Floating Discus

1st of all ...... hello everyone ... havent been on here in a long time.

I have a problem tank right now and one of the discus is now floating on top but looks to be breathing fine. He just cant stay down.

Yesterday he was at the bottom pointing straight down and then after a wc he was laying on the bottom.

I was worried he wouldnt make it through the night but this morning he was at the top floating sideways but seems to be breathing ok. I give him a lil help and he swims around and can swim to the bottom but then floats back up top.

My 1st thought was bloat but i see no lump at all on him but he does seem to be a lil sunken in (pinched) behind the gills. Is there something else that would cause him to not be able to stay down and upright?? Swim bladder problem possibly?

The tank was neglected a bit to long and him and the rest of the fish started getting some slime on the sides and a couple even had cloudy or slimed eyes. When i noticed this yesterday i did a large WC and added some salt. I picked up some Prazipro and melafix today and added the prazipro tonight after another wc. I noticed a lil slime looking to be coming out one side of the gills.

I dont have any epson salts or would have added that as well but will pick some up in the morning and add it.

Any other suggestions?

Cage,
long time no chat ? mate sounds like you have a swim bladder problem, never really had any luck treating them unfortunately. As for the slime sounds, like you need a good anti biotic to fix them up, just go easy before you throw everything in there,melafix,prazi,salt mate you will stress them out to much with too many medications, mate just keep doing heaps of w/c get the temp up a little and they should be ok, sounds like they got the discus flu !


cheers

Just prazi and salt in there now.

Just picked up the melafix for the body slime and eye cloud after the prazi treatment if the WC's dont clear it up.

I guess i'll try the epson tomorrow after a wc and hope its just a bloat problem.

Hi Cage, been awile - for me too! Anyway, IMO sounds like swim bladder problem, possibly due to bacterial infection, since you said tank was neglected somewhat. I believe Maracyn 2 can be used for that, but I've never heard how effective treatment is for swim bladder. I've also read about correcting a swim bladder prob by placing the fish in a separate tank and lowering water level to right above the fish. Then gradually raising the water level and helping the fish slowly move up and down. The rest of the specifics I've forgotten, but I'm sure you can google it.

In my short years experience in discus I had a male that developed swim bladder problem. I tried everything , read to use a gram negative medicine and used Neomicin, tried the salt, the constant water changes . The fish lived six months like that (headstanding) was very healthy otherwise. Everyone pretty much told me there was not really a cure. I froze him recently, could not stand seeing him look like that. It was hard to do since I raised him for three years.
I wish your fish comes out of it somehow. I like the advise of lowering the water ,

Roberto.

A discus with a badly infected swim bladder usually won't begin to float until the damage has progressed for quite some time.

Are you sure there isn't a bulge a little over 1/2 way towards the tail?

Try dosing the tank with epsome salts and see if that helps. If this is a swim bladder problem then try lowering the water to just above the dorsal and treat with EM for 7-10 days...

Tried the epson today and no luck.

After a better observation ... i did notice a slight bulge on one side and really hoped the epson would take care of the problem.

He's still floating at the top sideways though.

Im starting to worry a bit more cause 2 others are up at the top as well now but not sideways yet. Either they have a problem as well or just hanging with their buddy.

What is EM???

By the way .... The main discus is my only Pigeon Blood and he is about 6 years old now.

HI Cage
EM is erythromyacin or maracyn 1

for internal problems I like kanamycin

some have had success with minocycline or maracyn 2

you can mix maracyn 1 and 2

hth
Ardan

Just wanted to post an update.

To my surprise ........ After a week of my discus floating on the top, I came home from work yesterday and he was swimming around normally again. That was a very pleasant surprise. I had pretty much given up on him to be normal again.

After the prazipro treatment, then melafix for a couple days, I did an EM treatment ... waited 2 days then another EM treatment. A few days later he was back to his old self again.

Im seeing some jagged fins now though so im assumming the EM hurt the bio filter so will be doing lots of WC's for awhile.

Good news cage! good to see you around, yeah, start checking your ammonia, and also, no one mentioned the PH, when you leave an established tank for some time without w/c's the PH can go way down.

-Tom

I have the same problem today! It was ok yesterday night before I went to sleep and now the same as yours, do you have the salt in while you do the EM treatment? And which EM treatment did you go for thanks.

Tony.

I did the epson treatment for 2 days in case it was just bloat.

I did do a WC before adding the EM treatment but i dont believe the epson at the same time would hurt.

But i would go ahead and do an epson treatment 1st before adding meds. If its bloat the epson will take care of it pretty quick.

The EM i got was from petsmart. It was 10 packets of powder that you just dump in the tank. Each packet takes care of 20 gallons. I did 5 packets each day for 2 days for my 55 gallon tank.

The fish in this tank are still not quite right. They arent eating as well as normal. And 2 of them (including the original fish i posted about) are doing a lil headstanding at times. But i'd rather see that than my favorite discus just floating on the surface .... lol.

HTH