and put him in my hospital tank and then I saw red streaks running from the spots on his fin into the back end of his body. It was too late to do anything, he was dead within 20 minutes.

My fault for not keeping a closer eye on his fin damage. And I feel guilty over his death. But I'm "sitting with it" and not giving up on discus yet. That's what you need to do, ok? Just sit with it, do your best for your remaining sick fish and don't give up even if they all die and you have to start over.

This thread has been a lifesaver for me. I've been able to read about others experiences with mistakes that caused the death of their fish and it helps more than you know. Thank you for starting the thread and giving us all an opportunity to share our pain.

SB

[DiscusBR]

Thank, thank you all. I will answer later. I have neverthelsses a live and death situation with the fish that needs advice. I have do decide immediately if I should use a UV light filter. My LFS closes in an hour and I might make it if I leave now. Please go to:

http://forum.simplydiscus.com/showthread.php?87891-Rough-start-I-think-my-wilds-got-ick

Thanks,

Mauro

[DiscusBR]

Hi all,

Now that I did what I could to help the sick fish I can write more calmly.

This thread has been very important to me in this difficult moment. Thank you ZX10R, Disgirl, jimg, ericatdallas, ockyra215 and lizziotti for the messages of solidarity and support and for sharing your stories. discolicious, you are so right about why we get attached to these fishes. They are really special creatures. I will learn from my mistake, will keep a checklist and will not let my routines become bureaucratic again. Strawberryblonde: I am so sorry to hear about your recent losses, but I am glad that this thread has helped you cope with them. Let’s overcome this difficult moment together.

I will keep going, but the moment right now is of pain. The most stressed fish has died and another one is lying on its side.

I have always waited in anticipation for the day when the 6 Cuipeua would be fully adapted and I would get a good camera and introduce them here in the forum with a beautiful video. Obviously, this will not happen, at least with the original group of fish. So here is a bit of the story I would have told in that imagined thread. I went personally to a hatchery in central Brazil, near the city of Goiania. The name of the company is WB Sabby and the owner is Chihiro Yamamoto, a Japanese gentleman who was very kind when receiving me and answering my questions. I highly recommend his fish. I was so excited about the possibility of choosing my own fish. I selected 6 of them.

Nine days after their arrival in my recently cycled tank, the episode happened. So to pay homage to my little buddy who is gone (he was the smallest, with a nice center bar. He was also the one who was more adapted) I uploaded a YouTube video which was made with a low quality camera few days after their arrival:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T0AaYNxek90

The situation of tank is obviously very different now, but I want to remember just the 9 days when I had them healthy.

I need help in the sickness/medication section (thread “Rough start”), so go there to provide some advice if you can.

Thank you all,

Mauro

[Disgirl]

Mauro, that is a beautiful tank of beautiful fish. Sorry you are having such troubles with them now. But you can do it again as many of us have.
Barb

[fishorama]

What beautiful discus & pretty tank, I'm sorry too for you problems. I think most of us have made mistakes that cost us fish & heartache. Don't give up the discus dream. Good luck.

Nancy

[gsteve]

No what you're doing is correct. Just give it one or 2 gentle squeezes and put it back. Don't make the same mistake I did by squeezing it until I practically removed all of the beneficial bacteria.


Apparently thats my 3rd major mistake which is now leading me into start over number 4