Help my discus not eating.

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How many discus were in the tank before you bought the other three. This may just be an adjustment problem. How long have they not been eating?
 
I bought two orange discus on 6th Feb and three blue discus on 8th Feb, I also bought 2 breeding pairs of 2 and half inch long angels on 8th Feb. And the male angles are fighting each other. Also bought 3 black ghost knife fish the same day, 3inches long. I haven't seen any of discus eating anything. They take the food in their mouths and then spit it out.

They have not been eating since I bought them. All the other fish are eating.

There were 20 red eye terta and 4 bala shark and 6 small angels in that tank. But the small angels and bala shark are in other tank now. Should I make it a tetra and discus and black ghost knife fish only tank? Any idea which fish to keep in this tank. Its a 75G. And both the discus and angels are very expensive.

The orange ones are 1 inch long. But two of the blue discus are 3 and half inches long and one blue discus is 2 inches long. The orange ones are scratching themselves and sometimes the blue scratch themselves too. One of the blue one has abit of tail missing, its most probably due to fungus. And the other big blue has cloudy eyes, and had one pectoral fin clamped, I mean it was not using the one pectoral fin to swim. Third one has some scales missing, I think there was fungus at the place where the scales are missing and that discus scratched the fungus and lost the scales. That third discus has full colours for few days. But all the discus are breathing heavy. The angels had some fungus pectoral fins but they have been cured of fungus in just two days. There was this strange cloudy things attached on the plants and rocks and the glass. I have changed the water and removed most of that cloudy thing off from the rocks and glass and gravel. I removed the CO2 that was DIY yeast sugar thing. I think it was making all that white cloudy things.

Any ideas?? Need help quickly. I am new to discus but have been keeping fish since 1998. And know how to cure most of the fish disease but dont know anything about discus. What are internal parasites and how do I cure it????
 
Sorry for editing the last post, but I had to write everything that I forgot to write. I think I should give all the details. And I did some mistakes that were needed to be corrected to get the correct answer.

This website is it telling correct medicine???? http://www.clcdiscus.com/Discus-Deworming.html Should I use it? OR will I kill my discus? Can I put it in a planted tank?
 
Ahsan Ali;2790138; said:
Sorry for editing the last post, but I had to write everything that I forgot to write. I think I should give all the details. And I did some mistakes that were needed to be corrected to get the correct answer.

This website is it telling correct medicine???? http://www.clcdiscus.com/Discus-Deworming.html Should I use it? OR will I kill my discus? Can I put it in a planted tank?

The article you are referring to describes a Metro treatment, as I already told you about in an earlier post in this thread. Yes, treating with Metro is a standard deworming method for Discus that shouldn't kill them unless overdosed. It sounds to me like they could be some water quality issues here. Please understand I'm not criticizing, I'm attempting to help you. What temp. are you keeping the discus in, and how often do you do water changes? These are important factors for young, growing discus. These discus sound pretty small to be in a community tank. Young discus need clean water, clean water, clean water , and several feedings of high protein food a day to grow and thrive. Otherwise, they will likely stunt, get sick, or both. It's impossible to feed like this and have clean water at the same time unless you change it often. No, not once every 2 weeks either, that's not clean water, regardless of who says it is or what cheap hobbyist test kits say. If you are serious about saving these discus, I suggest you get them in a clean tank by themselves, give them a Metro treatment, and when they start eating, feed the heck out of them, but keep your water clean. Change it everyday if you have to. Drain it down until the fish are lying on their side, then refill. When you grow them out, and get them healthy, then you can return them to your community tank, provided you keep it clean. I wouldn't wait long either, sounds like they are in sad shape.
 
hillbilly;2790355; said:
The article you are referring to describes a Metro treatment, as I already told you about in an earlier post in this thread. Yes, treating with Metro is a standard deworming method for Discus that shouldn't kill them unless overdosed. It sounds to me like they could be some water quality issues here. Please understand I'm not criticizing, I'm attempting to help you. What temp. are you keeping the discus in, and how often do you do water changes? These are important factors for young, growing discus. These discus sound pretty small to be in a community tank. Young discus need clean water, clean water, clean water , and several feedings of high protein food a day to grow and thrive. Otherwise, they will likely stunt, get sick, or both. It's impossible to feed like this and have clean water at the same time unless you change it often. No, not once every 2 weeks either, that's not clean water, regardless of who says it is or what cheap hobbyist test kits say. If you are serious about saving these discus, I suggest you get them in a clean tank by themselves, give them a Metro treatment, and when they start eating, feed the heck out of them, but keep your water clean. Change it everyday if you have to. Drain it down until the fish are lying on their side, then refill. When you grow them out, and get them healthy, then you can return them to your community tank, provided you keep it clean. I wouldn't wait long either, sounds like they are in sad shape.


