Discus Fish problems

[chris]

hi everybody Ive had discus fish for about 10months Im addicted.
my fish are healthy looking but not very active.
I have an Amonia problem at the minute witch im addressing,
does amonia make discus inactive they are also scittish at times.
Since day one they have been the same, Any advice................
Ive just switched over to Rain water..

[weird]

hi everybody Ive had discus fish for about 10months Im addicted.


Ro, change the forum to Discus Anonymous.

Hi Chris

Where are you ? What city, what country ? Rain water ? ok ... not something I would have expected someone in the city would say ? Not to matter.

Water from the tap, is ok ... but usually is aired for 24 hours and ofcourse treated with something similar to seachem prime.

What do you think the cause of your ammonia problems were ? How often do you do regular water changes .... gives us more information ... actually tell us everything ... most of us are addicted to discus, and more than anything would love to hear all the details to buying your discus to where you are now. Anything you tell us might help in giving you some help/advice.

Info you might want to include:

size of tank
number and size/age discus
what you feed them
how often you water change
what chemicals you use
filtration system
maintenance
planted tank, bare bottom etc
temperature of tank

thanks

[chris]

Cheers for the quick response dave
I live in adelaide
I have a 3foot tank Holding about 170Lt
5 discus 15neons 2 bristlenose catfish
gravel bottom
I use a fluval 204 pump external
temperature 30degrees
ph level around 5.8 i have trouble maintaining it any higher.
In this tank I use tap water let it stand longer than a day I use amo lock to take out the chrorine.
amonia levels always high.
fish look really healthy.
As soon as I come into the room they move back in the tank they are always low in the tank aswell,
It makes it really hard to enjoy them.
I do water changes weekly 25ltres

To make it worse I have a 2foot tank with a red snakeskin and red turk pair, that lay eggs regulary.
they tend to hide in the corner,come out and feed run away when i come in. they look healthy, again not very active..
I took these out of my 3ft tank to help with the amonia. I conditioned the tank for 4weeks with some gold fish.now this tank has high amonia in it.
This is the tank im using rain water in.
Is it the amonia level the main problem.

[Merrilyn]

Hi Chris, and a big welcome to the forum. This is the place to ask all your questions. If you have an ammonia problem, could it be that you have been a little too generous with the food lately. Cut back on the feeding, and do a couple of big water changes to correct the problem. Discus just hate ammonia in their water, and it can make them skittish.

To answer your second question, discus are naturally a calm, almost lazy swimmer. They tend to hang majesticaly in the water, and do not spend a lot of time in aimlessly swimming up and down their tank. So long as they actively go after the food at meal times, it sounds as if all is very normal.

[Merrilyn]

Hi Chris, just read your reply. Your 3 ft tank has a fairly heavy bio load with 5 discus. One 25% water change a week is not enough to prevent your pH from falling too low and will contribute to your ammonia problems. I would suggest you do daily water changes of around 25% for a week or so, then drop back to 25% three times per week.

It's important to gravel vac at each water change, so there is no uneaten food to pollute your tank. Good luck, and again a very warm welcome.

[weird]

I am nodding my head vigourously in regards to the high ammonia, and possibly something to consider is flucuations with ph. I can perhaps relate something which may or may not help.

My 4 juvs were doing fine for the first 4 months in a small tank, 80 litres ... then for 6 weeks they became scittish ... they would run from me, hide .... I blamed everything from the door slamming, my wife sneezing .... to I don't know .... what was really happening during that time ...

1. I have a powerful filter that was sucking up alot of the food and waste into the canister filter. Bad bacteria growing in filter. Fix ... pre filter the intake of the cannister filter, with a sponge. Clean the intake sponge filter daily. (Also I have only been looking after fish 12 months, and the biggest thing that smacked in my ignorance was cleaning filters with tap water, always used aged tap water or tank water so not to kill good bacteria).

2. Graveled tank. Moved the guys to a 4 foot , bare bottom tank. OMG !!!! I never realised how much these guys crapped !!! I never have shiphoned out more crap in my life everyday. It no longer gets trapped in the gravel or plants.

3. Stopped using acid buffers. These guys get aged tap water.

Results, after 2 weeks in new 4 times bigger, bare bottom tank, with super clean water ... in the last 3 days ... they run up to me when I enter the room, I stick my face on the class and they almost come up and kiss me !!!

Changes, super clean water, less ph flucuation.


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I would consider go purely bare bottom, no driftwood or anything. See how the guys do. Also make sure your filter is clean, if cannister, consider a sponge pre-filter, to stop waste being sucked in.

[flukes]

Ladyred is spot on, too big of a bio load for that tank. To have thoughs fish in that tank i would be increasing the filtration and doing water changes every day too every second day..

Either that or loose some fish...