Hey I have had my tank for about 3 months now. Everything was going great. I have a 46 gallon with 2 discus and other community tank members. The other fish get scared when the discus get closer to them because I guess of the discuss size. The discus are about 3-4 inches in diameter. The water is at 82 degrees with a pH around 5.8 to 6.0. The 2 discus have been doing great with each other. How ever one of the discus out of nowhere just started to swim very fast and hit the top of the tank a few times. He is just settled down and I guess he did it for about 10 seconds. But he now has the black stress lines along his sides. I just did a water change this morning, so I do not know if that caused some stressed. But I always add some stress zyme in there along with aquairam salt. But I was just wondering what was the cause to his behavior and how do I prevent this from happenening again? I want to make sure that the discus' are very safe and happy. What am I doing wrong?
2007-11-25 14:13:12 · 3 answers · asked by Justin 2 in Pets ➔ Fish
I do water changes every other week, and I do not use a pH buffer. All other water conditions are good.
2007-11-25 14:13:53 · update #1
it is freshwater aquarium salt
2007-11-25 14:27:56 · update #2
No salt for Discus and check to make sure there aren't any problems with your mechanicals like stray voltage from a heater, etc. It sounds to me like something just spooked your Discus. I would increase the water changes and make sure it's similar water all of the time. Most Discus keepers are fanatics and every one has a different method of water changes though if your tap fits the water the Discus are in then larger changes more often is always good. If you are adjusting the water to match your Discus' requirements they you are limited to your RO unit usually though the same rule applies. Enjoy
2007-11-25 14:37:44 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
I bred and kept a lot of discus in the past and everything you're doing seem fine except don't use the salt, PH should be around 4.5-5.0 and you didn't mention anything about using reverse osmosis water. Let me tell you, RO water is the gratest water to reduce fish stress. Many big name discus breeders like Jack Wattley would use RO water for his fish. Just add 1/4 tank RO water to your aquarium. This will soften the water. Did you know that pure tap water is hard and its bad for discus? You can find RO units at the pet store, water supply store or on ebay which would be the cheapest place to get it and it comes in 2-6 stage. The more stage the unit has the more cleaner/purer the water is. All you really need is a 2 stage RO unit. You can also get the water from a water supply store. Its safe for us people to drink except it doesn't have all the minerals and salt in it.
I hope the above info will help your discus.
If you have any questions, don't hesitate to email me.
2007-11-25 14:44:50 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
Sounds OK,but I don't think salt does Discus any good. And maybe do the water changes every week.
2007-11-25 14:24:43 · answer #3 · answered by PeeTee 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