Please help!

Sorry I have no idea what a regular tank is!

You have a bunch of discus, we've discovered belatedly, so once you've finished the course with your sick fish, then put him with the others in the big tank.
Rather have too few than too many fish in a tank in terms of health.
You have 10 discus, the Professors point was don't keep less than 6, only on page 5 of this discussion do we discover there are another nine lurking in your other tank.

Please in future I suggest if you want people to spend their time and effort answering your questions you make an effort to explain the whole story. Water parameters (readings -temp, pH, nitrate, nitrite, hardness, etc...), tank size and volume, exact behavior of the fish, other inhabitants of the tank, anything you may have done to the tank in the last week... etc. :smile1:

 

CB - well put.
I gotta sign off as I'll be out of office the rest of the day. I may possibly log in tonight. I see Prof Dirk is online. He can help you Steve. But you gotta help the experts before they can help you. Read CB's post above carefully and try to answer each of the questions he has.
P.S. Hi Prof - how you doing?

 

Aaaah ok.

Only 1 fish was sick so I told you about him. Put him in small tank when he got sick. 9 are in a big tank I cant mesure now it is at home. They in there for 3months no problem with safe tap water. They eat and grow. All same size. Got them 6cm big. Now 10cm.
I googled 6foot tank and think it is 1800mm 650mm 450mm. 4foot is maybe 1220mm 450mm 450mm.
Water is 30degrees. Dunno other things about water.

 

OK, Steve,

If I calculate the volume of your 6 foor tank then I get around 525 liters and if we subtract gravel and other things, your tank volume is about 500 litres. For the size your fishes are at the moment it is large enough, but if your fishes become adult then it will be too small as one should have about 70 litres per adult discus.

After you have completed the full treatment of the sick discus, as CB has told you, you can put him back in the tank with the other nine discus. I would also suggest that you treat that tank in the same way that you treated the sick discus so that if they have the same disease you will not introduce the disease if you put the sick discus back.

I want to ask you one other question: When your sick discus was in the tank with the others was he one of the fishes that was always first to eat and was dominant or was he always showing bars and last to eat?

Please answer this question and then I can perhaps help again.

Kind regards,

Dirk

 

Will do thanks.

He is not the biggest or the smallest. Always eats good. They dont have bars all the time just when they fight over food. The sick one had bars when he got sick it is better now.

 

Hi

I know this has not much to do with me, I have kept african cichlids for many years and consider myself experienced!

I am now planning on setting up a planted discus aquarium, YET considering my experience(which includes working in a LPS during my school years) I am still doing so much research and planning concerning keeping the KING of the aqaurium!

It seems to me STEVE that you really need to get your "varkies in 'n ry" if not for your own peace of mind, for the sake of the fish!

Good luck and remember your 6foot is large therefore keeping it at the correct parameters is far easier due to the volume, it's not hard!

The other on this forum know their stuff, have a listen!

Talking about the others, Please inform whether using a fine substrate like white playpit sand with fertiliser underneath will be adequate, I am not keen to use coarse gravel!

thanks

 

The best sand is swimming pool sand from Consul,
see Henk's 2.5 meter Geophagus tank thread.
Flourite is probably the best plant substrate.

 

thanks CB,

 

If you can get the pool filter sand from Consul you will be VERY lucky - theres some issue with the machine

 

hi

bit confused here.

do you guys mean CONSOL (the glass company?????

 

yes - silica sand + heat+ a few other things = glass

 

Steve,

After having answered my question, I would then advise that you give your sick discus time to recover from the medication (say after another week, and with good feeding) and then I would put him back with his buddies, where he should be able to fit back into the group.

I hope that all this advice will help to get him back to health.

Kind regards,

Dirk