new discus hiding in corner

[jazzlvr123]

Hi i just purchased 4 discus for my 60 gallon cube planted tank they are about 3" right now I got a pigeon blood a colbalt, red snakeskin and a blue snakeskin. my problem is that since I have introduced them into my planted tank two days ago they have been sitting in the corner next to each other for the past couple days the only time they leave is to eat. they do not look too bad and their fins are spread open but they just stay in that dang corner like their stressed. plus both the snakeskins look dark is this normal for juvi discus in a new tank. should I wait it out?

the flow in the tank is pretty good because i have an external closed loop sump plumbed into the tank so I thought it was that at first. however, I turned my pump off for a couple hours and the discus still sat in the corner which leads me to believe its not the flow that is an issue

any thoughts, comments, ideas, suggestion?

[Merrilyn]

Welcome to the forum. I think it's just a settling in period with your fish. No doubt they came from a bare tank with no hiding places, and now that they're in a new environment, they're not sure where the "predators" are lurking, so it's safer to stay hidden.

Very normal behavior for any fish in a new tank.

You may like to provide them with a few cardinal tetras to act as 'dither' fish. Discus are thinking fish, if they see the small tetras out and about, they assume it's safe for them to be out too.

Pretty much a case of 'monkey see, monkey do'. :P

[jazzlvr123]

well I added 9 threadfin rainbows and they are still hiding in the corner with no sign of improvements. the two snakeskins still look dark, are breathing fast and are waving their fins REALLY fast. can this be caused from too much light or flow? please help

[jesx57]

You need to give them a chance to settle in, sometimes it's hard to estimate how long it'll take. Perhaps you could tempt them with some bloodworms?

[jazzlvr123]

I do, they go out to eat and then hide right back in the corner they look very stressed which i know leads to disease. its making me worried considering how much ive payed for these little buggers

[rwel4809]

you say it's a planted tank... I think that they're probably freaked out by light

try turning the lights out and not feeding for 24 hours... don't change anything just leave them in the dark without bothering them, cover the tank if need be...

After that tempt them with some tasty morsels turn half the lights on ... next day turn full lights on...
Discus sometimes take a while to get used to high light planted tanks...

HTH R

[jazzlvr123]

thanks for your advice I believe i have found the corporate to why my discus have been behaving like they have. I turned my lights off and within a half an hour i found my discus swimming freely and happily around the tank looking very good :D

so now i just have to figure out how to make them look like that when the lights are on. my tank is a 60 gallon cube 2' x 2' x 2' and it has a 250 watt HQI metal halide and two 65 compact fluorescents on either side of the HQI light fixture running over the tank. i have been only turning on the HQI and not the CFL's since I have introduced the discus. i also think they like it at night time because my lights are connected to the same timer my co2 is connected to so at night when the lights and co2 turn off my air pump turns on and starts injecting O2 rather than co2 into my co2 diffuser. giving the tank ample O2 at night compensating for the high Co2 levels (which bring down O2) during the day. It's actually a very high tech system which discus seem not to like :D

[rwel4809]

OK...
I would try turning on just one of the compacts to start, then the second the next day to see how you go...

you might want to work out if you really need that much light.. even with just the Halide you have over 4 wpg.. what plants are you growing?


My discus are very happy with the 3.5 WPG of T5's but I do think they take a few days to get used to it, and they definately like to hang around in the shade of the plants sometimes...

remember that you will need to keep on top of the water changes, I keep nitrates at less than 10 ppm, I know you might want to go higher for really lush plants, but I reackon that the discus come first...

I think its better to have slow growing plants with Discus, they don't really like the pruning, and you'd be doing alot with your current set up!

I am not the most experienced here with Discus, but I think the key is water quality, high quality food, and keeping stress to a minimum... I think it's worth considering this in your choice of set up and plants...

But having said that, it is possible to have a great planted set up with discus... many of us here do..

HTH R

[jazzlvr123]

heres my setup:
http://i253.photobucket.com/albums/hh59/jazzlvr123/IMG_0994.jpg
http://i253.photobucket.com/albums/hh59/jazzlvr123/IMG_0975.jpg

the discus look much happier now don't you agree?
http://i253.photobucket.com/albums/hh59/jazzlvr123/IMG_1053.jpg