Very Sick Discus

Someone please help me, lol

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

Yesterday I noticed one of my discus had a clamped fin, and I panicked so I did a 75% or more wc and he was fine afterwards. He ate FDBW and flakes, he was perfectly normal (which I find weird). But unfortunately today he was DARK and had a clamped fin, he also seemed to have a white coat over his body. So most likely excess slime coat. I just did a 90% water and he still looks and acts the same. He is also tilting a bit and looking up. I just fed FDBW again and he's eating. What's weird is that before yesterday everything was going so smoothly.


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).

Dark coloration, excess slime coat, one clamped fin, tilting.

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

None


Tank/Water

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

50 Gallon tank, five 4 - 4 1/2 inch fish, almost had them for a month

5. Water change regime (What percentage and how often).

Daily 60-75% (sometimes I skip a day for various reasons)

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

Tanks been running for 5 years, bare bottom with a little bit of sand

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

I do not age my water. Don't need to, pH out of tap is the exact same as my tank

8. 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.


- temp 86

- ph =7.8-8

- ammonia = 0

- nitrite = 0

- nitrate = 5

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.

tap water

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

No

10. 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.

Freeze Dried Black Worms, Prime Reef Flakes, Hans Cobalt Flakes.
I feed 3-5 times a day

11. 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.

Assuming you use Prime or something similar? Possibly your water has changed due to seasonal considerations. Keep the lights off, add aquarium salt at 1 tablespoon per 10 gallons until someone comes on and tells you to increase it to 1 to 5 gallons. Add additional Prime to the tank, increase aeration and decrease the size of the water changes you are doing (it is somehow related to your tap water) to less than 50% unless/until otherwise directed. Replace salt removed with each water change (based on the volume of water changed, not your tank size) I had this happen to me about 15 years ago and it's heartbreaking to watch them go through this. Most of mine survived but I had a better med person helping me. Hopefully someone will come along soon. Good luck!

I added aquarium salt, 1 TBSP per 10 Gallons.
Also if it was the tap water affecting the fish, wouldn’t all the fish be sick?

I do not age my water. Don't need to, pH out of tap is the exact same as my tank

But does the water remain that way, or do you have a PH swing after. Usually the PH out of the tap does not remain the same, if yours does than ok but usually 24 hours later PH changes and is different and sometimes the swing can be large.

The pH remains the same

I had issues from out of the tap.Not ph swings but gasses.This is the reason I had to age my water,if I did more than 25-30% WC's my discus really noticed it.So,in order for me to keep discus the water had to be aged.