Dead Discus...

[The Zigman]

Well I have to say I was suprised when I came home from work yesterday to find my little blue diamond discus belly up..

Not sure what happened to the little guy, but I watched him feed for months, and it seemed to me that he never got enough to eat. Not because the food wasnt available, but more so because his aim was off a bit.. he would bite at a bloodworm several times before he would catch it, sometimes he didnt even get it, and would move on, trying to get another. He was the biggest of my 3 small discus, and recently the other 2 were bigger than he was. He just didn't grow and I think he starved to death...he spent more time chasing the 2 smaller discus than he did eating...

The other fish are doing very well, the adult discus have grown at least an inch in the past 8 months or so. I feed them at least 2 or 3 times every day. bloodworms, tetra bits, and flake food.

My baby clown loaches are growing well, all of my rummys and cardinals are getting big, my SAEs are fat little pigs... Not sure what happened to this guy.. kinda bummed out..

so long little dude!

[noodles62]

Oh, that is sad. Sorry for your loss - he was a beautiful fish!

[msjinkzd]

What a shame zig :(

[mostlycichlids]

That sucks man, sorry to here that.

[The Zigman]

Geuss I'll have to get more!

[The Zigman]

thanks guys.
Its a bummer, but I really don't think I did anything wrong that resulted in this fishes death. he showed no signs of being sick. just looked a but thin, and pale, but on some days he was almost black in color... discus seem to change color every 15 minutes.
So now I have 3 blue Turks, and what I think is a marlboro red...
What to get now...Hmmm... Another Blue diamond?? some red dragons? maybe som solid colored melons? I have to check stock at the LFS this weekend..

[pinkertd]

Sorry to heat this Zig. Sometimes fish, any fish, just don't thrive and we'll never know why. Go get some more!

[bs6749]

Check at the LFS for stock? Dude, that's the LAST place I'd look. Buy from a reputable seller with good quality and you will have awesome looking discus if you properly keep them. I'm not trying to be harsh but that fish was poor quality and would have been culled by 100% of the reputable breeders out there. He was stunted and that's why the other 2 caught up with him and grew faster than him. You said he was black which means that he was stressed. Look at his eye:body ratio and you should be able to clearly see that he shoud have been at least 4" long SL at that age rather than maybe 2". Sorry for your loss man but this will only happen again if you purchase the same quality. Check out the sponsors section @ www.simplydiscus.com/forums (http://www.simplydiscus.com/forums) for some nice looking and HEALTHY fish. Professionals and experts from all over are on that forum and can tell you more about what was wrong with your fish than I can and they can also tell you how you should go about keeping your discus to make sure that they are healthy.

[bs6749]

Double post, please remove.