How long has the tank been set up?
Almost 2 years but 5 months with discus

What are the water parameters on the tank? (ph, ammonia, nitrate and nitrites will be sufficient)
PH 8, am. 0, ni. 0, na. less than 5

What is your normal tank maintenance routine regarding water changes?
40% water changes once a week with a wipe down of all the glass and equipment, prime dechlorinator

Are you using a good dechlorinator that removes both chlorine and chloramines?
Yeah prime

What size tank is it, and what species are you keeping?
90 gallon with discus, cories and tetras

What symptoms are your fish showing? Are they eating? Lethargic? Loss of colour? Darkening in colour? Reclusive? (Make sure to add any other symptoms you've noted, along with a time frame as to when the symptoms started.)

My alenquer has been the same size since I bought it around 2" round. It eats very rarely mostly gets chased away by the others. When it does poop it looks like an empty sausage casing but sometimes it's solid. Sometimes he's dark sometimes he has regular color. Sometimes he hides and others he swimming with the rest of the discus. He's always been a picky eater but in the last couple of weeks he's been getting worse.

So I pulled him from the 90 gallon and put him in an empty 10 gallon that I had laying around with a aqua clear mini. I plan on doing water changes every other day till I figure out whats going on with him.


Have you added any new fish to the tank recently in relation to your current problems?
No

Have you noticed any excessive aggression recently in the tank? Nothing unusual

Do you have a hospital or quarantine tank? yes and he's in it right now!

Please help! Here's pictures













If you need anymore info or pics just ask!

Well, Correna, it may just be that he's a runt...

With the discolouration, though, I'd be worried about something causing him to be a runt.

I would be very tempted to treat him with some metronidazole soaked food while you've got him in the tank by himself, and see if this makes any difference in his appetite. Jungle makes one that already has meds in it, but you would need to soak it a bit and soften it up for him.

What are you feeding them regularly? Have you given them any beefheart? I know that alot of avid discus keepers who know these fish alot better than I do feed beefheart, but for the life of me I cannot see how feeding them something that comes from a warm blooded animal would be wise.

Have you talked to Hans about this at all?

I think you're doing the right thing by isolating the little one, and you might just wait and see how he behaves alone for a couple of days. Give him time to adjust to the new tank and see how he acts. If his colour and appetite return to normal, then he could just be a "nervous" fish. If they don't, I'd initiate some sort of treatment. Since growth seems to be the most obvious issue, I'd start with internal parasites.

If you don't want to treat the food, I think Jungle Parasite Clear is about the mildest treatment you can use on the fish.

HTH

Kim

Thanks for your suggestions Kim. I haven't spoken with Hans yet about it but I'll send him a PM.

They get fed 3 times a day.

First feeding soaked red tetra pellets, NLS & discus flake.

Second feeding is jack watley's discus frozen forumula.

Third feeding is frozen bloodworms, defrosted in tank water.

Once a week they get some brine shrimp and once a month they get a cube of frozen beefheart before a water change so it doesn't get yucky.