Spots and skin eruptions? that are not ick, flukes or fungus --- HELP! youtube added

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?
About 3 days ago I started to see some scattered white "areas" on the side of the fish. I knew it was definately not ick. Him and one of the larger discus had been bumping heads and it got to the point I think that the larger one finally got tired and began to dominate him to the point of him hiding now. This occured over the course of about two weeks. So, I was thinking maybe it is just nicks and bites from the other one and started looking up images, posts on missing scales. Nothing was matching. I started a round of Melafix just to help if it was just the fighting and have been watching it very closely. There is nothing that I can see that vaguely resemble any threads (flukes) or fuzz (Fungus) so I have sort of ruled those out as well. Appitite and Poop has been good. He is dark but that is more par for the course for him. No on else is showing any symptoms or distress.

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).
Oops see above :-(

3. What medications/ treatments have you already tried and what were the results. Include dosage and duration of treatment.
Standard dose of Melafix. Nothing positive. Continued to increase in quantity and qualtiy(?)


Tank/Water

4. Tank size and ages, numbers and sizes of fish.
75g,

12 rummy nose 1yr
2 serapae 3-4yr
2 hilstream loaches 2-3yr
2 FULL size Bosmani (I call them the pigs) 4yr`
4-5 cardinals ??
3 discus - 1 @ 2", 1@4" and 1@5" / 6mos, 6mos, 1-2yr

5. Water change regime (What percentage and how often).
I have an ATO w/ RODI and an auto water change each evening after CO2 of about 5gal * 7days that is repleneshed with re-mineralized and fertilized RODI water



6. How long has tank been running? Is it bare bottom? If you have substrate, what type and how deep is it?
3-4yrs
2-3" BDBS
Fully Planted with runs between groups
glass - standard 75


7. Do you age your water? If you do for how long and what is the ph swing.
no - no measurable swing - monitored and graphed with PH probe -


8. What type/brand water conditioner do you use? Do you add it to the tank or aging barrel? How much do you use?
None / Dry formula of base minerals

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.


- temp ____constant 79.9_

- ph stays between 7.2 and down to 6 during CO2 feed_____

- ammonia reading ____ Bright Yellow = 0ppm

- nitrite reading ____ Pale Blue = 0 ppm

- nitrate reading ____ Nice full orange = 20ppm (this is pretty constant year around)

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 ____

- RO water _RODI___Remineralized the same for the last 2 yrs. (basic PPS + Calcium Carbonate/MG mix for GH/KH


10. Any new fish, plants or inverts added recently.
no


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.
Small auto feed of dry for the dither fish and the pigs., I pay special atttention to the discus. They get a random mix of frozen brine shripm, beefheart, emerald green, and bloodworms. I have been focus feeding the little one Live Black worms since i got him. he picks them out of the plants several times per 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.

here is the link given by YouTube:
https://youtu.be/muFME4yvc-w


I added a youtube because it was hard to catch stills. I have listed the times to jump to to see clear pics from different angles.

I am at a complete loss on this. I didnt want to do anything beyond the Melafix within knowing more.

Thanks!
-diverjoe

To me it just looks a little beaten. My males are often a bit scuffed from fighting.

I could be way off, wait for someone with more experience.

http://youtu.be/muFME4yvc-w

I agree with Cooper...looks like it has been nipped at...looking at your stock list I suspect the serpae tetras. They have very fine teeth and can be nippy little buggers.

Most likely it wiill end up being stressed out to the point of becoming killed or badly stunted. Perhaps even two will succumb to being killed. Three young discus is just not enough. By the way your water temp is a few degrees too cool for young discus. It should be at least 82 and high as 86.

So here a little update. There is less going on with him that the day I posted this. On top of that the larger one and this one are “hiding out” behind the same fake stump. Both spend a lot of time “staring” at the same spot together. I cannot see if there are eggs but wouldn’t that be an unexpected surprise. It is in a place I really cannot get to visually so will have to drop my gopro downback there lol. Anyway thanks for your help it did so much to steady my nerves and be patient! That always seems to be one of the best things to do.

They is only one discus there that is old enough to breed. I have never heard of 6 month old discus ready to do so. Some can start as early as 9 months ,which is about a 4.5" discus. I still think it's aggression between 3 fish. It has happened to me over a decade ago when I tried to QT 3 youngings by themselfs. Only one survived.

Well I cannot fathom it but they did spawn. This morning there was a number of free swimming babies and a couple stuck to the large one. Anytime either saw a free one it got ate.