not eating

[Agent]

Just joined your forum after receiving 4 x discus, 3 of them are active eaters but 1 is a bit sluggish, it hangs back, does not appear to eat, I watched it tonite, thawed some blood worms out in a glass of water, it ate a couple but spat them back out, any ideas if this is normal?' have only had these discuss since Friday, they were air freighted up from Sydney to Newcastle (only in box for 2 hours at most).
Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks,
Rob...

[HAN 'd' Aquariums]

Hi Rob
Have you tested your water parameters yet?
Ph
Ammonia
Nitrite
Nitrate
Gh
Kh
Temp

Heidi

[Merrilyn]

Hi Rob, welcome to the forum.

How long have you had these fish. If it's only a few days, then I wouldn't be too concerned at this stage.

Some fish are stressed more than others by being shipped, but do keep a close watch on the little guy, and don't let it get out of hand. Try offering some other types of food, maybe some tetra colour bits or some live brine shrimp.

Do you know what they were fed on in the past. A phone call to the seller may put your mind at rest..

In the meantime, do some daily water changes. Fresh water always makes discus feel good.

Keep us posted.

[Agent]

Thanks for your help Merrillyn & Heidi, all the parameters are good, did a water change on Sunday & will do fot the next few days, then go back to weekly, he seems a bit chirpyer today, (ate a bit of 'fish dinner Discus' tonite) maybe flying was not his forte! I got the fish on Friday arvo 26/05/06, have had the tank running for 2 weeks prior to that to get everything corectly happening. Have been adding 25ml of Melafix for the last 3 days, Aquaholic (Andrew) lives next door & is keeping an eye on my tank, I'll get some pictures of it & post them soon, the 2x2x2 cube tank is a bit different.
Thanks,
Rob...

[Bill T.]

Hi there Agent.
IMHO: stop using the Melafix - not so good for Discus. I've used it in the past & reckon it does no good at all, and maybe even some damage.
Also, am I getting this right, your tank set up is only two weeks old?
How did you go about cycling it?
If you haven't had a good bunch of healthy fish in there, you could be in for trouble, with a capital "T".

[aquaholic]

hey bill agent has got a large sponge filter in his tank which was cycled in 1 of my tanks for a few weeks so should be good. amonia and nitites both 0

cheers andrew

[Bill T.]

I feel better now.

[Agent]

Thanks for your concern Bill, I should have advised what I had done with the filter, sorry, just a newby! he's looking for food now & eating & hanging with the others, so far so good.
Rob..

[Agent]

I'm a few weeks down the track now & 'Darkie" due to his dark brown colour is still chocolate brown, he seems happy but is supposed to look like his partner (leopard spotted snake skin), I purchased them from Slippery Little Suckers, Brett advised to try some broad spectrum medication which I administered on Wed 7/6/06, the water turned green & as per instructions, did a 25% water change today (Sat), it goes on to say 'repeat treatment after 3 days',before I do this, can anyone offer some advise as what would be the best cure? he is still brown since I got him 25/05/06.
Did water tests today:
Temp 29-30
Nitrate <5
Amonia 0
Nitrite 0
All looking pretty good
Rob... :(

[sammigold]

I dont know but It is only two weeks since you got him... he might just be a bit stressed still...
If he is eating and he is not being picked on I would be inclined to just give it a bit more time... some discus can take a while to get used to new surroundings....maybe a little cooking salt at a rate of 1 teaspoon to 40 litres may help to relax him a little... (if he is not showing signs of a specific disease I would not be inclined to medicate him. JMO)
Good Luck!!