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I'm having some trouble with my discus in my 220 planted tank. They are turning very dark, and are hanging toward the top of the tank. I do a 35% water change every 3-4 days and my ph is about 7.2. I keep the temp at 85 and they are all eating, just not acting normal. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I have 14 in my tank with
4 curviceps
4 fruit tetras
3 bn ancistrus
3 clown plecos
8 schwartzi cories
1 queen arabesque pleco
What should I do?
Thanks

Hi there,

There is something in the tank that they are not liking, have you checked the ammonia ect: levels in your water??

It could also be that another fish is picking on them and chasing them to the top of the tank.

Are your fish just dark or are they showing any other symptoms of disease like flicking, scratching, any visable markings on them at all.

Please provide more information.

Trace

Please post the water parameters results & you'll soon be recieving some answers.


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I checked the water parameters and everything was fine. My pH was 7.2, my ammonia was zero, and my nitrates and nitrites were fine. The only thing I can thing of is that I put in an Algae Fix for my algae problem and the fish did not like it. Also, I noticed that my adult discus are showing signs of fungus on their sides. Last night, I did another 30% water change and added some salt and melafix to hopefully treat the problem. I also bought some fungus cure if I need to use it. I woke up this morning and my fish were swimming around, looked a lot better, and I'm wondering if I should keep treating the water every 3 days with water changes?

melafix will not treat fungas you need an anti fungal, that being said discus are very sensitve so its probably best if one of the experts on disus suggest a med (i use protozin for my cichlids) also what is your nitrate and nitrite exactly? nitrate should probably be less then 40ppm and nitrite 0ppm (this is very important nitrite is realy toxic) many argue as low as 20 ppm for nitrate but for me anyway thats a bit hard. also if u can post a pic it always helps for i.d.-ing the problem

The nice thing about discus is that you can easily tell when something bothers them, they show stress bars then turn dark. The bad thing about discus is that everything bothers them at one time or another.

If your fish retreat into a school, become dark and hide, they don't like something! The first thing you should do is a water change. Do water changes on a daily basis for three days to see if the fish respond to the change in water parameters. The water changes should be at least 50%.

The second thing you should do is watch the behavior of clown plecos and the queen arabesque. I have had problems with the larger plecos harassing my discus.

__________
"To steal ideas from one person is plagiarism; to steal from many is research."
researched from Steven Wright

Too late. I am down to my original 2 Gold Melon Discus. The rest of them died. I was doing daily water changes for a week of at least 50%. They had a major white fungus on them and the fungus treatment I used didn't work. Out of 16, I am down to two. What a weekend huh.

Mustang,

What were the symptoms and how did the disease progress?

__________
"To steal ideas from one person is plagiarism; to steal from many is research."
researched from Steven Wright

The symptoms were major white patches of fungus, with a parasite growing under the skin. The fish grew ulcers on their sides and within days my entire 220 was wiped out except for my two gold melons. The fish would get cloudy eyes and would start laying on their sides at the bottom of the tank. I lost 3 adults, and 11 juveniles about 3 inches long. They were eating out of my hand until this disease hit.

Was the fungus and ulcers along the lateral line of the fish?

__________
"To steal ideas from one person is plagiarism; to steal from many is research."
researched from Steven Wright

Yes they were

How long had you had the discus? What did you feed them? Had you recently added any fish? If you added any fish, did you quaranrine the fish?

__________
"To steal ideas from one person is plagiarism; to steal from many is research."
researched from Steven Wright

Bob,
I had the discus for at least 2 months and only added 2 new discus that were quarantined at the local pet store for 2 weeks. Some of the discus I have had since March.

Sometimes with discus prevention is better than cure, as far as fish go they are easily distressed and can quickly become immuno suppressed.More often than not the cause of this is temperature and water quality. Discus require very clean water and temps in the mid 80's so its probable that having them in a community setting might be leading you to have to change the water more than theyd like. Some people recommend huge water changes, but basically its asking for trouble. Its better to keep stocking to a minimum, keep them in species tanks for minimum troubles, they arent the best community fish. Too sensitive.Mine always did better with blackwater extract, massive filtration, good oxygenation and no cagemates in a big (140 gal)tank. By keeping the changes gentle and constant I was able to do much better. A lot of people drop the temperatures thinking it will have little effect in order to suit other community fish, and dont match water change temperatures to the water already in the tank, and they are running risks.

I also found that adding certain plants into the aquarium like wysteria seemed to really make them feed ravenously, perhaps the very herbal scent of the plant was a stimulant.Once feeding well they are far more resistant to shock.



Last edited by longhairedgit at 03-Oct-2005 07:29