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Carol_Roberts
03-10-2003, 12:20 AM
This is a very common blemish seen on discus fins. I can't tell you exactly what it is, but discus seem to get these little cottony spots when they are under stress and the water isn't clean enough. I don't know if it is a fungus or a bacteria plaque.

Generally one or two tablespoons salt, extra water changes and cleaning the tank will help these disappear in about a week.

Miles
03-10-2003, 02:54 PM
Carol,
Do not know what those White spots are but from a few experiments I have done it was caused by:
1. Dirty Water
2. Improper diet.

The fish I tried it on are lets say, Rose Bush Feed. Tough bunch they are. LOL
So to fix the problem I increased water changes to 75% everyday, the previous way was 10% everyday and started feeding them a proper diet.

HTH
Miles

Traveller
03-20-2003, 11:26 PM
sorry Carol , i can't spot any white dots in the pic u've put up.... But anyway, the discus i've seen in the shop is very very active and it always fight with other discus in the tank. To add, the fish has a real rounded body and its so cool and pretty!! I'll be going to the fish shop again to check on that fish. If it have recovered, i will consider buying it...

How do i quarantine the discus i've bought? and what will be the consequences if i dont quarantine them???

Traveller :-\

troy
03-21-2003, 07:08 AM
Hi

I have had a similar problem , a few years ago i bought 3 month old discus 3 of them had white dots on their tails for most of their young life and disappeared when they reached adult size.
I have recently purchased some more young fish with the same problem , this time i tried to medicate it , tried formalin when that didn,t work i was told to try salt and high temp, this did nothing either.

Steve0199us
03-25-2003, 02:44 PM
What kind of salt do you use? Is it the same salt used in brackish water tanks?

henryD
03-25-2003, 03:14 PM
Long Boring Answer.....

I had brackish water at one point. Brackish water in nature is made up of 15% saltwater mixed with fresh water. However I have always used Aquarium salt instead of Sea Salt in my tank at home. IMO the fish seems to do better on top of the fact that you get a lower PH with the aquarium salt mix versus the marine salt mix. So I guess your question depends if you keep brackish water tank with aquarium salt mix or sea salt mix.

Aquarium Salt I believe are mostly made up of Sodium Chloride.

I read somewhere were they broke down the many salts in sea water and found sodium chloride, potassium chloride, magnesium chloride, calcium chloride, calcium carbonate, calcium sulfate and others. Sodium chloride made up of 33% of the mix.



Short answer.....

So the salt everyone is speak of is aquarium salt. Not the sea salt kind.

Jameson
03-28-2003, 05:02 AM
KyppyK,

Do you have the rest of the elements or compunds associated with sea salt as to aquarium salt. Reason being I have heard of some people regenerating their R/O or soft Tapwater with a little bit of this stuff, as it does contain many beneficial trace elements and other nutrients. I used R/O right for a while, now just using tap ( ms 170>= ) ph 7.4, with 50%everyday or siphon 20-30%&Poo about twice a week. This is a growout, 12 fish @ 2.5-4" 55gal. Should I be adding anything. i am gonna try to get my SCWA water factuals to show below bear with me here:

I will type it verbatim only the good stuff though:

LO Hi AVG


Specific Conductance umho/cm n/a n/a 79 345 171

Potassium mg/l n/a n/a 0.38 2.81 0.83

pH pH Units n/a n/a 6.1 9.1 7.5

pH, field pH Units n/a n/a 6.4 9.1 7.3

Magnesium mg/l n/a n/a 1.36 7.79 3.72

Hardness, total mg/l n/a n/a 18.0 135.6 63.2

Dissolved Solids, total mg/l n/a n/a 42 205 97

Calcium mg/l n/a n/a 4.5 41.3 17.4

Ammonia, free mg/l n/a n/a ND 0.04 ND (none detected)

Alkalinity, total mg/l n/a n/a 12.2 121.0 41.8

Nitrate mg/l 10 10 ND 9.20 3.99




Now IMO my nitrate is high out of the tap, with my water changes, and the three nitrate tests I own, it never gets above four in the tank, often it is a tad less than that out of the tap. I observe the fish in all my tanks with this same water change regimen, and they do quite well, I have no discus of breeding size yet, though my german blue rams breed like crazy, three pair. I do not feel the need to invest in an R/O system as of yet, if I move to an area with worse water I will do that. If I need to NOW add any sort of nutrients or supplements to my tapwater please tell me what they are. Maybe I should move this somewhere else????

