Whirling Disease

[bamzam]

I do not have wilds, but sadly, one of my discus is also showing the same behavior. It is also my largest discus who was the alpha and ate the most. I've been doing 50% daily but will lower it based on the advice from this thread. My fish are all juvies however, so hopefully this does not prevent them from growing out to their potential. In addition to the reduction in water changes, did you all treat with metro? Is there any potential harm in using metro for the other fish in the tank that are behaving normally?

[Second Hand Pat]

Sorry to hear this and it is definitely not limited to wilds. I have communicated with others who had domestics do this. When I treated with metro it do not seem to work. Some folks have had success with turning off the lights and covering the tank into near darkness for about four days. Light feedings and small WCs during this time.

When you remove the cover allow the fish to slowly adjust to the light. leave the tank light off and room sort of dark if possible.

Also remember that there are other causes for darting/whirling like water quality etc.

Pat

[khooyang]

Kraig, perhaps in this thread http://forum.simplydiscus.com/showth...=suddenly+sick. Warning...this thread is a two hour read.

Wow...follow through the whole post! Yes, I did spend more than 1.5 hours going through including skipping some. Finally, Metro is the key...such ups and down with the treatment process from first suspecting the contaminated hose, salt, and so on... Mr Soh is great! Don't see him active after 2013?

[khooyang]

Sorry to hear this and it is definitely not limited to wilds. I have communicated with others who had domestics do this. When I treated with metro it do not seem to work. Some folks have had success with turning off the lights and covering the tank into near darkness for about four days. Light feedings and small WCs during this time.

When you remove the cover allow the fish to slowly adjust to the light. leave the tank light off and room sort of dark if possible.

Also remember that there are other causes for darting/whirling like water quality etc.

Pat

Hi Pat, so Metro may not work for whirling disease? Would that be because of the dose rate?

I read from here: http://www.archersdiscus.com/disease_21.html

that high dosage of Metro (400~450mg/ 10 gallons) may be necessary or you may risk developing a resistant strain of flagellates?

[Second Hand Pat]

khooyang, since you read my thread back in 2011 I dosed metro at Andrew's recommendation (3 grams per 25 gallons dosed every third day for a 12 day treatment). It did not seen to work. So I went to a different metro based medication which you can only get under a vet's prescription.
Pat

[khooyang]

khooyang, since you read my thread back in 2011 I dosed metro at Andrew's recommendation (3 grams per 25 gallons dosed every third day for a 12 day treatment). It did not seen to work. So I went to a different metro based medication which you can only get under a vet's prescription.
Pat

Yes, I did search on Tinidazole and get to know that it's chemically similar to Metro, but in Australia, you can never get it unless you go for VET so I have to put my full hope on Metro . Seems that the whirling disease is a hard to cure disease for discus.....

[Discus-n00b]

I have to go back and read but has anyone tried something like a UV Sterilizer? It seems like whatever this is likes to come back. At least in my experience. Turn the lights off, cover the tank, dose metro, do less water changes.....but as soon as you revert back from one of those it pops up again. Wondering if something like UV can just kill it from the water.

[bamzam]

Yes, I did search on Tinidazole and get to know that it's chemically similar to Metro, but in Australia, you can never get it unless you go for VET so I have to put my full hope on Metro . Seems that the whirling disease is a hard to cure disease for discus.....

I ordered metro from nationalfishpharm.com a week ago, waiting for it to come in now. I guess it's worth a try unless there's any potential side effects to my healthy fish? Hoping this works, this one is my favorite discus. Its been 3-4 days now since i first saw it happen....he looks all scratched up from running into rocks when he has an episode. I went into blackout mode starting this morning as well. I currently run a canister filter with purigen in it and a uv sterilizer hooked up to the output. If my fish survives until the metro comes in, will any of these items affect the treatment? Do I need to turn off my filter?

[Second Hand Pat]

You will need to remove the purigen as it will remove meds from the water column. I would also suggest removing rocks etc. Anything the fish can harm itself on.
Pat

[bamzam]

I have to go back and read but has anyone tried something like a UV Sterilizer? It seems like whatever this is likes to come back. At least in my experience. Turn the lights off, cover the tank, dose metro, do less water changes.....but as soon as you revert back from one of those it pops up again. Wondering if something like UV can just kill it from the water.

I installed a uv sterilizer when I set up my tank in hopes that it would prevent any external diseases/bacteria and I still ended up with this issue. Maybe it's true that the compact uv's (I have the coralife) are not strong enough to do anything but clear your water. I read earlier in the thread that once one fish died after the whirling disease, a lot of times another would pick it up. Did all of you who have experienced this end up losing all your fish to this?

I was a little hesitant to remove the rocks at first thinking it would stress the entire tank. The sick one hides behind them majority of the time and everytime he has an episode, all the discus and angels freak out and hide behind the rocks as well.

[AngryBird]

I had 20 tefe juvis(domestic) that i was growing out in a tank with and suddenly one after another started with this problem. I still dont know how it started but within a week i lost close to 10 fish and I had to put down the rest because all showed symptoms and it was only getting worse with every step that I took to help them. If they were adults I would have given them time to fight but with juvi's it was pretty bad and quick.

[khooyang]

I ordered metro from nationalfishpharm.com a week ago, waiting for it to come in now. I guess it's worth a try unless there's any potential side effects to my healthy fish? Hoping this works, this one is my favorite discus. Its been 3-4 days now since i first saw it happen....he looks all scratched up from running into rocks when he has an episode. I went into blackout mode starting this morning as well. I currently run a canister filter with purigen in it and a uv sterilizer hooked up to the output. If my fish survives until the metro comes in, will any of these items affect the treatment? Do I need to turn off my filter?

As Pat suggest, you do not need to turn off filter, just remove purigen (Metro won't knock off your bio filter) and I also wonder do you change your UV bulb every year? I think they have lifetime of about a year and lost its strength.

[khooyang]

Hi Pat, something that is unsure with me is usually I see Metro tablet say 500mg, 400mg and so on. Is 3 grams per 25 gallons means you need to use 6 x 500mg tablets to treat 25 gallons of water? That's a lot of meds. I remember seeing on your 2011 thread that some one recommended 30mg~40mg per gallons in water. So means 1 x 300mg or 400mg tablets for 10 gallons?

[bamzam]

I decided I can't wait for the stuff I ordered online to come in and went to the lfs and bought some hikari metro+. Going to take out the purigen and turn off my uv and start treatment today. This stuff says 1 cap full per 10 gal....it looks like I'm going to need almost the whole bottle for one dosage. Is there any harm in switching brands of metro during treatment? Should be all the same chemicals right? Any other tips you guys have would be great as I'm pretty new to this and have never treated an aquarium before.

[Second Hand Pat]

Hi Pat, something that is unsure with me is usually I see Metro tablet say 500mg, 400mg and so on. Is 3 grams per 25 gallons means you need to use 6 x 500mg tablets to treat 25 gallons of water? That's a lot of meds. I remember seeing on your 2011 thread that some one recommended 30mg~40mg per gallons in water. So means 1 x 300mg or 400mg tablets for 10 gallons?

Khooyang, if you are using the dosage recommended by Andrew you are looking at 6 x 500mg tablets per 25 gallons which is 3 grams per 25.
Pat