Johnob

Hi,
I have a Jewel Triagon 190 litre corner tank set up for the last few months. Up until last week I had 5 Angel Fish, A bali shark, A thick lipped gourami,a dozen neon tetras, an albino sucker fish and 4 corydorus in the tank. I have being planning for the last few weeks on converting my tank to a predominantly Discus tank as soon as I found a home for my other fish.
I have kept the Neon Tetras and the 4 corydoras. I have 4 or possibly 5 Discus ordered which I hope will arrive tomorrow.
My pH is 7, KH is between 5 and 7, GH is between 5 and 10, N02 is 0 and N03 is between 10 and 20. It is a planted aquarium.

My Jewel filter contains a carbon filter, I am wondering should I remove this prior to putting the discus in the tank ?.

I would also welcome any advice on potential problems I may encounter, especially relating to how I should acclimatise them.

Rgds
John

Slug

If the carbon hasn't been changed in a while i would change it at least. Take it out if you want, it won't do much other then trap wastes and polish the water a little.

I'd try and get some of that nitrate down too if you could.

acclimate them slow. What i do is either put them in a bucket with the water from the bags and just run a slow drip line from the tank to the bucket so they get tank water dripped slowly over the course of 30min-1hr. Or just float the bags with their top open and every 5-10mins or so pour a little bit of water from the tank into each bag. I use small bathroom (paper) dixie cups. And try not to get much of the bag water into the tank. It is acceptable to reach in bare handed and scoop the discus from the bags and place them in the tank, just make sure your hands are free of any man made products. Or just use a net.

Don't feed them right away, it will just foul the tank water. Wait until they settle in.

Looking forward to seeing and hearing about them as you go. Feel free to ask anymore questions!

Matt

Yer i would reommend getting the nitrate down a little aswell.

Cant wait to see pics

Johnob

Hi,
I got 4 Discus last friday. By saturday 1 had died. The shopkeeper I bought them from immediately replaced the one that died. I also bought one more as I have heard it is better for the discus to be in a group of at least 5. As of this morning they have still not eaten. One is hiding all the time behind some plants and the other 4 are grouped tightly together in the top corner of the tank. They have gone quiet dark in colour which I believe is due to stress.
The ph is 7, ammonia = 0, nitrite = 0, DH is between 6 and 8 and Nitrate is between 6 and 10. Water Temp is 29.4 Deg C

I am quiet worried as they have probably not eaten since last Wednesday at this stage. I have tried tempting them with Blood worms, frozen Daphnia and Hikari flakes without any success.
I did a water change of 20% last night but I don't think it helped.

Has anyone any suggestions on how I can encourage them to eat ?

Rgds
John

capekate

Hi John
Congrats on your Discus! Poor little buggers.. they are just a bit shy right now. I was really worried about one of mine who in the beginning wouldnt eat for almost a week it seemed. If you keep things quiet around them, no sudden fast movement they will start to calm down and feel secure in the tank.
Yes, the dark color is due to stress. They can change from dark to normal in a blink of an eye. Your readings sound good and water temp fine IMO. Its still early... it takes awhile for some to get acclimated to their new surroundings but they will.
Best of luck... and please post photos when you can!

Shawnie

I hope your fishies get more relaxed soon!! im wondering when you say your nitrate reading is between 6-10 does that mean you are using test strips to test the water?

discus scare me but are so beautiful!

Johnob

Hi,
Thanks everyone for the advice. 2 of the 5 died today. At least I got the other 3 to take some food for the first time this evening. Hopefully they start to improve now. Seeing them the dark colour (nearly black) is awful.

I have being testing the ph with a chemical test kit. The Nitrite, Nitrate and water hardness I have being checking with a kit containing strips which I dip in the water. This was the only product I could find which included a test for water hardness.

When the 2 died today I really thought the other 3 would soon follow, at least now I have some hope.

Rgds
John

Jess

I'm sorry you lost 2 discus. Is your water very different from where you got them?

When that happened to mine, I made a water change. Its the best thing you can do for them. Other than that cross your fingers. Feed them lightly. Don't leave any food floating to foul the water. Regular water changes a few times a week is really important to keep them happy. (I've had my discus about a year now) They're lots of work but worth it.

Matt

Im sorry you lost the discus's.

Do you have any pictures you could share?

