discus

[supaflyz]

One of my discus is about to die.  My brother and I change the water yesterday.  We open the filter to rinse some of the dirty stuff out.  I guess we drain to much water out.  One of the discus has turn dark and is gasping for air.  I put it over a smaller tank by itself with the right temperature and increase filtration and oxygen.  Is there any other things that can help my discus?

[wolfbane]

Re: discus

Try another water change with double amount of Prime added. You did add de-chlor, right? Aquarium salt can help with stress, used as indicated on the box. I burned the gills on one of mine before, its not good if that's what happened.

[supaflyz]

Re: discus

It died like 2 hours later.  I didnt know what happen because all the other fish was doing good.  Thinking about buying a new one and adding it in.  Which option may seem better?  Add a large angelfish in or buying a new discus.  Im not into discus because they die to easy.  I have ketpt 12 before all died in matter of 6 months.  Were juviniles though.  I have like 8 angel fish all large but afraide they might nip on the plants or eat the shrimps.

[Mzungu]

Re: discus

Sorry about your discus.  :(

Do you have any more discus in that tank?

[szidlon]

Re: discus

Sorry about your discus.  I'm sure you know discus require very clean water, lots of water changes and tlc.  If you're having trouble keeping your discus alive and aren't sure what the cause is I wouldn't advise investing any more money in discus until you figure out the source of your discus problem.  What other fish are in with the discus?

[supaflyz]

Re: discus

I have congo tetras, cardinal, rummynose, harlequins, rainbows, and a pleco.  None of those fish are having problems.  The other 8 discus are doing fine as well.  The one that died was very healthy the day before we did the water change.  It was either I drain to much water or was some of the filter media out.  I test the water and the ph was around 6.4 and ammonia was 0ppm

[lavaughn]

Re: discus

Thats kind of strange ,discus thrive on large water changes.Sometimes its best to go bare bottom tanks,sponge filters and probably just the plecos.If it just happend to only one fish consider yourself pretty lucky.Might have just been his time. hth

[wolfbane]

Re: discus

Wow, that was fast. Sorry for the loss of your discus. They require a lot of fresh water, and a lot of effort. The others are OK though? that's good.

[supaflyz]

Re: discus

I put one of the angel fish in to replace the discus.  Its nice but no where as nice as a discus.  Buried him under my mom plant

[wvgdiscus]

Re: discus

When you do water changes. Do you just put it from the tap or do you store it 24 hours.

6.4 PH is very low. On my side of town PH out of the faucet is 8.3 & R.O. is 7.0. I believe you drop your PH some how or another. You need to find out why your PH is so low.  Discus can take a PH increase without any problem but discus do not accept going down in PH. You can only down a little at a time.  

If it at all possible when you do WC you should keep the water as close as possible.  If you have stable water discus will live for years & years.

Oh sorry for your lost

[Anonapersona]

Re: discus

Is that well water? Well water can be very low in oxygen, especially when we have had so much rain. If it was oxygen, the biggest fish would suffer the most. I lost a lot of discus to this in the winter, half a tank, doing large water changes. In winter the well water levels are high, so the input of the well is taking from higher pressure, lower oxygen.

I finally figured it out when a small addition of Hydrogen Peroxide immediately helped the fish. (prime made no difference, I suspected lack of dechlor at first) If it happens again, add about a capful of hydrogen peroxide to the tank, do not pour anywhere near a fish for it will burn the gills, permanently.

I suggest doing smaller more frequent water changes, never as large as 50%. Also, do not fill the tank so high, leave a good airgap at the top, and let the filter churn the water a bit. Really, though, I found that none of those helped as much as simply ading a tiny bit of H2O2.