QT/PP Adult wild

[Belkar]

Hi there.
I got my hands of a group of 12 adult wilds. The previous owner have had these for 5 years.
I do a PP cure of all my fish before they get to enter my system. It is a 21 day cycle where I add PP every 3. day for a total of 7 PP baths. I do 100% waterchange each day during this period. I have no filters for this period as PP kills it.
All that is in the tank is heater and airstones.

Finally my question. Will a 300 liters / ~80 gallons tank be big enough for this purpose? The fish is about 13-16 cm(5-6) in size. This is a rough guestimate by eye measure only.

Thank you for your time,
Jarl

[Discus Origins]

Jarl,

Standard rule for 5-6" discus is 1 discus per 10 gallon of volume....for wilds I find they appreciate actually more room than that. Fora group of 12 adult wilds a minimum 125 gallon tank, larger even better. I have kept 6 wilds in a 90gallon tank and even then they look crowded.

Can I inquire as to your PP regiment? PP is extremely harsh and every 3 days is not enough time for the slime coat to return on the fish. Also if you are attempting to eradicate parasites, they normally undergo a 5-7 day life cycle so normally a repeat treatment 7 days after the initial is adequate. Is there a reason why you do 7 PP baths?

[Belkar]

Hi there and thank you for your answer.
I would not dream about keeping them there for an extended period of time. When the cure is over they are getting moved to a 750l(198g) tank with a 250(66g) sump.

Sadly 3 of them did not survive the shipping so I am left with 9. Looks like the bioload is not to much as the pp is keeping its color for the full 18 hours before 100% waterchange.

I am getting rid of gill flukes. I have tried various other treatments and I am now getting rid of them once and for all. I am following the recepy from one of my country(Norway) leading discus/gill flukes expert.
He has tested all kinds of treatments and lenghts of treatments and landed on this regiment to be sure to get rid off all the gill flukes and the eggs.

I saw in one of my runts(domestic) that he showed clear indications of gill flukes even after 4 treatments. Clamped finns, heavy breathing, only breating with one gill. After 5th treatment he looked fine again.

I am pretty new at this. So I am basing most of my desitions on tips from others and on what I read on forums/papers and the likes.
For now I trust the guy who experimented with all kinds of medisines and used a microscope to document the effect.

None of my domestics seems to have taken any damage from this treatment and the wilds seems to manage this fine as well. I have so far just admistered the treatment 2 times.

[Second Hand Pat]

You leave the fish in the PP treatment for 18 hours...wow. At what ppm are you treating at? Does your guy examine the gills for the fish for damage?
Pat

[Belkar]

I am no good at ppm and such. I take 2.2 grams of pp and mix it in 1L of watar. Then I mix 1 ml for each litre of tank water. Also ph needs to be as close to 7 as possible as any lower than this the treatment is to weak and any higher it is deadly to the fish.
Also 100% water change and nothing but heater and airstones are to be in the tank or the bioload would be to high and the water would change color(loose it effect) to fast.
I know alot of ppl who have followed this regime for all theyre fish(not only discus) wild and domestic for many years. So untill you guys were sceptical now I was not worried about doing this...

He does not specify that he examine the gills for anything other than gill flukes, but he claims there should be no damage to the fish. So far my assesment is the same. I have only done 6 treatments on my domestics and 2 on my wilds.

On the domestics a scrape one of them got from bumping into the heater has healed nicely during this treatment.

On the wilds the finns are growing back nicely after shipping(they were in really bad shape after shipping. I have heard this was common in wilds. But I tought it looked really bad).

[tolga]

Hi, I can't comment on any possible affects of carrying out pp baths every three days as it is not something I've tried myself. But i could suggest fitting a filter and simply turning it off or isolating it from the system for 30 minutes to 45 minutes whilst you conduct your pp bath in the tank half filled during the duration of the bath. you can then empty most of this water out and neutralize the remaining water with a very small amount of hydrogen peroxide and fill the tank to the top with fresh water and turn the filter on again until the next bath. I've have done this with my heckels a few times inside a temporary bare bottom tank to clear external parasites but not as frequently as you have suggested. The quantity of peroxide is very important as if it's too much, it can burn the fish but I'm sure you already know that. The only uncertainty with this method of using filter, however, would be the question of whether any remaining eggs inside the filter can be eradicated during the next bath or any subsequent baths once they enter back into the main system. Formalin has also been suggested as an effective way of getting rid of gill fukes. Cheers.

[Belkar]

Yeah I also considered using a filter for the "down time" of the cure. But I do not dare cause of the eggs. I want to make sure I am rid of the flukes this time. I do not want to go through the process of cleaning/sterilizing all my tanks and equipment again.

[Belkar]

Update. The quarantene/pp is now done. The fish have been moved to the main tank now and are doing great. The pp cure and bioload went great.