What Is This Round Ring On My Discus?

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?
About two months ago, all six discus stopped eating. One newbie never acclimated well and never ate, eventually died in late April. Just prior to this, all the other discus also stopped eating, I and continued metro for one full week. After one discus turned dark, I administed a salt treatment for two weeks and his color and apetite came back. This one I am seeking help with never started eating again, so I put him in the quarantine 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).

Discus not eating, round ring appeared on body.


3. What medications/ treatments have you already tried and what were the results. Include dosage and duration of treatment.
Metro for seven days. Stopped that when the discus that comforted the sick fish that died turned completely dark.
After that, I began a salt treatment for two weeks which I am continuing with now.


Tank/Water

4. Tank size and ages, numbers and sizes of fish.
65 gallons, quarantine tank is 20 gallons.

All discus were purchased from a breeder in January. 4-2 1/2 inch and 2-3 1/2 inch

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


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

Cycled since December 2021

Bare bottom



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

No. I have a chlorine and chemical filter attached between the hose and the faucet. I add Prime, double recommended amount.


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 _88___

- ph __6.5___

- ammonia reading __0__

- nitrite reading _0___

- nitrate reading __0__

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.

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.

Frozen 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.

After the salt treatment, the discus that turned dark came back to full color. All are eating well and socialize with each other except for this one. The large blue discus hasn't eaten at all. It hides behind the filter or under the driftwood.
I have not seen any poop, so I can't give any info on that. Occassionally, But that only lasts a couple of seconds and he retreats to his quiet place. During the metro treatment I raised the temp to 89 degrees.
About fifteen days ago I put this discus in the quarantine tank because it wasn't eating. I administered PraziPro for about a week. I then switched to a salt treatement of 5 tablespoons per 10 gallons (20 gallon tank) and did water changes about every three days and added salt again.
Today I noticed this perfectly round ring that appears to be raised. Color is bad on this discus and it hasn't eaten anything.
Any input on this would be greatly appreciated.

Ok this all started with a new fish that got sick and died? From the pic it looks bacterial. With the temp at 88 that’s only going to help the bacteria. Slowly lower the temp to 82. Try rid-ich plus. You don’t have a pleco in the same tank?
Frozen brime shrimp alone isn’t good for the discus. You need a mixed group of foods. Some use beef heart,black worms,flakes and granules. The more different varieties the better

What do you use to siphon your water from the tank? Looks like the ring could be from a hose mark that he got too close to while having a WC and got sucked into the hose making a perfect ring. That has happened to me before.

I've seen this before and I'm drawing a blank. It certainly does look like a mark from a syphon hose, but I doubt it. At first look, it seems like a bacterial infection but this also could be a parasite. If it were a parasite, I'd think it would affect more than a single fish.

I would isolate and treat with Kanamycin. Since this is a planted tank, I would also do a thorough cleaning of all surfaces and substrate.

I'll try an look through the archives and see if I can find the other references to this...

Thank you for your reply. The mark is not from a siphone hose. This is not a planted tank. The problem has been going on for quite some time...not eating. I originally treated all six discus in the 65 gallon tank, one discus died, the others all recovered except this one. As stated above, I moved this one to the quarantine tank about three weeks ago. I have treated with general cure, then prazipro, now salt. The area where the circle is noticable did have a slight discoloration on the body but not pronounced like it is now. The body color seems to change frequently from deep blue to brown to very dark blue/black then back to light brown/blue. The circle appears to be raised as if it could be the beginning of an absess or tumor of some type.
I did a 80% water change last night, removed the carbon filter. Please help me figure out what this could be. The ph is a little low, at 6.4 but that has been consistent, not like it dropped from 7.5 over night. It has always been in the mid 6.4-6.8 range.

Do you have large plecos in the tank? Could be one sucking slime off the side?

No placos in the tank. Just one sick discus and two siamese algae eaters to help keep things clean in the quarantine tank.