What Do I Do?

[mark4785]

My Pigeon Blood Discus has decided to refuse to eat most of its food. 80% of what I put in, including freeze-dried blood worm, is being spat out. This behaviour began after I did a 50% water change on the aquarium. Having started up the filter after the water change I did notice that the water became very murky. As such, I kept the aquarium lights off so the detritus didn't start off an algae bloom.
 
For most of the time in which I have owned this fish it has continually had the 'shimmies', head twitching, always makes yawning motions with its mouth and, for the most, part has clamped pectoral fins. However, I can now add refusal to eat to this big list of symptoms.
 
 
 
Water Stats:
 
Temperature: 31 degrees C
Ammonia: 0 ppm
Nitrite: 0 ppm
Nitrate: 25 ppm
pH: 6.5
Treatments: Kusuri Wormer Plus (added 2 weeks ago).
 
 
I'm not too sure what to do to rectify it starving itself. Did the large water change upset the fish? I'm not sure what I have done wrong here.
 
Edit: I did some quick research into the head-twitching symptom and what I found seems to suggest that it is a territorial or spawning behaviour. How can this be considering the fish is by itself?

 

[Brodeur30]

I have never had discus, but if he continues to reject food you might want to try frozen bloodworms (I've never had a fish turn them down) and a little bit of aquarium salt can never hurt. Good luck

 

[Akasha72]

cichlids do yawn and provided it's not too often it's nothing to worry about. They do this because they move their young with their mouths and need to stretch it from time to time - that's what I was told anyway.
 
I've also not kept Discus but I did consider them. From memory I believe Discus are better kept with company of their own kind so being kept alone might be making him depressed.

 

[mark4785]

I have never had discus, but if he continues to reject food you might want to try frozen bloodworms (I've never had a fish turn them down) and a little bit of aquarium salt can never hurt. Good luck

 
I have already tried frozen blood worms and he is spitting them out. I've bought in some frozen beef heart to try later but I don't have much optimism.
 
I guess the 50% water change induced it to starve itself? Who'd thought?
Should I contact a vet and have it put down if it becomes emaciated?

 

[Blough]

How long has it been since he stopped eating?

 

[mark4785]

How long has it been since he stopped eating?

 
It stopped eating 2 days ago; the day I did a 50% water change.
 
Just this second, however, I managed to get it to eat some Tetra crisps. I had to put my arm right in and point to it and only then would it eat it. I don't quite understand why it wants me to do this...

 

[mark4785]

The fish is by no means acting normally. As said above, 80%+ of the food I put in I am having to remove as it stares it out or spits it out. 

 

[mark4785]

Update: I have now noticed that the Discus freezes when I or another person enters the room. As such, I dropped some crisps in and left the room and then observed it through a small crack in the door to the room the tank is in. It eats everything that I leave for it providing I'm not in the room....

 

[Brodeur30]

That's weird but cichlids are known to express personalities and weird behaviors. Good to hear that it's eating

 

[mark4785]

That's weird but cichlids are known to express personalities and weird behaviors. Good to hear that it's eating

 
 
I'm very glad its eating. I'm finding that I'm constantly needing to adapt my own behaviour to get it to eat though; even down to nuances such as giving it crisps that are 1mm less in diameter.
 
It could be the aforementioned water change that brought about the above change of course and so to rule this factor out I will in future do much smaller water changes.
 
I will keep this thread updated if more issues arise!
 
Thanks.

 

[mark4785]

This fish is now spitting its food out intermittently. I manage to feed it about 3 crisps and 3 blood worms per day. It does not appear to be losing weight and the faeces are dark brown. Not sure whether I'm up against a problem or not based on this behaviour.
 
It will be placed into a 400 litre aquarium with some other discus within our dining room very soon so I hope these additional 'fishy friends' give it more confidence. The current tank mates are Corydoras and they appear to irritate it if they get close.