Urgent HELP...SICK DISCUS

B

bristlenosekarl

Catfish Rock!
Oct 15, 2006
41
0
6
42
Mississauga, Canada
Hi guys,
I've tried sifting through the forums to find out how I can help save one of my discus sunburst discus. I bought 2 discus to put in my 300litre tank about 3 months ago, 1 sunburst and 1 red tourqoise.

From the begining the red one bullied him quite a bit and sunburst ALWAYS stayed hidden and hardly ate. I was told that they settle down a bit over the first week or 2 so I waited, but nothing changed. During a period of time he did start to come out and bit was quite happy, but now he's REALLY worse for wear.

He never eats, now has lost his really nice yellow sunburst orange color and doesn't swim much. I could pick him up with hands and he wouldn't do a thing. I didn't realize he was this bad till last night when I spent a bit of time just watching him.

The thing though is that it's a public holiday tomorrow so no fish shops are open, so I'm feeling pretty worried. He's such a cool discus and I don't want to lose him.

I have a spare tank, 45 litre one that I used for quarantine in the past, and thought about setting that up, I only shut it down the other week. Should I put him in this???? and then just wait till I can go to the fish shop on Tuesday?

Please any advise would be great. I was just gonna take some water from the tank main tank and put it in this tank.

For the record I do water changes 30-50% weekly to biweekly, feed twice a day, and my water tests are pretty spot on all the time. I only realized the other day it's good to watch the softness of the water. I've had this tank set up for a few years now, with only 1 move that I did over 7 months ago. Haven't lost any fish, and the other discus is looking great.

Please help with any advise that I can use till I go to the fish shop in 2 days. I'm gonna start working on helping him out now, and don't want to spend too much time answering too many question on here if I don't have to. I will if you think it's necessary. Thanks guys!!!!!!!
 
Is there a significant size difference between the two?

I would move him over to the other tank and nurse him back to health. You can use water changes to keep his health up if you do not have a spare filter and used media to put on the other tank.

Put something in that tank so he has a place to hide a bit and feel secure.

When he is ready to return to the other tank, I would completely rearrange it.
 
If he still won't eat. I'd slowly raise the temp up to 90 in the quarantine tank. I'm no Discus expert but have been reading alot about them in hopes of someday having a discus tank in my dining room. From what I understand they like it hot esp. when sick. This should stimulate eating. He may have internal parasites and the bullying lowered his immunities. Or maybe he just needs to be alone. He may perk up once he's out of the main tank and yes I would give him some more hiding places when you do return him to the main tank.

If only they could talk!
 
It sounds like he hasn't eaten in a very long time and the most critical thing is to get him to eat. Discus can go a very long time without eating due to stress factors alone, but it is tremendously difficult to turn them around. It's like they shut down and give up. He might have even stopped eating before you purchased him. Is there any way you can get some live food for him? It's good that you isolate him and keep him in warmer temperatures. And good that he feels secure with something to hide near. But see if you can locate a source of some live food for him. I know this is no time for a lecture, but keeping less than 4 discus together results in this kind of pecking order until the one being picked on gives up. When there are 4 or more, the aggresion is spread out more.
 
rbishop: When I bought the 2 of them, the red one was probably 1/3 bigger than the other one, and now I'd say he's about 1/2 bigger than the sick one.

At the moment my quarantine tank is ready to go, water moved over, temp at 30, would you recommend higher? The only thing is that I only have a air pump in there, without a filter will it not be effective. how often should I do water changes, and how much? I also wanna make sure the PH, is good. Anything else?

pinkertd: When I bought the 2 discus I had a feeling that I should get more, and was told. Just couldn't afford it, and the dude from the LFS said I should be alright (he's not just someone trying to get a sale, but a guy who knows his stuff). I'm planning on getting 2 more soon, but I wanna make sure I got this guy all good before that.

So the consensus is get him out of there.
 
bristlenosekarl said:
At the moment my quarantine tank is ready to go, water moved over, temp at 30, would you recommend higher? .
Click to expand...


yes, I think that makes it only about 86F. I would try to increase it to atleast 90. What else was in your tank? I know you stated your sig. was not accurate.
 
Update....
I went to store...came back and was gonna go to bed (I'm in Australia and it's 12:30am now) when I went to the tank, he was just being pushed around by the currents of the filters. SO I thought he's going into the quarantine tank now.

Checked the PH and got it to 6.5 now, but the only thing I'm worried about it the fact that the tank doesn't have a filter, only an air pump and a heater. Got the heat going at around 30, but might pump it up if need be.

Put some frozen shrimp brine in there but he didn't go for it. Sucks that the shops are all shut tomrrow....here's hoping he pulls through!!!!

Got a few mugs in there, and he can hide behind the air pump sponge if need be. He's resting in between the 2 mugs at the moment.

Any more suggestions till then? Anything I should alter, check and or change?
 
My suggestion is definitely get him into the QT tank and away from being picked on. You can raise the temp just a bit more, to 31C. Without a filter in the tank, as long as you have the air pump, I would say you should start off doing a daily water change of about 1/4th the tank volume, as long as you don't have food waste lying around, but monitor your water parameters to be sure you have no ammonia or nitrites. Replacement water must match the temp exactly, this fish is not going to be able to handle any temperature variations. To begin with, what I would do is fill the QT tank halfway with water from the 300L and half fresh water. Is the QT barebottom? If not, you'll want to put something underneath it so the discus cannot see it's reflection in the bottom glass, they don't like that. And something on the back of the tank as well, even if it's just paper, gives the discus more of a feeling of security. I'm sure your friend at the LFS is very knowledgeable, but unless you watch the discus everyday at feeding time to ensure you see it eat, not-eating can go unnoticed for quite a while. In the beginning they come right forward as if they are going to eat, but they actually don't take food in or they take it in and spit it out. It is also possible that the discus has internal parasites, but I'd like to see you get him in a stable environment and try live food before hitting him with any meds. As weak as he sounds, meds could push the rest of the life out of him. What have you been feeding?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
AquariaCentral.com
Top Bottom