# Sick Discus



## sonofbreeder (Jul 17, 2005)

1 of my discus is just basicly floating around the top of the tank breathing normaly, does anyone know whats wrong?


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## Beerleader (May 31, 2005)

Can you give a better description of exactly whats going on? Is it floating as if its dieing like on its side for long periods etc? Is it still eating? Are the water parameters up to par? Is the ph at 6.4ish? soft/acidic water, 84-86 temp, that is the most important thing to check first. If your water is out of control in any manner, ph, gh, nitrates/nitrites/ammonia...any of that stuff, that will definitely put a discus in bad shape. How is the other acting. If I remember correctly you are the one w/ the two really small pigeon bloods. Does it look any different that the other as far as too thin? etc. Can you give any more info??


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## sonofbreeder (Jul 17, 2005)

the ph is 7.0, 0 ammonia ,nitates 15 ,nitrites 0 temp is 86 and it's a new discus that i just put in the tank with another 1 i got from the gcca swap meet and was fine till yesterday and it's floating around like it's about to die and it's really skinny not anywhere near the other 1


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## Guest (Nov 4, 2005)

well it couldnt have gotten skinny over night so apparently it hasnt been eating very well.


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## sonofbreeder (Jul 17, 2005)

i have been noticing it getting a lil skinny so i was watching it


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## Beerleader (May 31, 2005)

Well its nice if you can keep your ph at 6.4 instead of 7. Discus need soft, acidic water. And preferably 0 levels of Nitrates/ites/ammonias. It may just be that you bought a sick fish if you just purchased it. They are supposed to be thin fish but not so thin you actually see boney structure on their sides. I had one fish from purchase that was always a little thin and eventually ended up dieing. He never ate properly and the other picked on him constantly. I even treated hiim for parasites but it never helped. I am no expert but it sounds as if he was already in bad shape. Just offer it varieties of foods such as frozen brine, beefheart, bloodworms. Give them little bits several times a day since its smaller. Definitely don't leave any beefheart in the tank if they don't take it, it can rot quickly and make your tank nasty. But also work on that ph getting it to around 6.4 if possible. They do have discus buffer that will lower it to exactly what it should be. I even use the buffer w/ RO water because its still a bit too high.


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## Lisachromis (Jan 19, 2005)

Did you quarantine that fish from your other discus? They are prone to certain problems that only show up in quarantine.


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## sonofbreeder (Jul 17, 2005)

yes i quarantined them but this morning when i got up he was dead


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## Beerleader (May 31, 2005)

Aww I'm really sorry to hear that :rip:


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## sonofbreeder (Jul 17, 2005)

yeah it's kinda a downer because this is my 1st try at discus but i think i'm going to try to get somemore sunday


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## Beerleader (May 31, 2005)

Like I told you before, try for discus that are already of a decent size. Maybe around 3 inches at the smallest. That way you can kind of get a better idea of its health and behavior. All the ones I purchased that were larger have thrived compared to the two I bought when they were really small.


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## sonofbreeder (Jul 17, 2005)

yea i'm gonna look for bigger 1's tomorrow. the 1 that died never really ate that good but my other 1 is about 3 inches so was the 1 that died.


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## Cichlid Man (Jan 19, 2005)

Make sure you get your water down real soft. And also you need a way to keep your nitrates low ALL of the time. If not then what do you expect?


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