ifixoldhouses

I got a 3.5" red pigeon Discus from the LFS yesterday, he had 2 of them in a 15 gallon tank with 78 degree water in it. He had them there for 3 weeks, just eating flake food, I put it in my 55 gallon tank.I keep it at 80 degrees usually, but im slowly warming it to about 82. I threw some black worms in there and he won't eat them, the neons and angel had a field day though. I was thinking about buying some feeder guppies that only he could swallow. I did a 30% water change today and vacummed the gravel good, and cleaned out my canister filter, took out my pleco and put him in the 5 gallon for the time being. I'm guessing he'll probally eat when he gets used to his new home, I have 50 plants and 2 driftwood and rocks to hide in, the water perimeters are always 0 0 0. any suggestions?

Butterfly

Maybe you could feed him flakes like he's used to eating and slowly start feeding better foods. He may not recoqnize the worms as food yet.
carol

ifixoldhouses

well if he'd come out of the corner, I can't get him to come out for anything, maybe hes not hungry enough.

Butterfly

If he's been in that small of a tank for that length of time it may take a bit for him to acclimate.
Carol

isis

Hi there guys!!
I have discus and let me tell you... they take their time to eat!! they will play shy and hide and when they do decide to eat they will peck at the food and spit it around for a while. If you have fish like angels... they are little pigs! they eat fast and will steal the food from the discus (because discus eat so slow and picky etc) - so just keep an eye on that. I have a pig of pleco that also sees the picky discus as not wanting its food and then he moves in and steals the food from under the dicus' nose!

what i do now is use a verity of foods. some that float some that sink fast and some that sink slowly.

i hope that helps

Slug

The other fish are probably scaring it from the food. Like said above, they can be timid fish around fish that gobble food up fast. Could be that its sick, many LFS come like that. Just keep an eye on him, he should venture out with time.

isis

Oh slug... I looked at your collection... they are so gorgeous!!! I only have 2 small ones

ifixoldhouses

He finally came out right before the lights went out, maybe he'll eat tomorrow.

isis

Perhaps the darkness soothes him... is there some pellets/food lying around that he can get at?

ifixoldhouses

when I get near to try and fed him he darts off, I wonder if I should buy the other discus that was with him.

penuinzorr

try feeding bloodworms? and if possible..turn the temp up to 90F for a few days, gets their metabolism going.

SWilkins

I am no expert by any means on discus. But from what I have been reading they do not do well alone. There needs to be at least two of them to make them more comfortable. The care sheet on discus that I read even says that keeping only one can cause stress and even death to the fish due to the stress. I do not keep discus I was just interested and I have been reading about them for a couple of weeks so none of this info is from my experience just reading.

Check this out DISCUS CARE SHEET

ifixoldhouses

I went and got the other one, hes acclimating now.I saw the first one eat a flake of food today.I put a few feeder guppies in there, their still there

Slug

Discus for the most part are not carnivorous fish and will not go after the guppies. They have been known to eat neons and cardinals, but do not actively hunt.

ifixoldhouses

Dang, I guess I'll haveta fish the lil guppies outta there, on a side note, the 2nd discus really helped, their like two peas in a pod, they own the aquarium now, their all over the place.

Slug

Thats good to hear. Glad they are doing better in the tank.

SWilkins

So he was just pouting because his friend was not with him. So glad he is feeling better. I bet they will be begging for food before long.

ifixoldhouses

ya they bumrush the food now, I guess it's true you can't keep just one Discus

ifixoldhouses

update, I've learned through a lot of reading that my 2 original discus are stunted, It pays to do research before you buy any, I bought a good one at a better fish store, thats how I started to tell the difference, their eyes are huge and their fully colored and football shaped. The one I bought differently is bigger, solid red, round and has small eyes. They also will gobble up blackworms if you use a worm cone. If I ever buy anymore Discus, I will order them off Ebay, where you can read peoples Feedback to make sure they send good fish.