mad discus

[matt morgan]

hi everyone one of my discus has literally all of a sudden just started acting really crazy like darting round the tank swimming upside down and has now perched herself in the corner inbetween sponge and glass. What are the possible causes of this
cheers Matt

[pcsb23]

Matt, most common cause is poor water quality, usually ammonia or nitrite in the water or not enough dechlor used in a w/c. Check those out first.

[White Worm]

Oxygen.....to add to pauls excellent quick reference list.

[matt morgan]

i do a 50% wc everyday with ro hme water with a gh and kh 1-3 and ph 7.5 also the male of the pair is fine so i dont think it is water quality. Could it be that the male is 'nagging' her to lay eggs as they are a pair and have layed before. The female started going mad as the male pecked her so i decided to take the male out and she is swimming round now. Could that be a cause of this behaviour????????/
cheers Matt

[poconogal]

Sounds like me when my husband starts nagging me about something...

[RyanH]

If you are using pure RO without buffer, you may well be getting pH crashes.

[raglanroad]

Changes in pH don't cause fish problems, unless accompanied by some other problem, like trying to fix the pH, and the remedy hurts the fish. Since the procedures seem well established, there is no reason to think of pH.
Nitrogenous waste is a common cause of this type of thing, but not this time apparently. Also, bigger fish seem more affected by nitrogenous waste. If the male is OK, and water checks out OK, then most likely not waste.
Not sounding like swim bladder either.
Just reaching now, but possibly heart problems. Heavy on the beefheart?
Or maybe just spawning craziness.
Is the fish spiralling at all or stuff like that?
Dave

[Alight]

Is this just a one time thing, and the discus was fine after an hour or so? Does it happen every day, or just once in a while?

Discus are like horses. Sometimes they just spook for no good reason. And when one spooks, they all do, and sometimes the ones that "catch it" from the first one to dart get even crazier. This is just an instinctive, schooling fish behavior that actually has survival value in the wild.

If the fish does not recover from this, or does this often, then look to something wrong with water quality, or flukes, or some other disease.

[matt morgan]

thanks everyone for your help the fish seems fine now so hoping it just spooked itself. Yes the fish was spiraling what would that mean???
cheers Matt

[Carol_Roberts]

. . . .constipation causes lack of balance and shimmying movements. . .

[raglanroad]

spiralling , to me, means poisoning of some type - go back to what Paul said at the start. Bad water quality. Even nitrate can convert back to nitrite in the body I understand, and produce an effect that prevents oxygen from getting to the tissues.
So poisoning of some kind is my guess.
thermometer OK?
Dave