Discus keeps on hiding in rocks, won't eat...

[williamvo]

My discus won't eat, keeps on hiding behind my rocks and its color is really dark. I don't know what's wrong with it. I tried changing 30% of the water 2 a week and adding salt to the tank but still no progess. I also notice that there's some sort of tiny white spot on the discus. Yesterday, Friday, I bought this tablet from the LFS called Parasite Clear. I don't know if the tablet helps or not. All you do with the tablet is drop it in your tank, wait for the 48 hours and do a 25% WC. So, I'm just waiting till tomorrow to see if there's any sign. But for now I don't know what's wrong with the discus. Is there anyway I can resolve this problem? Any advice would be helpful. Thanks in advance. I would love to chat with someone if possible.

Aim: willestl

Here's a picture of what my discus look before and what it looks now.

http://www.williamvo.com/fish/before.jpg
http://www.williamvo.com/fish/after.jpg

[Merrilyn]

Hello william and welcome to the forum. Glad to have you join us.

Now, can you test your water for me. I'm a abit concerned about the rocks you have in there. I think they will make the water very hard and raise your pH. Discus do better in soft water with a pH of around 7.

If you don't have test kits, you need to take some water to your local aquarium shop, and for a small fee, they will test the water for you.

You need to find out the following:-

pH (it should be around 7, but I'll bet yours is around 8)
GH (that's general hardness of the water)
Ammonia,
Nitrite
and Nitrate. (that will tell me the state of your filter)

You also need to know the pH of the water coming out of your tap, before it goes into the tank.

I also need to know, how big your tank is, and how long it has been running, and what other fish you have in there.

If you can get me those readings, then I thing we can work out a solution to your problem.

:D

[williamvo]

Thanks for the reply. Here's the info that you asked:

-40 Gallon tank
-It's been running for about 2 months
-currently I have tetras, chinese algea eater, and the discus.
-ph: 7.8
-gh: 150
-ammonia: 0
-nitrite: 0
-nitrate: 40

I hope this will help.

[Merrilyn]

Hi William, yes, that answers a lot of questions.

Your filter is working perfectly, with a zero ammonia and nitrite reading, but hour nitrate at 40 is a bit too high for discus. I increase your water changes till you get it down to less than 20, preferably around 10.

As I suspected, your pH and GH is way too high. I do think those rocks and maybe even the gravel are contributing to your high and certainly to your high GH.

Discus thrive with a pH of 7 and a GH of under 10. As you can see, your readings are way higher than that, and I believe your fish will do a lot better if you address those problems.

Were you able to test your water straight out of the tap? If there's a big difference in the readings, then no doubt your rocks and gravel are affecting the water.

If you find a big difference, then you will need to remove both the rocks and gravel and try something different. Go and get some light coloured gravel from your local pet shop, but be sure to tell them it's for a discus tank, and you don't want anything that will increase the hardness of the water. There are a lot of suitable gravels, in a variety of colours, and I'm sure you'll find something suitable.

Rocks and discus never really go together all that well. There are no rocks like that found in the amazon, only very smooth river pebbles. Driftwood is a much better decoration to have in the tank, it's natural to the amazon, and it will drop the pH a little, which your discus and tetras will love.

Water conditions are very important to these guys, and I think that if you fix the water, you'll see much happier and healthier fish.

Discus love lots of water changes. Clean water, warmth (a temperature over 84 degrees) and lots of high protein foods are the three essentials for keeping discus.

[williamvo]

I took the rocks out and the ph level drop to 7.2. I got to test my tap water out of the sink and here's the result:
Ph: 7.2
gh: 150 ppm.

Would using something like Discus Buffer helps to soften your water and lower the ph?

[Daetarek]

Would indeed help, but not essential, i figure that your gh is around 8-9 german degrees hardness which isn't to bad for discus, but discus buffer will help level out the pH a bit, one dose should bring you down to about 6.8 over a day or two, thats the effect i have seen and my water has similar paramaters.

ta
Tob

[williamvo]

Well, i took out the rocks, and ph level went down to 7 but for some reason my water is not soften. the only time my discus comes out and play is at night around 10 pm but for the majority of the day it hides behind my underwater filter. i think this is because it's by itself, since discus is a schooling fish it might need a friend so it won't be so shy. what do you guys think?

[sharn]

id say that would be the problem, they really do need buddies to feel secure, can you add any more into the tank? :)

[sammigold]

They definately do better in groups of 3 or more as they are a schooling fish... I would do that (buy more fishies!)..... but quarantine them first.... you dont want to make him sick if you bring in other fish and they happen to be carrying something...