Discus Help

H

Hungriee

AC Members
Jan 24, 2008
319
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NYC
I recently picked up two juvenile snakeskin discus (2") from my LFS. The first 4 days they were alright after acclimating but haven't ate. I performed a 30% WC yesterday night since I was thinking they would like cleaner water and wanted to keep up wiht the WC three times a week. However, today I've noticed one of the two discus is severely stressed. Well they both have black bars on their bodies but one of the fins of the discus is clamped to its body. :help: I fed them again tonight but they didn't attempt to eat my Tropical Granules. The other fish in the tank are Cardinals.

Tank Size 50G Breeder (36x18x22)
Filter - FIlstar xp2 and Hot Magnum
Parameters - 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite, 0 nitrates
Temperature - 83 Degrees

Could it be stressed bc its hungry? My water is real clear; I'm unsure why this is happening.
 
pH is 6.8, I don't have a GH test. I'll get one asap.
 
2 is not a good number discus will pick on each other till one dies. 5 is better 6 or 7 is best

Have they eaten at all since you brought them home?

you could get egg crate to split them up. they should be eating at least 4 time a day small meals. 2" discus are juveniles water changes should be done daily as much as 50% they need pristine water conditions. They are very easy to stunt.

I keep mine a little warmer 84 -85

try feeding a small amount of frozen blood worms with your Tropical Granules.

also you could try omega one first flake it has garlic in it which is an apatite stimulant. or add some fresh garlic to the Tropical Granules.

Tropical Granules is not really a good discus food
 
pH looks fine, hopefully the GH is not high so the params wont be the issue.

My discus have always readily gobbled down anything that remotely resembles food. Bear in mind that discus often tend to be grazers- ie they eat all day long picking food off the bottom or even from the surface. The "bottom feeding" is more apparent if one has a bare bottom tank.

As noted above, one discus may be picking on the other. Adding a couple more may be the solution to the problem.
 
And if you get more, make sure to verify that it/they are eating flake food. Then yours may see an example. It is possible the ones you have dont recognize the food as food. Keep an eye on the forhead area for stress related hole in the head. I keep mine at 86* and my neons do fine.
 
Can you find out what they were eating?Bloodworms are usually good to feed.At 2 inches I wonder if you have to much flow in the tank with those filters.Is the tank bare bottom.Any snails,very easy for young discus to get flukes. Were there other fish in the tank before the Discus. If water source has no ammonia don`t hesitate to do 50% water changes.
 
you can teach them to eat flake and pellets .
if they ear bloodworms, beefheart etc..mix them up and put that mix in the tank.

mine will actually turn their nose at beef heart.
 
Its always a good rule of thumb to keep odd numbers of any kind of cichlids. If you have 3 or 5 Discus, then one single fish usually will not pick on another fish. The aggression gets spread around to all fish and everything goes well. Since your tank is only 36 inches long you might only be able to get away with one more Discus in there.
 
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