My Discus fish went beserk!

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fishbabe;2373137; said:
what is R.O water, we just got the water from the machine that sold the water in large bottles. the tank is perfect my dad brought 5 books from the store, and set the tank for me. we put the discus with the full grown one that i had for 3 months.
RO-reverse osmosis This kind of water has been stripped off its nutrients. Your fish must have suffered osmotic shock. How did you acclimate them?
 
we just put the water in the tank, turned the heal on till its the right temperature, and added the minerals, but the tank has been made for a long time since there was a fish already in there.

the new discus traveled a long distance, like 3 days.
 
fishbabe;2373145; said:
how would you know that its the same water?
Test the pH, GH and KH of the water where you got your discus from and then your own water where they all died. You need test kits to determine those and these can be costly but worth it.

For reference...
KH-carbonate hardness
GH-general hardness

For overview, check this please.
 
fishbabe;2373149; said:
we just put the water in the tank, turned the heal on till its the right temperature, and added the minerals, but the tank has been made for a long time since there was a fish already in there.

the new discus traveled a long distance, like 3 days.

3 days? It sounds like they died of shock.
 
fishbabe;2373149; said:
we just put the water in the tank, turned the heal on till its the right temperature, and added the minerals, but the tank has been made for a long time since there was a fish already in there.

the new discus traveled a long distance, like 3 days.
Well, the question is how did you acclimate the fish into your tank? I mean what did you do prior to introducing the fish in the tank?
 
well we didnt do anything, they were kept within a temperature range of 26-31 C; a temperature of 29 C (84 F), a pH of 5.5 - 6.5 .

i thought that was all they needed so i just dumped them in.
 
Sorry to hear this, I know how it feels.. Are any alive? Do they look different than normal? Could just be internal diseases caused by something.
 
fishbabe;2373178; said:
well we didnt do anything, they were kept within a temperature range of 26-31 C; a temperature of 29 C (84 F), a pH of 5.5 - 6.5 .

i thought that was all they needed so i just dumped them in.
That explains why they died. You need to acclimate them first before you introduce them to your tank regardless of the circumstances. If in doubt over the water conditions of your sources, ask them to test their water and match with yours. Discus generally are hardy fish if properly accommodated. For captive-bred specimens, there is no need to waste your time trying to do everything written by a book to replicate their natural habitat's water conditions as by the time they were bred, they will already be accustomed to different water conditions provided they were acclimated well before being introduced. It never hurts to try another batch but research further and be more prepared this time. Your best source for discus is always your local breeders who may have the same water conditions as your own tapwater.

Try this acclimation guide for reference.
http://www.bluezooaquatics.com/acclimationguide.asp?did=9
 
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