Discus not feeding

[keitht]

I have 6 discus and 10 small corys in a 180lt tank. After doing a 20 lt water change (treated tap) about 1.5 hours later 2 Discus not looking well, top of tank slightly rolling over, fins clamped, colour darkened, set up hospital tank (40 ltr) and moved the 2 Discus into this with clean treated tap water. Not sure what to treat for or with, phoned local aquarist who advised Methylene blue, treated with this as per instructions fish are now upright but still subdued and not feeding. Water temp 29, water change 8 ltrs, in the tank is an airstone and stingray filter for water movement. Any advice would be welcome as not sure how to proceed.
Four discus in original tank seem ok and eating well - beefheart, bloodworm.

[ILLUSN]

what are your water parameters? could it be ph shock from the water change?

[keitht]

pH 7,ammonia-nil, nitrate-nil, nitrite-nil, if its pH shock why only effect 2 of the six Discus, the smaller one died this evening, I will go and get RO water in the morning if the other fish is still alive and remove from methylene blue and put in pure RO water with heater at 29c and a air stone - what are your thoughts with regard to medication

[BobbyBruce]

Hi Keith,

I don't think pure RO will solve your problem in this case as you are going to subject the fish to a significant change in Ph and in all likelihood changes in Gh and Kh as well. This will further stress the fish. I feel you would be better off using the same water source but make sure you "prepare" the water before adding.

With your previous 20 ltr change did you put the water in directly out of the tap with conditioners added? What was the temp of the water you were putting in? Did the affected discus swim through the water as you were adding it? Did you prepare/aerate/heat the water for 24 hours prior to adding?

Regards,

Bob

[boxters]

The best advice I can give is to get your self unto speed with the basics of discus keeping. Bobybruce is correct stay away from ro water I'm getting the feeling there is not enough experience for you to be going down that rd. If the fish turned that quickly on you and were fine before the water change, it's is very likely the water change did it. Imagin you are in a hot bath and then you suddenly jump into a pool with ice books. Think of the shock your body goes through. In my opinion that's what happened to your fish with the water change.

[keitht]

I always bring the temperature up(29c)heater if RO or if treated tap and if it was the water change that caused the problem then why only effect 2 of the 6 discus I’ve changed the water this way from the start so why now.

Is there anything I can treat the 1 remaining discus with ( in the hospital tank with methylene blue) not eating, nose down,

Other 4 discus still look OK.

[BobbyBruce]

Sorry Keith,

Not sure, as I said the only thing I can think of is that they may have swum through the water as you were adding it and there may have been a significant change in the water chemistry. Obviously if you are raising the temp to 29 which is the same as your tank then it is not shock due to temp changes.

Do you check your water for Ph, Gh and Kh before adding. Do you stand the water to allow for evaporation of chlorine or chloramine. If you are using tap water and the local council decided to "supershock" the system for reasons best known to themselves and these to fish were particularly susceptible to change that may have been the cause.

I use an RO system all the time but still put it through my holding tank adding the neccessary conditioners, heat to tank temps and aerate for at least 24 before adding.

Really not sure what else may have happened.

When did you most recently treat for worms? Do your discus look well fed and "meaty" through the forehead or are the a little "lean" with hollows above the eyes?

Regards,

Bob

[keitht]

Discus still alive and looks OK (still in half strength methylene blue) visited a lfs talked to one of their guys his advice having not seen the discus was aquarium salts (which cost me all of £1.30) and 30% water change, that was yesterday, today the discus is hiding but will now and then swim around for 10 or so seconds then back to hiding but not eating yet, anyone got any suggestions please

[keitht]

Hi

The discus is out of methylene blue and salts and into a small tank of treated tap ready for meds if reqired still not feeding, over 120 views must be someone with advice on how to get discus to feed, just went back to look at discus put some bloodworm and the fish eaten some so that good so please look at picture and tell me what you think

regards Keith

[lpiasente]

mmm he doesn't look happy does he. I feed live blackworm when I can't get fish to eat. It works most of the time. Can you get a hold of live food? If not just keep going with the blood worm. I wouldn't be putting any meds in there at all just clean treated water everyday. It's no use putting in meds if you don't know what you are treating for. Watch for other symptoms like trying to scratch,different poop.

[keitht]

Now no methylene blue I can see the waters got a cloudy look and small streams of slime floating in the water

[keitht]

With a water change every 8 hours and Metronidazol we look to have turned the discus around and is now eating beefheart, so fingers crossed we could be OK, but what to do with this discus do I put it back in the main tank or would it be better to let someone else have it in a mixed fish aquarium?

[Ghoti]

IMHO its too early to be making any decisions. Feed him up for a week or two, let him build his strength then decide what you want to do.

Cheers,
Scott

[keitht]

What is IMHO and should I treat the dicus with a wormer

Regards Keith

[mitsui]

IMHO = In My Honest Opinion

[keitht]

What about the worming ?