Thanks for the time.

JC

henryD
03-28-2003, 01:14 PM
You really have to ask someone else about the RO. Actually I think there is a post here somewhere, where someone listed their own RO right formula or a formula from Joe at enchanted. If you do a search I think you will find it.

here it is

http://forum.simplydiscus.com//index.php?board=5;action=display;threadid=7285

AS for the other minerals in the salt. I think they are very minor. The major ones are the ones I listed. I will see if I can find the complete breakdown of the contend. Will post with more information when I come across it.

Steve_Warner
04-27-2003, 12:27 AM
Hi all,
Hey carol, did ya ever figure out what these are? I have one discus who gets them all the time, but NONE of my other discus get them ??? He/she seems to get them at all diff times.......weird! Here's an interesting link for some breakdown figures on the various mfgr's of marine salts, although it is produced by a competitor of them all ;)

Steve

Carol_Roberts
04-27-2003, 12:39 AM
I don't know what causes it, but I usually see it on females . . . could it be little nips that fungus? And you are right it is the same couple of fish over and over.

KARINA
06-17-2003, 01:40 PM
hello Carol!!!

Yes mine gets the same and it does goes away in a few days but then appears again always on the same discus though didn't noticed on others.... i thought it was fungus first but now i am not so sure...does anyone?

henryD
06-17-2003, 03:04 PM
I have gotten to the point where I don't worry about it anymore. It comes and goes.

I look at it like pimples or acne. Some discus gets them and others don't. It comes and goes.

It does not seem to affect them except for cosmetic reasons. Even then it only matters to us. The others fishes do not seem to exclude them or anything like that.

ronrca
06-17-2003, 03:08 PM
Im with henry on that! I have one or two also that get the spots. I dont do anything and they come and go! Puberty? LOL!

AquaMan1
07-09-2003, 12:40 PM
You shure it isn't ick if it is just raise the temperature a little.

Anna Piranha
07-21-2003, 03:15 PM
Oh this is a timely topic for me! I have a tank full of GORGEOUS Discus. I am so proud of this group. They have grown well, have vibrant colors and have such awesome personalities that I expect they will be speaking any day now :-)

One of these guys, a checkerboard, developed this white spot on his tail a few days ago. I hate to treat for ick, because the Ghost Knife in the tank can’t take the treatment, so somebody would have to move out for a while. Anyway, I was starting to worry big time. I think I will wait a few more days to see what happens next. Does this sound like a plan?

Carol_Roberts
07-21-2003, 06:28 PM
It's not ick and most likely will not spread to the other discuc. Just wait it out.

Anna Piranha
07-24-2003, 12:32 PM
Hi Carol,
You were right! The spot on the tail is disappearing. Thanks again for good advice.

- Anna

ping
07-25-2003, 09:46 PM
are these white spots infectious? My red pigeon discus have similar problem and I have a couple of smaller discus , really hate to think that they can be infected as well

troy
08-02-2003, 03:48 AM
Hi all

A couple of my discus have these spots , one of them has many spots on her tail , probably too many for me to count .She has had them for months now, i have noticed that she is the bravest of all the fish always getting in the way of the bullies and getting bitten too often. Maybe these are some sort of scaring that takes a long time to go away, just a thought. ???

Troy

el wad
02-27-2008, 01:21 AM
I've noticed this too.

usually on the same few fish.
most times along the lateral line or on the fins.
when I see that, it means I've been slacking on the w/c's.

great question.

tdr1919
03-02-2008, 08:36 PM
Yep, my fish also, it seems when they are banging each other around, freaks me out because I think that it is some kind of fungus.
I agree with the general concensus, water changes and some aquarium salt usually keeps things in check.
Tom