Discus turning dark

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? I noticed yesterday a couple of blue diamons were acting strangely and color was off.


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). Started turning darker today and not eating, clamped fins and a little bit of darting.


3. What medications/ treatments have you already tried and what were the results. Include dosage and duration of treatment. I treated with Metro last night and again today. After treating today one turned darker.



Tank/Water

4. Tank size and ages, numbers and sizes of fish. 125 Gal, year old tank, 12- 3.5-4" fish


5. Water change regime (What percentage and how often). water change is 50% twice weekly


6. How long has tank been running? Is it bare bottom? If you have substrate, what type and how deep is it? Tank has been running for a year and has a sand substrate about 1" or less deep.


7. Do you age your water? If you do for how long and what is the ph swing. Water is not aged, I use tap at 7.2 and tank is about 7.4 consistently


8. What type/brand water conditioner do you use? Do you add it to the tank or aging barrel? How much do you use? Prime conditioner added to tank at time of water change.


9. Parameters and water source; No Ammonia or Nitrite, Nitrate are at 20-30. Ph is 7.4

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 _87____

- ph ___7.4__

- ammonia reading ___0_

- nitrite reading ___0_

- nitrate reading _10-15___

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.

- well water ____

- municipal water __x__

- RO water ____


10. Any new fish, plants or inverts added recently. New fish added recently but were quantined for 3 weeks


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. Feed is beefheart mix, flake and Hikari bites 2 times a day



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.

Yes it cross contamination from the new fish. Did you do a hero fish. Get rid-ich plus. Lower the temp to 82. It’s a bacterial infection. I have a thread running on this. Also add 2 tbs salt per 10 gal.

Hope I posted this correctly. Please let me know if I have not. Thanks

Thank you, I added salt but will lower the temp and add Rid Ich.

Your high nitrate reading suggests that you aren't changing enough water often enough. I keep my nitrates at 5 but most folks here say that 10 is OK.

Remove the affected fish to a QT tank and lower the temp to 82. I would use Furan 2 but Brian will be along probably to suggest a good salt dose to treat the same thing. He's more experienced with using salt than I am and salt is much easier on the fish that an antibiotic.

Thanks Tom, I read your thread and Brian's responses. Hope all is well with your guys!

I agree that this looks like bacterial CC. While it was an good move to QT, it unfortunately wasn't long enough. For future reference, there's an excellent QT procedure in the general section...

http://forum.simplydiscus.com/showth...tine-Procedure

As Liz said, I usually recommend a heavy dose of salt for this condition. Discus are very tolerant of salt, but I'm not sure how your loaches would handle this though. I would recommend using a course of nitrofurizone or Rid Ich as you read in Tom's thread. If you treat the current tank, I see no reason why the other fish would be harmed by either. If you treat in a hospital tank, 4-5 TBS salt per 10g can be added along with the other med you use. This will help increase slime coat. Following Tom's procedure is a great way of treating...

Keep us updated!!

I should remove the Purigen as well?

Yes, I would do that if treating with meds.

Thanks!! My guys are mostly doing well. 2 do seem to have a problem. And once I move some fish around they’ll go into qt.

The blues are looking better and eating now, the others are acting a little sluggish but may be due to the colder temp. I did a water change this morning and added more salt and Rid Ich plus. Temp is at 83, how long should I keep them at that temp and treating with rid ich?

Thank you so much!
Scott

I went 14 days rid-ich daily. Use till there back to normal.

The lower temp didn’t bother mine at all. The sluggishness is probably still sick. The rid ich only lasts around 12hrs. I found mine perked up when doesed. Know keep my tanks at 83 instead of 86.