Discus floating at the top

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?
on of my smaller discus started floating at the top, about 2 weeks ago I did a metro treatment of 4 days, they all seemed to be improving and now I can see him floating at the top near the heater. and not eating. Also one other discus was pooping long stringy white feces and was hiding but he was still eating.

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, floating at the top, lethargic, stringy white feces, twitching.

3. What medications/ treatments have you already tried and what were the results. Include dosage and duration of treatment.
metro treatment of 4 days at 2500 mg for my 107 G tank. They improved and all started eating like crazy, but something is wrong with 2 of my discus again.


Tank/Water

4. Tank size and ages, numbers and sizes of fish.
107 G, 3 discus are 4 months, 5 clown loaches 3 months, and the other 4 are about 10 months in the tank. In total 7 discus, 5 loaches. Ranging from 2.5 inch to 6 inch, the loaches are 2-3 inch.

5. Water change regime (What percentage and how often).
Every other day 50-70%

6. How long has tank been running? Is it bare bottom? If you have substrate, what type and how deep is it?
white sand substrate >1 inch

7. Do you age your water? If you do for how long and what is the ph swing.
I don't. 0.5 ph swing at MAX.

8. What type/brand water conditioner do you use? Do you add it to the tank or aging barrel? How much do you use?
I don't. No chlorine in my tap water.

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.
I use test kits instead of strips.

- temp _____ 88 f

- ph _____ 8

- ammonia reading ____ 0

- nitrite reading ____ 0

- nitrate reading ____ 10

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 ____

I use 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.
3-4 times a day, flakes, beef heart, bloodworms.


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.
https://imgur.com/gallery/hVqnH0C?fb...Nw9Ih5ez0Y-Fu4

Don't know your source of water. 4 days of treatment with Metro will start them eating but not long enough to rid the flagellate protozoa. Usually 10-14 days. Stronger dosing if in a planted tank.

wow, I never knew that. I mostly saw that people use it for 3 days and some even only 1 day :eek:. Well I have only 1 pill 250mg of metro, I thought I could mix it in with food and feed them that. But I can get some more from the pharmacy.
Edit:
I use tap water, but it never was a problem for them.

You should dose at the rate of 500 mg. per 10 gallons daily for 12 days. Raise the temp of the tank to 90 degrees during treatment. Do 80% WC before each treatment. It doesn't sound good for the one floating at the top but it should help the others get well.

I put him into a salt bath for 30min and im changing the water right now. The thing is its illegal to sell metro for fish here, so its pretty expensive from the pharmacy.

It's a problem in many countries. If you can bump up the temp to 90 it will get rid of it eventually. Hex can't survive long in temps that high. Discus can handle up to 92 without a problem of you can get tank that warm.

I can try to bump it up to 90, what about the clown loaches? I've read they need to be kept at 82 F.

Clown loaches are not good tank mates for discus. Too active at night while the discus are resting. They could actually stress the discus, which in turn lowers their immunity.

Another thing about them is that even when they're cute when small, they growbig. That's when they can really cause problems. Move them to another tank.

They seem to be chilling at night and my discus don't seem to mind them. Wouldn't it have caused problems way before now? And If they are I don't have a place to put them to and can't buy one since all the shops are closed. So should I still bump it up to 90?

Also can someone tell me how much grams of metro I should get for 107 G tank. Because all of the info I'm seeing online is very mixed.

Also can someone tell me how much grams of metro I should get for 107 G tank. Because all of the info I'm seeing online is very mixed.
Edit:
Sorry, didn't see your answer about the dose!
I also can get some Magnesium sulfate heptahydrate 250mg/ml solution from work. Any idea what mg/g I should use if I should at all?
Metro will cost me 50 eur :eek: