My discus story (mistakes) perhaps help still possible

Hi! Thanks to Brew and all other in this great community

Wanna share my Story (mistakes) perhaps someone will learn something from it.

I don’t think my situation is still fixable, but you never know, I give it 1 last shot

I had this 75 Gal tank with big cichlids in it. I decide to go into discus, I took all cichlids to LFS, and started my journey, went to source 1, bought 2 adult discus, they kept them at 7.8 PH, my water is 8.0-8.1, they were doing fine, after a few weeks I added 3 more adults and so forth after a few weeks 3 more. Then I also put in my 8 inch silver arowana from one of my other tanks, everything looked great.

Now after two months being a proud discus owner on a high PH 8.1, 8 adult discus + arowana, I decided to go buy some extraordinary albino strains from an ALL DISCUS LFS, I did so and came home with 4 beauties ($600) different albino unusual strains, NOW THE FUN BEGINS.

That Discus specialist keeps his fish in SPECIAL DISCUS PARAMETERS, so I knew I will need special acclimation, the discus source gave me extra water to fill up 2 thirds of a 20 gallon L, the fish where in the bags aprox 1and half hour, I put in all the fish with the sourced water in the 20 gallon, the next 48 hours I added every few hours a few cups of water from my 75 gallon tank, then I drained some water out of the 20 G, added some more water from the 75 G, finally I put my new discus in my main tank.

Next day I notice the new discus having clamed fins and ick all over their bodies. I call the seller, he tells me to use Fenbendenzole, and raise temp to 89-90, so I did, but my arowana I figured will not handle the high temp, so I put him in another established tank, after taking out the fish from there.

Now I have the 75 gal at 90 with 12 discus, a 40 gal at 85 with arowana, both are dosed 1/8 of a teaspoon fenbendenzole per 20 gal. both have a PH of 8.1, and since the seller told me the fish can handle little more of the recommended dosage, I decided to add a little more to be on the SAFE side.

After 3 days the ick was gone the fish looked great (besides 1 having clamed fins and always looking down as if he loves to look in the mirror of my bare bottom tank, but I didn’t pay attention to that) I do a 30% wc, and dose the tanks again, (as my seller told me) after 3 days another 30% wc, no more meds.

Now my arowana stops eating, tale hanging, then tail gets some looks like cuts in it, I take pics to LFS tells me it’s not tail rot cause there is no whitish stuff on the place of the cut, so I wait another day it gets worse after a week his fins and tail where shredded, couldn’t swim, I put in KANAPLEX for 2 days, and then he past.

Back to the discus, the 8th day of treatment with fenbendenzole treatment was finished and 30%wc, 1 fish is head standing, I’m calling the specialty discus source, he tells me not to use meds, just Epsom salt, I followed his instruction, but symptoms getting worse, more fish head standing tail standing lying on the bottom struggling to swim, I do every day 30% wc.

Calling source again, he blames the PH for everything, tells me to put in peat in filter as an emergency PH lowering procedure, did so, next day 5 discus dead and other seem on their way.

Now while writing this post I have 6 discus worth about $900 in my garbage can, the other’s in my tank are eagerly awaiting to end their lives and suffering, and I’m waiting to get over with this DISCUS MADNESS, and get back to the easy fish hobby.

Last minute I decided before giving up completely, I will give SIMPLY a shot, even if I can’t save my fish, at least someone else may use my story as a DON’T DO info story.

Thanks to all out there helping other’s



Now the questionnaire
1. Please explain the problems with your fish. When did you notice the problems and did anything unusual happen that you think started them? Explained above


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). All of the above but no cloudy eyes, no flashing, no poop since they didn’t eat for a while


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


Tank/Water

4. Tank size and ages, numbers and sizes of fish. Tank is a year old, 75g, 8 discus 4-6”


5. Water change regime (What percentage and how often). 30% twice a week, but now more often


6. How long has tank been running? Is it bare bottom? If you have substrate, what type and how deep is it? Bare bottom, running with discus 2 months, with other fish a year


7. Do you age your water? If you do for how long and what is the ph swing. no


8. Parameters and water source; tap water 8.1 PH, nitrite 0, ammonia 0, nitrate 40-80
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 _85____

- ph _7.9 - 8.1____

- ammonia reading __0__

- nitrite reading __0__

- nitrate reading __40-80__

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 ____


9. Any new fish, plants or inverts added recently. 4 new discus read story above


10. 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 beef heart from hikari, frozen brine shrimp, flakes, hikari discus bio gold, occasionally frozen blood worms, live black worms from a trusted LFS


11. 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.


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Hi Fishel, without going thru all the mistakes first lets see if we can clean up your water. Nitrates of 40-80 is really bad. Tell me how you do water changes. Do you age your water? Can you do a 50% water change? If you can lets do a 50% water change and see how the fish react to it.
Pat

Fenbendazole is a strange choice for ich. It seems like the treatment period was uneventful though. Did the problems begin when you started changing water more?

What dechlorinator do you use and what dosage? Do you know if your tap water has chlorine or chloramine?

In the pics;is that pics of the main tank or hospital tank?What do you use for filtration in the 90 gal.?The little corner filter in the pics throws me off.It sounds like you may have put your new discus in very dirty water,which they were not used to and caused stress along with high build up of nitrates/pathogens and from different sources.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Second Hand Pat

Hi Fishel, without going thru all the mistakes first lets see if we can clean up your water. Nitrates of 40-80 is really bad. Tell me how you do water changes. Do you age your water? Can you do a 50% water change? If you can lets do a 50% water change and see how the fish react to it.
Pat

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Thanks Pat, i do not age, i did only 30% wc cause i use tap water with high PH, and LFS told me that wc more then 30% will cause a PH fluctuation, but at this point i have nothing to lose, so will do now 50%wc and see what happens, will post soon the results.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Megalodon

Did the problems begin when you started changing water more?

What dechlorinator do you use and what dosage? Do you know if your tap water has chlorine or chloramine?

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no, i started more wc after the problem

my tap water has chlorine, and i use PRIME

Quote:

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Originally Posted by bluelagoon

In the pics;is that pics of the main tank or hospital tank?What do you use for filtration in the 90 gal.?The little corner filter in the pics throws me off.It sounds like you may have put your new discus in very dirty water,which they were not used to and caused stress along with high build up of nitrates/pathogens and from different sources.

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no, that's my main tank, its 75g, i use a fluval 406 w lots of bio balls, plus to sponge filters (1 of them the corner filter)

I hate to see you throwing in the towel, but I feel that you made some very expensive mistakes from the beginning. If you decide to give it another go at discus, please read Al's post on keeping discus; https://youtu.be/VXe3VKh7qF8

Should they rest in peace
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Yikes, you lost 11 of your 12 discus?
Pat

Hi There
i am so sorry to hear about this - how terrible.
12 Discus in a 75g is quite a lot, which will result in more waste - which means more frequent water changes. Your Nitrates are very very high (Just like Pat said). I am not always able to age my water, but i find that if i fill the bath up with water and leave it for an hour, and then add some hot water to get it up to the right temperature that it helps.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Second Hand Pat

Yikes, you lost 11 of your 12 discus?
Pat

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YES, Thanks for all of you. moving on....

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Fishel

YES, Thanks for all of you. moving on....

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Really sorry to hear. What is your plan from here?
Pat

Sorry Fishel those were some really nice fish, you'll need time to mourn but don't give up.