New Discus Owner Treatment Questions

Hello everyone! I have been reading this forum for weeks and finally joined. I am looking for some help and advice regarding my Discus tank.


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

About 4-5 days ago I noticed some fish with long, white poop and also some mucous. Fish seem okay with the exception of one not eating and it looks like one f her tank mates took a bite out of her fin. There is so much info out there I don’t want to treat improperly.

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).

White, stringy poop, one fish hiding and not eating.



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

Just started Paraguard last night. Unsure if I should continue that if I’m going to try another medication.


Tank/Water

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

70-gallon tank, one month old. Eight discus about 3 inches except for the little runt they gave me. That was going to be the one that got bullied but he’s pretty bad *** and doesn’t take a lot of crap. The one not eating gets the brunt of it.

I have two HOB FILTES. ONE ESTABLISHED RATED FOR 75 gallons, just had a carbon cartridge and sponge in it. Recently added an aqua clear 110 with sponge, Purigen and bio balls.

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

I do a 50% water change daily and treat with prime.

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

Running about a month, bare bottom but for some medium rounded rocks in one corner barely covers the glass in that section.


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

Do not age.


8. What type/brand water conditioner do you use? Do you add it to the tank or aging barrel? How much do you use?

Prime, added directly to tank during water change along with seachem stability.

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.

All testing is per the API master test kit.

- temp 85 F

- ph 7.2

- ammonia reading 0

- nitrite reading 0

- nitrates between 5-10 ppm



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.

- City water


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

Nothing new. A few plants and one large fake driftwood since I have not yet soaked the real ones.

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.

Feed a few pinches of Royal Menu from the breeder, three times a day. They were raised on that. We were giving them some freeze dried brine shrimp and bloodworms as a treat once a day but since noticing the problem, nothing but Royal Menu.

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.

I haven’t figured out how to do this yet. I will.

I am a little worried about treating properly. I did and do a lot of research and I am committed to this process. I don’t want to feel like I have already failed, so any advice would be greatly appreciated. So many different medications and treatments and I’m a little overwhelmed as to where to start.

Stringy white poop is a sign of hexatemia infestation. Hex is present in most aquatic environments. When fish are stressed their depleted immunity gives opportunity for hex to over colonize in the gut and make the discus sick. Raise the tanks temp to 90 as this disrupts the life cycle and dose pure Metro 500mg/10gal daily for 10 days with a large water change b4 each new dose.
I wonder if the cause of the stress is pH swing from your water changes. Test the pH of your source water. Aerate & heat some in a 5 gal bucket for 24 hours. Test the pH again. If the swing is >0.4 this will cause stress and make your discus prone to disease. If this is the case you will need to set up a water aging system for your discus tank :thumbsup:

Thank you! That is the medication I was going to try but the more I read the more I wondered if that would be the place to start. Thanks for the advice on the PH. I will do that.

--'I am happy to report that after one day of salt, their med arrived A day early so I dosed them and cream ate A little bit today. Temp was raised to 90 as suggested. I am hopeful I caught this early enough that they will be okay. They all seem to have A better appetite this evening!. I did notice again, there was very little waste to clean which obviously suggest some constipation. I did see some healthy colored poop this morning. Should I be concerned with lack of waste? Admittedly, I have been the feeding them Less than usual.. Is that appropriate?

The increased temp not only disrupts the life cycle of the hex, it will also increase the appetite of your discus d/t increased metabolism. If they've been off their food a few days, and you've been feeding less, I wouldn't be too concerned.
It typically takes until about day 5 of your metro treatment for any significant changes to be evident.
Just keep an eye on them and keep us posted :thumbsup:

Watching them like A Hawk. Thank you so much for the help and advice!! I will update and am feeling much Less anxious. They seem much more Ike themselves , and I have only had them for 3 weeks.

Sounds good mate, and you're welcome! Just sharing what I learned here in SD...saved my bacon in the early days for sure!
Don't forget to do the pH test out of the tap and again after aerating & heating for 24 hours. This simple test will determine how you do water changes, and has a significant effect on the health & vitality of your discus. Some ppl's water has no swing, but the majority do, some significantly so.

Attachment 130045
Everyone is feeling better!!!

Great news Christine. Continue your metro treatment for the entire 10 days. Just like in humans, if you stop the treatment once feeling better you risk recontamination and potential resistance to the medication.
Glad your discus are doing better!!

Good looking discus Christine! Glad they’re doing better. Dan shouldn’t the 50% water changes she doing keep the ph stable and close to the tap water? Christine the turq on the bottom left next to the glass. Are those marks on its face on just reflections?

It is possible Tom, but some folks on here have very large pH swings, so it is best to check just to be sure. I wish we all had the liquid gold you guys have on Long Island ;)

I totally agree with Danny. When I was new I tested my pH and it was 6.8 out of the tap and 7.2 after aeration in a bucket for 24 hrs. I thought that was a small swing so I did my WC straight form the tap for a few months before I noticed that the fish simply weren't looking right. I got an aging container and after that they went back to their normal selves in about a week's time. Stable water pH is of great importance with Discus

Thank you. I was wondering the same.

My apologies for missing your reply, as well as some others. Ongoing issues brougoht me back here.

I was wondering the same, with the water changes.

The marks are defiitely reflection. None of them have any marks. I will reply to this thread in a bit as I am quite puzzled with what is going on with them.

Christine I hope your discus are doing well! I too am fairly new to discus and have been struggling with various issues ever since getting them last Oct/Nov.

I wanted to post a thank you here to Dan - because of this thread I started investigating PH swings and I realized my tap water is 7.4 and it rises to 8.4 after aging! I was doing months of daily large water changes on my small discus thinking I was helping them. So now I'm aging & aerating my water. I am also treating for parasites with Levamisole so once that's complete I'm hopeful that the aged water will help keep them healthy!

That's great Katie...way to do your due diligence...creating that stable pH environment will do wonders for your discus health & vitality...good one mate :thumbsup: