Discus Cheek Peeling

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?


Skin on cheek is starting to look like it is peeling off under his right eye towards the bottom of the jaw. Looks to be worse than some of the inital slime coat issues I experienced when I first introduced the discus to the tank.

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).


loss of appetite, hanging in a corner, skin on face peeling.

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

Stress guard for the slime coat and doing daily water changes. I also ordered a new canister filter because I've been reading that my Hob filters may not be doing a good enough job filtering the tank.

Tank/Water

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

55 gallons, set up in December, has 5 discus, 14 Rasbora and a flame gourami.

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

30% every other day. Doing daily now.

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

It is planted with sand substrate. Standard 55 gallon size. Been running since decemeber.

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

I age my water with a 20 gallong bucket. Not much swings, but it comes out the tap at lik 7.6 and mellows out after a day or so down to around 6.8-7

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

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 _____ 84 degrees

- ph _____ 6.8

- ammonia reading ____ 0

- nitrite reading ____ 0

- nitrate reading ____ 5 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.

Tap water.

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.

I feed the fish two times a day. Rasbora get flakes and Discus/grouami eat vibra bites, bloodworms, and brine shrimp.

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.


I plan to up my filtration, do more water changes, and continue to add stress guard, but I am not sure if there is something else I should do. This fish was suffering from HITH when I got it. It seemed to recover even though the holes haven't gone away.

We need a pic.

Please stopping your money on Stress guard. Lower the water temp to 82 and keep up with the WC.

What we need most is a pic of the entire tank and a pic of the fish in question.

I think I accidentally posted this twice. There should've been a pic with the original post. I found stress guard worked well when I was having slime coat issues. What's wrong with it? Attachment 133169Attachment 133169 https://imgur.com/a/sSW8qby

That's the best picture I can get.

here is another photo I was able to get. Attachment 133171

Thank you in advance for your time!

Need pics of whole tank and other discus. What is the hob your using and how often do you clean it? Thing is the pictured discus looks like it’s in a water problem. I’d say some daily 50-70% water changes and salt is what’s need. Not sure if it skin peeling on that’s bacterial node’s and fin rot on fins. Both signs of bad water.

I'd say poor water quality, too. Keeping a tank clean enough for Discus is difficult in a planted tank. I'm afraid this might be hole in the head.

Attachment 133172 here is a pic of full tank Attachment 133173 Here is one of my other fish.

I checked this morning and it looks like that hole is actually some kind of fuzzy white stuff. I am thinking it is bacterial infection + hith due to bad water quality. Installing the cannister filert that just arrived right now.

I am worried it could be columnaris so I am treating the whole tank. Any suggestions on meds?

I thought columnaris at first but when I saw the hole I started thinking that it was more likely HITH. If you're going to treat for columnaris Furan II is what I use. For HITH you treat with 100% metro at 500 mg per 10 gallons for 12 days. Treatment works a lot better in a BB tank.

As far as your tank is concerned it is very pretty. It would be just as pretty and better for the fish if you removed the substrate and put the amazon sword in a pot. You could glue some Anubis to the driftwood.

I’m not one who uses a lot of meds. So my advice before the meds. Is as Liz says pot the swords. Next stand up that driftwood. With it laying like that tons of debris is building up under it. Next either remove all your substrate or at least 75%. If you must leave just a shallow covering. Your water has a green tint. So your lights may be on for too long. That green water isn’t helping your discus. If you don’t have one add a uv steralizer. Next change water daily at 50% till they start looking better. How old are the discus and what size were they when you bought them?

Thank you for the advice! I lift up the drift wood / big rocks and vacuum underneath every WC.

My hob filters are just the top fin ones. But, I just set up a new canister filter and plan to slowly decommission the hob filters. The discus were all between 4-4.5 inch when I got them. I got them in January. Not sure how old they are.

I am going to leave the lights low and on for short durations for a bit to get the green tint under control. I'll also pick up a UV sterilizer.

Any suggestions on where to get Furan 2? I live in the US and for some reason it's hard to find. What about E.M. Erythromycin? API markets it the same, but I assume there is a difference.

I'll keep up with the water changes and let you know how it goes. Thanks again for your time and advice!

I get all my meds from Jehmco.

Thing with plants is they don’t do well with meds. What I’d suggest with the water changes is to add salt to the tank. 1tbs per 5 gal. But the plants won’t do well with the salt. Now if you move them into pots it makes them easier to remove. I do believe your problem is your water. You’ve had they for 6 months have yo noticed any growth?

At 4-4.5" they should have be around 6-9 months old when you got them. They are easily over a year old now and should be 5-6.5" at least. If not they will stay rather small. It doesn't look like columnaris to me; if it were it would have been much worse in a day or two. That disease is spreads rather quickly. More WC's and salt for a week or two seem like a good move.

Can you move the Discus to a hospital tank? Place the sick Discus in the hospital tank with 100% fresh water, not a drop of water from your sick tank. Do the 100% water change daily add the salt and at the same time if possible get a sample of the fuzzy white stuff, scope that out, then treat with the correct medication.

Cliff

Thank you Cliff. The problem is that I doubt Patrick has a hospital tank or a microscope. We have to work with what he can do as things stand.