2D Discus

Yet another advertisement for finding out MORE about a fish before buying it. I thought I had actually. But after a talk at the local Aquarium Club where the very knowledgeable clubmember showed a Discus picture and mentioned how badly undernourished and skinny it was I realized that my Discus looked worse!

What followed was a string of emails back and forth on the GSAS alias and my gathering a ton of ideas for getting the fish back to health. They are still not back to norm but here is what I have so far.

My discus still look like skeletons compared to all the plump discus pictures I have been looking at. However their color is better and they are roaming the tank eating what they find.

Here is what I have done so far:

10/19 - Removed all the angels and hacked back the plants - did a general tank cleanup. This left in the tank: 3 hatchetfish, bristle nose plecos, a few corrys and rams and the two discus.
Over the next two days I added salt and raised the temperature. It had gotten to the low side (80.5F) I was trying to bump it up to about 86 gradually.

10/20 Got some live blood worms. I decided that getting them to eat was more important than worrying about the extra risk of live food. I washed the worms well and fed them in small amounts in a worm feeder over the next couple days. They really pigged out on the live worms. That also seemed to get them to come out and look for food more.

10/21 - got some praziquantel Did a 20% water change and then I tried to add praziquantel to the worms and get the discus to eat it but that was a disastor - the worms turned into a brown mush and I removed them. I think I got about the right amount of the dosage into the water anyway. The prazi made the tank a little murky- Although I also had to change out the canister filter and remove carbon and add blackwater extract so I am hoping I did not screw the biological filter up to badly - I used some of the same media in the new filter. I also picked up an eheim auto feeder and put some medicated feed and flakes in it for several daytime feedings. I am not 100% sure it is working though. Plus the discus are not at all interested in the medicated feed - They will eat flakes but mostly only want blood worms. They are fine with frozen bloodworms now though. I have tried various discus food - minced up but I don’t think they are eating them Also tried adding fresh garlic to food but they do not think much of that at all.

10/22 - Off to work and sometime in between rearranging filters the night before and raising the temp trying to get it up to 86 from the 84 it was at I got it too hot so when I got back from work the tank was at 90….. The discus looked quite happy but I had 3 hatchet fish in the tank which I suspect could not take the heat - I found two dead the next day and the third has disappeared. I really truly hate tank heaters! I am tempted to go to Blue Sierra and buy one or two titanium heaters - They sell them for salt water but I find them much nicer to use and more reliable. For one thing the control is on the plug end not on the heater itself which makes it much easier to adjust.

10/24 - 15% Water change - Added blackwater extract.

10/29 - still fighting water temp. Came home to 87.7F adjusted the temp.