Discus Gill Clamped

[DiscusJimmy]

Hi All,

Firstly let me just say that I am new to discus keeping, but not new to keeping fish. I have kept fish for most of my life and could not imagine a house without a fish tank (or 2) in the living room.

Recently (4 months ago) I decided to donate the contents of my community aquarium to a friend. I always wanted to keep Discus fish and she needed cheering up; so it was the perfect opportunity.

I had been cycling my tank for nearly 5 months now with just a “skeleton Crew” of fish (5 Corys) and a breeding pair of T-bar Cichlids.I have used this time to read up as much as I can on Discus before finally adding 2 beautiful 15cm fish, 3 weeks ago.

I have a 190 litre tank with 2 discus (eventually I want 5), 20 Cardinals, 3 corys and 3 Rams. They have all been fine (the Rams have even spawned) until the last 2 days. I made a school boy error and introduced 2 Algae eaters.

Last night I noticed that one of the Discus was clamping one of its gills. I immediately did a 50% water change (I have been doing regular 30% water changes virtually every day since the fish were introduced). I tested my water before the 50% change:

Ammonia -0
Nitrate – 0 – 5ppm
Nitrite - 0
pH – 7 (it is always that)

Tested again today still no change, but this evening the gill is clamped. Probably better say that the fish was not permanently clamping the gill just intermittently for 5mins or so. I did however notice that there is a single white spot on one of the Tetras and another on one of the Rams. They seem fine and everyone is eating happily.

I’ve added salt ( 1tbsp per 20ltrs) and some AZOO anti-whitespot, cranking the temp up slowly to 30C . The discus and everyone else seem fine with the treatment and the discus are not clamping since adding the salt.

My question is would a potential outbreak in Ich cause the sporadic gill clamping or should I look for another root cause?

Thanks Jim

[Chicago Discus]

No need to raise the temperature get rid of the meds and age your water ........just my opinion....Josie

[DiscusJimmy]

Hi Josie, What method do you use to age your water?

Also just been doing some research and the gill clamping thing could be caused by the water changes I have been doing. Been using tape water treated with Safe, but after reading an article posted here "on the use of Chlorine Dioxide at the water treatment stage".

http://forum.simplydiscus.com/showth...)-In-The-Water!

I checked it out and it seems that my area of the world might be using it....

On a lighter note treatment is going well so far, all the white spots have disappeared and the 2 discus are very perky and eating like it was going out of fashion!