Help.....

[KONA]

Hello, I am new here and have been enjoying all the great information. I am new to Discus and have only been keeping them for about 5 months. I have been kepping other fish for a few years, so I familiar with water paremetrs. My fish have been doing well in a 100 gallon planted tank for a while now. Until recently... I checked my PH and ammonia levels today. Ammonia level is great since I did a water change yesterday. However the PH is EXTREMELY HIGH... like 7.6-7.8... I have some driftwood in there that I thought it would be keeping it low. What to do? my fish seem to be doing not so good. The water out of my tap is like 6.8 - 7.0... Should I keep doing water changes? and how big if I do?

Also a big question that is hard to deal with... my 100 gallon has only 5 discus in it. all different sizes because they are all growing at different rates. The second to biggest one is picking on all the little ones and it seems to be stressing them out. What to do? Is this because there is not enough fish in there? I mean he thinks he runs the show.. and only lets the others eat when he thinks its cool and then swims around the tank pushing others around... I am afraid that the other ones are going to die... Thanks so much and Happy New Year to all...

Kona

[FishLover]

I had the same problem and got some great advices here.

Fist of all, you need to establish some basic facts:
1. What eaxctly is you tap water ph level?
2. What in the tank maybe changing your ph level?

To do this, people here advised me to use two cups, one filled with tap water, one with 1 inch of your tank gravel and tap water. Test the ph in both first, test them again in 24 hours, then again in 48 hours.

If you have rocks in the tank, you may want to test them too.

You can follow my thread about ph level here and see people's advises. I was able to get the help needed and resolve my problem. You may want to do the same if you have the same problem. I did replace all my gravel so that was not the factor. I just happen to live in an area that tap water is very hard (7.5 first day, 8.03 next day)

Good luck.

[sammigold]

i am going to try and help with some suggestions about the bullying.... it is natural for the discus to try and establish a heirachy but if one is being particularly aggressive I have seen some people advise some of the following different methods...

a) If you have room and the inkling you can add a couple more discus of a similar size to him which may change the dynamics abit.

b) alternatively if you have a spare tank you can separate the bully and put him in the tank by himself for a few weeks then when you are ready to put him back in with the others, change the decor of the tank around and make it look different from before.. this can trick the discus into thinking that he is in a new place and he may be a little less inclined to stake out the same territory again as it will be all different....

If you dont have a spare tank you can still try changing the decor around and maybe give your other discus some more hiding places so that they can avoid the bully... HTH

[KONA]

sAD... I lost my favorite discus today... the one that he was always picking on. i AM going to re-arrange decor. Hopefully that works.. Thanks u so much

Kona

[sammigold]

sorry to hear about your loss!!! Good luck and I hope the rearranging works for you!!
ps. welcome to the forum.. you will find a great community of people helping each other and we have some amazing fish experts on this forum!! I couldn't live without these guys....

[Merrilyn]

Hello Kona, welcome to the forum. So sorry to hear about the loss of your fish.

Have you done the test of your water and gravel yet. It sounds like you have something in your tank that is increasing the pH and probably the hardness of your water, and it's usually the gravel or rocks in the tank.

Till we get is sorted out for you, keep doing those waterchanges every day, or at least every second day.

Adding a couple more fish, the same size or a little bigger than the bully, will help with the aggression. Also moving the decore in the tank around will alter the territories for a while.

Your 100 gallon planted tank is large enough to house 10 adult discus, so there's room to put quite a few more discus in there.

Can you tell us your water parameters, like pH nitrite and nitrate as well as hardness, and also how often you do water changes and the type of food you are feeding.

[KONA]

Thanks so much for all the help... Ph is at 6.8 now. I added more drift to the tank.

As far as the agressor... well I changed the decor and added some more fish. I added a few poor man discus, the Uaru, i think thats the name. They look like discus but no where near the color of discus. Its funny they are part of the pack now and they are all getting along.. I just wish my favorite discus never died... thanks again every1

KONA