35 days discus fry started "30 day syndrome"?

Hi,

I am new to discus breeding, this is the first successful batch of 22 fry and they are now 35 days old.

Yesterday I did a thorough cleaning of the tank by scraping all sides of the tank. This morning I found one baby laying on the bottom breathing hard. I did a 70% water change (I do daily 70% water change) immediately and dosed some methelyne blue (@ about 5ml per 10 gallon). But still, some of the babies are less active than before even when I fed them. Some started staying in the corner facing the wall. Some have that "dashing" behavior as if something is irritating them. :(

What do I do to help prevent them from dying? :(

Water parameters (just checked this morning):
0 ammonia
0 nitrite
0 nitrate
ph 7.8

Here is how the 30 gallon tank looks like:

Attachment 131794

Your nitrate level of 0 indicates that your tank is not properly cycled. It could be a bad reading depending on the test kits you are using and their expiration date. If the readings are correct this is a water quality problem. If it's not that the general suspect in these cases is flukes.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by LizStreithorst

Your nitrate level of 0 indicates that your tank is not properly cycled. It could be a bad reading depending on the test kits you are using and their expiration date. If the readings are correct this is a water quality problem. If it's not that the general suspect in these cases is flukes.

---

My tank is cycled but I will take another measurement of nitrate, yeah I agree it would not be zero, my reading was wrong maybe.
If that is flukes, what would be the best treatment?
Thanks

Absolute wormer is gentle and gets flukes pretty well. PP might be risky with fry. But don't expect the remaining ones to be suddenly normal again. IME the majority of them keep dieing. The real solution is to treat the parents before they lay. But this is only if it's a parasite. I can't be certain that it's not a water quality problem until you check your readings with a different test. My LFS does that for free and they always use tests that are well within their expiration dates.

Some of the fry are already showing signs of sickness by turning dark, staying in the back.
Possible body and gill flukes, treat with 37% formalin at first signs.

Cliff