Discus Darkening

[allysangels]

Hi Colter, This is daniel from Haw. Mossy seems to be acting normal. not hiding. Sick discus tend to hide and not eat. The main thing i would do in this tank is to change the substrate to a lighter color sand. The dark sand and dark decor makes the discus also darken and the peppering come out on the pigeonblood fish.
Unfortunately some fish are injured through shipping. The rest of the group did not passed away and are healthy. i know i sold them.
The most important thing in keeeping discus is constant parameters. So RO is not neccessary. Dont waste you money. Salt added in your tank might damage your plants. The discus with the poop seems to be acting normal from the video. It could be just something you are feeding. You can quarantine this fish in a small tank to treat it for intestinal parasite. Be careful with driving more light in the tank. If you are not dosing with Co2 it will just create havok with algae.

Please if you have the time, come by see me or call me at 281.741.9688

Respectfully, Dan

just to clarify on my earlier comment involving the deceased fish, this was last year, they were the ones in the video i posted above on this page. they had the same symptoms, and as i said, they arrived at the shop this way. this was definatley a problem caused by shipping conditions, and had nothing to do with the shop. since i was helping out at the time, i brought them home to try to nurse them back to health, and unfortunately i failed.

[HoustonAquariumWarehouse]

Good Evening Discus Folks,

So i have a bit of a long winded question, I'll explain. First of all i made the change to Discus about 1.5 months ago and haven't looked back, i love the little fellas. When i started i got 4 discus in varying size, only 1 large discus and i only got him because he was relatively cheap. The LFS who sold me him explained that the reason he was so cheap was because he was blind in one eye but other than that functioned as normal. Upon arriving at his new "home" he colored up nicely and behaved the same as all the other fish. Since then I have added 3 more discus and changed my lighting system from an almost burned out florescent to 2 very nice sharp bright LED strips in a canopy. This has increased the amount of light in the tank (which is good for the plants in the tank), and all of the discus have remained normal except the one who is partially blind (his name is mossy so i'll be referring to him as such). Anyways Mossy has gotten very dark and is almost black. When looking at him straight on you can see some of his blue but other than that he is dark. I was wondering if this meant anything? Is he stressed out, too much light, too many discus? I have attached a couple supporting documents, hopefully a video and a pic.


Thanks for the help,
Colter

Hi Colter, This is daniel from Haw. Mossy seems to be acting normal. not hiding. Sick discus tend to hide and not eat. The main thing i would do in this tank is to change the substrate to a lighter color sand. The dark sand and dark decor makes the discus also darken and the peppering come out on the pigeonblood fish.
Unfortunately some fish are injured through shipping. The rest of the group did not passed away and are healthy. i know i sold them.
The most important thing in keeeping discus is constant parameters. So RO is not neccessary. Dont waste you money. Salt added in your tank might damage your plants. The discus with the poop seems to be acting normal from the video. It could be just something you are feeding. You can quarantine this fish in a small tank to treat it for intestinal parasite. Be careful with driving more light in the tank. If you are not dosing with Co2 it will just create havok with algae.

Please if you have the time, come by see me or call me at 281.741.9688

Respectfully, Dan

[HoustonAquariumWarehouse]

Hi,I will try to answer all the questions here for others to read but please come see me or call me.. 281.741.9688

respectfully, dan

[troy tucker]

Me either Ally. I didn't reply to this post because, At the same time there were others having the same prob. ... Same start date, stressed fish. a few days befor, lossing angels and others. I remember why. It had been raining alot. So the water treatment adds chloramines. they show up as ammonia in the aquarium. So this is what stressed the fish in all these cases. Discus are easaly stressed with any ammonia. 99% sure that is what happened here.

[thekarens]

You could also speak with Dan at HAW. I'm sure he'd have good advice, but until then I'd recommend more water changes and bigger water changes. I know when I kept discus he recommended water changes every other day. I was changing 50% every other day.

[allysangels]

i don't think salt is a good idea in this particular case...

[mistahoo]

I have never read anything that recommends adding salt to any south American boitope aquariums. Don't know why you would need to use it. Dark color usually means stress. If he is eating and schooling with the rest of the discus then only time will tell. Hot clean water is what always kept my group happy.

Salt is to help reduce stress plus if for some reason it's being picked on, it'll promote healing. It's not just South American biotopes that a lot of people recommend using salt for.

[allysangels]

IMG_1575.jpg

look familiar?

[Tetranerd]

I have never read anything that recommends adding salt to any south American boitope aquariums. Don't know why you would need to use it. Dark color usually means stress. If he is eating and schooling with the rest of the discus then only time will tell. Hot clean water is what always kept my group happy.

[elevianne]

I've seen "mossy" too :)
It's good that he is still alive and swimming.

[allysangels]

hmmm... i would skip the salt altogether. i must say "mossy" looks very familiar to me... i think i know where he came from, and if i'm right i'm surprised to see him still alive as i was once one of the caretakers for the entire group that came in that way to the LFS in question. i would like to stress that they CAME IN THAT WAY and were packed badly during shipping which led to the problems with their eyes. the rest of that particular group is deceased now. and for RO water you can buy it cheap from the very same LFS, just bring empty containers to fill. hope this helps.

[LordBarron7692]

I should also add that I don't add salt with every water change I add to my discus tank every fourth water change

[LordBarron7692]

yeah that would be cool

[Ethernopian]

Ok, well i'll add some epsom salt with my aquarium salt after my tank change, and i'll probably go at a relatively low concentration, 1 TBSP/20g to start, then work my way up to 1/10g. Also this whole conversation has got a new bug in my brain for a water filter for my fill process. If i can sketch it up and put it together i'll share.

[LordBarron7692]

thats a good question I personally don't add very much especially with my discus I would only add a tablespoon per 10 gal I know some people say add more some would say not so much but IMHO you have to find what works best for you and your fish