new discus not eating

[pamuscle]

i recently bought new royal blue discus for a rep fish store in florida, im from pennsylvania, i recieved the discus on tuesday the 23rd of aug,2011 and there not eatin yeh, they keep hiding and when i turn the light off they seem to come out, i was told by the pet store that i purchasd them that they feed them beef heart flake food, heres my one of my questions,, i have floating watersprite on the top of my tank, shlud i take this out??? it covers alot of the top of the water,, also, the ph is 6.5 the temp is 86' theres enough of air circulation, i have a two foot air stone in the 50 gallon tank, can u help me ?? i dont want the fish to starve to death, visiabley they look good no parasites, i dont want to lose them i wuld appreciat yur help,, i dont hae any other fish in the tank jsut them two,, rick watcher,, ps, i have been tryin to feed them freezed dried brine shrimp but it floats to the top and gets lost in the water sprite,, anybody help me ?????

[Nev]

I'm sure you'll get better suggestions than mine.
I'd add some small schooling tetras like rummy nose etc. to show them there's nothing to be afraid of. It's not uncommon for them to not eat when introduced to a new tank but they will eventually. Just keep trying, maybe give them what the're used to Can't see a poblem with the water sprite should soften the light a bit

And welcome to the forum.

[ILLUSN]

leave the lights off for a couple of dyas
feed a little food at night and walk away , you can try some live brine shrimp, once they get use to you they will eat.

if after another week they have not eaten you' will have to treat them for internal paracites

[Priscacara]

I've had similar problems (posted header of newbie woes) with my first 3 discus but now they come out a lot more and are eating again but it did take almost 10 days. As an incentive to coax them I tried brine shrimp but they never budged, black worm did the trick though for me guessing the wriggling caught their attention and ws just irresistable. They now take 1mm NLS pellets and freeze dried blackworm readily, turn their noses up at flake food though.

Mine still dont like the lights on but are getting better so hang in there and they should come good. I couldn't really have my lights out for too long with the plants so probably took longer for them to get used to me.