Discus keep dying

[TonyL.]

Hello, this is my first time to use a forum but I am needing help. I have had aquariums for the past 50 years so I am no beginner so I decided 10 months ago to branch out and try my hand at discus. I have purchased 18 fish total on line on four different occasions from Discus.com and Something Phishey. Out of the 18 only 4 remain and one of them is starting to turn dark. I have a 65 gal. planted tank with one HOB for a 50 gallon tank and another HOB for a 100 gallon tank. I do a 15% water change on Thursday and a 40% on Monday. All water parameters are great and temp is around 87 deg. The fish seem to get lathargic, stay in the corner of the tank get skinny and die. My granddaughter wanted some additional fish and since I can't say no to her I also have in my tank 5 glo tetras, 2 dwarf gouramis and 3 small bottom feeders. Could my problem be stress from overcrowding? I'm about ready to give up so any feedback good or bad will be great.

[Creedmoor Aquatics]

What have you been feeding your discus? How do they respond to feeding?

[AllFishNoBrakes]

Are you quarantining them when you get them in?

[TonyL.]

I quarantine them when I get them for at least 3 weeks. They have always eaten except one that just never ate. I feed them frozen brine shrimp, frozen beef e, flake food, bloodworms and discus pellets.

Meant frozen beefheart on previous reply

[mynameisnobody]

@TonyL. I’ve personally never kept discus, however I did watch a recent Dan’s fish video on how he keeps his discus. Contrary to belief, he keeps his at 78 and does not feed beef hearts. Out of curiosity, have you asked what temp the stores/breeders kept them at? Not sure if this helps in any way, I’m just tossing stuff at the wall and hopefully something sticks. 

[Lennie]

 Since you mentioned it is your first time using a forum;

Please do visit simplydiscus forum and create a topic there too. That one is a discus dedicated forum and you may find people with so many years of discus keeping that might help you.

This forum is a great friendly freshwater heavy community but as a person with 15year+ experience with 24tanks myself who tried keeping discus in the last 8-9months, I can tell discus are not a regular freshwater fish that our hobby based experience is to be enough overall. 
 

So far, probably FishFolk is the only one I have seen having a success at keeping them in a planted community tank without any issues just like any other fish and I would consider as an exception. Like a really rare one.

So I would say join simplydiscus forum and learn from people with so much experience and years of discus keeping

[TonyL.]

Thanks for all of the replies, it has been a big help.

[Colu]

On 2/4/2024 at 10:52 PM, TonyL. said:

Thanks for all of the replies, it has been a big help.

Can you post for pictures of the fish have you notice any rapid breathing hanging out near the surface lethargy flashing spitting food out sunken belly over production of the slime coat in your discus 

Edited February 4 by Colu

[Creedmoor Aquatics]

Are you deworming your discus or treating for other parasites? If so what treatment(s) are you using and how often? 

[Tazalanche]

As someone that raised & bred discus for about 5 years in both bare bottom and high tech planted setups, Lennie's recommendation to go to simplydiscus is what I'd recommend too. Granted, I haven't been there in ages, but when I did go there daily, they were very helpful to those that were polite AND would take their advice. Knowledge of standard tropical fish care is a good starting point, but caring for discus can be a challenge. Adding the upkeep and maintenance of a well planted high tech setup can increase that significantly.

 

I cannot say anything beneficial about the places you purchased from. I will say when it comes to buying discus, discounts are not something I'd look for.

 

Unless you are buying from someone local, go for the sellers with decades of good reputation. Even then, they're quite an investment, so quarantine, quarantine, quarantine... with meds, not just observation.

 

Aquarium Co-op has done a few videos of the seller that I'd recommend too, but since they're not an official online recommendation of here, I'm not sure I can say their name. Search for discus on this company's YouTube page and that seller should be listed.

 

Good luck!