I dont know that your snail problem is the source of your overall problem w/ the discus croaking. You said that you moved...the stress of the move and then the water chemistry could have been somewhat different (ie minerals, addiatives, etc.) which caused the stress which in turn could possibly been killing the discus....just speculations. There are many things that could have happened. Personally I would have been doing atleast two w/c's a week of atleast 40%-50%, but thats my my opinion.
Lonely Discus
- Thread starter DPB
- Start date
Follow up
Thanks for all the advice. I decided to do a follow up post. Like Charlie Brown's tree, all it needed was a little love. I added some new plants, and I added 5 neon tetra. They have so far survived more than a week. That is longer than the cardinal tetra which, as I said, died one after the other. The tank looks great. With the added plants and the schooling neons, I have at once beautified the tank and actually have become interested in freshwater fish again. I'm going to add more tetra little by little until I have about 20. I might even be inspired to take on another discus. I would prefer one that is near the age of my current one or older. I will see if there is a breeder that might have an older one. Thanks all for the advice and some of the light scoldings.
As far as water changes go, I'm going to keep to my regimen. I have alot of filtration (2 Penguin biowheel 330s -- each is recommended for a 55 gallon tank so that is twice the recomendation) and I keep the tank understocked. I think you're right though. The stress of the move may have been a factor. They did survive a short time after, but I'm thinking that did it.
Thanks for all the advice. I decided to do a follow up post. Like Charlie Brown's tree, all it needed was a little love. I added some new plants, and I added 5 neon tetra. They have so far survived more than a week. That is longer than the cardinal tetra which, as I said, died one after the other. The tank looks great. With the added plants and the schooling neons, I have at once beautified the tank and actually have become interested in freshwater fish again. I'm going to add more tetra little by little until I have about 20. I might even be inspired to take on another discus. I would prefer one that is near the age of my current one or older. I will see if there is a breeder that might have an older one. Thanks all for the advice and some of the light scoldings.
As far as water changes go, I'm going to keep to my regimen. I have alot of filtration (2 Penguin biowheel 330s -- each is recommended for a 55 gallon tank so that is twice the recomendation) and I keep the tank understocked. I think you're right though. The stress of the move may have been a factor. They did survive a short time after, but I'm thinking that did it.
dorris
Replicator of Amazon streams
I'm thinking it would have been the water chemistry. I think you said you had the tank setup in your new appartment for 1 day. This would probably not realy be enough for starters. Almost a week would have been a bit better if it was broken in with your old uncleaned filters, old uncleaned gravel and plants. You may not have been able to do this but this is what I would have recommended. Also take as much old water with you as possible. Did you test the water paramaters of your old place and your new place? Because I'd say there would have been a difference. One more thing, if your new place is a newish building there can be a lot of metals, copper or other elements that would hurt the fish. I live out in the country and have our own underground spring that comes up on the property and also catch rainwater so I don't have problems with my water. My g/f however lives in town and the quality of the water is very undesirable. So much so that I can not let her use the water from her taps in her tank, even after treating it. I would prefer to lug huge containers of water from my house and do the water changes with it. The difference in the tank is huge! So if you can ever avoid it, I recommend never to use treated town water in any fish tank.
Status report
Hello all! I wanted to follow up on my current status and plans. I actually found out what the problem was--well, I narrowed it down to two things, both of which I have removed. The first was too stupid to mention, but here goes: I added styrofoam boards and poured the new substrate on top, which I thought would allow me to get away with using only one bag of the new substrate instead of the recommended amount and give height to plants and driftwood but that ended up allowing waste and dirt to accumulate on a large scale in a place that the siphon would never reach.
The second was that I discovered a bag of water softener and a bag of Diamond brand charcoal that I'd forgotten I'd put into the media slots of the power filter from I don't even remember when, maybe when I first got to the new place. Both things were stupid, not to mention costly.
But there is an upside: Having corrected the problems, I have had my interest in discus reinvigorated. Things are now going great in the tank. I bought a white-faced red melon from a breeder, which is doing great. All my tetra have survived more than a few days. I am no longer using any additional filter media, so I won't have to worry about forgetting and probably don't need anyway. My water is soft and good PH as is I found, so no need to reduce it. I've upped my water changes with a python to small (10-20%) every day or every other day. I got very discouraged after losing most of my discus, but now that I have learned some costly lessons, my fishkeeping skills have only benefitted. I will add two more discus to round it out. I found varieties that will go with the primary color scheme that my wife wants--the red mellon that I already have, a golden sunrise or some variety of solid yellow or gold (close to a saltwater yellow tang) and maybe either a solid white "snowflake" or one of those snakeskin types that are white with red net-like lines over it. My original from the first set who survived is brown on the body with an irridescent blue at the edges and on the fins and forehead. Unfortunately, he doesn't look great with rotted fins that were due not to poor fishkeeping, but because he was the runt that all the other fish beat up. Ironic that he was the sole survivor of my screw up. Once he had the entire tank to himself, he actually grew very big--about 6". I don't know if his fins will ever recover, but I'm hoping so. I will post pictures if I can, but I wanted to mention that so nobody wondered about the messed up fins.
Hello all! I wanted to follow up on my current status and plans. I actually found out what the problem was--well, I narrowed it down to two things, both of which I have removed. The first was too stupid to mention, but here goes: I added styrofoam boards and poured the new substrate on top, which I thought would allow me to get away with using only one bag of the new substrate instead of the recommended amount and give height to plants and driftwood but that ended up allowing waste and dirt to accumulate on a large scale in a place that the siphon would never reach.
The second was that I discovered a bag of water softener and a bag of Diamond brand charcoal that I'd forgotten I'd put into the media slots of the power filter from I don't even remember when, maybe when I first got to the new place. Both things were stupid, not to mention costly.
But there is an upside: Having corrected the problems, I have had my interest in discus reinvigorated. Things are now going great in the tank. I bought a white-faced red melon from a breeder, which is doing great. All my tetra have survived more than a few days. I am no longer using any additional filter media, so I won't have to worry about forgetting and probably don't need anyway. My water is soft and good PH as is I found, so no need to reduce it. I've upped my water changes with a python to small (10-20%) every day or every other day. I got very discouraged after losing most of my discus, but now that I have learned some costly lessons, my fishkeeping skills have only benefitted. I will add two more discus to round it out. I found varieties that will go with the primary color scheme that my wife wants--the red mellon that I already have, a golden sunrise or some variety of solid yellow or gold (close to a saltwater yellow tang) and maybe either a solid white "snowflake" or one of those snakeskin types that are white with red net-like lines over it. My original from the first set who survived is brown on the body with an irridescent blue at the edges and on the fins and forehead. Unfortunately, he doesn't look great with rotted fins that were due not to poor fishkeeping, but because he was the runt that all the other fish beat up. Ironic that he was the sole survivor of my screw up. Once he had the entire tank to himself, he actually grew very big--about 6". I don't know if his fins will ever recover, but I'm hoping so. I will post pictures if I can, but I wanted to mention that so nobody wondered about the messed up fins.
