Discus juvi not eating help?

[iro11a]

I brought 5 little Juvi about 1 half weeks ago and they havent eaten one thing or havent seen them poo and they just seem to huddle in the corner and not swim around at all anyone got any ideas if they will eat or they got some other problem they are about 5cm long

cheers Jono

[the german]

thats not much information....
first thngs i doo when i buy fish i rise the temperature to 32 and put salt in the tank 200g of in 100l of water.that get rid of some nasty
parasites.

[samir]

were they eating at the lfs you bought them from ?
if yes, they probably need some time to settle.
check your ammonia levels.
are they very skittish ?
any chance of a picture ?

[iro11a]

Yeah a bit skitish,the guy i brought them from he showed me that they where eating,just with all my other discus i have brought they settled in within a week and would eat as normal.i will put a photo up soon

[iro11a]

Heres the pic's not that got quality only 4mega pix

[iro11a]

pics[/img]

[iro11a]

Sorry some difficulties

[samir]

probably just need time to settle down.

[the german]

do you have other discus in this tank?

[iro11a]

I got 4 which are half brown half red turq and the blue diamond but they are not pecking at each other at all i tried putting beef heart right at the bottom where they sit and they dont touch it

[the german]

they don't look sick or stressed.good discus should eat latest after
1 or 2 days,you schould test your water to make sure it is ok

[iro11a]

Temp is 29 deg 6.4ph and no signs of ammonia or nitrate or nitrate tank been set up for at least 3 months and had other discus in their before this lot with no problems with them

[samir]

try frozen bloodworms, feed beefheart sparingly in a planted tank. it will make a mess.

[the german]

i agree beef heart will really mess your tank up when there dont eat it,
blood worms sounds like the go.

i use a quarantine tank unplantet no gravel everytime when i get new
fish

[iro11a]

I will try bloodworms but i only like feeding my fish bloodworms once a week

[iro11a]

tried bloodworms didt touch it

[samir]

test your water for ammonia and nitrite

[Merrilyn]

Jono, you should have a nitrate reading of some kind if your tank is fully cycled. Can you check your readings again, and maybe take a sample of water to your LFS for them to test too, just in case your test kits are giving a false reading.

How many water changes are you doing a week, and how much each time? Did you carefully match the pH in your tank to the tank they came from in the LFS? Sometimes pH shock can cause them to feel off colour and refuse to eat.

Did you find out what the fish were being fed in the LFS and have you tried that? Shops usually only feed flake or granule food, but you need to know the brand.

The other thing you can do is to get some live adult brine shrimp. Very few discus can refuse a little shrimp swimming rught under their nose.

Unfortunately a hunger strike is pretty common with discus when they change hands, but you realy need to find a way to get them eating again, because a week is a bit too long for such young fish.

Do some water changes, and try some live food, any kind of live food, and see if you can get them to eat something. A few cardinals or other small tetras in the tank, may make them feel more secure, and more inclined to eat.

[samir]

:shock: did you say one and a half weeks ago ??? i was under the impression it was half a week :?
they should definitely be eating by now. i suggest doing what Ladyred says asap. if all that checks out then you probably have to treat them for internal parasites. do you have a hospital tank ?
any chance of pics of all your discus ?

[samir]

:shock: did you say one and a half weeks ago ??? i was under the impression it was half a week :?
they should definitely be eating by now. i suggest doing what Ladyred says asap. if all that checks out then you probably have to treat them for internal parasites. do you have a hospital tank ?
any chance of pics of all your discus ?

[iro11a]

I just come back from 2 days away and come back to find out they got velvet they are darker in colour fins clam shut and look a bit slimmy looking the fish i got in this tank is my hospital tank preaty much,my 4 foot is for my discus that are more matured.

Anyways my day off today im going to take a sample of the water and get a better readings done and treat them for velvet and get some salt after they recover.

Ladyred i was thinking about getting some fish to bring them out a bit more because there is only 5 discus in there with a few plants,it might get them to come out and eat if they see tetras eating.the guy i brought them off was just feeding them flake but also tried that with no luck not even when it fell to the bottom they didt touch it.

Thanks for help Jono

[iro11a]

oh sorry also i do 50% water change a week and treat with water ager

[iro11a]

Local Aquarium tested my water and all was fine so must be something to do with the fish getting stressed out i brought some live worms so im going to try them once they r looking better

[the german]

not a little bit of salt 2gr per liter is o problem that sort most skin parasites out.

[samir]

show us some more pictures. are they just huddled in a corner ???

