Help! Bloated Discus and no available epsom salt!!!

[TimB]

1. Please explain the problems with your fish. When did you notice the problems and did anything unusual happen that you think started them?

Since yesterday, one of my 10 juvie discus has been not eating well and hiding. Today I noticed he was kind off floating through the aquarium with having a hard time keeping balance. His stomach is very bloated. However, whilst normally turning darker when in the back of the aquarium (black background) he keeps his colours.

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).

Bloated, drifting through the aquarium

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

nothing


Tank/Water

4. Tank size and ages, numbers and sizes of fish.

300L / 80 gallons, 20 neon tetras, 10 juvie stendker red turqs

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

50% every day most of the times. Due to time constraints, sometimes i have to skip a day

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

been running for about 1,5 months, BB

7. Do you age your water? If you do for how long and what is the ph swing.

Nope, tab water in Amsterdam is fine

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 30 degrees Celsius

- ph 7.2-7.6

- ammonia reading 0

- nitrite reading 0

- nitrate reading 10-25

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.

Dutch tab 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.

Discus frozen food: 2 kinds: beefheart mix and custeacen mix, about 2 cubes in the morning and then 1 about every 1-2 hours

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.




Now, I have been reading up a bit and learned that it is probably constipation and that i should add epsom salt. However it being sunday, the stores i can get it at are closed... I do have some keltic seasalt here, but i think that that will not be wise to use?

[Paul Sabucchi]

I am no expert but sounds more like a swimbladder problem. Can you attach some photos? Is the water for the changes at the same temperature as that in the tank? Wishing you all the best in the mean time

[TimB]

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He has deteriorated fairly quick in the last day, since my first post he went from "swimming" to laying on the wood

[Willie]

Looks more like a bloated intestine, possibly from eating some undissolved agar in the beefheart mix. I'd would wait until Monday and pick up some epsom salt. Hope you have a quarantine tank ready to go.

Willie

[TimB]

Hope you have a quarantine tank ready to go.

Willie

I unfortunately do not, I am a student, so space is very limited... Is it safe to add the salt in the big tank for the other fish?

[Willie]

The other discus are not going to have a problem with epsom salt, but I don't know how the plants will react. Also, I can't tell if you have any other fish in there. Cories and plecos do not react well to salt in the water.

You can pick up a used 10 gal tank for $4 - 5, so keep you eyes open for next time.

Good luck, Willie

[TimB]

The other discus are not going to have a problem with epsom salt, but I don't know how the plants will react. Also, I can't tell if you have any other fish in there. Cories and plecos do not react well to salt in the water.

You can pick up a used 10 gal tank for $4 - 5, so keep you eyes open for next time.

Good luck, Willie

Oh then i'll be fine, plants are replaceable and ill take the gamble for some tetras...

Regarding tanks, I wish they were that cheap here... In the netherlands 10 gals (used ones) still go for around 30 euros...

[sanjay21]

Tim, you can also treat the fish in a 5 gallon bucket ! with a heater and air stone in it.

[jmf3460]

you can use regular salt, just make sure its non-iodized...

[TimB]

thx for all your help guys! had a busy week so wasnt on here at all. However, on monday morning i found my fish dead.... (about 10 hours after is started this thread). Went to the store to get some epsom anyways to prevent this from happening again!

[bluelagoon]

you can use regular salt, just make sure its non-iodized...

I have used table salt for over 40 years with no ill effects to my plants or fish from what I could tell.I think it is an old myth.I know when you read all the controversial topics on it,it's difficult to try it. https://answers.yahoo.com/question/i...7112503AAvLklV

[DJW]

You don't need to worry about iodide in table salt, but for bloat you really want to use epsom salt and not table salt. The idea behind epsom salt as a laxative is that it contains two ions that are poorly absorbed by the intestine (magesium and sulfate), so they add moisture to the gut by osmosis. Regular salt doesn't have the same effect.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8878010