Discus Trouble

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iain.betson

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Hi I am asking a question here for my friend, here goes.

4 x 2.5" discus (2 x pigeon blood and 2 x unknown blues) tap water bred
400L tank
juwel filter + recently added (1 week) Rena filstar xp3

PH 7.2
NITRITE 0
AMONIA 0
NITRATE 50
KH 3
GH 16
TEMP 82

Had discus 1 week after three days they turned very dark, started flicking against objects, stopped feeding. Either sit at the top or at the bottom of tank, heavy breathing and clamped fins, white slime coating coming off and one of the blues has cloudy eyes. One pigeon blood is fine!

Can anyone help???
 
hi,
do a water change immediately, those nitrates are the problem they are much too high, you must keep them between 10 and 20. good luck
 
Two things about your stats stood out with me. I believe discus prefer the pH to be more on the acid side, 6.5 would be great, 7.5 is ten times more alkaline than that. Also i think discus prefer their water to be a little warmer, more towards the 29, 30 degrees c mark.

Your friend should make sure the water current from the filters is not too strong. Being high bodied fish, discus don't like to live in a strong water current, which would stress them out causing them to be ill.

To help with the pH i would add some bogwood to help soften the water. I wouldn't soak it too much as the tannins while unsightly can actually be beneficial to the fish.
 
They should ideally be kept in the same water parameters that the supplier used.

Are they the only fish in the tank? Is it new/cycled? What is the tank setup/decor?

Small discus likes to be large groups, and can sometimes get kinda lost in a large tank, are they hanging out together?

Put the temp upto 30C as already mentioned, lots of water movement is a no no, but you need to ensure there is plenty of oxygen in the water. Make your filters break the surface of the water if possible or add an air stone.

I'd do daily water changes of 20% and ensure the water parameters are the same as the suppliers. Give it a few days and see how they go. If the symptoms continue then you will need to treat them, I'll leave it to someone with more experience with the symptoms to suggest which treatment.
 
They should ideally be kept in the same water parameters that the supplier used.

Are they the only fish in the tank? Is it new/cycled? What is the tank setup/decor?

Small discus likes to be large groups, and can sometimes get kinda lost in a large tank, are they hanging out together?

Put the temp upto 30C as already mentioned, lots of water movement is a no no, but you need to ensure there is plenty of oxygen in the water. Make your filters break the surface of the water if possible or add an air stone.

I'd do daily water changes of 20% and ensure the water parameters are the same as the suppliers. Give it a few days and see how they go. If the symptoms continue then you will need to treat them, I'll leave it to someone with more experience with the symptoms to suggest which treatment.

yeah they hang out together, the tank is cycled just changed from mbuna set up. the tank has fine black gravel and two large pieces of bogwood. no other fish in tank yet.
thanks for the replies
 
Mbunas require very very hard water right? If nothing has been done to soften the water that is most likely your problem, but it will depend on the conditions of the Discus supplier. Also you'll need to ensure that gravel is totally spotless and the tank is very clean.
 
I agree with all of the above but would not be at all suprised if you lose these fish due to stress. You need to know how to keep discus prior to purchasing and give them the right requirements, so many discus are lost this way and frankly it's a bloody shame.
 
They should ideally be kept in the same water parameters that the supplier used.

Are they the only fish in the tank? Is it new/cycled? What is the tank setup/decor?

Small discus likes to be large groups, and can sometimes get kinda lost in a large tank, are they hanging out together?

Put the temp upto 30C as already mentioned, lots of water movement is a no no, but you need to ensure there is plenty of oxygen in the water. Make your filters break the surface of the water if possible or add an air stone.

I'd do daily water changes of 20% and ensure the water parameters are the same as the suppliers. Give it a few days and see how they go. If the symptoms continue then you will need to treat them, I'll leave it to someone with more experience with the symptoms to suggest which treatment.

They are kept in the same water parameters as the as they were in the lfs.
Granted they are stressed, and may be this is the cause of the problem.
Is it parasitic (spelling?)??? caused by low imune systems due to the stress?
I posted this question for a friend because he needs help with his discus of which I have no experience of. He has taken note of what people have said, and the point is he does have the discus they are not right so any helpfull information would be appreciated.
thanks
 
are they eating, and if they are what are you feeding them?

any other fish in the tank
 
Perhaps a few dither fish would help, these are a peaceful shoal of fish in the tank that the discus regard as lookouts, if the shoal are happy, then the discus may be more confident and less stressed. Neon tetras would be ok as discus have relatively small mouths so aren't as likely to eat the neons as angel fish. Alternatively i believe hatchet or pencil fish are good in a similar role if you want something a little bit different.

The dither fish idea works well with dwarf cichlids such as apistos, and i know discus need to feel secure in a similar way despite their large size.
 
yh every time i add a discus fish to the tank they are allways dead scared and hideing, maybe a few other fish might help
 
the pH is fine. discus arnt big pussys, they can deal with pH up to 8 and breed in it if acclimated right and kept stable.
wood will soften the water

i would say stress. thier new. give them time. thats a really big tank they were put into and more adequate hiding places would help. laeve the lights off for awhile, approach the tank carefully and slowly.

and do a waterchange...
 
Add some melafax/melafix(cant remeber which one it is) or methylene blue best treatment for anything around!
 
Add some melafax/melafix(cant remeber which one it is) or methylene blue best treatment for anything around!

At this stage it may be inappropriate to treat the Discus at the moment. All we know is that as they are timid fish, they are having problems acclimatising to their new tank. Adding a treatment at this stage could further stress the fish causing further illness or worse. In some cases it is appropriate to add a treatment proactively before there is some kind of illness. Melafix is a good wound treatment, and methylene blue is also a good fungal treatment which is also effective against whitespot, neither of which are evident in this case.

Have a proper read of the threads you are posting into rather then shooting off a one line solve it all answer, it really doesn't help.
 

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