One of my juveniles shy and off food..

[xen]

Heya guys,

I'm raising my first group of (8) juveniles in a lightly planted tank. I know, I know.

They've been mostly growing like the clappers now for about 4 1/2 months. Two had some hex on arrival. They were treated, and are now eating normally and growing again.

However, I'm worried about my RSG. He's one of the smaller of the group (about 7cm SL). Regardless, he's always been one of the more aggressive discus in the group. About two weeks back, he stopped eating as voraciously as normal, and started hiding. He would (and still does) come out now and again. He looks fine to my eye (very untrained as it is). No obvious marks on him, colour looks okay, eyes are clear. His stress bars are up maybe half the time. I've seen no faeces from him yet, but I'm watching closely.

Tank parameters:
Ammonia 0mg/l
Nitrites 0mg/l
Nitrates 5-10mg/l (before and after w.c.)
pH: 7.8 (tap normal here)

50% / day WC, aged, warmed, Primed water. Oversized canister filter for the tank (1500l/h w/ spraybar).

The rest of the group seem to be doing fine - eating like pigs. Maybe a little nippier than normal.

Here's my plan:

Put him in my 2'x1'x1' QT tank, warm up the water to 33'C or so, and try feeding him blackworms.

Q1. Any other treatment suggestions? Or things I should look for?

Q2. The QT hasn't been in use for about 6 weeks. I've left the sponge filter that was in there running, but there's been nothing but some (now very dead) blackworms in there. Do you think there'd be anything toxic in the sponge? Or would it have been filling up with "good" bacteria breaking down the blackworms? I'm trying to decide if I can use it, or if I should bleach it, and start again?

Thanks for reading - I really appreciate any help you guys can offer.

Cheers!
John

[Carol_Roberts]

Smell the water the black worms died in. Does it smell nasty? If yes I would not use that sponge and tank for discus without a thourough cleaning (microwave the wet sponge for 3 minutes).

[xen]

Thanks for the reply, Carol.

I confirmed my suspicions of hex last night - finally spotted a little mucous.

I put the RSG into the QT tank today. He's looking a lot better already - certainly a lot more lively than the other two I've had with hex.

I've got his temp up to 33'C. Rod Lewis set me up with some metro today, and I'm about to start dosing.

Hopefully I've caught this one early enough.

Thank you again, Carol - I'll update this thread with more news as it comes ;-)

Cheers!
John

[Carol_Roberts]

:thumbsup:

[xen]

Heya Carol,

I thought I'd update the thread to let you know that Spot the RSG is looking AOK again ;D

I gave him his meds, kept his temperature up, and fed him sparingly, all per your fine "common treatments" thread.

I hit one snag - I managed to get his temp up to 90'F, which seemed to help (soon afterwards he let out about 3" of mucousy poo.. last I saw of the flagellettes). The live blackworms I fed him one day didn't stay live at that temperature. When I noticed (about 4 hours later) they had turned to gunk and the tank smelled *bad*.

I immediately did a 50% change, then gave him another 50% 8 hours later. The first one seemed to take care of the smell, and the RSG got through it all okay.

Anyway, last night I introduced him back into the community tank, and all is looking good now. At first he looked kind of pale (I assume he was stressed from the move, or not used to the fluros), but today he's fought his way back into the pecking order, and is eating hungilly again.

So another big thanks from Spot to his Auntie Carol. It's just awesome to know somebody with your experience is willing to take the time to help when things go wrong. ;D

Cheers!
John