Discus hiding and not eating

[Lex]

Hey Guys!

I need some help! My discus keeps hiding behind my rocks and plants and they seem to be not eating too :( I have an angel, black widows, gourami and a swordtail in the same tank. Could that be the problem ?
My brown discus is getting smaller and smaller. Is there anything i could do ?

[Annie]

What is your water pars?
How big is the tank? How many discus do you have in the same tank.
And I have had an issues at one time or another with one of my angels, and took him out.
Also , what kind of Gourami do you have? I had a 3 spot Blue Gourami and he was very nippy and started nipping and stressing out my discus. Needless to say, he found a new home. They get to where they want to establish "their" pecking order, and teend to get a bit territorial.
I would suggest removing them. But that is just my thought. Better safe for the Discus than be sorry later.

When Discus hide and stop eating, you can bet it is 1 of 3 issues.
1. He is being picked on by someone in the tank, and it could even be another discus. When I had 4 instead of 5...The bigger one seemed to be bullying the others.
2. Your water pars are off. The Ph, if it has swung up or down any, or if the ammonias, nitrites or nitrates go up. Toxins are something the notice right off the bat. Or another is the temp change. Temp going up, and then down or vise versa.
Or
3. He has some sort of bacterial/parasite going on.

So, for now, what I would do is turn the lights in the tank off, be sure there is enough places for the Discus to hide, Check your water pars and you can also add a bit of salt to the tank..

Please post back with the info that was asked above so we can get an idea on what else might be going on.
HTH :wink:

[Proteus]

What is your water pars?

pH, Nitrites, Nitrates, Ammonia

[Lex]

Hey thanks for ur guys help! I would buy a test kit... i never try it before..... still a novice. I think it could be caused by the tankmates i have. The angel gets a bit nippy sometimes. So does the swordtail and gourami ( its red colour, i forgot what it is call).

Btw should i put some salts in now for the mean time?

Cheers Guys

[Annie]

Lex, you can try the salt, it will help with the nitrITES if they are higher than they should be. I'd do 1 teaspoon per 20 gallons to help with nitrIte toxicity.
But I cannot imagine having Discus, or any other fish with out a test kit. You really need to have one, it is the key to keeping an aquarium.

[Lex]

Thanx Annie, I will get one tomorrow! :)

[Annie]

That is great to hear..

[Proteus]

Thanks for that Annie...

Lex, a good test kit is like extra insurance...

I must say in all honesty, I have only checked one tank in several months, but this is due to very regular water changes, constant observation of my buddies, and other factors such as water colour, odour, etc... but the second something doesnt look right...

Ammonia 1st
Nitrite 2nd
Nitrate 3rd
pH 4th
and then go from there...

if you cant get all the kits straight away, most stores will test the water for you for a few dollars

[Annie]

Also, if you cannot pick up nall the kits or the master kit which contains a majority of them, at least get the Nitrite and Ammonia ones. These will test for those nasty toxins, and you can get a jump start when they start to turn sour.

[flukes]

I bought a master test kit when i started this tank iam setting up and it idnt have a nitrate test kit, i ve just finished a cycle which means there will be high nitrates i did about a 50% water change and the tank is well stocked with plants (ive heard they use nitrates as nutrients?)
Do you think this will be enough i know nitrate is as bad as ammonia or nitrite but i dont want to bring harm to the new fish that will be in there.

Cheers
Scott

P.S - I do intend on getting a nitrate test kit, as soon as i can.

[Lily]

i know nitrate is as bad as ammonia or nitrite

do you mean "isn't" as bad? Because, it isn't :)

You can expect to have some nitrates in any tank, the idea is to keep them below a certain level. I used to aim for 20ppm when I kept the big fellas (oscars, jaguar, saratogas) but so far my planted discus tank has barely begun to even register nitrate which is nice - presumably the plants are acting as a nitrate sponge, yay.


i ve just finished a cycle which means there will be high nitrates

How did you cycle the tank? I am assuming not with discus in it! Just curious because after I do a fishless cycle I do a 100% waterchange - not really an option if you have fish already (well I guess you could catch them and float them in bags ... but never mind my babbling).

[Lily]

Sorry Lex, back to your question!

As I understand it you have an angel, black widows, gourami and a swordtail as well as 8 large discus in the one tank. How big is the tank, and can you give us some details other than what you need a test kit for, eg temperature, filter you are using?

I can imagine the gourami and angel each being a stressor on the fish (bullies!!), and some tetras are nippy as well (not sure about black widows as I haven't kept them). But swordtails! I used to call them "grinders" beacuse they constantly tormented the other fish by fin nipping. That was back in 1989, and I have never kept them again. Watching a grinder in full force is pretty unrelaxing.

It's a pretty harsh proposal, but discus are not the best community fish, and if you want to keep what sounds like 8 pretty big (probably valuable!) discus healthy I would suggest that the other fish be removed until you're confident that the discus' requirements are being met and they settle down (**Lily ducks**). Not sure I would get rid of a pet for the sake of another pet, myself - it's just a suggestion.

[Lex]

Thanks for the suggestion Lily! :) I thought about removing the bullies from the tank for a while too. But at the moment, I have done couple of ph tests... its much too high! So for the last couples of days... Just using some pH downs to get it back to right level.... Atm... the discus looks more relax... starting to come out abit now. Wait for while... and see if they start eating at the correct pH. If not... Out goes all other fishes to another tank for my discus sake.

[flukes]

yeah i did the fishless cycle, alot quicker and can take larger bio-load aswell as not harming the fishies!

[Goerge_of_the_Jungle]

I'm having the same issue. My discus is hiding at the back of the tank, and i have a pearl Gaurami who is also hiding, they have been in the same tank together with 4 red fin sharks, some neons, some balloon mollies, some peppered corys and a large SNAIL. and they have all been fine, then, on the weekend, i done a 50% waterchange (Nitrate building up) and moved 1 plant and now their both hiding and not eating ... i dont want either to die, especially now thati have bought a brand new tank for my discus ..... Ammonia is above 0, but im using some SERA ammonavec to fix it. Could it be the moving of the plant in the tank?

[lpiasente]

You probably should be doing water changes to remove the ammonia. If it was me I would be doing 2 x 50% water change a day until the ammonia came down. The sharks can run up the discus, especially at night and that could also stress them. Are they breathing rapidly. Did you qt the new fish are their fins clamped?

[Goerge_of_the_Jungle]

Luckily my second take had done 5 week cycle and was ready to go, so i swapped all the fish over , put some tank water in a bucket and had the pump running so the bacteria sponges didn't dry up. I done a 100% water change, vacuumed all the crap from the gravel then refilled the tank and just put all the fish bar the Discus in tonight, they seem ok and George( the discus) seems a little shy (new tank) but he is fully colored and has his fins flared again ... YAY!!