All Fish Stopped Eating - Suspect Worms

[CammieTime]

1. Please explain the problems with your fish. When did you notice the problems and did anything unusual happen that you think started them? All of my fish stopped eating on 2/4. These four fish appeared healthy and have grown quite a bit since I got them on 12/20 from Hans. 2.5 inches. One even seems to have a full inch of growth. A week ago they were hungry and eating beef mix just fine, and despite no change in water management, they stopped eating over the weekend. Talking to others it seems they have worms, but I have no idea how to deworm them if they are not eating.


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). No symptoms other than not eating. Look nice, swim around happy. No white stringy poop.


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



Tank/Water

4. Tank size and ages, numbers and sizes of fish. 45 gallon, 4 fish, ~3 inches each.


5. Water change regime (What percentage and how often). 100% every other day, 50% in between. Suck out all uneaten food after every meal. Sometimes 100% every day if water quality is poor.


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


7. Do you age your water? If you do for how long and what is the ph swing. Yes, for 24 hours. But I can only age 25 gallons due to space limitations, so I direct fill the remaining 20 gallons. No pH swings between tap or aged water.


8. 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.


- temp _____86 degrees

- ph _____ 9.0

- ammonia reading ____0

- nitrite reading ____0

- nitrate reading ____0

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.

- well water ____0%

- municipal water ____100%

- RO water ____0% I have access to RO water via the kitchen RO unit, but limited to 9 gallons a day.


9. Any new fish, plants or inverts added recently. No


10. 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. 96% lean hamburger mixed with Discus Hans flakes. 2x a day, before and after work. 3x on weekends.


11. 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. Nothing to show.

[brewmaster15]

Worms will not cause all your fish to suddenly stop eating. I think you probably have a bacterial issue starting here ...my guess is the hamburger you feed has possibly rotted in the tank and they ate it or has gone bad before you fed it.

Either way If all your other water parameters are good and you havent added any new stock to the tank or house recently(last 1-2 weeks) ...then bacterial is my guess. I would stop offering food for a few days, treat with epsom salt to.flush them out and pitch the hamburger. If they dont seem better or start passing white feces or get swollen abdomens then I would treat with kanamycin.

Hth,
Al

[CammieTime]

Ok thanks Al, I really appreciate it. I will do as you say. After a few days, what should I feed them in lieu of the hamburger? I only fed them that because they refused to eat the Discus Hans Flakes when I got them. I wanted to avoid hamburger all together but they wouldn't eat anything else.

[Akili]

Ok thanks Al, I really appreciate it. I will do as you say. After a few days, what should I feed them in lieu of the hamburger? I only fed them that because they refused to eat the Discus Hans Flakes when I got them. I wanted to avoid hamburger all together but they wouldn't eat anything else.

Use failsafe
Australian Blackworms from AquaticSuppliers ................. http://aquaticsuppliers.com/Freeze-D...riginal_c6.htm

[brewmaster15]

Use failsafe
Australian Blackworms from AquaticSuppliers ................. http://aquaticsuppliers.com/Freeze-D...riginal_c6.htm

lol!

[brewmaster15]

Ok thanks Al, I really appreciate it. I will do as you say. After a few days, what should I feed them in lieu of the hamburger? I only fed them that because they refused to eat the Discus Hans Flakes when I got them. I wanted to avoid hamburger all together but they wouldn't eat anything else.

Start with some common foods Discus usually really enjoy.. frozen Bloodworms, Freeze dried blackworms, get them eating that. Then you can introduce a pellet or flake.. it takes time to do this.. New Foods can take several days of trying.. but most of the time people give in before the Discus. you need to feed your new foods exclusively. If they are used to ground beef, try making your own homemade mix , using Beefheart or Turkey breast... feed this sparingly at first .. feed it at night when you are home to siphon out whats not eaten.

hth,
al

[LizStreithorst]

I second the ground turkey breast. You can get it at the supermarket already ground. Buy the 99% fat fee stuff.

I don't want to be seen as sucking up to the boss but I suggest you buy some of his black worm cubes and soft pellets. By a small amount of each the first time and see how the fish react to them.

If you see either white poo or the fish picking up and then spitting out their food let us know.

Al, if you suspect that it's bacterial do you suggest that he lower the water temp to 82?

[pitdogg2]

pH of 9.0 seems high to me, is that normal?

[brewmaster15]

I second the ground turkey breast. You can get it at the supermarket already ground. Buy the 99% fat fee stuff.

I don't want to be seen as sucking up to the boss but I suggest you buy some of his black worm cubes and soft pellets. By a small amount of each the first time and see how the fish react to them.

If you see either white poo or the fish picking up and then spitting out their food let us know.

Al, if you suspect that it's bacterial do you suggest that he lower the water temp to 82?

It would not hurt to lower the temp Liz and may help if bacterial, good suggestion.

[brewmaster15]

pH of 9.0 seems high to me, is that normal?

thats a good question !

[LizStreithorst]

No, it's not normal. Folks here say it doesn't matter as long as the pH is stable. On the other hand I have two friends whose water is in the high 8's. They are both experienced Discus keepers. They both say that their Discus do as well or live as long in their high pH water as they did in water lower in pH. He could always add peat to his water...The important thing is to first figure out what is making his fish not want to eat. A high pH won't make a fish not want to eat. There's something else going on.

[CammieTime]

It would not hurt to lower the temp Liz and may help if bacterial, good suggestion.

I thought you should increase the temp to 92+ degrees, doesn't that kill off the bacteria, along with the salt treatment? The water is currently 84 degrees, I have a feeling 2 degrees lower is not going to do much.

[brewmaster15]

No, it's not normal. Folks here say it doesn't matter as long as the pH is stable. On the other hand I have two friends whose water is in the high 8's. They are both experienced Discus keepers. They both say that their Discus do as well or live as long in their high pH water as they did in water lower in pH. He could always add peat to his water...The important thing is to first figure out what is making his fish not want to eat. A high pH won't make a fish not want to eat. There's something else going on.

I agree.

[brewmaster15]

I thought you should increase the temp to 92+ degrees, doesn't that kill off the bacteria, along with the salt treatment? The water is currently 84 degrees, I have a feeling 2 degrees lower is not going to do much.

Higher temps usually make bacteria reproduce faster... you really dont want that in a fish or any organism unless theres something like an antibiotic there that targets some aspect of the bacterias reproduction. Generally we dont want to encourage bacterial reproduction though... a few degrees may or may not make a difference so we err on the cautious side.

[LizStreithorst]

It would not hurt to lower the temp Liz and may help if bacterial, good suggestion.

On the other hand if it's hex he needs to raise the temp to over 90. Since a bacterial infection will kill Discus way faster than hex ever could he needs to rule out bacterial first. It's strange that all the fish stopped eating at the same time and that they still appear healthy other than not eating.