Discus Fish Questions?

[Dalray]

I just picked up 11 6 month old Cobalt Blues, A Breeding Pair Of Snakeskins and a Super Melon, and a male Cobalt Blue. 4 aus rainbows, and a breeding pair of bristle nose with a baby.

Now why do they just sit in the top corner of my tank, i split them up to have the breeding pair together, with the large melon and cobalt with 3 babies and the rest of them are in my 230 tank until i can sell them off.

What shall i do. ?

they just chill there not doing much. up by the heater but the whole tank is approx. 80F and same with the other tank. Anyone have any suggestions.

[geleen]

I just picked up 11 6 month old Cobalt Blues, A Breeding Pair Of Snakeskins and a Super Melon, and a male Cobalt Blue. 4 aus rainbows, and a breeding pair of bristle nose with a baby.

Now why do they just sit in the top corner of my tank, i split them up to have the breeding pair together, with the large melon and cobalt with 3 babies and the rest of them are in my 230 tank until i can sell them off.

What shall i do. ?

they just chill there not doing much. up by the heater but the whole tank is approx. 80F and same with the other tank. Anyone have any suggestions.

This is normal in the beginning. Give them time, they should come around in a few day's..... check out SIMPLYDISCUS forum for lots of good advice.

Discus like a minimum of 83F better @86 for the young ones.

The rainbows might be happier @ 75F-80F

J

[happeboy]

I believe Ausies can take the heat too. Its not cool in N. Aust.

That said not ideal perhaps I've read contradictory stuff and not enough to say whats best.

[Fish_Frenzy]

A minimum temp for Discus should be 83-84F. Do they have any hiding spots in the tank? Is the tank well cycled?

Discus need an aged system. They can't handle alot of fluctuations in PH or temperature. A large tank like that probably seems huge to them and therefore they will be nervous. The more Discus that are together, the more comfortable they will be. Try to keep lighting low for a few days as they get skittish in brightly lit tanks. Young Discus should be kept in groups of 5 or more to really thrive.

If you have some, adding bogwood/driftwood/mopani wood will provide them with hidey holes and is a natural occurance where they come from. (I realize yours aren't wild caught) but they really do love wood in the tank. No charcoal in the filter either. Some say it causes hole in the head...I don't know for sure but better to be safe than sorry. We just use sponges in our Discus tanks.

I would wait a day or two before you start feeding them. It will achieve a few things

1)Will ensure they are hungry when you do start feeding

2)Will prevent the food from fouling the water (discus can be very picky)

When you do begin feeding, feed a few small quantities a few times a day. We feed Tetra Colorbits, NLS Discus Formula, Flake, and frozen bloodworms.

Wow! Did I rattle on! Sorry bout that, hope this helps you with the new additions.

Tammy

[Kevin]

I just picked up 11 6 month old Cobalt Blues, A Breeding Pair Of Snakeskins and a Super Melon, and a male Cobalt Blue. 4 aus rainbows, and a breeding pair of bristle nose with a baby.

Now why do they just sit in the top corner of my tank, i split them up to have the breeding pair together, with the large melon and cobalt with 3 babies and the rest of them are in my 230 tank until i can sell them off.

What shall i do. ?

they just chill there not doing much. up by the heater but the whole tank is approx. 80F and same with the other tank. Anyone have any suggestions.

Wow where did you get such a diverse group from?

My advice would be the same as geleen's go to simply discus and read - then believe what you read. Most people - me included - first read the "best practices" and then think, well I am not really set up for that so I won't do this or that. So then most people - including me - end up mourning the loss of their first group of dicus.

Definitely increase your temperature to 86 degrees. I keep my jeuvies at 86-88. Temperatures lower then 82 are asking for trouble.

Group your discus by size - not by type. Put all of the babies in a tank together by themselve. They stand a much better chance of growing into nice big discus that way as they will not have to compete with the adults for food. You will be okay keeping all the adults together until the pair decides to lay eggs (if they ever do). Also - jeuvies do much better with 4-6 feedings a day and daily water changes (they are in their growth window now - they should be 4 inches long at 6 months - and they will grow another 1.5 to 2 inches in the next 6 months. If you miss the growth window now, they will likely not grow much more). Adults you can feed once a day and do weekly water changes.

If the discus are grouped up near the top of the water, make sure there is sufficient aeration in the tank. Good luck with your fish. If they are healthy, they should settle down and start eating in the next couple of days. The first few weeks with new discus are critical, so please PM me if you have any more questions.

Kevin

[firestorm]

Group your discus by size - not by type. Put all of the babies in a tank together by themselve. They stand a much better chance of growing into nice big discus that way as they will not have to compete with the adults for food. You will be okay keeping all the adults together until the pair decides to lay eggs (if they ever do). Also - jeuvies do much better with 4-6 feedings a day and daily water changes (they are in their growth window now - they should be 4 inches long at 6 months - and they will grow another 1.5 to 2 inches in the next 6 months. If you miss the growth window now, they will likely not grow much more). Adults you can feed once a day and do weekly water changes.

If the discus are grouped up near the top of the water, make sure there is sufficient aeration in the tank. Good luck with your fish. If they are healthy, they should settle down and start eating in the next couple of days. The first few weeks with new discus are critical, so please PM me if you have any more questions.

Kevin

I agree with kevin about the grouping by size. It is probably best to keep the little ones on their own until they get a bit larger. And for feeding them we have found that they are very difficult to get eating. One of our discus we didn't see eat for at least a couple of weeks, then when I started them on NLS he absolutely loved them. I also just got 2 new discus on friday, they haven't eaten yet until I fed them bloodworms last night. Try either soaking the food in garlic, or as was suggested to me, by I believe geleen or kevin, try and soak their food in blood worm juice for the first little while. My discus as well still hide out most of the time, but are starting to come out more often. I have to agree though that discus are some of the more difficult fish to adapt to your aquarium and are pickier than most. As for carbon in the filter, we never use it at all in any of our tanks except when we have new tanks, or after using medications. It is not necessary to leave in all the time. We just use the sponges, biological media, and filter floss (the white cottony stuff) in all of our filters. Plus anything else that we might need for certain things. Are they in a 230 gallons or liters?