Sick Discus

[australia]

i brought a pair of melon Discus 10cm a couple of days ago, when i put them into my 4 foot tank (by them self) they were fine for 1 day then 1 of them started going a little black (sick) so i got some Melfix its a all natuarl antibiotic, helps disease ect, the 1 discus looking a bit sick is getting better though i am still worried becuase i have not yet seen them eat, i am feeding them frozen bloodwooms atm and i am running a good canister filter for the discus, what can i do?

 

[mister-t]

black discus could be down to water not being perfect for them.also stress will make them dark or black.as for eating give them time to settle in there new home,but you really need more than 2 discus for them to be happy,5 or six is a good number,anyway keep us posted and i hope your fish recovers well
mister-t

 

[australia]

black discus could be down to water not being perfect for them.also stress will make them dark or black.as for eating give them time to settle in there new home,but you really need more than 2 discus for them to be happy,5 or six is a good number,anyway keep us posted and i hope your fish recovers well
mister-t

okay np, well i woke up today to see my 2 Discus swimming around though still not wanting to eat, and the black is starting to come better) im just trying to drop the ph to around 5.5 becuase it is at 7 atm

 

[kev_kb]

It can take a while for them to eat, just be patient. Also buy some more as they really need to kept in groups.

You should have matched the water of your supplier before adding the discus, if you didn't that could explain some of the 'shock' they experienced.

You don't need to go a low as 5.5 really, but if you do then do it very slowly. Also how are you lowering it?

 

[australia]

It can take a while for them to eat, just be patient. Also buy some more as they really need to kept in groups.

You should have matched the water of your supplier before adding the discus, if you didn't that could explain some of the 'shock' they experienced.

You don't need to go a low as 5.5 really, but if you do then do it very slowly. Also how are you lowering it?

yeah, i am lowering my ph with ph down powder, from aqua master

 

[DiscusKeeper403]

It can take a while for them to eat, just be patient. Also buy some more as they really need to kept in groups.

You should have matched the water of your supplier before adding the discus, if you didn't that could explain some of the 'shock' they experienced.

You don't need to go a low as 5.5 really, but if you do then do it very slowly. Also how are you lowering it?

yeah, i am lowering my ph with ph down powder, from aqua master

Do not use buffers, 7 is fine.

 

[kev_kb]

Agreed, chemicals to lower the ph will cause nothing but trouble....

Are you using tap water or RO? I would be more concerned with the total hardness than ph.

Keep up with water changes while they settle and in the mean time please do more research on Discus.

 

[australia]

Agreed, chemicals to lower the ph will cause nothing but trouble....

Are you using tap water or RO? I would be more concerned with the total hardness than ph.

Keep up with water changes while they settle and in the mean time please do more research on Discus.

okay, well i am using tap water and its ph is normaly reading around 8, so every water change i have to add ph down to get the ph to a stable level, what else can i use to lower my ph? and what should the total hardness reading be for discus?

 

[kev_kb]

The best way to soften water is to use RO water. You can buy it from your LFS but it will be cheaper and easier in the long run to get yourself an RO filter. This will produce almost 100% pure water with practically 0 hardness that is not suitable for supporting life. You then either need to add minerals in powder form such as Kent RO Right or you mix it with tap water.

Please search the forum for discus, you will find plenty of information on this... research research research