Pls...I need good advice

[tag]

Hello, this is my first and most needed post. I recently moved my discus from a 35 gallon tank to 125 gallon tank. The new tank was properly set up and running when I transferred the fish. First we had a small bout of ick which was treated with aquarisol, then cloudy eyes which I treated with Melafix for 5 days, now velvet????? the body is cloudy covered and there's fungus??? waving :'( I'm sooooooooo upset. Got 3 new discus 2 weeks ago from our lps ??? They came in with something and were treated at the store for a couple of weeks before allowed to go. I watched them through this time and they recovered remarkably well. Sadly, there was some competition over these discus and I took them without a quarantine tank as it's being occupied by 2 new wild green discus I'm not ready to transfer sooooo for the first time...took a chance...WRONG!! now my discus have the fungus but they're altogether...what do I do?? I have 2 plecos and 5 clown loaches in the tank that I don't want to lose either.
Any info would be greatly appreciated....I need some good advice on what to do now.
Running a canister filter
125 gallon tank
feed twice a day morning/night, bloodworms for juvies and tetrabits for adults
have 2 4/5"discus (for 3 yrs) and 3 2"(for 3wks)
ph is 7
temp is 84/85
water change 2 X's weekly about 25%
have large gravel stones and one pc of driftwood

Thanks :-*

[Larry Grenier]

I hope one of our resident pros chime in but here goes. I'm a little confused about your setup but here's what I'd do.
1) Perform a major water change vacuming the gravel thuroughally (even better remove it).
2) Run fresh carbon for 12 hours (poly pads even better) to remove any residual meds.
3) Medicate with Methyblu, Malachite Green or Methylene Blue - which prevents and controls ich, fungal and bacterial infections, tail rot... Read the directions on duration and dosage.
4) Add salt (read on this board the use & benefits of salt) at 1 tbspoon per 10 gals.
I'd perform daily 20-40% water changed during the medication period replacing the meds removed.
OK folks........ 2nd opinions needed

[Carol_Roberts]

You should not be getting ick at discus temps - are you sure the 135 is fully cycled? Have you checked ammonia and nitrIte?

How many discus do you have now?

IF only 4 or 5 I'd move them and a cycled filter back to the 35 gallon barebottom, filled with clean, aged, medication free water. Water should be 84 degrees.

For fungus add one tablespoon salt per One gallon of water. Do daily water changes of at least 30% per day (may need to do more depending on stocking density). replace salt removed by water changes.

What were the new discus treatd for at the fish store?


Furan II may help also.

[joejoeg]

:)hello carol ... its me joe again , my mom posted for help . so im replaying to you , ummmm we are using our barbottom 35 gallon for a qarantin tank and it has 2 wild greens in it now , i posted the pics in posting pics (last page) and also our new fish , my brother posted them , any ways this is deffinently ick , when we were using the aquari-sol the discus seemed to pick up , but fall after we stoped using it , we whent back to the lps and they told us that with our new baby discus they were using kanacyn and they found it quit affective , so we picked it up, what does this sound like to you a aqauri-sol problem or a kanacyn problem ? we also picked up some salt, the clown loaches (5 of them) brought the ick into the tank but , the lps told us that as long as there eating they should be fine . :-\

[Ardan]

Hi,
If the temp is 84F or more, it shouldn't be ich.

Is the filter cycled?
No ammonia/nitrite??

Larry gave good advice as did Carol.
Salt and dyes or furan 2. Kanacyn is mostly for internal bacteria, but if it was working it may be worth a try.

hth

[joejoeg]

our nitrite level is 12.5 , and last time we checked the amonia level was 0 , wut would we do if the filter is not fully cycled yet ? at this point changing tanks is no option



thanks alot ,joe

[joejoeg]

should the salt also be addin in water or directly into the tank ? and also i have a gold nugget,and a goldy he has the fungus to will it harm the plecos ? and my 5 clown loaches ?

[Ardan]

Check the nitrite with another kit to verify.
If nitrites are still that high, then do wc's until nitrite is near 0. Continue wc's daily to keep nitrite near 0.

Add non iodized salt right in the aquarium.

hth

[Larry Grenier]

The amount of salt I suggest is probably too little but you see that everyone suggests increased water changes.

[justathome]

I must also point out(unless I missed it) that Clowns cannot be treated the same as Discus in regards to salt. I would seperate the clowns from the discus and use a different coarse for med.
I believe they can have salt, but it has to be very weak(look this 1 up at a good loach site for dosage). They cannot be treated with anything that has copper either. Most of this is due to the fact they have no scales(in fact I believe they have v.small scales based on recent studies)

Sorry I dont have more info to hand..

[joejoeg]

Thank you so much for your replies. I have greatly appreciated the advice. I'm not sure what to think anymore :( The juvenile discus I have in the tank aren't sporting any type of upset or illness. My original discus and the remainder of the tank are.(ick/velvet..something) I did manage to pick up the discus previously with aquarisol from seemingly the same thing...so I'm thinking to try it again. I just hate to think that I might be compromising the healthy discus. I currently have some wild greens in qt and they don't appear to be carrying anything BUT...it's only been a week. I thought about switching them out for the discus needing more attention but sadly they may be the only discus I have in the end if I don't get a hold of this situation shortly. I'm not sure that the filter in my 125 gallon is fully cycled and I have no idea what to do about it if it's not. I've been checking the various levels and had 0 ammonia until a day or so ago when the results showed somewhere between 0.5 and 1.0???? so I started a series of daily water changes and I'm not sure if at this point I'm making things better or worse(according to the fish) ??? I have to tell you all that my son originally had these discus in a small tank that he rarely ever cared for.He'd dump in barely conditioned water when the level evaporated, fed them whenever and they grew and grew until they were full round and desert plate size from coin size.....I couldn't stand to look at it anymore and adopted them.Since then I seem to be slowly killing them with kindness :'( Any further advice would be very much appreciated...I'm ready to turn in the discus towel....which wouldn't make me very happy!

Thank you for taking the time to read this especially long post :)