a few questions from a newbie to discus

[hayer]

hi everyone! to start of, i have 3 han's discus. 1 red marlboro(Lexy), 1 Blue Diamond(Echo), and a mystery(probably a turquoise of some sort; Smokey).
1.) They won't touch the pellets that i was told they were fed. they love frozen vitamen-enriched brine shrimp and frozen bloodworms. why is that?
2.) Echo nudges Smokey alot and can be a little aggresive during feeding. of course, they are being quarentined in a 20 gallon tall for 2 weeks(only a week and a half left) and then going into a 65 gallon tank. why is this? could it be that they are both males in a small space?
3.) Could 6 or 7 discus live with 6 gold barbs, 1 SAE, and 3 sand loaches in this 65? the barbs dont have to be there, but i would like them to be. if they dont work, then there will be 6 black phantom tetras instead.
thank you all so much for your time and sorry for the long post!

 

[Dylandrewsdad]

My discus only eat frozen bloodworms. I have tried everything from beef heart to brine shrimp. I have tried all the frozen "discus" blends and they really don't go for it. Luckily I have some fancy goldfish that eat anything in another tank so nothing goes to waste!

 

[hayer]

lol.
ok, one more question. sorry!*blushes* can you use copper to treat ich on discus or just do multiple water changes? thank you!

 

[hayer]

helloooo????

 

[Cichlid-Man]

hi everyone! to start of, i have 3 han's discus. 1 red marlboro(Lexy), 1 Blue Diamond(Echo), and a mystery(probably a turquoise of some sort; Smokey).
1.) They won't touch the pellets that i was told they were fed. they love frozen vitamen-enriched brine shrimp and frozen bloodworms. why is that?

A lot of discus have this problem. They get hooked on one food like drug addicts. It can be tough switching them to another food, but if they are hungry enough they will eat it. I'd try introducing some pellets along with the bloodworms during feeding, and slowly try and get them to take pellets. It helps me to have bare bottom tanks doing this because I feed pellets and walk away. The pellets lay on the bottom where they can see them and they figure thats all thats coming in the tank so they eat it. So either try and feed some with the bloodworms and get their taste for it or starve them a day or so and try again.

2.) Echo nudges Smokey alot and can be a little aggresive during feeding. of course, they are being quarentined in a 20 gallon tall for 2 weeks(only a week and a half left) and then going into a 65 gallon tank. why is this? could it be that they are both males in a small space?

Could be. How large are they in inches? Generally I find females to be the first to get aggressive, they mature faster then males. Around 4" is when my tank starts going crazy and everyone has a mood. Its normal for a discus to become semi aggressive and dominant while it grows, but adding more discus would help spread it out and not have it focused in on that one discus. The other discus could be smaller due to either being stunted (at the LFS) or not getting enough to eat due to the larger one picking on it, i'm guessing you notice most of the picking during feeding time? It should be better once you move them to the new tank, but i've found a good way is to feed in 2 different spots of the tank. Maybe not double the food...but just your current amount in 2 different spots. The dominant fish sees there is enough food to go around and lays off a little, and he/she can't be in 2 places at once so everyone should be able to get their fill.

3.) Could 6 or 7 discus live with 6 gold barbs, 1 SAE, and 3 sand loaches in this 65? the barbs dont have to be there, but i would like them to be. if they dont work, then there will be 6 black phantom tetras instead.
thank you all so much for your time and sorry for the long post!

With the proper care, yes its possible. Just keep up those water changes!

lol.
ok, one more question. sorry!*blushes* can you use copper to treat ich on discus or just do multiple water changes? thank you!

Its rare discus get ich, did he come from the LFS that way? Whats your water temp? If its a planted tank or tank with shrimp, do not treat with copper. If its not either of those, it should be fine. Coppersafe should take care of it. I would, just because i'm not a big medication person, try raising the temp to like 84-86 first and doing water changes. See if that helps.

 

[hayer]

thank you so much cichlid-man! i will just feed them different frozen foods.
they are all about 4-5 inches each. i did just get another that is 3 inches. his name is Boomer. even he picks on Lexy! all she does is hide now and she refuses food. she hasn't eaten in 3 days or so. what should i do? is it because of the ich? i am very worried about her!
awesome that i can do that! i will!
no, they didnt come from the lfs that way. they are tank bred discus, so i keep it at 80, like they are used to. the only reason that i could think of as to whay they got ich would be this.
the cleaning people came and accidentally sprayed something(for the 2nd time!, but in a different tank the 1st time.) into the tank. the ammonia went from 0 to .50 through 1ppm(sorry, dont remember exactly. that was 3 or 4 days ago) in one night! so, i had to move them to the 65 right away. then they continued to pick on each other! so with all that stress, i think that is what did it!

 

[Cichlid-Man]

Any sign of white poop from the one not eating?

I'd turn the Temp up to at least 82-84. I keep all of my discus at 84.5.