[the german]

it must be two weeks now that they dont eat,thats a very very llong time for discus this size.
you need to do something NOW.
when you dont like the salt thing you can try this:
10 gr salt a liter,5-7 liter in a bucket. put the discus in there for arround 5 min(only one a the time),i know it sound hard but it is ok the water must have the same temperature than the water in your tank,you should use the water out of your tank

[iro11a]

Hey samir yes they r huddled in the corner i don't think its velvet now i now treating them for fungus stuff called melafix.

German it will be two weeks tommorrow i brought them if they have eating the food i dropped in there i havent seen them eat any of it.

I get annoyed at different aquariums telling me different things to use and what not to use you cant trust anyone, i was going to buy salt from there and they said oh dont use salt on discus. and everyone here says to use it.???
:?

[iro11a]

it must be two weeks now that they dont eat,thats a very very llong time for discus this size.
you need to do something NOW.
when you dont like the salt thing you can try this:
10 gr salt a liter,5-7 liter in a bucket. put the discus in there for arround 5 min(only one a the time),i know it sound hard but it is ok the water must have the same temperature than the water in your tank,you should use the water out of your tank

Do you need to use aquairium salt? or will sea salt do the same job?

[the german]

he iro,salt dont hurt your fish,i use it everytime i get new discus in my quarantine tank just to make sure there have no skin parasites,and i personally would trust this guys here away more than any petshop......
when you are scared then try the 10gr a liter in the bucket bath,what you can loose is one fish(you will not loose one)i will show you that the salt dont do any harm to your fish,i think when you wait longer you will loose all your fish and that will be very sad.

[the german]

just use salt out of the supermarket

[iro11a]

what do skin infections look like my fish at the moment look like there skin is sorta peeling off so you wouldt add salt in this case right?

[the german]

skin is peeling of ? i think there are build up a lot of slime to get rid of things attached to there skin,when discus start "peeling" it gets very serious so i would try the bucket when i was you,but you can also try methylentblue(i hope its the same in english)or malachitgreen

[iro11a]

I'm about to do a water change now oh 50% then i should add the methanyeblue which i have and put them into a bucket with salt for 5 min each ?or should i just do the methanyeblue treatment?.I noticed this melafix don't do much in the last two days things just got worse.

[the german]

change the water,do the salt and the the meth.
but you have to filter the met. out after 2-3 days with corbon

[iro11a]

I have a internal filter with sponge so dont have carbon in filterand i dunno if i can put any into it

[the german]

yes you can just put it into a stocking.

look what my discus do when i dont feed them for two days :D

[iro11a]

i did the salt bath they hated it heaps bad only did it for 5 min then put them back in found out i dont have methayne blue or anything else to treat them with.

Why do my fish always have something wrong with them while im busy with work? :(

[the german]

just put 2gr salt a liter in your tank.
methylenblue helps against bacteria and malachitgreen against parasites you can get it later when the salt dont help.

they dont like it because it is a lot of salt but it dont hurt them.
you see any changes in the skin peeling?

[iro11a]

I put the water back in they got a bit more colour they dont look as dark but cant notice any changes to the skin yet.samir said to get this stuff from a vet but it wil be hard to get and find time so i have no idea about going to a vet to get medi's usually a aquairium should have everything you need

[the german]

yes there have but you pay away more.
hoepfully the salt do the trick,you should see a big change tmw.

[iro11a]

At the moment they are just sitting there stuned not swimming,i'm very worried about them because they havent eaten before they got this infection and they wont eat while they got it.so i'm going to have to get something from the aquarium tommorrow.

So from what i said you don't think its fungal infection or do you think they got velvet?

Cheers jono

[the german]

its hard to say jono,can be as simple as ichti(a skin parasite)
michael

[samir]

shoot Ladyred a pm

[the german]

maybe you can get some live brine shrimp tmw. or other live food for them??

[Merrilyn]

Jono, I think this is all stress related. It started when the fish were moved into your tank. Stress has caused the natural immune system to become lowered, and allowed a bunch of problems to take a foothold.

Time to bring out the big guns. You need "Waterlife Octozin Tablets" which should be available from a LFS or if not, give Rebecca a ring at Xtreme Aquariums and she will send some to you overnight express.

Salt is an excellent first line treatment, but I think things have progressed past that now.

You need antibiotics of some kind to bring these fish around, or you're likely to lose the lot.

Keep trying with the live food, they may just pick at something, but I think now, you need to be prepared for the worst.

