Discus in hospital tank not responding to PP or metro treatments

We got our first discus 4 weeks ago, all from the same source (Forrest) and they went into our display tank as QT since there were no other fish in there. 2 fish seemed very stressed and after about 8 days started showing signs of illness. One had stringy white poop but still eating. One started hiding and not eating. At the advice of the gentleman we purchased them from, we did a PP treatment for one day on the entire display tank. We saw no improvement in the 2 fish and the other 5 fish remained fine (and are still doing great). We moved the 2 into a hospital/QT tank to begin a treatment of salt and metro 5 days ago and we're still not seeing much of an improvement at all. They are still very skittish but are starting to be a teeny tiny more active vs hiding all of the time. They are appearing to be a little interested in food but still not really eating. One fish has a tendency to point nose downward, so also treating with some epsom salts in case of bloat. We've seen normal discus poop in the tank the last two days, which was encouraging - and then saw another white stringy poop yesterday on one. Question: should we continue with a 12 day regiment of the metro in water (since they're not eating), give them a rest from meds, and then deworm? We're new to discus and while the other 5 are doing fantastic (2 actually paired up and have spawned), these 2 are just not recovering. Are we just not giving it enough time?

DISEASE QUESTIONNAIRE


Problem

1. Please explain the problems with your fish. When did you notice the problems and did anything unusual happen that you think started them?

8 days after getting all of our fish (our display tank is QT, as we have no other discus or fish) we noticed lethargy in two of the fish and white stringy poop with one. They live in a community tank with 5 other fish, all of which are healthy. Nothing unusual happened but we suspect it was stress from being picked on by other fish and/or stress of arriving in a new home. All 7 fish came from the same source on the same day.


2. Symptoms (i.e. turning dark, excess slime, not eating, clamped fins, flashing, darting, clamped gills, white/yellow/green poop, hiding, headstanding or tailstanding, white on tips of fins, rotting or fungus, blisters/white zits on fish, bloated, cloudy eyes, wounds).

Not eating, clamped fins, hiding, white stringy poop, lethargy. One of the fish tends to be a little “nose down” but we see no obvious sign of bloat. And that fish isn’t eating.


3. What medications/ treatments have you already tried and what were the results. Include dosage and duration of treatment.

Initial PP treatment of entire tank, no results seen. Moved the 2 fish to a hospital tank with treatment of Metronidazole - started 5 days ago at 500mg/10g 2x daily with large water changes before dosing. Dosing in water because fish aren’t eating. Salt is also being used (Epsom after starting with aquarium salt)

Tank/Water

4. Tank size and ages, numbers and sizes of fish.

Now in a 29g hospital tank, age unknown (guessing 6 months), 2 fish at around 3.5”. The rest of the fish in the display, which all came at the same time as these 2, are roughly 4-4.5”


5. Water change regime (What percentage and how often).
While in the 75g, we did a 50% water change every other day. In the hospital tank we are doing 20-30% water changes 2x a day due to medication.



6. How long has tank been running? Is it bare bottom? If you have substrate, what type and how deep is it?

QT/display tank has been running 5 months with pool sand ¾” deep. Tank is hospital and running cycled for a few weeks (media from display tank). Bare bottom.


7. Do you age your water? If you do for how long and what is the ph swing.

We mix aged water and conditioned tap. Aged is 24 -48 hours. No Ph swing.


8. What type/brand water conditioner do you use? Do you add it to the tank or aging barrel? How much do you use?

Conditioner is SeaChem Safe. We add it to the aging barrel and the dosage noted on the bottle, taking the addition of new tap into consideration.


9. Parameters and water source;
Note: Water Parameters are important in diagnosing problems within a tank. If you don't own test kits for the following information, you can purchase them, test your parameters and post this info as soon as possible.

These are the parameters in the QT/Display tank they came from:


- temp 85

- ph 7.2

- ammonia reading 0

- nitrite reading 0

- nitrate reading 7

These are the parameters in the hospital tank they are in:


- temp 90 (we raised the temp here for treatment)

- ph 7.4

- ammonia reading 0

- nitrite reading 0

- nitrate reading 7


What type of water or combinations of water sources do you use? If it is an RO/tap/well water mix, please list percentages in the mix.

- municipal water 100%. 1/2 aged, 1/2 not.


10. Any new fish, plants or inverts added recently.

None


11. Please tell us what you feed your fish and how often. This can be critical information for solving the problem so be as specific as you can.

When in the QT/display tank, we feed 3 x a day, mixture of Forrest pellets (they are Forrest discus), Hikari Bio Gold and Hikari Vibra Bites.

In the hospital tank, to try to get them to eat, we’ve fed Forrest pellets and a tiny amount of frozen bloodworms to encourage them to eat. They have started to eat a very very tiny bit but not enough to count it as actual eating IMO


12. Include any pictures or videos you have which shows the symptoms. If you can't add them to this post, please provide a link to them.

Images below

Thanks for your help - we want our babies to get better!

Nikki

It would be a good idea to continue Metro for a full 12 days. Up to almost double strength on the package. At this point, if it were me I'd stay away from de- wormer until you can get them eating again since a dewormers can cause appetite loss. Just one question. When do you put the prime in your aging barrel? Hopefully just prior to using it. You mentioned every other day WC, that's why I ask. Others will chime with their experiences.

Up the temp. to 86f

Hi bluelagoon,

We can easily double the dose of metro and continue for the full 12 days. Thanks for the information on the de-wormer - we were unaware of that!

We put our water conditioner (SeaChem Safe) into the barrel with aged water prior to using it and then add water out of the tap. After which point we start aging water again in the barrel for the next water change.

Temp in the hospital tank is already at 90F, so we're good there.

Try bumping the temp up a bit more to 93 during metro treatment.