It Happened Over Night!!!

[utahben76]

Problem

1. Please explain the problems with your fish. When did you notice the problems and did anything unusual happen that you think started them?
Monday morning, this week, Saturday night they spawned then ate the eggs, it was there first spawn, young pair

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).
Excessive slime on them and floating in tank, fins desintigrating. Some tail standing, ate Sunday, but not since then, now more tail standing and one has puffy gills and today greenish yellow poop. Also hanging out in corners.

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

Monday morning did a 90% water change and added the only med I had, poly guard, by that evening they were swimming around

Tank/Water

4. Tank size and ages, numbers and sizes of fish. 30gal, two 6" discus


5. Water change regime (What percentage and how often).
50% daily

6. How long has tank been running? Is it bare bottom? If you have substrate, what type and how deep is it? 4 months, bare bottom


7. Do you age your water? If you do for how long and what is the ph swing.
No

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 ____82_

- ph _____ 78

- 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 ____

- municipal water ____X

- RO water ____


9. Any new fish, plants or inverts added recently. Nope


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.
Home made liquified beef heart, shrimp, talapia, spinach, peas mix, & frozen blood worms

[jmf3460]

are those tiny air bubbles all over their skin? you need to age your water if so, those tiny air bubbles irritate the discus skin and cause them to shed their slime coat. its part of the reason we all age our water, to bubble off the gasses.

[utahben76]

That may be, but it wouldn't cause fin rot and tail standing and swollen gills. I have 12 other duscus and have never had an issue with not aging water, besides I have no where to store enough water to do the amount of water changes performed each day. The pics were taken just after a water change. There aren't usually that many bubbles, I was trying to mix the polyguard in with the water stream and it must have created excessive bubbles.

[White Worm]

Yes, dissolved gases in tap water can cause issues. What do you use for water conditioner?

[utahben76]

Prime

[utahben76]

I should mention these are new fish, I got them two weeks ago.

[jmf3460]

their fins do not look bad at all. have they been this way long?? if they are fairly new, it could just be ammonia burn from shipping. has the fin issue started since you got the fish? do you have any salt on hand?

[utahben76]

I got them the Saturday before last and I purchased them from a fish shop in Portland OR. Drove home the 3.5 hours and got them in the tank which is the tank they are going to stay in. They ate a little next day. By Tuesday they were starting the dance and bowing and by Saturday they spawned. Sunday morning the eggs were gone. Sunday evening I noticed that the pectoral fins on the male looked a little weird so I added salt, 1 tbsp per ten gallons. The next morning, Monday Labor Day, they were sluffing off slime coat, the males gills were flaring, the pectoral fins were desintegrating and they looked half dead. I did a 75% water change raised the temp from 82 to 90 and added polyguard, but no salt, because I added it the previous day and figured it might have caused the issue. By Monday evening the were not so bad looking, not as much slime coat, but the pectoral fins were mostly eaten away. I did a 50% water change Tuesday evening and added back in the polyguard that came out in the change, still no salt. Wednesday I noticed that the gills of the female were flaring, I did a 90% water change, no poly guard or salt. Thursday I got in to my lfs and he recommended I add salt at 1 tbsp per 5 gallons keep the temp around 90 and do large water changes daily. So I did a 98% water change, added one more dose of poly guard and the salt. Nothing on Friday to let the polyguard set in. Today I did a 98% water change and salt at 1tbsp per 5 gallons. The male is looking a little better, does the most swimming around. The female is still most of the time head up +/- 60 degrees. Both their pectorals are about an inch long now, maybe less. I really hope she makes it. They are some of the prettiest cobalts I've seen! I think I'm lucky they are so thick bodied. Gives them a fighting chance!

[White Worm]

If you haven't seen any improvement, try to age your water 24 hours. Treat with water conditioner and aerate. See if that helps. You can also use 2x dose of prime.

[utahben76]

Well, she didn't survive, but he did, at least as of today. He actually seems like he's improving. He still has one hill plate that is puffed out more than normal, but his fins are growing back and he's eating. This last week I found that his poop was a yellow green so I'm feeding him food laced with metroplex. Here is a pic!