[samir]

If you're unable to get octozin or metro the only thing you'll probably get at a lfs is tetracycline. DO NOT use malachite green,MB or any other treatments. do water changes everyday, as i said before clean you're entire tank. if you're using tetracycline, use it for 10 days even if the fish get better sooner. after about 3-4 days the fish should start eating again.

with tetracycline
1. don't overdose
2. change water everyday, big water change
3. cover the tank(you're fish may jump out, no sudden movements near the tank.
4. keep the tank dark, tetracycline is sensitive to light.
5. aerate the tank vigorously
6. complete 10 days or next time tetracycline wont work.

on the other hand, the metro dosage, as I told you before, will have them eating out of your hands in 3-4 days.

[iro11a]

I brought some live food but not going to try it untill they get better cause no way right now they will touch the food i tried many times.i got some live black worms once they show signs of a bit of recover im going to try it.

They look alot better today yesterday a went to a different aquarium and they told me mela fix wont do it and move me more towards the multi cure,
it treats white spot,velvet and fungal diseases.

[the german]

what kind of medicals are in this multi cure?

nice to hear that your fish look better,you used any medication's?

[iro11a]

0.400mg malachite green
0.400mg methyene blue
2.00mg acriflavine

also doing half dose of melafix
cajeput oil

I went to Local store and they didt have anything called octozin,and this is the biggest and best aquarium in the hunter so it seems its harder to get all these products that ppl from sydney can get :(

[samir]

thats where you can find Octozin.
http://aquariumsuppliesaustralia.com.au/store/cart.php?m=product_detail&p=2465

I told you not to use all that junk, but you wont listen, so good luck to you. those fish are probably going through hell will all those things you're putting into the tank. MEDICATION STRESSES FISH. you don't indiscriminately keep adding meds in the tank.
If they are still not eating the only thing that will fix them is metro or octozin. The person who gave you that multicure, would be better suited to flipping burgers, at their previous job, at McDonalds. :evil:

[the german]

:D
you guys here in au a very fast with antibiotics,i dont mind using them when there is no other way and i agree that any medication stress the fish.
but antibioticressistance can build up quick.
so i prefer milder treatments

[the german]

and i hate this mix from "multicure" too

[samir]

if they haven't eaten for 2 weeks I doubt if anything mild will work.

[the german]

i agree,iro should start to act earlier.
two week are a vey long time for juve. fish

[iro11a]

Nothing else i can do now by the time i cycle out whatever meds i put in and find these other meds,it is alot harder to get my hands on all this stuff you talk about most the aquariums havent heard of it.

[the german]

you should go to a vet,they can help you i think

[iro11a]

Got my hands on octozin today so going to do a 50% waterchange and try this stuff out, it was as dear as poison :shock:

[scott bowler]

no poison is cheap haha it sould do the trick good luck with it all

[the german]

50% sounds ok but in the othrt 50% u still have methylen and malachit............
u should filter that after the water change out with carbon!!!!!
then try octozin

[iro11a]

Dosed the tank up they are swimming a little more but still wont leave corner 1 out of the 5 is eating the rest still look bad.

How long does it take this octozin stuff to start kicking in i dosed it 26 hours ago

[samir]

you have to dose everyday for three days with a waterchange. they should start eating at around 3 days. be careful not to leave any uneaten food.
with all the malachite green and MB you've used you're filters are probably dead. If I were you I'd be changing water everyday and keeping a close eye on ammonia and nitrite levels.

[iro11a]

thanks samir i will do a 25% waterchange and add more tablets now see how it goes

[Bill T]

+++ watch out for ammonium. I have found the octozin to produce great results vis a vis intestinal parasite eradication, but it also produced an ammonium spike.

You should take daily ammonium & nitrite readings until everything has settled.

I also agree, don't be so gung ho on all those meds. I nearly killed my discus by such well inentioned but inept behaviour. Now I use meds sparingly, and only one at a time.

[iro11a]

Yeah but i been having to try all my opions just to get them to eat cos one is sorta floating around the tank and he looks very sick and hes belly don't look like nothing is in it but the good thing is a got one to start eating the other havent changed at all yet. :?

[iro11a]

One discus has pulled throw and is eating the blood worms one is laying on the water surface nearly died and now that the blue diamond is better he is chasing all the other three that are just sitting around and i cant move the blue diamond to my other tank cos he will be died in half an hour.

The other three brown discus will try and eat the food but just spit it out agian anyone know any other opions or do you think they will start eating agian?>

[samir]

be patient.

[iro11a]

One just passed away then :(

Also trying to be patient but i can't be cause i need them to eat soon otherwise i will loose them all

[djceri_g]

What happened to the rest?

[MACCA]

I dont know if I am a little bit late but feed them what the original owner used too, or feed some live food. Hope this helps. My new arrivals were the same, but after a week they ended up like little pigs.