Hope this will help somebody with discus that got darting crazy and spinning symptoms

I got 5 Discus, two pair off and was moved to another tank. They were sick before with secondary bacterial infection, but was cure by Kordon Ick cure plus and API Furan 2. For quite awhile, they seems to be healthy, but once I lowered back the temperature gradually to 82F, one of my Golden Yellow Discus started to dart across the tank, bang his head on the glass, dash back to the other side of the tank as if it has gone crazy. This happened about twice or three times a day. after a couple of days, he started to spin in circles, it got worse every time, and finally spins so fast and spin to his death. Float up to the top of the tank, then sunk down and lied on his side, and finally no movement. I took him out fast as I could as I do not want the other Discus to catch anything in case there are some parasites inside him that will leave the host and find a new host.

I search and search for answers, I find quite a few articles about Discus crazy spinning and swirling disease, but one article caught my attention. The person said this darting and spinning of Discus is not the same as the swirling disease which spread to all kinds of fish. The person said he went to some fish place and ask for advice, they told him to put the Discus in a separate tank and set the temperature to 95F and leave him there for 5 days, light off, must be 5 days, not 4 days or whatever. after 5 days, put him back into his normal tank. He said he does not have any heater that goes that high, so he find a small 10 gallon tank and put 2 heaters in to reach the higher temperature, after that he said his fish started to recover, and for 2 years his Discus never have that kinds of behaviour again. I did kept that in mind as almost every articles I read, people said they treated them with Metro, General Cure, with all kind of medication, but nothing helps, and there is no cure to this and their precious Discus all died within days.

Well, after my first Discus died, my Red Melon started to do the same, he started to dart around as if he gone crazy, even when I feed him, he spins a circle before he ate, then the worst nightmare came, he started spinning very fast in circles and darting around crazy many times a day and finally stuck half of his body behind the hanging filter, unlike the first one which hide under the tank next to the sponge filter. His color change from Red to pale pink. I sort of lost hope and think he is going to died too, so will the other as well later on, as they said it always happen to just one at a time, but the whole tank is affected, however never have two spinning and darting at the same time, they all said they die one after another with the same spinning symptoms.

Out of desperation, I will try anything, I find an old Eheim 200 watts heater thinking to use two heater at the same time, but I do not have a spare tank, so I just put it in the same 35 gallons tank, then I realize this old heater last digit is 93 and beyond that should be 95 even though it does not having any marking. Well, when I put this heater in, at first both light up, then the other one which was set at the highest and reached only 89.6 F turns off, and only this one light up, it make sense as the water is then getting hotter than 89.6. I checked again later, the tank water started to read 90, then 91 one day later, the sick Discus have his head or half of his body behind the filter for two days already, but his color started to come back, at first I thought it was just my imagination, but no, his color really turn back to Red, and I find him coming out at night when all lights are off, swimming with the other yellow one, but hide back behind the filter in day time even I never turn the light on as I read they prefer to be in the dark. Today, amazingly, he came out and was swimming around the tank, even though he is pacing around the tank and seems sort of restless.

Later on day, he started to calm down, and swim normal with the yellow one, even though both of them did not eat from the top, I find that once awhile, they were nibbing the food that drop to the bottom of the tank. I checked the temperature again, it then read 92.6F. I begin to think he got a chance to recover as the temperature kept on rising.

I felt that I should come here and write this article and thank whoever wrote the previous article, even though it might not be in this forum. I was heartbroken when I lost one of these magnificent fish Hopefully, I can save my precious Red Melon, and the yellow one as well as if I have not raise the temperature, my Red Melon would have been dead already like the first one, and the yellow one will start this crazy spinning and die too.

I also hope this will help somebody who got Discus with the same darting and spinning crazy symptoms and save their precious Discus as well as I know how sad I was when my Discus die.

Crystal, glad your fish recovere. Question for you ...during this high temp treatment period do you change any water?

And whats the normal way you change water...do you aerate and age it?
Al

Hi Al, thank you, so far my Red Melon is still alive and swimming around with the yellow one without those horrible crazy darting and spinning in circles for the last four days ever since I put the extra Eheim heater in. Temperature had reached to around 92.8 to 93 only. To answer your question, yes, I do, I remove the fish waste daily and replace only whatever I took out, at most 15% of the water. Prior to the this, I usually change about 20 -25% of water every other day, I do not aerate nor age it ( I am just a newbie) I just put prime in every time as water conditioner and checked the GH and KH and make sure they are steady, just in case there is any change in the City water supply. I use the API Stress Zyme, so the water is actually crystal clear and no ammonia. However, I do not know whether the heater will continue to go higher or not, so I guess in order to keep him alive, I just have to leave the Eheim heater in as long as it takes.