Are my discus going mad?

[AdamT138]

Hi everyone,

I would really like some help or advice about my discus. I bought 4 discus for my 55 g tank around 8 month ago and everything has been fine.

The 4 fish have paired off and every week or so both pairs spawn at either end of the tank. However, around a week ago the two males seem to be fighting more than normal and every now and then they seem to go mad and swim uncontrollably and try jump out of the tank. Now all four discus just hide and one of the males has stopped eating. They all seem really nervous and just hide when anyone approaches the tank.

To make things more interesting I also have a pair of Rams. Again, these have been in the tank for around ten months and also spawn from time to time.

At night the male Ram floats upside down at the top of the tank for a few minutes, then returns to normal and starts swimming again. This only ever happens for a few minutes on a night. This only has started to happen since the male discus have been going 'mad'.

I haven't introduced any new fish since I bought the discus so I'm quite confident I haven't introduced any parasites etc.

The pH of the tank was quite low at around 5 ish so I've gradually increased it over a few days to 6 ish but this hasn't really helped.

There was also I small trace of ammonia in the tank (1 mg/L) so I'm doing water changes every day to get rid of this. The nitrite reading is zero.

Could this be the problem? I would appreciate any comments or help that anyone can offer.

Thanks,
Adam.

[samir]

The pH of the tank was quite low at around 5 ish so I've gradually increased it over a few days to 6 ish but this hasn't really helped.

There was also I small trace of ammonia in the tank (1 mg/L) so I'm doing water changes every day to get rid of this. The nitrite reading is zero.


the ammonia is the problem, putting the ph up would have made it worse, not better. you need to do a very big water change. add a double dose of seachem prime to the tank as well.

[Alex Cheng]

I have heard that low pH levels like 5 will kill of your nitrifying bacteria, so the ammonia won't be broken down in your filter.

Alex

[SusieQ]

Hi there...
Alex where did you hear this...
I am having a problem with the same sort of low ph and minimal ammonia showing up all of a sudden. The tank is new but the discus fish, canister filters (2 xp3's and today moved over a sponge filter from my 55) etc were all moved over from my existing 72 gallon bow to a 120 gallon. No disease and no "mad/crazy" fish but a trace of ammonia (less than .0.25 after 2 days after a water change), no nitrite and minimal nitrate (5)... I never had ammonia before.. evn if I left for 5 or 6 days without water change. The substrate is sand and there is driftwood and lightly planted with anubas etc.... same ones as in the old tank. My API ph tester only goes down to 6 which is yellow and that's the color I get. But I have ordered another kit by nutrafin that is wide range and goes lower... So I will test when it gets here..
Do you think it is because of the 2 week old switch to the new tank and I'm still playing catchup or because of very soft, very low ph water??? Oh I am feeding more frozen bloodworms than before but not overfeeding.. Thanks for any info.. Sue