Discus Trouble

[devonjules]

Hello. My hubby and I bought 2 cobalt discus 2 months ago, both around 3" which seemed to settle in fine, and a month or so later (on advice of lfs) bought pair of slightly smaller pidgeon blood discus, and again all seemed find and dandy for a while. But the male cobalt one has really grown since we've had him (probably about third bigger, seems to be a real hogger of the food) and began to become more and more fiesty. The upshot is, that one by one, the other three have died over past fortnight. No sigh of disease, just seemed to have given up.The tank is 55 gallons, water conditions all as they should be, and other fish (various tetras, plecs) are all perfectly healthy, so assume that it can only be down to the discus. We've kept fish for years but this is the first discus set up we've had and we're not really sure what to do now: should we risk getting bigger discus or do we just have to accept we have a rogue on our hands? I thought these were peaceful fish! Our lfs have not really been much help, so any advice gratefully received!

 

[kev_kb]

Hopefully we can get to the bottom of this, but first there's lots of questions!

What are the tank dimensions, decor, tank mates, age, water conditions (ph, hardness, temp) ?

What are feeding and how often?

How often / how much do you water change? What is the source of your water?

Did you match your water parameters to your discus supplier? If so, have you adjusted them at all?

You want to aim to keep a group of 5, I would suggest 3" fish and above, maybe as your remaing one has grown then go slightly larger. If we are sure the water parameters and tank mates are ok then I would add four more discus and re-arrange the tank decor.

Discus are not always peaceful, after all they are cichlids, but in a group of fish the aggression should be spread out. You will also need to consider your lfs, some simply sell really poor quality Discus. It's much better if you can to buy from a local breeder or discus specialist.

 

[devonjules]

the tank is 4' x 2' x 18", it contains several large pieces of bogwood and is well planted with vallis and amazon swords. Temp is 84 deg ph 6.5 water soft. 30-40% water change fortnightly.
Fed once a day with aquarian fish flakes and algae pellets. Bloodworm twice weekly.
Fish mates are 9 rummy nosed tetra (had for 3 months), 1 phantom tetra, 1 lemon tetra, 1 hatchet, 1 glass cat (these four are all several years old). One 4" bristle-nosed catfish (about 8ys) 2 borneo suckers (1") 1 sucking loach (2") had about 3 months. None of which appear to cause any trouble. Discus is currenty looking incredibly healthy with fantastic colour but rather bored now all his "mates" (!) have gone...

 

[RadaR]

One thing you havnt mentioned and could be the problem is water hardness. Discus need soft, almost pure water. GH of 3. I cant stress this enough when keeping Discus, Rams and other fish.
And what about ammonia, nitrite and nitrate?

 

[kev_kb]

Yes, you did not mention your water stats and your source of water, and the water parameters of your discus supplier.

From what you did post I can tell you should do more water changes. Changing water every two weeks just isn't suitable for Discus. I would try for 25% twice a week. Also you should be feeding them more in quantity and frequency, they should be fed 2-3 times a day and you should use a variety of foods. I normally feed mainly Tetra Prima as a staple, and supplement with either Bloodworm, Brine Shrimp or Beef Heart mix, my fish get at least one meaty feed a day. Not sure if they eat the algae pellets, but they won't be getting much good from them.

Also I would think about your tank mates. The borneo suckers are not suitable and should be kept at much lower temps with very fast water movement. The sucking loach will get big and could cause problems when it's older as they get aggressive. Both of these fish could suck on the slime coat of the Discus.

You have a good size tank, but be careful on your decor setup. Give the Discus plenty of floor space to feed from and create a layout that is easy to keep very very clean. When Amazon swords grow large they are very good at trapping waste, I had one spread almost 3ft in my 4ft tank and it was a complete pain to keep the tank clean. As you have a planted tank you want to add large Discus to the tank.

 

[devonjules]

Thanks for your help so far. Ammonia levels at present are 0. nitrite 0, nitrates bet 25-50mg/l. I dont know the parameters of my lfs. Water supply is tap water treated with Aquasafe.
cheers
Jules

 

[RadaR]

But what about GH? Test your tap water GH and also ask what the water hardness was that the Discus were in at the lfs, if thats possible.

 

[annka5]

IMO your nitrates are a bit on the high side - up your water change routine, siphon anything off the bottom (i.e. food and poop) and make sure you lightly rinse your filter sponges in tank water pretty often.
My feeling would be that the group of 4 meant that there were only 3 discus to spread the aggression of your one dominant fish. If you had a group of 6 then that would mean the aggression would be spread amongst a higher number of dish, so each individual would spend less time being "picked on". Discus are prone to fiestiness amongst themselves. The aggression of the one dominant fish probably stressed, unsettled, and limited the feeding of the remaining 3 fish.
You should avoid keeping one disucs on its own, so I would recommend (a) reducing nitrates/ improving water quality, then (B) adding a further 5 discus of a decent size /age.