discus not eating, not looking very good

[discusdoodie]

my smallest discus has a white line near his left gill. frayed fins, and is hiding a lot and not eating. i started treating with tetracycline tablets today but as i am reading i see that maybe i should have used maracyn-two. that is good for internal as well as external. if i stop treatment now will it mess thing up if i start with the maracyn? should i wait to see if this works? i need him to eat.

 

[Brandon]

I have had the best luck getting non feeders to start eating by treating them with Hexamit. Has worked for me time and time again.

 

[BrianNY]

You should never mix medications with any fish. Especially Discus. A couple of questions first. What size tank? How many discus? What other fish if any in the tank. How large are your discus? Is he being picked on? How much and how often do you change water? What is the temperature?

Discus require some more specific things for their health. Very clean water is a must. So the first thing you should do is make a 50% water change.

 

[discusdoodie]

i have 4 discus. 3 of them are getting picked on by the larger one. temp is 84, water is clean. i change it once a week. tank is 30 gallons. discus are still relatively small, but the smallest is the one in trouble. there are other fish in the tank including a white tiopped shark(very peaceful) black ghost knife(also peaceful) a pleco, cory cat, misc. minnow type fish

 

[BrianNY]

Ok, the tankmates shouldn't be a problem, but the water changes are a huge one. I'm raising 5 discus (they started at 2 and are now 4 inches in a 29 gal, no other fish). To keep them in tip top shape and growing, I change 30% of the water every day. If you are only changing water once a week, you will eventually have problems with all of them. Clean water is a must for discus!!!

By the way, the smaller the discus, the important that is as they are much more susceptable at that age.

What are you feeding, and how often?

 

[discusdoodie]

im feeding colorbits, and frozen blood worms. all of them eat the blood worms... well they used to. the past 2 days they havent eaten except for the big one. he chases them away from the food, they are all hiding from him behind my filter. i was feeding them 3 times a day. also i changed my water yesterday. no improvement.

 

[Terry]

I have a couple of questions,
When you got the Discus did you buy them all at once, or have you added them slowly.
What are you water parameters of the tank ammonia/nitrite/nitrate/ph. also Discus like soft water, is your water soft
With the fish you already have in the tank my only concerns would be your Pleco, because with Discus they can be prone to sucking on the sides of the fish. And your white tipped shark, is that a columbian shark if it is you might have a problem because they are very active and the Discus might not like that. Also columbian sharks are a brackish water fish.
When it comes to feeding your Discus bloodworm is fine, so is flake and they also like granuals. But they do like a slightly higher protein diet, so when buying there food get one that has a slightly higher protein content than normal.

Terry.

 

[discusdoodie]

i have had one for a year. 2 at once. then one last week. my levels are good, but nitrate is a little high. the pleco doesnt get near the fish. he is very big. and the white tipped shark is just like a ruby shark... but with white fins.

 

[discusdoodie]

also all 3 of the newer discus hide now when the lights are on and seem stressed. when the lights are off for some time they come down and my one discus was actually all white, when the lights are on he is grayish.

 

[discusdoodie]

this just in... 1 of the 3 duscus in hiding came out to eat just now. the other 2 would not budge from behind the water dump of the filter. and the bully stayed at the bottom.

 

[BrianNY]

Terry, you're right about the diet and the water parameters, but his problem is larger and typical of someone that just doesn't know enough about the needs of this particular fish. In fact, it pisses me off that his lfs would even sell them to him.

Discus do better in groups. They are in fact schooling fish. Because of a short digestive tract, they have a host of problemms that other fish would never encounter. Tapeworms and constipation being the two major ones.

I'm assumming that there is gravel in his tank. This adds more problems as it makes it even more difficult to keep the water clean as both food and detritus collect and thus pollute. I'm not blaming him. He is making the same mistakes I made when I started with discus.

Discusdoodie, To give these fish the best chance of surviving, change 30% of the water every day. Ph and softness are not as important as clean water. My other suggestion would be to buy 2 more fish as competition for food stimulates their appetites. And, I would find anither home for the black ghost and shark

 

[discusdoodie]

interesting. my water is amazingly clean, and i have had discus for 2 years now. the only time i had fish die was when i went to europe for 2 months and the idiot i put in charge killed 2 discus. this is THE FIRST problem i have EVER had with my fish. i will try to do the water change more frequntly, but i have a lot of chlorine in my water. should i worry about that?

 

[BrianNY]

Well I just dechlor the water immediately after I make the changes. I've never had a prob. I'm gonna suggest you go to simplydiscus.com. You'll get a lot of great advice on discus there.