Need some advice

[blakey]

Hi all Was just wondering if there is something wrong with my discus or is this normal behaviour. He and another one has gone quite dark and seem to be cowering on there side alot , But when they are swimming alone there color seems to come back
Any thoughts on this would be appreciated
Cheers Shane

[Merrilyn]

Definately not normal behaviour Shane.

Can you do some water tests and post the results here.

pH
Hardness
Ammonia
Nitrite
Nitrate

[blakey]

Hi Merrilyn
Have been testing water every night for the last week PH 6.7 GH 60ppm KH 60ppm Ammonia 0 Nitrite 0 Nitrate 5-10ppm Did a 50% water change on Sunday and another 50% change tonight.. Also have lost 15 or so tetras in that time. Water tested fine everytime Also have been watching there poop and it looks normal.
Cheers Shane

[blakey]

Sorry also forgot to mention that I had DIY CO2 hooked up to tank, 2 3L bottles and thought that this may have been contributing to it so I disconnected it all tonight when I got home from work.

[Merrilyn]

Mate, I've just been reading thru some of your older posts. Seems you tank has really only been up and running since early January. Did you ever get an ammonia spike followed a week later by a nitrite spike?

There's something not quite right with your water. The fact that you lost 15 tetras in the last week or so, is a warning sign. The C02 could have had something to do with it, but I would have expected the fish to be hanging around the top of the tank if that was a problem.

I can't help but think it's related to new tank syndrome. The timing is right, and the fish are showing signs of ammonia or nitrite poisoning.

Illusn, Samir, any thoughts ?

[blakey]

Thanks for the replies Merrilyn
Thats why I'm abit stumped cause this has never happened before. As far as the the test kits show I've never had an ammonia or nitrite spike and even went and bought a new test kit as I thought my old ones were deceiving me.(One I just got is Nutrafin mini test kit), and they are still reading 0. I even dosed with Seachem Prime Cheers Shane

[Greggy]

I agree with Merrilyn and say its NTS (New Tank Syndrome). Tetras dying in those sort of numbers is a sure sign you have major problems with water quality.

Nitrite levels can be very low (below or barely at detection limit) yet still have a large (negative) impact on the health of the fish. You need to keep doing large daily water changes for a few weeks and slowly reduce them to every second day over the following few weeks until you settle down to your normal water change regime which should be at least one large water change per week. In about a month from now your tank should have more or less finished cycling and things will settle down.

Regards,

Greggy