-Matt

-pinky-

Discus are quite hard to keep at first. They are very delicate, and should only be added to tanks that have been cycled for atleast a month. The longer the tank has been cycled, the better. Ammonia and unsuitable water temperatures are the biggest threat to the immune system of a discus fish. Regular water changes are needed, and i mean very regular water changes!

Discus fish are shy in nature anyway, so the more hiding places, plants and rocks there are, the more comfortable a discus will be...

Food! Very Important!

Discus fish are extremely difficult to feed. It is quite commonly, that a discus fish will not accept a new type of food for weeks. Ask the person you bought them off, what they fed them before, so you can get them to eat. If you don't want them to eat that food, then mix the old food and the new food together until the discus fish start to eat both, then you can take away the old food.

If the discus fish still don't eat, then you can try a more risky method. Get some of the food and put your hand deep down into the water, where the discus fish may be hiding, then let go of the food, so it is more entising for them to eat the food. Only do this, if your fish aren't stressed too much

Good luck, hope i helped

Slug

I disagree with you, and heres why.

If you start with healthy fish you should have no problems as long as you follow a decent aclimation process. As for feeding, again a healthy fish will be ready to eat in a matter of hours assuming you acclimated properly. Some are picky yes and can take numerous days to eat.

About hiding places, i totally disagree. If you give them a place to hide, they will. They can easily adapt to a bare tank with no hiding spots and will do very well. If you don't give it to them, they won't use it and you can actually see the fish out and about. Usually only sick or injured fish will hide. Clamped fins and a dark body are good signs of this. A healthy domesticated discus fish should not hide, but rather rush the glass thinking you are feeding it. Wild discus may hide, but again....don't give them a lot to hide behind or they will and they will be scared for their entire life. I would not call the discus shy in nature, more so skittish. They can be very jumpy fish but i really don't see them as shy. You see discus being labeled as shy because they hide a lot. And that goes back to what i said before about the unhealthy fish.

It would be a stretch to say "extremely" difficult to feed. Tougher then your run of the mill community tetras? Sure of course. Extremely difficult to feed to me means the fish won't eat in captivity or won't take non live food. Discus will take a variety of foods, if they are hungry enough....and healthy enough they will eat i assure you. You just have to find the food that works for you and them, its possible to put them on different foods, depending on your budget, what you can get, and what they will take.

I would not recommend you dunk your whole arm in the water trying to hand feed your discus, thats asking them to get stressed out. It is possible to hand feed at the top of the water. But chasing them around with your hand thinking they are a dog or cat is a bad idea IMO.

Johnob

Hi,
I ended up with 2 survivors after the christmas, one appears quiet healthy, the other looked as if it was waiting to die after 3 weeks not eating. Remarkably it has started to eat. I had to medicate for itch which I suppose was due to its weakened state and I also medicated for bacterial infections. It is now eating but is still only using only one fin on its side most of the time.
I got 2 smaller discus today from the pet shop owner to make up for the ones that died. The origional 2 discus and particularly the one that is/was sick are bullying the smaller ones. Is this normal ? Are they just determining the pecking order within the group or is there any thing I can do ?.
The discus are all quite dark in colour, especially the one that did'nt eat for 3 weeks. It is a planted 45 gallon aquarium with black substrate, could this be effecting their colouration or stress levels ?. My water conditions are as follows. PH = 7, Nitrite = 0, DH= 5-10, KH= 5, Nitrate = between 10 and 20

Rgds
John

Jess

Johnob hi,
Its normal for them to establish a pecking order. As they mature you may have a pair that develops and can cause more than just casual bullying. Mine had to be separated because the one that was being bullied was getting his tail shredded up and really very stressed.
I moved the pair to a 25 gal tank. Stressed fish grew his tail back and is much better.
I've noticed when they are younger, they enjoy live brine shrimp. I feed this as a treat maybe once a week. You could grow your own.
But about them being dark. I found with more water changes they perk right up.

capekate

I agree with Jess.
Introducing new Discus with established Discus usually will produce aggressive behavior towards the new fish. I have also had to separate a very aggressive Discus that bullied and stressed another so much that it died. These Cichlids can be very mean to each other and will change the pecking order from time to time. One that was aggressive towards others one week can end up being the one getting bullied the next.
I feed my guys frozen blood worms in the morning, New Life Spectrum pellets in the late afternoon and late evening they get frozen brine shrimp with spirolina (sp?). occasionally they get frozen beef heart.
Other than turning dark due to stress, I have also found that a good water change brings them back to normal colors.
Im sorry to hear you lost your new Discus and wish you the best with your remaining ones.