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Thread: Juvenile Discus not eaten for more than a month

  1. #1
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    Exclamation Juvenile Discus not eaten for more than a month

    Hi, I am from Colombo, Sri Lanka. Would appreciate your urgent help on this. One of my discus has not eaten in more than a month. Surprising to see him living without food for so long. All the other fish look active and eat very well. Please see below and advice me on what I have to do now. Thanks


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

    Juvenile Checkerboard discus, size 5cm has not eaten for nearly 6 weeks now. Seems like it has totally lost interest in food. Looks very thin and pale in color. Stays alone in a corner.

    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).

    Not eating. White string poop in the begining, then white thick poop, now less poop. Looks a little bloated. Very thin and pale looking

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

    As I noticed he didnt eat for a week, I did WC every other day and added salt and increased temp to 32C. Continued this for 2 weeks but did not eat. I dosed the whole tank with Metro and kept dosing for every 2 days. Continued the Metro treatment 5 times (10days). Did a 80% WC and did not add salt or anything. kept the tank running with temp 32C for 3 days before next WC. The other discus became very aggressive so I had to reduce the temp to 30C after treatment. No improvement from the little guy. The other discus peck on him. Now i have moved him to a 1feet nano tank. Doing 90% WC everyday for 2 days in a row now and currently dosing with Metro. I don't have a spare heater so I have not installed a heater in to the nano tank. It's warm these days and running on room temp 28C-30C

    Tank/Water

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

    Roughly 40-45 Gallon (150-170 Litres). Total 6 Discus fish. 1 pair red melon, 1 pair turq and 1 pair checkerboard.
    Red Melon pair - 7-9 cm in size
    Turq pair - 6 cm
    Checkerboard - 6cm / sick guy - 5cm
    Tank is 7 months old. Had Zebra danios around 50 pairs for 3.5 months. Sold all the danios. Bought 3 pairs of Discus together from the same store and keeping it for 3.5 months now.
    Nano Tank Size - roughly 10-12 litres. 3 months old tank


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

    I have been doing around 40%-50% WC every 4 days without failure for the last 3.5 months now.

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

    Bare bottom tank running for 7 months now.

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

    I do not age my water. I use tap water with anti-chlorine. I keep the water for 30 minutes with anti-chlorine before adding to the tank

    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.

    I do not have a test kit. Tap water in our area is good. Since I do regular WC i don't think there is an issue in water parameters.

    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.

    Tap Water

    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.

    I feed them 3 times a day.
    Frozen blood worms / beef heart and Pellets.

  2. #2
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    Default Re: Juvenile Discus not eaten for more than a month


  3. #3
    Registered Member Mattgoanna's Avatar
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    Default Re: Juvenile Discus not eaten for more than a month

    I wonder if you should try some live food. Live brine shrimp would be best to avoid any diseases, but mosquito larvae is no doubt common where you are. Try not to take them from a pond (high disease risk). Once feeding you could then re-worm it before placing it back in tank with the others.

  4. #4
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    Default Re: Juvenile Discus not eaten for more than a month

    Hi Matt, Thank u for your response. It is very rare and expensive to get brine shrimp here. The frozen blood worms I feed them contains mosquito larvae. Is it ok if I leave a cube of FBW in the tank overnight? Since he is in a nano tank, I don't want to foul the water soon.

  5. #5
    Registered Member Swedgin's Avatar
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    Default Re: Juvenile Discus not eaten for more than a month

    Hi Imran,

    welcome to the forum. Sorry to see your fish is not doing well.

    Water parameters are one the most important things when it comes to discus keeping. Even though you might think your tap water is good, I would suggest you get a test kit just to be safe. Speaking from experience here. And tap parameters can change in a moment, you never know what the municipality is doing to the water and pipes. I had the same issue, went from soft slightly acidic to hard alkaline within weeks.

    Did you notice any bullying towards this one from the others before he stopped eating? 6 fish is a small group whan discus are concerned and it is possible that constant harassment from the others might have put him off food.

    What is his breathing like? Is he using both sides equally? If not, your issue might be gill flukes.

    Also, when feeding beef heart, I’d personally up the water changes drastically, especially if you don’t have other fish cleaning up what the discus leave.

