White pimples on body

[Pantherman]

DISEASE QUESTIONNAIRE


Problem

1. Please explain the problems with your fish/when and how they started

About 3 to 4 days ago discus stopped eating, gills enflamed not handing around other discus.
1 day ago started flopping around looking sick etc, removed from community tank and put in quarrentine tank, took pictures water samples etc to 2 fish stores for diagnosis. They said water is fine and did not know what was wrong.
I researched myself and made best guess it was gill flukes. Admisistered Prazi, fish still not eating

Today noticed new sympoms that are not gill flukes, did 100% clean out of quarrentine tank and refiled with water from main tank.



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)

Symptoms are as follows:

- Last month or so all fins turning black with some black marks going down body
- last 4 days not eating or hanging around other fish
- Very skinny with enflamed gills (heavy breathing)
- 2 x white pimples (about 1/4 of a match stick head and sticking out)
- i think 1 or 2 black spots (not sure)
- very lethargic floating side ways on occasion, looks about to die




3. What medications/ treatments that you have already tried and results. Include dosages and duration of treatment.

tried 100mg Praziquantel tabs at 50mg per 10L, carried out treatment for around 18hrs. No results fish worse, stopped treatment.



Tank/Water

4. Tank size and age, number and size of fish

Main tank (where i took fish out of) is 440L about 6 months old. 5 discus, 2x bristlenose, 1 x pleco, 6x clown loach, 4 x black knife, 11x cardinal tetras, 1x angelfish, 1x silver shark, 1 x guppie, and a few other miscillanious.


5. Water change regime/ how long has tank been running/ bare bottom or gravel/ do you age your water?

water change about 30% every month, fine gravel on bottom, no aging of water (make sure right PH, temp, de-chlorinated). Planted tank, fluval FX5 filter, always have perfect water test results

6 Parameters and water source;

- temp _27.5____

- ph _7.8____

- ammonia reading __0__

- nitrite reading ___0_

- nitrate reading ___0_

- well water __No__

- municipal water __yes__

7. Any new fish/plants added recently

None


If anyone can please advise what treatment to carry out it would be appreciated, i have a multi cure treatment here that I think might work but am not sure it is Blue Planet Multi Cure, active ingredients 0.4mg/ml malachite green, 4.0mg/ml methylene blue, 2.00mg/ml acriflavine. (bought as back up to fluke treatment). It is meant to Aid in the treatment of white spot and velvet disease and fungal diseases.

If a photo is required please advise and i will try to figure out how to post it.

Thanks in advance for any help

[Pantherman]

this one shows the white pimple and black spot



this one is the other side of the discus

(hope this works, first time posting photos)

[Pantherman]

Just an update, I did not think i could wait anymore so I have administered the multi-cure treatment previously mentioned. I am not sure if it is the correct way to go but could not wait any longer for a response

Also my post seems to be deleted, it does not come up anymore when I click on the thread

I would still very much like some help with the problem though, as i am concerned that if the multi cure doesnt work and the fish dies, then how long till the fish in the main tank start to die from mystery disease?

Thanks again

[Pantherman]

Not sure why I have not had any response to this, if someone can please advise why it would be appreciated. Did I fill out the questionaire wrong, no one know anything about this type of problem or due to no one being able to see original post?

If it is just due to the original post dissapearing can someone please let me know how to ask the admin to fix whatever went wrong or why/if they deleted it.

[Pantherman]

Further update, the Discus is now dead

I have asked Admin to repair this thread and put the questionaire back that I filled out. Hopefully someone is interested in helping once it is back up. If anyone is interested I will post better photos of the fish (took after it died). I am still hoping to find the cause as I am worried the other fish will begin to die also.

[Eddie]

Once the questionnaire is filled out, we can look at possibilities.

[Second Hand Pat]

Further update, the Discus is now dead

I have asked Admin to repair this thread and put the questionaire back that I filled out. Hopefully someone is interested in helping once it is back up. If anyone is interested I will post better photos of the fish (took after it died). I am still hoping to find the cause as I am worried the other fish will begin to die also.

Pantherman, I approved your posts. How did you ask admin to repair your thread?

[Pantherman]

I filled out a support thing in the contact us section i think. Sorry for any issues caused. After I started the thread everything was up on the site for an hour or so then dissapeared I had assumed that it must have been approved in the first place to show up (i checked from alternate computer to make sure it was actually on your site and not just visible on the computer that it was created on). After it all dissapeared I assumed there must be a glitch or it was removed.

Thanks for sorting it out

[Pardal]

Pantherman.
Perhaps maybe too late for the little guy, but one thing that call my attention is you do 30% WC once a month, that is not good for proper discus care. You should increase your water changes two or three times per week , preferible daily(most discus keepers).
The white pimples could be a secondary infection of something bigger. not recall that you mentioned any feces or color,
All timer's discus keeper always start with metro 25 mg and raise the temperature to 90f with daily WC and redose for 10 days.
I personally do 50mg at 90F for five days with good results.
Or You can do a PP treatment this will take care of anything exterior including the gills.
One of these treatment will be my initial emergency respond at this time then
Allow time for the fish to recover before decide any other treatments with good quality WC daily.
I'm sure other members with more experience will give you their advise . I just hope is not too late for your little guy.
The black spots that you see are called peppering(you probably already know) and is do to the gravel and is normal on all the pigeon base fish like yours. if you don't mind keep the gravel.for a more cleaner fish barebottom or white substrate . bare bottom is the way to go if you want to grow your fish easier to clean.
Is too much information to put in a post and I don't know your experience on Discus . I do suggest for you to read as much as possible on the Discus for begginers and other sections here in the forum. no shame on that I've been keeping discus for over 12 years now , and ornamental fish all my life (father and brother were fish breeders way before I was born) and still call others and check for update an advise in this side.
One more thing try to obtain your fish from a good source is the starting point like many sponsors here in simply or even members of the forum that live close to you.
I hope this can help good luck
Julian.

