Hi im new

[DiscusKid]

Hi im new to this forum i have 6 juvenille discus that i got frm HAW about 2 months ago, and everything is goin ok except that the smallest guy hes about 2 inches doesnt eat tetra bits and he will starve him/her self unless i feed bloodworms, is the something i can do to make him/her eat the tetra bits? another thing is i heard that beefheart is good but i cant make any i saw some san francisco bay brand beefheart at petco the other day is that any good?

[dustin]

Its ok for now. From what I have learned in the past with small juvies is to keep them fed and as they get a little size on them the try again. It may take several days to get them on color bits. In saying that when they get about 3" stop frozen food for around a week. I am in the same process right now I have several small juvies I got from dan as well and 1 does not care for the color bits the rest will eat like little piggies. I feed frozen food in the morning and night but color bits during the day. And any of the frozen beefheart from petco /petsmart is ok. i will try again an another week or two to get the little guy to eat color bits.

[Darbex]

And some times even the older guys can be finicky half of mine love color bites and half wont even look at it but I throw in shrimp and they all go crazy for it.

[DiscusKid]

thank you for the advice. i picked up a pack of beefheart yesterday night. they take a while to eat it theyre not quite used to it yet.so im feeding bits on morining and beefheart/bloodworms in afternoon. what i noticed today is that the smallest guy had a white cottony puff on his dorsal fin does anyone know what it might be? another thing i noticed is that the biggest guy a 3-3.5 inch brilliant blue was really dark and wouldnt eat bloodworms. could it be something serious?

thanks for the help

[Darbex]

You definately want to treat them i a can not remember at the moment what that is called but go to Petsmart and pick up some meds I am sure someone on here will chime in with exactly which one(s).

[fishboyt]

thank you for the advice. i picked up a pack of beefheart yesterday night. they take a while to eat it theyre not quite used to it yet.so im feeding bits on morining and beefheart/bloodworms in afternoon. what i noticed today is that the smallest guy had a white cottony puff on his dorsal fin does anyone know what it might be? another thing i noticed is that the biggest guy a 3-3.5 inch brilliant blue was really dark and wouldnt eat bloodworms. could it be something serious?

thanks for the help

I think when they are really dark that means they're being territorial.

[Darbex]

Not necessarily if they are dark and not eating it could be he/she is being picked on or an internal parasite or other type of infection.

[Darbex]

How are the water parameters?

[DiscusKid]

ammonia nitrite nitrate 0 i think its the parasites he has a strand of white poop hanging frm his/her ventral fin..

[armthehomeless]

It looks like you are feeding the old food in the morning and the new food in the evening. I'd try feeding the new food WITH the old food.

When I introduce a fish to a new food, I slowly mix increasing amounts of the new food with the old. I change the percentages from 5% new food to 100% new food over a two week period. Everyone does things differently... but I thought I would share this method with you because I've had a great deal of success with it.

As for the white cottony growth and stringy white poop... not a good sign. I'll leave this to others more educated than I.


BTW, Welcome to the Box!

[DiscusKid]

thnx for the advice i will try feeding them tht way.as for the white poop and white puff i tried to contact dan today but hes not around apparantly... so i contacted Gabriel Possada frm jack wattley discus and he told me tht the white puff was probally a "scab" frm getting beat up on all the time by the other guys.as for the internal parasites he told me use "metro+", but i was thinking about using "jungle parasite clear" because they seem simpler and i have used them before and theyve worked just fine. any sugestions?

[newb]

the jungle parasite clear should work just fine...I have used it on discus in the past and it worked for me. also trying turning the temp up to about 84degrees. Also, how often are you doing water change? and how much do you change each time. You can NEVER do too much water change with discus, but you can easily not do enough. Sorry to hear that you missed Dan...he is on a business trip and will return on June 2 or 3rd. Your blue discus is a blue diamond, and not a brilliant blue, as we dont have any of those in stock right now, sorry again if you got told differently. Also, beefheart is good for thickening a discus up...but it is a VERY messy food and requires a water change a couple hours after feeding it to them. to get them to eat it...just shave it down so that it is very thin and small. When switching from bloodworms to pellets...sometimes you just have to starve them until they decide to eat the pellets...but right now I would let them eat the bloodworms and focus on making them happy first. Goodluck and feel free to ask MANY questions, as there are a lot of more experienced Discus keepers on here than I.

[DiscusKid]

thnx for the advice.my temp is 86-87 all the time. i do 2 water changes a week i know thats not good for growing out discus but im a 15 year old high school student and my parents wont let me do anymore(water bill)lol.ima try to convince my parents to let me do more.im trying feeding pellets in morning and mixing bloodworms with beefheart in the afternoon until the get used to the beefheart.and ima try to go pick up some parasite cure today.

thnx again for the help

[dustin]

I would ask the guys over at simplydiscus.com. There is a huge ammount of knowledge there!

[DiscusKid]

ya i read around there for advice alot...