discus not eating

[Seanc]

hey all

Some of my newer discus arn't eating!! I'm not sure why, they won't eat bloodworms, BH, or flake. the other three discus are eating fine, and are nice and fat now, but the other two are realy skinny now. I'm not sure what to do about this. they have been here a while, and they were eating befor, but they stoped a couple of days ago.

I know its not because of agression or anything, because the other discus arn't chasing them away from the food.
any help would be apriciated

Thanks
Sean

[Julie]

What's the temp of the tank?  Are the discus isolating themselves and any white slimy feces?

If this is the case, it may be hexamita and slowly elevating the tank temp to 93 may help if possible.

[discusFans]

I second Julie. Pay attention to their feces, and their behaviour. If they are hidding, or if you see some white feces in the tank, they probably have hexamitiasis.   

[Seanc]

right now it is a consistent temp of 87

i havent seen any of them having white feces. but that could be the problem. They have some mucus coming off them to, not sure what that is a sign of. Would those high temps affect the other fish or plants?
should i isolate them?
they would of been more suceptable to disease or parasites because they were moved recently, and could of been under stress.
Thanks
Sean

[SuperT]

you could also try fresh pureed garlic added to the beefheart.  I've seen discus go wild over this stuff including the fussiest of eaters.  Should also help get rid of any intestinal critters.

Terry

[Julie]

Hi Sean, can you explain some mucous coming off them?  More than the normal amount?

[Seanc]

no its not the normal amount. so do you think i should quarentine the discus and treat them? I think it might be to hard on the rest of the tank to rais the temp that much.

[Julie]

Yes isolate them, do a search on cryptobia and costia, see if any of the symptoms match.  Don't raise temp yet.

[Julie]

Pictures of columnaris:  http://www.geocities.com/dclubine/
Common in guppies.

[Seanc]

no they don't look like his photos of them. just skinny, no white stuff like that

[Julie]

How about a pic Sean?

I have the other 2 from the same gang and they seem fine albeit a few gill flukes.

[Julie]

How about a little salt 1tbsp/10 gallon,,,,I know you have a bag 

Julie

[Seanc]

they ate some blood worms today!

[babblefish1960]

that is great news, do you show them how first by eating them yourself?

[succinctfish]

that is great news, do you show them how first by eating them yourself?

blechhhhh..... That is disgusting, you could have your own version of those gross survivor shows where they make them eat slugs and bugs and such.  The aquaman survivor show

[Seanc]

well they ate more today, they took the cube out of my hand, and tryed to steal it from the other three a couple times.

[Julie]

Did you isolate them?
Did you water change your main tank?

[Seanc]

i did a waterchange. thats it...so i think i might treat it with salt.

[Julie]

nitrates were likely high...up the w/cs
Salt won't do justice for the plants.

Julie