New resident discus will not eat

[torties]

Hi all, fairly new to the world of discus keeping .. reasonably up with keeping other tropical fish successfully.
Began my 180 litre tank with 2 medium sized pidgeon bloods 6-7 weeks ago .. settled themselves & ate readily. Added a school of tetras, all doing well. Added 3 new discus (young ones) small-medium size approx 2-3 weeks ago - 2 are eating normally but 1 will refuse to eat period. I have offered pellets, flakes, bloodworm, tried soaking in garlic solution to add an odour .. all to no avail. This discus will simply remain still as food floats around it or it will move away to another part of the tank. Coincidentally it is the only 'newbie' that tends to get bothered & bulied by my original 2 pidgeon bloods. Having said that, there are periods where they all cruise around nicely together. Any suggestions please would be much appreciated! (All water parameters are fine and the rest of the discus eat readily. I am feeding twice a day. I do a 30% water change & gravel clean every 6-7 days.)

[angel101]

Hard to say. Has it shown any sign of white poo? If so could have worms or some other internal disease such as Hex. Could just be the bullying. Hard to say without a pic. Has it lost weight across the head? BTW, it is very hard to successfully grow on small discus. You would need to feed more than twice a day and change much more water daily and it is made even harder in tanks with gravel. Also, most of the small discus sold at LFS are normally poor quality culls. Much better to stick with bigger fish.

[Hollowman]

I agree with the above. What are your water parameters? Saying ok is not a good result.

[sayid]

I agree with all the above advice ,i would be looking for other indicators of any problem such as white poo in the mean time i would increase the temp to 31- 32 c to increase the appetite and try other foods like freeze dried black worms.
good luck

[torties]

Many thanks for replying guys .. to date no sign of 'any' poo! I'm not observing anything else with regard visual signs.
My water parmamaters are PH 6.8-7 .. KH 1-2 .. GH 3 .. ammonia & nitrite 0 .. nitrate at max would be 10-20. will try & load pic. Also, have increased temp from 27 to 28 in the last couple of days.

[torties]

21226 newbie discus

[torties]

21229 hopefully clearer shot

[sayid]

Hi Torties;
It is not clear from the photos if he has hex or not but generally he was not in the best of shape when you bought him most probably from your LFS , their quality are not the best ,but lets be positive ,the first thing i would do if he was my fish would be a good general cleaning of the tank and more water change and 28 c is not enough increase temp to 32 c over 48 hours ,dont worry i have had 34 c for a week with no problem ,give them smaller portion of different food just enough for them to finish it in 10 min and see how you go .
good luck

[Hollowman]

If your water temperature was raised to 27-28 then it has been too cool in the first place. A general lowest temp is 28 so make sure you maintain this. It should never be lower. Secondly, growing a juvenile fish in a planted tank is not the best idea, as discus should be fed a lot and as they do produce a lot of poo, this can have effects on plants, the higher temps can also be detrimental to plants.

For the immediate issue sayid is right, raise the temp as this increases the metabolism and will make it want to eat more. Maybe do this in a hospital tank so not to kill your plants. You can try a wormer or med for internal parasites but lots of fresh water will be the first medicine.

[Sabrina]

Some garlic guard might also be helpful too you can soak the food in it or just add to the tank, if his not eating well, just a thought, if you have any...
Has anyone asked what you are feeding them? They need a good variety of foods, they love black worms(blood worms) and beefheart.. Then there is flakes, frozen foods and other Discus specific foods..
He looks ok, i think it might be stress. Discus are prone to stress illnesses and trying to fit in with your other Discus would be very stressful for him. Some stress coat or stress guard might help in this situation as well and it wouldn't harm your other fish if used in the main tank.

[angel101]

Offer it live black worm. any fish that refuses this is sick indeed. If you want to raise these fish to anywhere near a decent size, put them in a bare bottom tank.

[Hollowman]

Offer it live black worm. any fish that refuses this is sick indeed. If you want to raise these fish to anywhere near a decent size, put them in a bare bottom tank.

Definitely agree

[torties]

Thanks again all for your thoughts .. on the topic of fresh food, are live blackworms safe to feed discus ie potential for spread of parasites etc? and, bare bottom tanks - what are the theories of this & in particular for having smaller discus? tia

[sayid]

Any live food has the potential to carry parasites ,but having said that mal's black worm from beechworth is well known and respected by many discus breeders .
http://www.blackworms.com.au/ .
The above link will help you , regarding BB tank if you have a tank let say 150 l to 250 l will do the job ,the rules are the same i.e 40 l per adult discus , lots of variation in food ,often and in small portions and your fish will thank you for it .
good luck

[Hollowman]

The theory behind BB tank raising is that you can keep water quality extremely high. Normally, while raising discus you need large frequent water changes which mimics natural conditions in the Amazon. With a low biological load in the water it helps the fish grow instead of fighting off parasites and infections. When you can see uneaten food and faeces in a BB tank setup, you will see how much rubbish the fish actually produce. For me BB is the way to go. If you have a display tank, you can still have BB and decorate with wood, rock or potted plants, but the trick is keeping it clean and lots of big water changes.


This was one of my setups, all BB for raising discus

http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/gg188/Discusboy123/DSC01904.jpg