I am new at keeping discus and want to listen all the things you guys have to say, to learn I must listen. Thanks for giving me advice.

Before I answer you I saw one big blue discus and one small blue discus eating. The big blue that is eating now has its eyes abit more clear. The other big blue discus is doing white stringy feces that is sinking to the bottom. But other discus are doing black feces that are sinking too. All the discus are fighting now with each other. Big ones are fighting among themselves and small ones are fighting among themselves. I removed one pair of angels and planning to remove the other one tomorrow.

You are saying the discus that are equal to the size of hand is small? I am changing 25gallons of water every day in the 75gallon tank. Should I do 45gallons WC? Doing 75gallon water change everyday wont they get sick? Do you want me to keep all the discus in the bare bottom aquarium? I have a 28gallon bare bottom that I can put the discus in but what about plants? Should I keep discus without plants?

Should I put the CO2 back in the tank? The temp is constant 30C.

OK. These are the fish and these are the aquarium.
1. 75G
2. 28G
These two are in my room where there is minimum traffic movement. Other tanks are at a place where there is alot of movement.

And Fish
1. Two 3 inch of body discus that are 4 inches with all fins raised.
2. One 2 inch of body discus with total length of 3 inches.
3. Two 1 inch of body discus with total length of 1.5 inches.
4. 4 Big angels. Breeding Pair.
5. 6 Small angels.
6. 4 small 2.5 inch bala shark
7. 4 small 3 inch black ghost knife fish.
8. 20 one inch red eye tetra.
 
Yes, I would go ahead and separate the discus from the other species, and deworm all of them. White poo is not good. Discus poo should be black and not stringy. And yes, all of your discus are small. Adult discus range from about 5" to 8" plus, depending on genetics and the conditions that they were raised in. The fish in my avatar is around 7", and was around 3" when I got it. I would grow them out before placing them in a community. Realise that a good stocking rule of thumb is one adult discus per 10 gals. of water. This is designed to help with water quality. As you can see, you should rethink your stock list. The bare bottom tank is fine for getting these fish healthy, just keep the water clean at all times. That is the most important thing. Dirty water will promote disease, especially in young fish. Water quality is the main reason beginners fail at discus.
 
What about discus that are fighting among themselves? Why are they fighting? I can do that treatment but I dont want to kill my fish. What about water changes. How many gallons of water change each day in 28G and in 75G.
 
Ahsan Ali;2792433; said:
What about discus that are fighting among themselves? Why are they fighting? I can do that treatment but I dont want to kill my fish. What about water changes. How many gallons of water change each day in 28G and in 75G.

Discus live by a hierarchy system. They are simply establishing a "pecking" order. They'll work it out on their own in most situations. You only need to remove weaker fish if they are clearly becoming bullied to the point of injury. I suggest you change as much water as you can in any tank containing discus, especially with younger discus. The cleaner the water, the healthier and more active your discus will be, that's the bottom line.
 
The Big Blue discus that was going white stringy feces is now doing white and black feces that is not stringy. But I havent seen it eat anything. But its trying to eat food that skunk to the gravel. So I guess its eating little. Lets see what happenes for few days.
 
Ahsan Ali;2795465; said:
The Big Blue discus that was going white stringy feces is now doing white and black feces that is not stringy. But I havent seen it eat anything. But its trying to eat food that skunk to the gravel. So I guess its eating little. Lets see what happenes for few days.

white stringy feces is a sign of an internal parasite problem. thats why it stopped eating in the beginning...then a change of color, and finally white feces. take the sick fish out, put them in a hospital tank 20g is fine. go to ur lfs and get some internal parasite meds and turn up the heat. dont use any heavy filtration. i use a sponge filter and a powerhead... try not to have alot of water movement as well. everyday, remove the dirty stuff at the bottom, replace that amount of water and dose meds again. do this for a good week to 10 days... DO feed them a little food. they might be scared with you around so they wont eat in front of you, but they will eat it. one feeding a day is fine. if they havent eaten it by the next day, remove that food and other wastes and repeat treatment. most internal parasite problems with discus usually gets cured within 2 weeks.. depending on how strong the medication is... keep us updated on the health of your fish. good luck
 
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