Baby discus turned brown over night?

[knutsen1122]

I did two 50% water changes yesterday and and they seemed fine. When I got up this morning and turned on the lights they were very dark. I kind of panicked and did another 75% water change and within 15min they were back to normal. What could be the reason for the dark color?


-Colin

 

[The boring name]

I've never had discus but that sounds odd I would love to hear the answer.

 

[Fishy Smell]

You probably woke them up and they were cranky.


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[Dallascowboys16]

I don't know a ton about discus but I know that when the lights turn on in my tank the fish are always a little dull in color up in about 10 min.

 

[knutsen1122]

Yeah, they seem fine now. Again they were a little dark this morning though. Maybe they just don't like they dark.


-Colin

 

[treemanone2003]

They can and will for different reasons. Stress and a dark environment being the two biggest reasons.


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[knutsen1122]

So I'm guessing the dark is the reason. Is some sort of nightlight necessary or is it not a big deal. They seam to recover quickly. Also my blue diamonds are about a month old and seem to be very dark most of the time, is that normal for that strain?

 

[treemanone2003]

So I'm guessing the dark is the reason. Is some sort of nightlight necessary or is it not a big deal. They seam to recover quickly. Also my blue diamonds are about a month old and seem to be very dark most of the time, is that normal for that strain?

Dark environment could be the reason. I don't remember, do you have a background and what is the substrate ? Nightlight isn't necessary but I know of breeders that have left a light on in the room for 24 hours and some that don't.

The darkness could also be a WC issue too. What's the feeding and WC schedule and overall size now ?


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[knutsen1122]

No background or substrate, just a piece of driftwood to help with the ph. I have been feeding 4 times a day and 50% wc about every other day. I want to do less and just check the water more.

 

[treemanone2003]

Feeding is a good schedule but they'll never grow out with the WC's you're doing. Especially if they're under 3". Juvies NEED multiple daily WC's of at least 75%. You'll never be able to do less and check water more with Discus. It's actually the other way around. The more WC's you do the less you need to check water.

That's a leopard and PB while doing a 100% WC. They're far from stressed as you can see they're pretty bright and colorful and in about 5" of water. With no background light the leopard looks a little dark but lighting is impossible when doing a WC. I interact with them so much I can handle them anytime.




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[knutsen1122]

My though about multiple water changes is, at this age the constant changing of ph and temp will stress them out. Also with no substrate in the tank I feel that I'm loosing a good amount of bacteria.

 

[knutsen1122]

To add to my last comment I'm limited to using tap water.

 

[treemanone2003]

Here's the myth debunked simply. It doesn't matter what your pH is. Fish will survive and thrive in any pH. Trying to make perfect pH is the worst possible. Consistency is much better. If your pH out of the tap is consistently 6.2 or 8.4 ( for example ) and you do daily WC's, there's no problem. If you need to age it for a day to match the tank of 7.3 ( example ) that's fine also. There's nothing wrong with tap water as long as it's consistent.

As far as the bb goes, it's all ( 99% ) in your filter. If you looked at both my pics you can see I keep a bare bottom also. With every WC, I wipe down ALL the glass surfaces inside as they do get a slimy buildup. You're just not gonna lose any volume of bb unless you do something drastic like change all your filter media at once.


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[knutsen1122]

I'm going to have to age my water. The ph is higher than I would like. Here's what they look like now. Not as much color as I would like.

 

[Mebbid]

As for the fish changing colors at night. It's 100% normal and absolutely nothing to worry about. I almost crapped myself when I saw my entire school of cardinal tetras completely grey one morning and since I noticed that and started paying attention more when I turn the lights on I've noticed that most fish species have a night time coloration.