    Tobi
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    Tobi

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  6. #6
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    Default Re: Juvenile Discus not eaten for more than a month

    Hi Tobi, Thank u for your response.
    Noted your points on tap parameters. Yes, I will have to get a water test kit soon.
    There was a lot of bullying towards this one before he stopped eating. There is still aggression in my main tank. Bullying happens only when i feed them. I don't think I can get a pair of discus anytime soon, so it is ok if get 2 pairs of tetras? would that create a change in the environment in my main tank and reduce aggression?

    Sorry I did not mention, This guy had rapid breathing before I put him into the hospital tank, just now I noticed that he is not using both sides equally when breathing. Does this mean he has gill flukes? How do I treat him for that?

    Yes beef heart fouls the water a lot. Now I feed them small potions of beef heart. I don't find any left overs as they aggressively eat well. Maybe few leftovers are getting mixed with the water.

  7. #7
    Administrator brewmaster15's Avatar
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    Default Re: Juvenile Discus not eaten for more than a month

    Hi Imran,
    Welcome to SimplyDiscus!

    I know you mentioned the other discus are okay but could you post a few pics of them. I suspect this fish has a worm problem. The fins are eroded...a sign of lobg term nutritional deficiency. I don't want to be the bearer if bad news but its not likely this fish will recover its just too ill. If does recover you will probably have a stunted poorly shaped discus. I am really sorry to have to tell you that.

    Al
    AquaticSuppliers.com Freeze Dried BlackWorms and other foods your Discus will Love!!!


    >>>>>I am a science guy.. show me the science minus the BS

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    Default Re: Juvenile Discus not eaten for more than a month

    Hi Al, Please see images of other discus.
    I know he looks way too ill as he has not eaten for several weeks now. Actually I lost hope and thought he might die 2 weeks back, but this guy is still fighting to live so I also don't want to give up. I dosed the tank with Metro (3rd dose) last night after WC. Now I don't want to dose it with anymore meds.

    This is what I am going to do now - Daily 80%-90% WC every night and add salt every other day and hope for the best. I'll put in a few frozen blood worms every night and check in the morning if he has eaten. Please advice me if this is ok. 1.jpg2.jpg3.jpg
    Last edited by Imran; 07-31-2018 at 12:28 AM.

  9. #9
    Administrator brewmaster15's Avatar
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    Default Re: Juvenile Discus not eaten for more than a month

    Hi Imran,
    Thanks for pics, I am glad to see that whatever the sick one has the main group looks okay at this point. I would not keep the sick one with them though. Best he is alone in a hospital tank. Sick fish like that can act as reservoirs and incubators for disease as their immune system is so weak. I would at some point deworm the group with a broad based dewormer like levamisole if you have access to it.

    hth,
    al
    AquaticSuppliers.com Freeze Dried BlackWorms and other foods your Discus will Love!!!


    >>>>>I am a science guy.. show me the science minus the BS

    Al Sabetta
    Simplydiscus LLC Owner
    Aquaticsuppliers.com


    I take Pics.. click here for my Flickr images

  10. #10
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    Default Re: Juvenile Discus not eaten for more than a month

    Hi Al, Thank u for your advice.
    I have kept the sick fish alone for last couple of days. Last night I did a WC again and did not dose any Metro, instead I added salt. He was acting weird after some time. Swimming rapidly and trying to scratch his body against the tank. Don't know if it is an Ich problem and after the salt it is affecting him. Anyways I had put some frozen blood worms last night and checked in the morning, sadly he hasn't eaten it. Will do a WC and do the same thing today also. Hoping he would eat a little.

    I did deworm the whole tank a month back with Metro (Flagyl crushed tablets) in to the tank. Now I have added small portion of crushed Flagyl tablets in to the Beef Heart and feeding them. I am not sure of Levamisole, will have to check on that. Is that a tablet like Metro? and is it mild for the fishes?

  11. #11
    Homesteader Paul Sabucchi's Avatar
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    Default Re: Juvenile Discus not eaten for more than a month

    Hi Imran, metronidazole is not effective against worms (mainly used against protozoa and some anaerobic bacteria). Levamisole is a wormer effective on a wide range of round worms, praziquantel is effective on tapeworms and some flukes

  12. #12
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    Default Re: Juvenile Discus not eaten for more than a month

    Hi Paul, Thank you for this information. Please let me know the dosage of Levamisole to be put in to the tank and fed with food.

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