Newbie who needs advice!

Excess mucous appears as cream, white or grey patches or a film over the fish's body and fins. It can be caused by poor water quality or an external protozoan infeciton like Costia, Chilodonella or Trichodina. In this case there is a small amount of white on the edge of the tail and that is most likely from water quality and not parasites.

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Some brands of frozen bloodworms are ok but some aren't. Try to get a brand that has been irradiated. It should say it on the packet. The irradiated bloodworms are less likely to carry bacteria that can make fish sick.

Bloodworms have a very hard head that can't be digested by fish and if the fish get too many, sometimes (it's rare) the fish can get a blockage in their intestine and then they die. You can cut the head off the bloodworms with a pr of scissors if you are obsessive enough but most people don't bother.

Just feed bloodworms once or twice a week and feed other types of food the rest of the time. I used to feed dry food first and then marine mix, followed by bloodworms, brineshrimp, daphnia, mysis shrimp or live food.

If you are going to buy frozen foods, take an esky with you to put the frozen food in and keep it cold on the way home. Most frozen food defrosts pretty quickly even when wrapped in paper at the shop. An esky will keep it frozen longer and there will be less chance of it defrosting on the way home.

If you don't have an esky, take a towel or blanket and wrap the frozen food in that to help insulate it from the warm air.

Chiara2707 said:

I keep hearing this. At this stage I have a planted tank with ornaments all fish get on well and looking at getting a larger fish tank in time. They are all babies at this point the only issue is the discus. Nitrate is 0,,,ph is 7.6nwhich is high for discus I have now been told although they have been fine until the water change...26 degree temp...my discus were getting beautiful in colour no signs of stress until last night al, other fish are feeding well and acting normal...my main question is my ph levels I am aware are high but have always been stable...do I drop the ph to cause stress or just monitor. Do I add more discus but based in the information which is very mixed...I'm not leaning this way. I'm on this forum for advice...my other fish in my eyes are great wandering and feeding well. BGK is eating from my hand which is a major achievement for me but I'm sad one of my discus passed and don't want this to be an ongoing issue. I'm not a pro..I need lamens terms...yes or no to discus in my tank with the fish I currently have. Do I increase to make it feel secure maybe being the reason OR avoid

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I totally understand that you are unhappy with what you are being told regarding the fish in your aquarium. I get that. You are not the first and you certainly will not be the last to be told utter bunkum by a pet shop and end up, no pun intended, over your head in water.

Fishkeeping is way harder than many people realise. It takes time, patience and alot of real research to get the aquarium just right and the right fish for the aquarium. Fish that are tolerating an aquarium are not necessarily going to thrive in that aquarium.

Please post a full frontal view of the aquarium....reason for asking again is that it is vitally important to see how the scaping is done, if you have enough properly situated hiding areas, sight line blocking and to see how the fish are generally reacting to their surroundings and each other.

You have a full on predator, the BGK and you still have not stated the type of catfish, that too is potentially a predator and the BGK is a night time predator and potentially the catfish will be too.....so there you have two night time predators with large slow moving slabsided fish, the Discus. And on top of that you have a Rainbow Shark....which is also a potential predator.

You have come to the forum asking advice, which is great...but please do not be surprised if the responses are along the lines of "OMG...who was the idiot who sold you that mix of fish, its carnage in waiting"

You need to choose which single type of fish you are going to keep and take the rest back to the shop....tbh I feel they should ALL go back to the shop. You are a first time fishkeeper and every species you have are very advanced and they require very specific conditions and care in their own right, and thats without the fact you have them all in one aquarium that will become far too small, heavily overstocked and will eventually kill them once they are their mature size....which won't take as long as you might think.

As @Colin_T has already rightly stated, your fish have excess mucus which is indicative of bad water chemistry.....so again I will ask you....did you fully cycle the aquarium before adding the fish?

All of these fish need a mature aquarium, not one that has been running about one month.

