Discoloured Discus

[chemflex]

One of my discus's has suddenly gone very dark. All of the fish including this one appear to be acting fine. I tested all of my water parameters and the only 2 that were worrying were the pH and the ammonia.

pH - 4.5
Ammonia 1.2

Carry out a water change last night and re-tested this morning

pH - 4.5
Ammonia 0.6

What is causing the discus to become dark in colour and what can I do to rectify the situation?

 

[once i was a maggot]

im guessing maybe the ph is a little low
plz anyone correct me if im wrong

damo

 

[Tolak]

The ph is a little low, but discus need lower ph. The presence of ammo is a bad thing for any fish, more so for a delicate fish like discus. You need to find what is causing this, as discus probably won't last long with ammo present. A temporary fix would be a product like ammo-lock, but it would only be temporary, as you are treating the symptom of something wrong, not the cause.

Overfeeding & leaving food to decay could be causing this, as well as improperly dechlorinating water, over cleaning of the gravel, cleaning the filter too vigorously or in water that has not been dechlorinated. Any fish dissapearances not accounted for can cause this, as they decay they give off ammo. There is a big list of things, it's a little hard to tell without a little more info.

What size tank do you have, how many & what type of fish, what type of filter, feeding schedule, water temp, there is no such thing as too much info when trying to figure out a fish problem. Post a big list, it will help having more info than less.

Tolak

 

[black angel]

hope you get it sorted soon. discus are amazing fish to watch.

 

[chemflex]

I've been keeping fish for several years, so everything that has been mentioned so far I'm already aware of. I've done the water changes, which appears to be reducing the ammo, but not increasing the pH.

I use RO water with tropicmarin additive specifically designed for discus. I've thought of everything and cannot think of anything that could have kicked off the ammonia or caused the pH to suddenly drop.

I'm completely comfused!!!

 

[WILDER]

If that's the only fish that has gone dark it could be a bacteria infection.

 

[elgecko]

I would not think it would be a bacteria infection with a Ph that low.
Bacteria stops multiplying at a low Ph.
How long have you had your discus, and has the Ph always been that low, and why?

 

[kamel_007]

you can add some of crushed coral's to your tank for only one day..

it's have calcium carbonate,, will increase the PH,,

and check the PH again...after

remove the CRUSHED CORAL'S when the PH 6.5..

i was add a crushed coral's by wrong to my DISCUS TANK..

my PH increase to 8.5..

after that i replaced 50% water changed PH down to 7.5

and i will use active carbon to low PH at 6.5 again..

good luck

but becarefull!!