Discus Problem

I agree, take a deep breath....there's a lot of people here who want to help you get things right for all the fish. I don't know yet how big your tank is, nor do I know the size of the fish that you have.....perhaps they are small or perhaps they are full grown. 7 Full grown discus will need a mimimum of a 55G tank Since the discus seem to be suffering illness and stress and the other tankmates are not, I would be inclined to advise you to get another tank up and running for the sick discus ASAP and get those discus in their own tank for treatment. If you've got a 29G, that'll do for treatment purposes. Get a filter going on that tank using some filter media from your existing tank. You need a reliable heater in there too since you need to keep them at 30C while they are ill and during treatment. I'm not sure where your discus got the ich from unless you added a new fish recently and that fish introduced ich into your tank. With the stocking you've been keeping, and only one water change per week, even though it was a large water change, it wouldn't be enough and I would guess that your water quality was still very poor, too poor for the discus so their immune system has been weakened. What are you using to combat the ich?
 
First of all, you can't keep all those fish together, I don't care how big the tank is. Secondly, you must get the proper test kits for water parameter testing especially if you are going to attempt fish like Discus. Ammonia, Nitrite, and Nitrates can all cause problems for your fish. Discus do not have to be very difficult fish to keep as long as you practice some good houskeeping with you water parameters. You must first make sure that there is NO ammonia or nitrite present when you add Discus or any other fish to the aquarium. Then, depending on how large your tank is and how large the fish are to be added will depend on how many fish at a time you can put in the tank. Your biological filter will only absorb so much waste before producing ammonia and nitrite into the water. So you MUST test the water for ammonia and nitrite, at a minimum, before and after you add fish. You will most likely see a small increase in these two nasties each time you add fish. If you add too many fish, thus increasing ammonia and nitrite too much, it will kill your fish. Go slow and research each fish before purchasing and adding to the tank.
 
So it has been a little bit of time since you first posted. How are the fish doing? Are the discus still sick? Were you successful in moving them to another tank for treatment? How big is the tank in question anyways? If the discus are still sick, how are you treating them and what are you using.? If you are still intent on keeping discus may I suggest a website called Simply Discus.com.(Can I do that?) Anyway there are some really smart people that know a lot about discus over there.

Discus are not that hard to take care of although they are not recommended for the first time fish keeper. From the sound of it, you have taken care of fish for a while although I do not know how you got away with it without testing the water. May I suggest the Aquarium Pharmaceuticals Fresh water test kit. It is the best one on the market and will give you the best and most accurate readings on your tank water. Discus will require more then one water change a week especially if there are more fish in the tank then just the discus. If you have a pleco in with them, well;they are big poop machines and they will foul the water quickly. If you want to keep something in the aquarium to control algae with the discus, may I suggest a trio of ottos.They are very small, they do a nice job cleaning up the tank, and will not bother the discus like some other catfish such as the pleco can. They do not take up much space in the tank but again I do not know the size of the tank so you can do this only if space allows and if your ammonia and nitrite are sitting at 0 since they also can be sensitive to water conditions. The most important thing to remember is Discus(as well as other fish) will thrive in very clean water. Keep up on water changes which for discus they should be large, and test the water frequently and you should do fine with discus once the treatment is complete and your discus are healthy again.

Marinemom
 
Pictures as Promise

Sorry for the late reply but Ive been busy for the past few weeks work related agendas (sigh). I am happy to tell you guys that all my Discus are doing fine and well no more diseases. I've taken out my shovle nose cat fish, my up-side down cat fish, my ghost fish, my clown loaches, my bulish/purple loaches and my angle fish and placed them elsewhere. Ive kept the frontosa as it seems that they are living fine with my discus, no chasing around, no nipping and etc.

I am so glad that my discus are fine now, I guess stress was the main problem. I change about 30% of my filter tank daily and change 50% of my main tank on a weekly basis. The only problem I have now is teaching my discus to eat pellet food lols they sure love their bloodworm. They are always hungry.

As promise here are the pictures of my fishes :D
 
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