Strange discus behavior

[CosmicThespian]

Hello all. First time poster. Yesterday I noticed that one of my two discus was behaving very oddly. I found her on the bottom of the tank leaned up against a plant, her body slightly curved. She was very slow to react to anything nearby (like my hand). Since then her behavior has been very odd. Her swimming is highly erratic: swimming on her side, upside down, running into plants and tank walls. This morning she swam headfirst into the gravel, rolled on to her back, stayed that way for a few seconds and then slowly rolled on to her side. She spends a lot of time at the bottom of the tank hiding in the plants and leaning against them. She has ignored food.

Has anyone else ever observed this sort of behavior in a discus? I have one other discus in the tank and she's fine. All the other fish are fine as well. When I found her last night, I immediately checked the water parameters and initiated a water change. All the parameters are completely normal.

I haven't introduced any new fish or new plants. The biggest change to the tank is that I moved a couple of weeks ago which of course involved tearing the tank down and rebuilding it in the new place.

[Red]

It sounds like the discus is on the way out. If there is no ich or something like that, it might have a bad liver or something. Sometimes you never know, how long have you had the discus?

[CosmicThespian]

It sounds like the discus is on the way out. If there is no ich or something like that, it might have a bad liver or something. Sometimes you never know, how long have you had the discus?

I have had the discus (her name is Ginger) for about two years now, though we inherited her from a previous owner along with the tank so I'm not sure of her actual age. There are no other outward signs of distress...no discoloration, scratches, bloating, etc. If you just look at her, you'd never know anything is wrong. It's like she's forgotten how to swim. :scry:

[Red]

It might be a swim bladder then. Try feeding peas, I hope she turns out OK for you. That its hard loosing a fish after two years.

[Cermet]

Sorry I didn't see this before. One of my discus did this and I added salt ( 1 tablespoon/2gal water and you can use up to 1 tsp/gal, too) and raised the tank temp to 90 for ten days - by the second day, it was doing very well and completely cured by the third (but I held the temp/salt for the full ten days.) Unless you have reason to know some other illness, salt/temp is your best bet. Since salt/temp is good for other healthy discus and has no side effects (not true for plants!), there is no need to move the fish to an isolation tank. In fact, my other nine discus enjoyed the treatment (unlike most meds.) Just remember to add an air stone (need more oxygen at high temp!) and a little extra food.:22: