HELP!!! Whats wrong with my NEW Discus?

[wataugachicken]

so all these fish went into one tank together at the same time? have you tested your water for ammonia and nitrites? do you do water changes?

 

[J [dot] L]

NO, i waited a while, i put in the discus and arowana in 1st, and let the gourami's in the other tank for a while.

i will look into a ammonia, a nitrate and nitrite test. i know i'll need it.
I havent done a water change yet, i will do around a 20% water change every week.

It's actually swimming now, the pattern lines shows up a bit now, but it is still brown though. the only thing i'm worried about is,if it would die if it doesnt eat?

thanks

 

[yogias]

A testing kit is an absolute necessity. I would remove the other fish and lower the PH to 6.5. I have my Discus in a species tank and they have never been happier. They were originally in my community tank. mine are rather shy when you move towards the tank, but from where i sit in my living room, they move beautifully round the tank. Is the tank planted? they love a planted tank. I bought a Turqouise red from the same place and he soon took over as the alpha male, and I have never had any problems with him. I can't tell you how impressed i was by the store, their service, fish and the way that he was packaged. Since lowering the PH in the tank, it has increased their activity again. I tried using peat in the filter, trying to lower the PH naturally, but with limited success. I use Waterlife Humaquat and it go the PH spot on in 24 hrs. It does turn the water a SLIGHT tea colour, but so does peat. Feel free to message me, would love to chat about this sometime, as discus are my passion!

 

[J [dot] L]

i am using a API PH DOWN treatment to lower my ph, but it seems like its not changing the ph much.

I'll try to get some pictures tonight so you could see what he looks like.

 

[J [dot] L]

here's the pictures of him...
Theres reflections of him on the black background.

Sorry about the quality of the pictures.

Does the colour look normal at all?

Thanks

 

[J [dot] L]

and yes there are plants in there

 

[duneenworywifit]

If your ph is 7.8 ,that is way to high..discus like soft water.

 

[J [dot] L]

i've tried lowering the ph, but its not changing much.

2 more pictures...

 

[J [dot] L]

o0ops...here you go...

 

[wataugachicken]

i can honestly say at this time, since the discus are still alive, that the pH is NOT the problem. if the fish had gone into shock, they would have died. that hasn't happened. of course, if they had not been acclimated properly to the new tank water, that will cause them to be stressed. unless you know what you are doing in regards to pH, and your method actually works, STOP messing with the pH. J.L, you are stressing them more (on top of likely bad water quality) by adding unnecessary chemicals and making the pH go up and down. a Stable pH is much safer and much more important than one that is changing and trying to be "perfect".

start doing water changes today, and get a test kit asap. my top suspect is ammonia and nitrite poisoning from not cycling the tank correctly before adding the fish.