As I said, I get that you are frustrated. The shop told you a load of rubbish, sold you totally unsuitable fish for a beginner and certainly did not give you the right instructions on how to prepare the aquarium properly. You are not the first that has discovered this and you won't be the last one either.

The shop might not give you your money back but they should credit note you when you take the stock back for fish in a few months time once the aquarium is properly sorted out. Do not add more fish now.

If you truly want to get this mess sorted out, absolutely fine, there are many here who can help you and teach you how to get the aquarium sorted and finally enjoy it. But if you won't listen and you don't want to listen to the good advice here by those who are helping you then you will slowly lose all the fish and lose the enthusiasm to keep fish, which when done right is a absolute joy. But it will need hard work and dedication from you to get it done right.

Since this feed I took a step back. Everyone has an opinion on the fish hobby and not that I don't appreciate it, I take it with a pinch of salt. I've been researching and raised the temperature in my tank to 28. Much to everyone's advice I chose against it and added another 3 discus to my tank and all my fish have come out of hiding and are amazingly active in comparison to before. I do water changes twice a week. Not the recommended when having juvenile discus as I know most suggest daily but I work from home and monitor regularly. I've had my water tested and been advised as much as discus enjoy certain water parameters stability is the main thing. People can argue and have their opinions, but I will continue to monitor and see how we go. As anyone starting out its a learning curve. Some situations work better than others, but right now I feel my fish are content. My BGK is out more than they were and sleeping in plants and super connected with me when I put my hand in the tank doesn't leave my hand. We can all discuss water parameter and the particulars but like any pet they are all different in how they react and interact. I came to this forum for advice..and ended up feeling slightly bashed with opinions. I hope you all are loving your fish and I will keep you updated if I was wrong but right now I appear to have active fish who appear content. I'm not looking into it unless something appears off.

Here the tank you so eagerly wanted to see

You need more plants along the back and some floating plants too. Water Sprite is a good one for floating plants and it looks like you have one in the tank already (big plant at front of tank).

Yeah I wouldn't mind more plants just trying to get the right ones! I do have one though that is bleaching to the far left...maybe in the light too much? It's only on for 8 hours a day then I change it to the blue but still maybe that's too much? Thought?

Plants don't bleach from light.

Need better pictures of the plant in question.

If the plant was allowed to dry out during transit either to the shop or your house, or even at the shop, it can die or lose colour in the leaves.

If there was a major temperature change (usually hotter) for the plant, that can kill them or cause them to lose the green in their leaves.

Discus need lots and lots of plants and low light to make them happy. They need to feel like they are in bed with an electric blanket and a large duvet.

Colin_T said:

Plants don't bleach from light.

Need better pictures of the plant in question.

If the plant was allowed to dry out during transit either to the shop or your house, or even at the shop, it can die or lose colour in the leaves.

If there was a major temperature change (usually hotter) for the plant, that can kill them or cause them to lose the green in their leaves.

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I was always under the assumption too much light caused this. So originally tank was 26 and it was slowly bleaching like slightly at this point. I recently raised it to 28 and found my fish were out heaps more and doing their thing. Its a wisteria plant and my tall flowing plants that you can see in the tank (can't remember the name of this) is slightly browning but these have always been doing this. I trimmed my wisteria the other day and since it just turned white on the tops.

itiwhetu said:

Discus need lots and lots of plants and low light to make them happy. They need to feel like they are in bed with an electric blanket and a large duvet.

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The tank I bought came with the light I have. Is the best option to get another light or to get floating plants to dim the light more?

Chiara2707 said:

The tank I bought came with the light I have. Is the best option to get another light or to get floating plants to dim the light more?

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I think your set up looks a little harsh for Discus. Think soft and soothing when keeping Discus. No bright lights, lots of plants, and calm.

Chiara2707 said:

The tank I bought came with the light I have. Is the best option to get another light or to get floating plants to dim the light more?

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Dim the light or add floating plants.