Why is my discus stressed?

[Hoontar]

Hey everyone, I've recently added a juvenile discus (1.5" long) to my otherwise empty 40g tank... There's plenty of space for him and an Eheim 2213 filter. I'm keeping the temperature at 82.5 - despite these seemingly reasonable conditions, he seems stressed. The tank does not seem to have sufficient bioload yet to begin cycling, I just measured the ammonia & nitrite levels, both zero for several days days. Despite this, he's still quite lethargic and hanging out almost exclusively by the filter intake & heater.

Any thoughts/suggestions?

[unwritten law]

what is your PH and water hardness?

[Newman]

in-fish cycling with discus is not the smartest way to cycle...i would imagine it could perish at the slightest hint of ammonia and nitrite.
If you're indeed just beginning to cycle a tank, then I would have gotten a hardier species of fish, and added discus last because they tend to be fragile.
Then again I would cycle with ammonia instead...

[Hoontar]

Not sure about the pH or hardness to be honest... How many fish would a 40g need to cycle anyways?

[Newman]

it would be important to keep track of pH and KH+GH when you're keeping discus. they prefer softer, acidic water. if your water is alkaline, I wouldn't mess with it though. just see if the discus will adapt as opposed to killing him by messing around, trying to soften your water manually...

I do not recommend cycling with fish, especially if you already have a discus in there...
But now that you have him you're kinda trapped....you'll need to add a few more fish, like zebra danios or something. about 10 danios should start it...but keep ammonia and nitrite levels below 1 ppm. it'll take way longer this way, but then again you shoulda went with fish-less cycling if you wanted it to be faster :P

Another option is to re-home the discus, and cycle the 40 with pure ammonia. then buy him back once it's cycled.

[Hoontar]

I have a cycled 5g tank with a male beta in it. would it be possible to add the juvenile discus to this smaller tank, allowing me to fish-less cycle my 40g?

[Doomhed]

I have a cycled 5g tank with a male beta in it. would it be possible to add the juvenile discus to this smaller tank, allowing me to fish-less cycle my 40g?

sadly that might be your only option if you want to save your very expensive discus ( at least, all discus around be are expensive as hell)

[Hoontar]

The discus actually only cost me 6 bucks - since it was a baby and the LFS doesn't get much business around here - it will get along with the betta presumably?

[Doomhed]

The discus actually only cost me 6 bucks - since it was a baby and the LFS doesn't get much business around here - it will get along with the betta presumably?

the betta will most likely bully the little fellow. I am pulling for him.

[Newman]

for future info, discus like to be in groups of 5+ and in a tank no smaller than 100 gal.
though for the 40, that one discus can make a good centerpiece fish for quite a while until it grows up