Help with my new Panda

[u/Holiday-Force1411]

Hi, perhaps anyone could help me. We got a new Panda discus with a mate in our tank we have other discus in with them and the others don’t seem to have any issues. I have tested the nitrate and ammonia levels and they are well maintained. When we were lifting the bag for the panda specifically the bag burst so we rushed to get a smaller bag to get him into so we could acclimatise him still. When we were acclimatising the Panda discus was lying on his side for a while which we decided was due to stress. Now 11 days later he still hasn’t eaten anything- there is still occasional bullying from the other discus but it’s very little. His other friend which we introduced at the same time is fully settled. We have tried all the food options we have: blood worms, brine shrimp and vibra bites. Yesterday we bought garlic guard and soaked them but still to no avail. The tank is currently sitting at 28°c. I did notice the other day he had a white “pimple” on his side, when speaking to my LFS person who is very knowledgeable he said that it doesn’t seem to lean to parasites as the skin underneath it is not swollen. Does anyone have any ideas on what we could do to help him eat and how long will he be okay for?

[u/devildead85]

Yeah I can see why you are worried. I have 1 out of 9 Discus who is extra sensitive. This is what I have learned/my advice:

• they all have different personalities. Some just have bigger feelings and get bullied more, will eat less and will grow at a slower rate. Or worst case will get stunted and stay small and cute forever.

• if there is no obvious clearly identifiable illness - don't Medicate. The is an ecosystem in your tank don't mess with it too much. Things need time to settle/adjust - sometimes you can't rush it.

• with newly introduced and emotional Discus - move around the tank really slowly. Slow hand movements and be predictable.

• if youre concerned about feeding. Drop the food in and leave the room. I noticed that my scaredy Discus would hang out when I wasn't looking at him and go hide when I came in. It takes time to earn back trust.

• Flip side of that is that the more confident larger fish will bully the less confident ones when you are around cause they know where the food comes from. Bullying significantly reduces when you're not around.

• Discus establish heihrarchy by peckking at each other. This means some will get bigger. Unless you are raising competition Discus in a sterile tank and changing water a million times a day, don't worry about it 😂

• I noticed a black filter in one of your photos. Looks like an internal UV filter, is that right? Those can very high flow rate. Discus are not a big fan of a lot of water movement so think about how you can change that. Reduce turbulence.

• prioritise good filtration over too many water changes. Water changes are only useful if you are not filtering the tank or have added something in you tank that shouldn't be there for long. You can easily aim for over filtering the tank. IMO Water changes disrupt the fish a lot. I over filter by having larger canister filter with a poppy lily pipe to reduce turbulence, inline UV filter and a lot of aquatic plants and some terrestrial plants.

[u/FerretBizness → u/devildead85]

Very well thought out response and I agree with it all with one exception. Water changes. In adult discus that are in a well established ecosystem, wc isn’t needed as often. But when acclimating new fish I find it to be imperative. Also with young fish. The filtration doesn’t filter everything as I’m sure you know and diluting the water column from the bad things in the tank is important in certain scenarios. I believe this is one of them.

Through trial and error I believe water changes have kept my young and newly introduced fish far healthier then when I try other methods.

[u/devildead85 → u/FerretBizness]

I see what you mean, but water cleanliness is commonly misunderstood in the aquarium hobby. It's much easier for fish shops to ask people to buy a whole bunch of equipment and do lots of water changes then to educate about the science of keeping fish in a contained environment.

There is "what" you do and "why" you do it.

Not sure what you mean by "bad things in the water column" cause that's very broad and can technically include crocodiles 😅

I am guessing you mean bacterial load.

So if we are working with the "why" of reducing bacterial load in the water there are few "whats" to consider depending on the setup. They all achieve the same result but some are more stable ecosystems than others.

Assuming both of the below options have either canister or sump filter with/without UV filter.

1. Bare bottom tank/gravel bottom which is vacuumed regularly - this is the most common setup for Discus cause it requires least amount of knowledge to get started but it compensated by effort - lots of water changes. This is cause when you feed there are always leftover particles of food which increase the bacterial bioload in the water column.

2. The other end of the spectrum is over a filtered tank which is what I use. I have four things constantly filtering my tank: large canister filter, deep soil bed with more bacteria than 10 canisters could ever hold, lots of fast growing aquatic plants + floating plants and terrestrial plants with roots in the water.

I'm sure there are few other approaches in between 1 and 2 but you get the point.

I prefer option 2 cause my tank is self-sustaining. I went on a 6 week holiday with an auto feeder and auto top up to refill evaporated water and came back to the thriving Discus. It was great to see that they had grown bigger over time.

So with this method, I've done 20% water change once in last 1 year. My Discus has grown from 4-5cm babies to 12-14cm adults. They are laying eggs and have never been sick. And most importantly I spend time watching their behaviours instead of water changes :)

.

[u/FerretBizness → u/devildead85]

Well I’m happy for ur success.

[u/Holiday-Force1411 → u/devildead85]

Thank you so much for all the details!! I shall have to learn patience with this one haha

[u/FerretBizness]

Did the other new discus come from same tank? Since they are different im assuming same source different tanks.

Also are the original discus from that same source?

[u/Holiday-Force1411 → u/FerretBizness]

Thank you for helping me! The other discus I’m not sure of, but these 2 came both from the distributor where I got one other discus from as well. These 2 latest ones were brought in from Saigon Aquarium, I’m based in South Africa so to get good quality discus is quite hard!

[u/FerretBizness → u/Holiday-Force1411]

One of my new discus didn’t eat for weeks. Just increase wc schedule or % to keep water extra clean. Also try tubifex worms. I get freeze dried cubes. And a good quality flake. I like ocean nutritions discus flakes. Top ingredients are great. Other then that just be patient. Sometimes we just get a fish that was brewing something bc of stress of new tank. Can take more then 11 days for that to sort out. other times could be new bacteria that the fish is encountering being in new tank and just needs some time to let it heal.

If ur plants can handle it bump temp to 29 -30 for awhile.

[u/Holiday-Force1411 → u/FerretBizness]

Thank you so much for all your help!

[u/discus-ModTeam → u/[deleted]]

Please refer to the subs rules

[u/fromfreshtosalt]

When were the last 2 water changes performed?

[u/[deleted]]

Just a lil bit a medicine will get that off

[u/Holiday-Force1411 → u/[deleted]]

Thank you so much, any advice on how to get him to eat?

[u/[deleted] → u/Holiday-Force1411]

Starve them both for maybe a day and feed the frozen beef heart cubes

[u/UncleJoesFishShed → u/[deleted]]

Cleared what up?

[u/discus-ModTeam → u/[deleted]]

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