[Pantherman]

Thanks for the response. I will up the water changes a fair bit to 30% a week hopefully that helps, the reason i left it so long was due to 0 nitrate or ammonia readings ever (except initial set up and cycling) and due to the 3x too big canister filter I am using (Fluval FX5, 3500lph made for 1500L tank, with mine being 440L) Also swapping out 130+ Litres of water a day (or even every second) is a task I will only be able to do once a week at most (i work about 70hrs a week). If there is anyway to avoid this requirement that would be good (was original reason for spending more on the filter than i did on the tank). I am on holidays for 1 more week and this is about my only chance to spend so much time on this



I never saw any change in feces.

Also sorry about the Litres and Degrees Centigrade, I am an Aussie and do not use Farenheight or Gallons (if this is an issue I might start using a converter)

Regarding the Metro treatment can you please advise if this should be carried out only on those showing signs of sickness (not eating etc) or carry out now anyway just in case. If carry out now should I be removing all the discus into the quarentine tank and treating them all at once? If these are stupid quesitons that I will find the answer to elsewhere please feel free to not answer or tell me to find a book, I intend to read allot more books on all this now. If you can advise a thread or a book to read about the 2 treatments that you mentioned it would be appreciated.

I have purchased all my fish from one supplier and they are all the best quality I can get in Brisbane (they were not cheap). This is the first time after 6 months i have had any issue at all, i had thought my setup was good enough (going to read allot more now)

In conclusion though, I am assuming that it is now not possible to diagnose the reason for the death of the discus, but i would still like to know if due to this i should be quarrentining the rest of the discus or treating them? (they show no signs of anything wrong though). Probably a little gross but i have bagged and frozen the dead fish to take to my supplier and see if they can diagnose it or take samples to figure it out. I have to wait till the 10th when they reopen though.

Below are some photos i thought might be of interest, a picture of each of the remaining discus, the main tank and a picture of the dead discus up close.









Thanks for your help and time

[Pardal]

Panthermam
I won't do anything if there is no sighn of disease on the other fish, I do recomend to increase the water changes, the reason is the bioload IMO and many here will back me up there is not filter than can surpass a WC with clean water, I understand many of us work a lot of hours, I recommend for you to find a way to make your WC automatic or semiautomatic, that way will reduce your time for WC. better if a family member will help you out.
I also strongly recomend to go bare bottom for the size of fish you have now , feed heavy and daily WC. or they will go stunt , read about the size of fish and eye ratio thread. some of them are border line now. i.e your dead fish the ratio is about 4. a good eye size to fish ratio is 7 to 8 or more. Keep that on mind when you are going to buy, There are good sponsors in Australia
If you want to do less WC and keep your gravel I recomend larger fish 5'' or 6" . I think 6" is equal to 15cm.(the still need frequent WC but are more forgiveable, also some strains will pepper up with your black sand really quick.
Not need to buy books yet, you have to browse the topics on the Discus Basics for beginers I will look for some to recomend to you. Once you have some knowledge you will be able to buy books that you really want as some of them starting to get obsolete.
Chek also the food and nutrition sections . What you normally feed your fish and how often. and water works sections.
Also check your settings I try to PM (private message) but you have email only.

[Pardal]

Also read on the sick and diseases section and learn how to use PP(potasium permaganate) , Metronidazole, Praziquantel, Flebendazol. Salt Water Bath etc.
Read all so you know how to use it and to make a more educated guess. As the shotgun approach is not good idea.
Patience , and WC should be always your first choice and when you apply a medication go thru the recommend dose and time, then allow some time for the fish to recover as jumping from one medicine to another is harder on the fish that the ailment itself.

[Pantherman]

Pardal
Thanks very much for the help I was worried I was doing the wrong thing I am going to take your advise , I have started looking into an automatic water change system (or semi-auto have to look around for more ideas) and I am considering setting up a water prep/aging tank to pump in the fresh water from each day then have an overflow on the tank to have the water drain by itself.
Though I might do some tests on the tap water here to see how much chlorine and other chemicals are in it, as it might possibly be ok as is (i know its a long shot but it is the same PH and temperature as my tank). I also have rain water tanks and might check out the water quality in those.

I have changed my settings and should be able to recieve PM's now, sorry about that. Regarding the sponsors in Australia, do you know of any in Brisbane? I currently buy all my fish from Smiths Aquarium http://www.smithsaquarium.com.au/ I have not been able to find a fresh water fish supplier to match them and would be interested to know of others in Brisbane.

Thanks again for your help it is very much appreciated

[Pardal]

Pantherman
There are two well known sponsors here on Simply one is Darren Burguess, in Townsville which is in Queensland same state that you are. He is just north from you. The other is Anthony Donny from Discus Planetarium don't know where in Australia he is located but He imports his fish from Forrest which fish are top notch. You can check many sponsors like Kenny's and I think April some times also import from him . I think will be worth to pay the shipping as it is the same country and sometimes in the same state.
Yes at this time I will try to get a barrel or two with a submersible pump to fill your tanks and a couple of hoses one for vacum to the garden or sink and one from the barrel with the submersible pump to fill, this is an start , you can also check the section of do it yourself for ideas on how to improved your WC.
Take care
Julian.

[Pardal]

Pantherman
I think in order to have your PM activated you need to post a few more threads don't recall exactly but used to be like that a while back.

Julian.