uh oh!

[uh oh discus]

for the past two days or so, one of my baby discus is not eating well for some reason. but the other one is eating like a little pig. any idea?

[Merrilyn]

We need a bit more info uh oh.

Water parameters, age of discus, how long have you had them, recent changes in the tank, food, tankmates?

All those things will help us to determine the problem.

[uh oh discus]

there is no nitrate, nitrite, or ammonia in the tank and i do a 20%-40% every two days. i believe the age is about 2-3 three months and they start showing some colors. the recent event that happend in the tank is that all 5 daminos died for unknown reason, but all other fish are doing well including my older discus and the other baby. i feed them tubefix worms because that is what the breeder feed them and i dont want to risk any chance of starving them during this stage so i didnt change their diet yet. tankmates include rummynose tetra, neon tetra, hatchet, otto, and a brown ghosht knife.

[Merrilyn]

Okay, I see a few problems there, and I'll go through them one by one.

Firstly - no nitrate reading. If your tank is cycled, you should have some nitrate reading. That is the end result of the cycle. Is your tank newly set up, or maybe less than 3 months old.

Second - five danios died. Can you give me some more detail about that. Did you just get them, or have they been in the tank a while. Did they all die at the same time, or over several weeks?

Third - you have baby discus in with several large fish and a large discus. Three month old discus do not do very well in a community tank, with bigger tankmates. They are shy feeders, and will often hang back. By the time they get up the courage to go see what's on offer, the food has been consumed by the larger fish. The only successful way to raise baby discus, is in a separate tank, where you can see exactly how much they are eating, and there is no competition from tankmates.

Fourth - tubifex worms are bad news all around. They are harvested from the run off in sewerage farms. They need a lot of washing and purging before they are safe to feed to any fish, and it is believed that they carry a lot of diseases. A lot of unexplained deaths have been reported after people fed tubifex to their discus. There are lots of other good quality foods that you can offer, from dry flake and pellet food, to frozen blood worms, beefheart, brine shrimp and mysis shrimp. All of those are good and readily accepted by discus.

What temperature are you running your tank? A slight increase in water temperature may encourage him to begin eating.

Good luck.

[uh oh discus]

i bought the danios about two or three weeks ago. they died off one by one mysteriously. my tank is very well cycled. all my other fish are doing well. The tetras are a lilttle bit larger than an inch. Actually the two small discus are bigger than they are haha.... The weird thing is that one of the small dicus lost interest in tubefix worms and the other is eatin those a lot. There is not aggressions from my larger discus toward them. They are getting along very well and each time i feed, the not eatin discus just watch the food sink while the other one feeds. i've tried feeding brine shrimp and dried food too, but no success wit the young ones.

[uh oh discus]

any ideas?????

[Andrew Soh]

I believe the young discus has a gut problem...could be an infection from the parasites carried by the tubiflex worm.......something like getting a sore in the tummy or intestine...and/ or a pain in the digestive system....

Discus cannot talk so......when you throw food into the tank, it ...(spirtually..ha!ha!)...wanted to eat......but because of some discomfort internally..... refrain from pricking on the food.

Not every fishes in the tank will be affected the same way. Some may have a smaller (minor) infection and have since recovered and became resistant...while other may have a better immunity....and so far, able to fan off the infection,.......thought most or all the fishes in the tank should have already been infested.

Freshwater Aquatic worms are convenient carrier all sorts of parasites depending of whether the culture is infested at any one time .....and they include protozoans, bacteria and even viruses.

Some people claim they never had problem with aquatic live feed at all....because they wash them properly and drip water.....I think they are just the fortunate lot. Do you really believe that by washing and dripping, all the parasites will be gone? Understand the logic?

Possible Solution:

1) Don't feed any freshwater aquatic animal from now on

2) Use PP to treat all the fishes in the tank (2mg per litre of water for 24 hours x 3 times)

3) Feed all the fishes with metronidazole...

4) Dissole metronidazole with lukewarm water and add to the tank water for 12 days.

Hope the suggestion helps :wink:

Take care,
Andrew

[DiscusEden]

I love this place for learning, and the support everyone gives each other. Thankyou for giving us such great advice - just wondering what PP is?

[Andrew Soh]

It is known as Potassium Permanganate

Andrew

[DiscusEden]

Thankyou!

[uh oh discus]

can you buy all these supplies at a LFS?

[samir]

:lol: :lol: you will get neither at the lfs.
PP you can get online
http://www.onlinepharmacy.com.au/catalogue.asp?/pharmacy/30444-crystal.html

metro from your vet or "friendly" GP

when using PP I'd recommend buying a .01 gm scale off Ebay

[uh oh discus]

dang i dont live in Austrailia lol. any US retailer?

[Merrilyn]

You can buy metro over the counter in the US. It's common name is Flagyl.

[uh oh discus]

ok. thanks. so yesterday i bought some nitrofurazone to treat the fish. they are good now i believe. i fed them live brine shrimp and they were eating them. yea!! and they seem very very hungry. i tried to get them to eat frozen brine shrimp because they can litterally eat a whole packaged bag of those in a day. any recommended food? and i am tryin to get them to eat other food than brine shrimp and tubefix worms. ( well i stopped the worms after what i heard...). any help would be greatly appreciated.

[Andrew Soh]

Artemia, Processed dry food and/ or beefheart.

Andrew

[Suc_Sid]

I've always had success with frozen bloodworm and tetra bits. That's pretty much all i feed mine. i try to feed more tetra bits than bloodworm, because any rotting meat can really cause havoc with your tank.

Some people have also suggested the small red garden worms - i think you can buy them in containers from nurseries. I was told they are the best source of food for discus, and totally clean (unlike tubifex), however, you may need to chop them up (a gooey and perhaps cruel procedure) before feeding to small discus.

Please note, i have not actually tried red garden worms myself - had anybody else out there tried/had success with them?

S_S

[Merrilyn]

Small garden worms are great food for discus and other fish too.

Wrap them in damp newspaper and put in a ventilated box for 24 hours before using as food, so that they empty their gut of grit.

They are easier to chop if you first freeze them. No slime and no wriggling.