INFO PLZ ON DISCUS

HI GUYS AN GIRLS WAS LOOKIN IN2 MY TANK LAST NITE AN I C TAT MY BIGEST DISUS IS BEATHIN OUT OFF 1 GIL DONT NO WAT UP HE 190MM BIG AN WOULD BE AH BIG LOSE IF HE DIE ON ME SO INFO PLZ 200 LTER TANK AN WATER CHANGES DUN WEEKLY

could you put a pic up to show his condition and have you noticed any behaviour changes with him? how many discus have you in the 200L and at what size because in my opinion a 200L tank is too small to house many discus close to 7.5". have you tested your water?

iv 8 2 large 1 an 6 small 1s no il test the water shortly no behavier is nomal just 1 side off him il put pic up shortly an the test results off the water an the lfs said 8 would be fine in the tank iv ah cleanin crew 2 workin away

well here i go iv eight disus two large ones and six small one that i bought in the last 2 3 months now i notice last night the largest off my disus is brethin out off one glin now on the behaviour front after i feeded once dayily off 2 cubes off blood worm an beefheart at the same time an after feed is done the biger ones show signs off spawnin the disus go really dark in colour an cleanin the firlter area i do WC once week but iv bein doin 2 WC off 10% once r twice in the week an big on the thurday or the friday would the food be 2 mush 4 them???? here by highin the temp to 32 for 8 to 10 days would help??

Hi Eugene.

Please do a Nitrite test using a decent Nitrite test kit then get back to the Forum, second, in my opinion, 14 Discus ( That's how they're spelled Eugene and pronounced DISKUS ) is way too many for a 200 Litre Tank especially if some are old enough to be breeding or attempting to.

Do your test and let everyone know the results, If English isn't your first Language get someone to help you with the directions, there are lots of different nationalities on the Forum and if you pm them if you are unsure of words etc. all should be well.

Kev.

Sounds like gill flukes to me. One gill working and colour change common. try kusari dewormer or prazi. Well this is the best I can make out from your post.

Way way too many discus in a tank that size by the way. If you don't reduce stock numbers it is likely that you will run into more and more problems due to overstocking. My two cents worth. Regards. Brian.

iv 8 in there 2 mature an 6 small ones was sittin in front off him or her there an it back to normal il do the tests in the lfs in the mornin an the two mature ones could be both male dont no an it learning thing 4 as i get the two big ones with the tank

200L would have done for the big two but there shouldn't have been any more bought for it, obviously that lfs likes the smell of money which is quite anoying that you got such bad advice.
also i don't understand how people can have fish tanks and no testkit ... its a very important piece of kit and even to have an out of date 1 means there was an effort put into it... but to have none

P.S. i don't mean to sound picky but please include some puncuations into sentences for the members who don't speek great english.... bloody text speek has the internet damed

im no expert with discus as i am only started keepin them but yeah the lads a roght a good test is needed sound like to much Nitrite but again u wont know till u do a test

i am one that wouldnt comment on how many fish are in someones tank but that is just me and at time i and other like they did have to so fair play lads they are bang on 8 discus in a 200L tank is crazy not that u will run into nothin put problems but wats the point in haven 8 discus in a small tank them best thing about keepin them is to get them to full size and appreciating them which you will not be able to so as they will get stunted

i have 8 discus in a 500L tank they are around 2.5 ta 3 inch and i am thinkin there is to many but ill keep them for now and when they start to pair up (hopefully) ill move some on and keep 2 or three pairs

but the main thing u have to do it do a test and buy a good test kit let us know how ya get on

Sean

got the water test in the lfs water fine nothing there an big wc this mornin an the guy in the lfs said if the bigger ones spawn that iv to put them in there own tank an that eight in total was fine 2 they start pairing off and most important i dont think it over stocked only two larger ones in there the rest smaller

Eugene please dont take this the wrong way you 'are' overstocked.....I dont know what LFS is giving you advise nor do i want to know but you have some really experienced fish keepers on here giving you advise.....please for your own sake (and wallet) take heed of them!!

I really hope this works out for you mate so best of luck

Ger

8 discus is way overstocked. as a rough rule you should have 50L per discus.
What did you LFS test your water for ?
What are your Ammonia, Nitrite and nitrate readings ?

And last but not least, find yourself a new LFS

The particular problem you have right now might not be due to the being overstocked (but the overstocking needs addressing).

We'd need a picture of the one discus with the problem......or a more detailed description of its behaviour: colouration, where it swims in the water, tilt of body, eating behaviour and general condition of the fish.

Stocking....you would need a 800 litre tank minimum for the 8 discus. However, if you have less than 800 litres then you need to have filtration and water changes that would be equal to having a fully stocked 800 litre tank.
Hence, if you water changes and filtration for the 200 litre are suitable only for a 200 litre tank then you can only keep 2 discus in such a tank.

Sizewise, it is always useful to compare discus to other cichlids:
a full sized discus is between 2 to 2.5 times larger than a full grown Oscar, or
about 4 times bigger than a full sized Angel fish, or
about 12 time bigger than the average Angelfish we see in captivity.

Discus are actually very large fish with a high muscle content.

Plus, Discus need 10 to 20% of their body weight in food per day on average; plus, disus prefer a high temperature (which lowers oxygen in these high oxygen demand fish); plus, discus do not cope well with ammonia or nitrites (which are more likely to be high when you have heavy feeding).

All that adds up to filtration requirements that far exceed many other fish of equal inch-per-inch length.
Discus are not particularly difficult to keep fish, but there are some minimums that need to be met for long-lived healthy un-stunted fish.

Ian

the lfs did two tests one for ph an the other for nitrites an ammoina they were fine good colours an the last wc was 10% on sunday before tat 50 % this mornin as off behavour there spawnin cleaining is what there doing and chase everything away so il hav 2 set up my smaller tank 130ltr an put what i have in there till i sort something out with the bigger ones

eugene99 wrote:

the lfs did two tests one for ph an the other for nitrites an ammoina they were fine good colours an the last wc was 10% on sunday before tat 50 % this mornin as off behavour there spawnin cleaining is what there doing and chase everything away so il hav 2 set up my smaller tank 130ltr an put what i have in there till i sort something out with the bigger ones

i had to read that a couple of times to make sence of it but any how with tests the ph/ammonia/nitrite values are more important than the colours i take it you are fairly new to fishkeeping so are relying on your lfs to advise you although you are getting the good advice here instead. obviously you have gotten a bad start but your at the right place now and most of us would prefer if you asked here before your lfs

ian's spot on as usual with his very informative reply and you are doing the right thing by leaving them on their own, the discus in question will be more stressed if there are others to chase. then you can ignore the cleaning of the spawn area and work on getting the fish back to health. a sick fish is a very unhappy fish

For normal general 'community' tanks it may be fine(ish) to say the water is 'perfect' or 'good' when giving a test result, but my feelings are that such vague terms are often not always good enough.....and especially so when it comes to fish that may require conditions that a 10% more perfect than perfect (how about that for being pretty vague?).

Actual values of pH, hardness, ammonia with the units are a lot more helpful.
For example, an ammonia reading should be zero but a very low ammonia reading might be called 'OK' by some people.....but if that ammonia reading is in alkaline pH and high temperature then it is far from being 'OK'.

In comparison to the cost of discus, a test kit is actually quite cheap.
The added advantage of having your own test kit at home is that you can test the water instantly and at almost the same temperature of the tank (some values measured change with changing temperature....and that could an enormous difference).

Ian