I'm filling out the questionnaire, to cover bases, but the meat of my inquiry is in my first reply. It's dealing with where I'm at today. I need help diagnosing what I'm seeing on the microscope.
1. Please explain the problems with your fish. When did you notice the problems and did anything unusual happen that you think started them?
http://forum.simplydiscus.com/showth...d-1yr-Aquarium <---Here's the full saga.
Long story short, I switched out my substrate, then reintroduced my fish to the tank, thinking that my cannister filters were enough biofiltration that my tank would remain cycled. WRONG. My tank was cycling for 3 weeks straight, stressing out my fish. The only thing keeping it in check was fact that I did every other day 50% water changes. My fish were weak and stressed and I didn't know it. I added in new fish that had only been quarantined 12 days (more on that in the main thread, but there was a bullying issue in the quarantine tank. I should NOT have combined them. Foolish.) The whole tank crashed. 2-5ppm ammonia, and they all became gravely ill.
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).
12 days ago: After the crash, the fish were gasping at the top of the tank. Huddled, dark if they could turn dark.
They were mostly gasping at the top of the tank in clusters, tilting a bit. Or they would fall the substrate and lay there.
Everyone got white patches of slime. No interest in eating, no normal swimming. I lost 3 fish in the first week.
Today: Today all but two are eating and using the full water column. They are not dark. All but two have fins high. Two have clamped fins. (one of the two with clamped fins is eating, one of the non-eaters has high fins.) However, everyone has white slime issues.
3. What medications/ treatments have you already tried and what were the results. Include dosage and duration of treatment.
12 days ago I did a 7-day treatment of a combined Furan-2 and Kanaplex in the main tank. I used the recommended dosage for Furan-2, and double the bottled-instructions on Kanaplex. I replaced the meds every day after the massive water changes. For a time the fish seemed to be improving (on day 4 they looked okay) then they started looking worse. I ceased treatment on day 7 as I had already gone over the full course required, and focused instead on rebuilding my tank cycle and providing the cleanest water possible. The fish responded, and look very good except for the persistent slime issue.
4. Tank size and ages, numbers and sizes of fish.
165 gallons, 1 year old. However, lost cycle 4 weeks ago without realizing it.
Originally 16 discus @ 5-7 inches. NOw 13 discus at 5-7 inches. All dither fish unaffected by illness. 12 corycats, 2 bristlenose pleco, 14 cardinal tetras, 12 nerite snails, 6 kuhli loach
5. Water change regime (What percentage and how often).
Prior to realization on crash, 50% M/W/F.
After realizing I had a crash, 70% every 12-24 hours.
Last day: 60% every 24 hours. The cycle has started, and ammonia isn't critical 24 hours later. (climbs from .25 to just under .5in that time, rather than climbing from .25 to 1.0 in 12 hours...)
6. How long has tank been running? Is it bare bottom? If you have substrate, what type and how deep is it?
It has been running for a year. It has 1/2 inch deep sand. 4 weeks ago I switched from 1.5 inch deep black carib sea gravel to 1/2 inch deep pool filter sand, destroying my cycle. I switched the substrate with no fish present, and reintroduced the fish after multiple 100% water changes 3 days later.
7. Do you age your water? If you do for how long and what is the ph swing.
I previously did not. However, with how many water changes I've had to do, I have begun to use two brute aging barrels with bubblers and heaters for 24 hours. The PH swing is negligible, from 7.2 to 7.0.
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 7.0
- ammonia reading 0.25-0.50
- nitrite reading 0
- nitrate reading 10
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.
- municipal water 100%
9. Any new fish, plants or inverts added recently.
Yes. 12 days ago I added 4 new discus which had only been quarantined for 12 days. They had been treated proactively with one course of prazipro and one course of levamisole for parasites. Adding them was foolish. I thought both tanks were healthy (my main tank was not cycled and I did not realize it...) and one of my fish in quarantine was being bullied nearly to death. I thought a larger school would fix the problem
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.
I used to feed the discus 6 cubes of freeze dried blackworms every day, as well as an additional 3 cubes of Hans Frozen Beefheart on days when I'm going to do a water change. (So they get 6 cubes of blackworms every day, and 3 additional cubes of beefheart on M/W/F). I put in some discus flake, but they are never interested. However, the flake feeds the dither fish nicely.