Suddenly All are Sick

Hi, Would appreciate your urgent help on this.


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

All the discus were healthy. Ate well and were very active. Just couple of days ago suddenly all of them look lethargic, always in the corner, not eating and not swimming much. WC and Feedings all done in the usual manner but really don't understand what happened all of a sudden.

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).

Melon Discus x2 (Both are the biggest) - not eating, clamped fins, one guy has some white spots on the body. Both are together in the corner.
Turqs x2 - They turn very dark all of a sudden and again become light. Both are eating less and one guy's eye has turned slightly white (cloudy eye). Even with these symptoms they are still being a little aggressive on others.
Checkerboard - This guy looks ok but eats less.
Yellow Discus (New Addition) - Scares me the most. looks very lethargic, fins clamped, swims funny, mostly on top of the tank.

All of these symptoms happened 6 days ago. Before that all were well.

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

WC 50% daily for last 4 days in a row now with Table Salt and Heat 30C (One of our local breeder advised to do daily WC with salt for 7 days and then to go for meds)

Tank/Water

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

Roughly 40-45 Gallon (150-170 Litres). Total 6 Discus fish.
Red Melon pair - 8 cm & 10 cm in size
Turq pair - 7 cm
Checkerboard - 7 cm
Yellow - 6 cm
Tank is 9 months old.

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

I have been doing around 40%-50% WC 3 times a week

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

Bare bottom tank running for 9 months now.

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

I do not age my water. I use tap water with dechlor. I keep the water for 30-60 minutes with dechlor before adding to the tank

8. 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 - 30C

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

9. Any new fish, plants or inverts added recently.

Yes, Yellow Discus. I did QT for 2 weeks. Reasons i QT only 2 weeks - Actually i bought a pair from a local breeder and the fish started eating well very next day i put them in my QT tank / My QT tank is kept in an isolated room with only natural light. Room gets dark from evening. One guy must have got scared for shadows and jumped out of the tank and died. I closed the tank with a big book with only a very small open space. I still cannot understand how he jumped out with that small opening. This happened 1 week in QT ans the other guy stayed alone in QT for another week / my QT tank background and bottom are black so they started peppering soon from day 2 / This guy was eating well and active even after 2 weeks. Due to these I did my QT for 2 weeks only.


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.

I feed them 3-4 times a day.
Beef Heart Mix and FBW.

Sorry to bore everyone with a lot if info. I need some good advice soon. Actually I don't see fish recovering from daily WC. I need a common medicine to treat all of them. Another local breeder advised me to use 'Distinct-G' (anti-bacterial water conditioner). I have not bought this yet. Need your advice to move forward. Thank You.

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The Yellow Discus died as soon as I finished typing this thread. I really don't understand he was eating well and active few days ago now gone.
Anyways I have to save the others soon as possible. Urgent help needed. I have only Metro with me and I have successfully treated white poop twice using Metro but I don't know if Metro will work for this. I am experiencing these symptoms first time in the last 6 months.

Hi Imran, did all the fish get sick shortly after adding the yellow discus? To me sounds like possible cross contamination (from adding the yellow discus). I do not think the high temp is going to help and would suggest easing it back down. Can you do larger water changes? The salt is a good idea for the moment.
Pat

I tend to agree with Pat, particularly if they all got sick soon after introducing the yellow one. Other possibility is the water company added some non-routine treatment in the pipes, always worth getting in contact with them and asking. Hope they recover

Sounds like a classic case of the dreaded and mysterious Discus Flu/Discus Plague. Research it, lower PH, salt, water changes, and no lights

It's way to early to diagnose it as that.

Thank You for all the replies.

Pat / Paul - Yes they all got sick after adding the yellow one and after 2 weeks time. I did another 50% WC last night and added 'Distinct-G' (yellow powder - antibacterial). A local breeder and the LFS recommended me this product as a safe water conditioner. I combined it with salt. The whole tank turned green. i fed them BHM a little in the morning today. The turqs and checkerboard started eating. The Melon pair are still in a corner. The product says to dose once and leave it for 3 days and if symptoms still appear then re-dose. I have planned to do a larger WC tonight and re-dose the powder and leave it for 2 days. Hope it clears. I have added some pics taken in the morning and pic of the product I used.
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Can't easily find the active ingredient in that product but sounds like malachite green, that has some antibacterial/antimicotic/anti-parasitic action. As you have started might as well run the course of treatment and see how it goes, I would still recommend trying to get in touch with the water company just to roule that possibility out.

