# Discus fry not eating??



## jollenj240 (Jul 24, 2012)

Hi I have 3 new additions to my tropical community tank: 2 month old leopard skin discus fry that I got from a friend. I've put them in my 55g with 7 zebra danios, 15 cardinal tetras,6 black neon tetras, 1 red dwarf gourami, 6 cory cats (pandas, punctatus & albino) and an electric blue ram. The discus fry swam around for a while when I first put them in and ate once, but now 1 of them is hanging out by my water heater and the other 2 are hiding under one of my plants and they haven't moved for a day and I have not seen them eat. Are they okay with my community? I know they're cichlids but I've heard that they're okay with peaceful community fish, as with my ram who is doing just fine. Or do I have to keep them in a separate tank for now until they mature for a while? Please let me know what advice you guys have as I would hate to see them die ):


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## emc7 (Jul 23, 2005)

What temp is the tank? The could be cold, discus like 84F. They could be shy, the gourami could be bothering them or they could be annoyed by high lights or fast danios.

But what you need to worry about is they have picked up a disease from you fish. Many discus breeders keep discus alone in nearly sterile 'clean room' conditions and when introduced to other fish can quickly get sick. You should be able to keep 3 discus in a 55 with tetra and cories, but I would isolate them, crank up them temp, do more water changes and watch them carefully for any known illness.


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## jollenj240 (Jul 24, 2012)

Thanks! My tank is at 82 right now, I'll try slowly raising it tonight to 84 (my heater is weird, I have it set to 72 but my temp is at 82. It might be time to replace it). I'll see how they do tomorrow and possibly pick up another tank to isolate them if I don't see any improvements. 

As for diseases, 2 months ago I treated my tank for ich because the cardinals I had put in started showing white spots after I removed them from quarantine. I used coppersafe for a month and used the heat treatment at 86 for the last 4 days to make sure all the eggs in the gravel died off. A few tetra's died from what I believed to be ntd, and I saw a couple more swimming funky so I removed them and haven't had any casualties since..


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## lohachata (Jan 27, 2006)

you should be offering your fish a variety of foods to keep them healthy.it also helps to keep them from becoming too picky about what they eat..my fish will eat almost anything ; including dry dog and cat food.....and dogs and cats love my Plecocaine as much as my fish do...lol
very often fish will hide when first introduced into a new environment...give them a little time.


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## snyderguy (Feb 9, 2010)

When you say fry, how big are they? If they're constantly hiding, then there is something in the tank that is bothering them, obviously. My guess is that it's the gourami AND the zebra danios. The gourami is probably too aggressive and the zebra danios swim too fast for the little guys. Your best bet is to take them out and put them in a bare tank by themselves until they grow up.


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