TimboS
Tue May 08, 2007, 03:36 AM
Hi All,
This is my first post to the forum. I am fairly new to the whole discus keeping game - something like 6 to 8 months. Bear with me - I will describe my setup.
I have a 124L tank with 4 discus, 8 neon tetras, 9 corys and 3 bristlenose. The tanks is planted, but not excessively so. There's some driftwood and a couple of rocks in there too so I guess the actual water content would be about 114L or so.
A 50% water change is performed once a week using a gravel vac, and I use a small amount of Discus buffer. At the end of the day the pH comes out to be roughly 6.8, KH of 2 degrees, GH of 8 degrees and nitrates <= 20ppm. I use tap water to fill back up and the KH / GH are the same, whereas nitrates are 0ppm and the pH is about 7.4 (Adelaide water!). Water temperature is approx 30 degrees.
The concern is for one particular discus. The other three are active and real pigs at feeding time. This is how it goes:
When the fourth discus (the one of concern) was added to the tank, he bullied one of the others REALLY badly - the victim was the smallest of the bunch. The other two are blue/turquoise and he leaves them alone. Feeding was not a problem and he was growing at a phenomenal rate. I could not bear to watch him pick on the other small guy so badly however and so put the aggressor into a breeding enclosure for a while to "chill out". After a couple of days he was returned to the tank with a slightly better attitude but again needed to be put into the box. Well, second time around he was a changed fish.
Now, after something like 3 to 4 weeks, this fourth previously aggressive discus is now very slow but not very shy. He picks on the smaller discus when he swims by but will not actively pursue him across the tank. He picks at the plants, rocks and driftwood but will not pursue the offered feed of frozen bloodworm, brine shrimp, beef heart or posaqua "discus deluxe". He will not go after spectrum discus formula or even a high quality flake. At feeding time he just goes to one corner of the tank. It's almost like he has no appetite.
This fish is only very mildy picked on by the largest of the crowd (the boss). He does not have any obvious deformities, no clamped fins, no change of colour, but only slight weight loss. I never see any poo from him to analyse. I have treated the tank with promeathysul (sp?) thinking it could be an internal worm and protozoin thinking it could alternatively be an external infection (since he did brush past the plants quite frequently). Neither seems to have done anything.
Reading on this forum it would seem that the absence of poo means constipation, or, internal worms that are consuming whatever he does manage to eat (when I am not looking).
Does this seem logical? If yes, what is recommended under the stated circumstances?
Many many thanks,
TimboS
This is my first post to the forum. I am fairly new to the whole discus keeping game - something like 6 to 8 months. Bear with me - I will describe my setup.
I have a 124L tank with 4 discus, 8 neon tetras, 9 corys and 3 bristlenose. The tanks is planted, but not excessively so. There's some driftwood and a couple of rocks in there too so I guess the actual water content would be about 114L or so.
A 50% water change is performed once a week using a gravel vac, and I use a small amount of Discus buffer. At the end of the day the pH comes out to be roughly 6.8, KH of 2 degrees, GH of 8 degrees and nitrates <= 20ppm. I use tap water to fill back up and the KH / GH are the same, whereas nitrates are 0ppm and the pH is about 7.4 (Adelaide water!). Water temperature is approx 30 degrees.
The concern is for one particular discus. The other three are active and real pigs at feeding time. This is how it goes:
When the fourth discus (the one of concern) was added to the tank, he bullied one of the others REALLY badly - the victim was the smallest of the bunch. The other two are blue/turquoise and he leaves them alone. Feeding was not a problem and he was growing at a phenomenal rate. I could not bear to watch him pick on the other small guy so badly however and so put the aggressor into a breeding enclosure for a while to "chill out". After a couple of days he was returned to the tank with a slightly better attitude but again needed to be put into the box. Well, second time around he was a changed fish.
Now, after something like 3 to 4 weeks, this fourth previously aggressive discus is now very slow but not very shy. He picks on the smaller discus when he swims by but will not actively pursue him across the tank. He picks at the plants, rocks and driftwood but will not pursue the offered feed of frozen bloodworm, brine shrimp, beef heart or posaqua "discus deluxe". He will not go after spectrum discus formula or even a high quality flake. At feeding time he just goes to one corner of the tank. It's almost like he has no appetite.
This fish is only very mildy picked on by the largest of the crowd (the boss). He does not have any obvious deformities, no clamped fins, no change of colour, but only slight weight loss. I never see any poo from him to analyse. I have treated the tank with promeathysul (sp?) thinking it could be an internal worm and protozoin thinking it could alternatively be an external infection (since he did brush past the plants quite frequently). Neither seems to have done anything.
Reading on this forum it would seem that the absence of poo means constipation, or, internal worms that are consuming whatever he does manage to eat (when I am not looking).
Does this seem logical? If yes, what is recommended under the stated circumstances?
Many many thanks,
TimboS