Discus freak out/ seizure.. help

I’ve previously been having some issues with two of my other Discus which were detailed in this thread - http://forum.simplydiscus.com/showth...09#post1343809

It’s a bit soon to say with them but I think they might be improving. Unfortunately I’ve since had a different discus develop a new and way more acute issue so thought I’d start a separate thread (I hope that’s alright).

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?

Last night during my evening water change one of my Discus (One of the original batch of four) which had previously seemed absolutely fine and strong suddenly started freaking out swimming erratically around the tank bashing into the sides and the sand. It was swimming in a horizontal position in circles during and immediately after this freak out but then after a couple of minutes it seems to recover fairly well. It’s almost like it has a seizure for a minute or two.
This happened again tonight which I managed to film a bit of it. The one this evening was so bad I thought it might have jumped out of the tank.
Both times I was there for it it happened a few minutes after the light went off and while I was doing my evening water change. However my girlfriend told me it had another couple of episodes during the day so I’m not sure if the light or water change are linked to it.

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).

I can’t see any physical issues. The main problem is the complete freak out which only happens sporadically. The rest of the time it seems fine.

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

5 days ago I dosed with 4.5ml of AquaCare Anti-Fluke and Wormer and have been adding 4tbs of API Aquarium Salt per 50L of water.


Tank/Water

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

240L set up four months ago with 8 juvenile Discus and 19 Cardinal Tetra


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

At the moment I’m doing 25% twice a day (morning then evening). Before the issues I had which I discussed in the thread above I was doing 25% daily.


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

Tank is four months old and has sand substrate. Now it’s about 2.5cm deep but it used to be much deeper until about a week ago when I removed the majority of the sand.


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

Based on the advice in the previous thread I’ve started to age my water. But am only really able to leave it for about 4 hours in order to do my 25% twice a day.


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

Seachem Prime

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 _____30c

- ph _____7.4

- ammonia reading ____0 ppm

- nitrite reading ____0 ppm

- nitrate reading ____10 ppm

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 ____25%

- RO water ____75%


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

4 new Discus 1 week ago.


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.

Mussel Mix 5 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.

Managed to film its most recent episode. I missed the first 10 seconds which was the most violent. You don’t need to watch the full thing, but I just recorded until the fish started acting more normally.

https://youtu.be/fCbKdL1TdhI



I desperately want these fish to live and am doing as much as I can. Please if anyone can offer any advice I’d really appreciate if.

Don't take me for an expert but I think that it's a problem in the brain of the fish. I don't think that there is a cure. If I'm correct, I'm terribly sorry for only having bad news.

I don't know if feeding mussels could be a connection/risk, but plz read this thread by Paul, who experienced "neuromuscular incoordination" in his discus after starting to feed mussels...see what you think/feel :thumbsup:
http://forum.simplydiscus.com/showth...hlight=Mussels

It's whirling disease. Been discussed here many times. http://forum.simplydiscus.com/showth...light=whirling

I hope you find the solution to your problem. I watched your video clip and the first thing that came to my attention is how still your water is. Are you aerating it?

I didn't notice that on my first look, but I looked again and saw it. There are some bubbles coming from the right of the tank but there almost no surface agitation. I doubt that this is your problem Jamie, but you do need more bubbles.

Looks like chlorine or chloramine problem or water ageing. Remove as much water change stress as you can.
Use a pool testing kit to check the water you are adding for chlorine or chloramine. If the water test positive then you need to use something like Prime if you use Prime and it still tests positive use more Prime. (https://seachem.zendesk.com/hc/en-us...g-instructions) Check that the ph of the water you add to see if it is within .3 of your tank water. You can adjust the difference to be within .3 by averaging new water and old.
Les