Sick Discus?

[Davo67]

I have 2 discus and one of them seems to get sick every couple of weeks or so. It is only about 2 inches big and it's colour has gone dark and it is breathing fast and some sort of thread is hanging from it's gills.

These symptons occured about 1 mth ago and I treated it with Praziquantel and salt baths and it came good.

Does anyone know why this happens? The discus are in a planted community tank (4ftx2ftx2ft). None of the other fish pester them. Weekly water changes, Ph6.8, temp 28 deg (c), nil nitrates, ammonia etc. All other fish going well. Is it stress from the other discus, do I need to get a couple more discus? Also they both do not seem to be growing that much, they are fed live & frozen bloodworms & flakes.
How many times should they be fed?

Any info appreciated,

Davo. ???

[brewmaster15]

Hi Davo,
What was the dose of the prazi and duration? and what was the salt bath you used?

-al

[Davo67]

Al,

Thanks for the reply. I used a treatment called "Fluke & Tapeworm Tablets" by "Aqua Master" (Made in Qld Australia). 1 x tablet (100mg praz) per 20 litres. After 48hrs change 25% of water. Repeat dose after 7 days to prevent re-infestation.

The salt bath I used was 1-5 teaspoons salt in 10 litres of water for approx 1 minute.

Thanks Dave.

[brewmaster15]

Hi davo,
Generally speaking that kind of doseage and treatment will not irradicate a worm or fluke probelm. If that treatment worked for a short time, then I would say it is probably needed to be repeated again, but at shorter intervals.

Is there any other med in with that prazi ? if not then you can dose every couple og days with the prazi, and do 50 Wc in between. read the back posts in this section on using prazi for flukes, Its usually 2-3 weeks treatment course.

That thread like thing on the gills could be mucous, or a worm. Hard to tell.

The salt level you used will only help the fish deal with stress its too small a conc to do much else. Generally 1 tablespoon / 1 gal (3.8liters) salt is needed to be therapeutic for many disease treatments. This level may harm plants and some salt sensitive fish. Can you put these discus in their own tank and treat them?

-al

One suggesttion would be to increase you water changes...at least for the time being, to daily at 50%. This can remove large numbers of pathogens from the tank.