Hi Paul - I hope this malachite green is good and safe for the fish. I could not find any active ingredients listed in the box. I will check the bottle if anything listed and post it here.
Regarding water supply - I wish it was easy to contact them. Government workers here so difficult to get in touch and they just keep transferring the phone lines and finally hang up. I will have to try again by Monday only.

Hi, I did a 50% WC on 5th night and added the antibacterial powder with salt. i fed them very little on the 6th and skipped WC. They were all looking ok. Clamped fins/dorsal fins were some what ok but only 2 of the juvies ate little. Melon pair and the turq did not eat (I noticed a bloat on the large Melon fish). I did a 70% WC on the 7th and added the anti-bacterial powder and added epsom salt (1tsp/10g). did not feed them after the WC.
Today morning I noticed 1 of the Melon fish laying dead (not the biggest one with bloat). This guy did not eat anything for a week. had clamped fins but it was alright after adding the powder. now suddenly dead.
I have left with only 4 fish now.
Turq pair - cloudy eyes but 1 guy is still being aggressive on others.
Melon - looks little bloated / sometimes clamped fins / also I saw him twice trying to scratch himself against the sponge filter
Checkerboard - This guy looks ok but doesn't eat.
I saw a little white mucus poop last time I did a WC.
I have planned to carry out a large WC for tonight and tomorrow without adding anything. Then to to do a course of Metro from tomorrow on-wards for 10 days to eliminate any external parasites and to get them eating again. Please advice me if my next course of action is right.

Just a few questions running in my head.
All these happened due to my short QT period yellow discus but if it had been carrying any bacteria/parasites, it would have killed my existing fish first but in this case the yellow discus died first. does this mean my existing discus had any parasites that were passed on to the new one and the new discus's parasites passed to the existing ones?
Can these bacteria/parasites take the life of the fish so fast despite the daily WCs even before we can figure out what is wrong with the fish?
I added epsom salt last night after WC and found the melon fish dead in the morning. I have a guilty feeling that the addition of epsom salt would have triggered something in the tank and caused him to die. can this be true?

Update - The same day I found the melon fish dead, I moved all 4 of the fishes to one of my 10G nano tanks. This was the tank I used for QT. I treated with salt for 1 day and with daily WCs of 60% with aged water. The tank is small for them and they cannot swim freely but that was the only option i had. No improvement and they refused to eat. I dosed the tank with 'Anti-Parasite M' a local product used in fish farms and I was told it contains a small concentration of Formalin also. Anyways, I tried this for the next 3 days with daily WCs. They were looking better - no clamped fins, no cloudy eyes and no tail rot. The big melon had its tail damaged like almost half of the tail was torn away. This started curing and grew fast.

The fish were looking better but ate very less. I continued daily WCs with aged water for the next couple of days. I saw a little white poop daily during WC. I started metro 2 days back with temp at 30C. yesterday 3 of the fishes started coming to the top of the tank when i go close and they started to fight for food. They are now swimming a little exploring the small tank area. Only 1 turq still turns very dark and eats less. I will anyway continue the metro treatment of 10 days and hope this turq recovers. I was really worried and thought I will lose all the fishes. It is a great feeling to see fish recovering from a bad disease and starting to eat after almost starving for 2 weeks.

Good to hear they are on the rebound Imran, be sure there is plenty of air in the small tank due to the elevated temp. :)
Pat

Really glad they are improving, wishing you and them all the best and keep us informed

Thanks a lot guys.
Meanwhile - I had added the anti-bacterial conditioner to the main tank and let it be for 4 days. Drained all the water and cleaned the sponge filters. Then i filled fresh water again and added PP to the main tank. Wanted to add 2mg/litre but by mistake more PP crystals fell in to the tank from the packet. I let it be as there were no fish in the tank. The tank was dark purple in color for several hours and turned maroon color the next day. I switched on the sponge filters and it turned light brown. I don't know if my beneficial bacteria are affected. I will drain the tank today and add fresh water and let it run for at least a week before adding the fish again.