Discus Water Parameters?

[hillbilly]

Unless they are physically hurting each other, I wouldn't worry about it.

 

[shoggoth43]

I have 6 I got a couple of weeks ago. Like you I'm learning but there's definitely one bully in the group and he makes no bones about it. It's almost certain that it's going to be the biggest of the bunch. Or if it isn't the biggest, they soon will be as they get most of the food...

One of the books I have basically states you need a minimum of 6 and one is pretty much guaranteed to be stunted as it ends up the omega of the group. "If you want six perfect adults, get seven fish" or words to that effect. I've only got a 45 and that's probably far too small for the not too distant future but they're only 2.5-3" at the moment.

The one that clouds over, is he the largest of the group? Discus are very sensitive to excessive CO2 or low O2 from all I've read. I'm going 30-50% water changes daily but I notice a slight cloudiness to the water which is outgassing from the new water. One other thing is that water from a hot water heater will tend to have low O2 in it which can be an issue and might contribute to your cloudy eye problem. Does he get darker too when he has cloudy eyes? Dark discus is unhappy discus.

-
S

 

[ariodpalm]

The largest one was getting cloudy eyes and he came from a LFS, on sale for $65 blue pigeon blood, all of the other ones were from local breeder. He may be stunted, he been in a small crowded tank for a really long time at the store. He is very nice though.

I got a 55g tank now, it is up and running for about a week now. My discus doesn't get cloudy eyes anymore but the aggression still persist. I had to give one of my larger discus away because it was being pick on too much by the two aggressive ones. Luckly, my brother is starting his own discus tank so we trade discus when newby doesn't work out. It just work out that he has more larger discus while I have more smaller discus.

I do about 30-40% water change a day because i feed my fish heavily so that they will grow faster, I have added a few discus, mainly juveniles 1.5-3.5 in. Can't afford the nice larger ones.

 

[Hilltopperpete]

Hi,

I just started keeping discus within the last few months. I have notice that one of my larger discus has cloudy eyes after every water change. I do about 25-30% water change for my 30g. I have 2 (4-5 in), 2 (3-3.5 in), and 2 (2-2.5 in) in the tank. The reason I do 30% changes everyday because I believe I have fungus, the white spots on my discus. I add about 3 tbs of salt plus quick cure for the fungus. The fungus seem to go away but then come back in a few weeks. My tank is barebottom with a few moss ball and 2 plants.

My questions then, what do I need to do to keep my larger discus from getting cloudy eyes? They all eat well but chase each other alot. And how long must I add the quick cure to completely get rid of the fungus? And what is the typical water changes for discus? I have read that there could be as little as 50% a week to 50% a day? I live in chicago, so we have hard water.


Thanks for your input, I don't have any pic because I'm at work.

Melafix and Pimafix are both antifungal and antibacterial (pimafix is more geared towards fungus). Always use a quarantine tank to treat your fish! A week in a tank with either of these medicines should kill any fungus. The tea tree oil used as the base of these really stinks up your house, so I don't recommend putting it in your big tank, though it is totally safe.

Such huge water changes every day are probably stressing out your fish as well. Good luck curing your fish!

 

[hillbilly]

Melafix and Pimafix are both antifungal and antibacterial (pimafix is more geared towards fungus). Always use a quarantine tank to treat your fish! A week in a tank with either of these medicines should kill any fungus. The tea tree oil used as the base of these really stinks up your house, so I don't recommend putting it in your big tank, though it is totally safe.

Such huge water changes every day are probably stressing out your fish as well. Good luck curing your fish!

Clean water at all times is the best thing you can do for discus period. You don't need Melafix, Pimafix, Snakeoilfix, or any other kind of fix. With discus, there is no such thing as changing too much water, the more the better. I guarantee not making large water in a discus tank will lead to disaster. Enough said.