Getting 4 Discus shipped in later this week, what should I do to prepare?

[discuspaul]

Go bare-bottom with a QT tank.

[In.a.Box]

paul you breed discus?

[Miles]

Update: I removed my shoal of five speckled corry cats from the tank today, because they chose one of my discus to start EATING! They literally came right up to it and were biting at it's fins! It's tail fin is badly damaged, all the webbing is gone, only a skeleton is left, I added slime coat chemicals in to the tank to try and help... Is there anything else I can do for him? I think I may remove the clown loaches and otos from the tank as well, just to be on the safe side.

[Miles]

Sorry the pics are so bad, they're still pretty afraid of me, hiding at the back of the tank but moving around when I'm gone.

[discuspaul]

Originally Posted by In.a.Box

paul you breed discus?

Not recently, but I have in the past- several times. Why do you ask ?

[discuspaul]

Originally Posted by Miles

Update: I removed my shoal of five speckled corry cats from the tank today, because they chose one of my discus to start EATING! They literally came right up to it and were biting at it's fins! It's tail fin is badly damaged, all the webbing is gone, only a skeleton is left, I added slime coat chemicals in to the tank to try and help... Is there anything else I can do for him? I think I may remove the clown loaches and otos from the tank as well, just to be on the safe side.

In all my years of keeping discus, I have never seen, nor heard of, Cories going after discus, nor their slime coats. But clown loaches, and Otos for sure, (I have had that experience) will do that.
I have kept 4 or 5 different strains of Cories with discus, for many years, and have never seen one get even close to a discus.
Are you sure you saw a Cory biting at a discus' fins ? Was it perhaps a loach ? I truly believe you must be mistaken.

[Miles]

I am absolutely not mistaken, it was a pair of corries that ganged up on the poor thing! Each taking a turn for a bite or two. I think I'll be removing the clown loaches and otos too...

[discuspaul]

All I can say to this is that the discus must have been a fairly small one, perhaps ailing and somewhat weak, and the Cories must have sensed that - and the Cories must also have been starved for some food - that's the only explanation I can imagine.
In my experience with discus and cories, the cories stay well away from the discus, and the discus ignore them.
This is a completely new one on me.

[discuspaul]

One thought just occured to me:
Could your 'speckled' cories possibly be Sterbai Cories ?
Even though they are generally regarded as a peaceful, community tank-type fish, they are nonetheless very active, fully omnivorous and liking protein in their diet.

At times I have read that they can tend to be a bit aggressive, and on a couple of occasions I have read that they are the only strain of corycat that may not be considered to be a fully compatible tankmate for discus (with the possible exception of Pandas - which are more delicate and may not stand up well to the higher discus temps).

I've kept at least a half dozen strains of Cories with discus, with the exception of Sterbais, and have never witnessed a whisper of them going near discus.

[Miles]

No they're speckled alright, I wish I had sterbais but nowhere around here sells them. I don't know how they could've been starved though, since I fed them three times that day


Edit: I misspoke, they are "Peppered" Corries, not speckled

[discuspaul]

Yes, you're feeding your fish, but the Cories may not be getting enough to eat.
I often need to feed my Cories separately at the tank bottom with, e.g. algae thins or pellets, because the discus gobble everything up very quickly, and very little food ever reaches the bottom, even though I feed several times a day.
So my Cories sometimes get shorted.

[Miles]

My discus unfortunately haven't been eating since I got them, yesterday they started to show some interest but not when I had the corries in the day before, I'll reintroduce the corries after the discus get settled in nicely in a month or two.

In the meantime I have something else really weird going on... One of my otos and one of my clown loaches both did the exact same thing three days apart which was spazz out all over the place, then die... Not sure what's going on there...

[discuspaul]

What do you mean by "spazz out all over the place...."- what were they actually doing ?

- Problem is, we don't know enough about your overall circumstances - all I know is that you just got those discus 2 or 3 days ago, they're not eating yet, and one is already in bad shape.

Did you get the Cories, the Otos and the Loaches at the same time, or much earlier - when ?
How long has that tank been set up, and do you regularly check your water params ?
What does the water test for ammonia, nitrites, nitrates, and pH ?

You've lost an Oto and a Loach now - sounds like water condition(s) problems.
How are your discus holding up, especially the one which the Cories have apparently victimized ?
They are very small, young discus, and need special care and attention, like frequent large wcs for starters.
Just want to help here, but don't know enough of your particulars.

[OVT]

Update please?

[Miles]

Sorry to reply so late - My water params are all perfect, i'm doing a 50% water change every other day, and no other fish have exhibited the symptoms of the oto and loach that died. I recently got the loaches and otos, but i've had the corries for a while. I've also just had an Ich outbreak that I've been trying to fight with heat to no avail, i raised the temp to 89º F (That was as high as the temp would ever get in the tank with my heaters cranked) and the ich only got worse, I maintained it at that temp for over a week and then the last day of the week the ich all of a sudden was REALLY bad and all over my discus so I gave in and added salt, I don't like to because my plant's hate it (Especially my star grass) But it is clearing up nicely now, i'll soon be lowering my temp back to around 83º F

The discus that was beat up is recovering very well, his fins are almost back to normal.

And I'm not sure how to describe the "spazzing" of the fish that died.... It was almost like an extremely violent seizure