The tank is bare bottom.
Water in the tank is filtered through a reverse osmosis filter.
Parameters:
pH - 6.4
GH - 0
NO2 - 0.2 ppm
Temperature was 28 degrees celsius but I upped it to 32 celsius.
So I'm new to discus. I bought 2 half year old fish 3 weeks ago. 2 days after I brought my new fish home my tank suffered bacterial bloom. The bloom was not severe, but the fish fell ill. They started defecating transparent, gooey feces and stopped eating.
I took them into a smaller tank and bathed them in metronidazole for 3 days.
Then I put my fish back into the bigger tank (it's a 30 gallon tank for 2 "teenage" fish).
There is no bloom this time thanks to my newly bought UV lamp, but I'm having issues with ammonia spike. I'm doing 50% water changes daily but it's not helping much.
My fish still don't want to eat and make gooey poo.
And as if that wasn't enough, one of my fish has white spots on it's tail...
Please help! What do I do to save my discus?
The tank is bare bottom.
Water in the tank is filtered through a reverse osmosis filter.
Parameters:
pH - 6.4
GH - 0
NO2 - 0.2 ppm
Temperature was 28 degrees celsius but I upped it to 32 celsius.
Hi there and Welcome to SimplyDiscus!
First thing we need is for you to fill out our disease forum form ..
http://forum.simplydiscus.com/showth...lease-complete
so we have all facts.
A few notes though while doing that... you will need more metro than 3 days worth. You should plan on 10 days worth at 250 -500 mgs per 10 gal.Thats going to be your first line of offense here..
We will try and help you more after we get a feel for your tank and fish thru the questionaire. Thanks, Al
AquaticSuppliers.comFoods 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
Pics always help greatly as well.
Mama Bear
Thank you s much for your quick response!
1. Please explain the problems with your fish. When did you notice the problems and did anything unusual happen that you think started them?
So I'm new to discus. I bought 2 half year old fish 3 weeks ago. 2 days after I brought my new fish home my tank suffered bacterial bloom. The bloom was not severe, but the fish fell ill. They started defecating transparent, gooey feces and stopped eating.
I took them into a smaller tank and bathed them in metronidazole for 3 days.
Then I put my fish back into the bigger tank (it's a 30 gallon tank for 2 "teenage" fish).
There is no bloom this time thanks to my newly bought UV lamp, but I'm having issues with ammonia spike (don't have ammonia tests but water stinks of ammonia). I'm doing 50% water changes daily but it's not helping much. They were in this stinky water for 2 days now.
My fish still don't want to eat and make gooey poo.
And as if that wasn't enough, one of my fish has white spots on it's tail...
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).
White/transparent poo. Apathy. White spots on one fish' tail. Fish refuse to eat.
3. What medications/ treatments have you already tried and what were the results. Include dosage and duration of treatment.
Metronidazole 500 mg per 10 gal for 3 days.
Tank/Water
4. Tank size and ages, numbers and sizes of fish.
30 gallon tank, 2 young fish - 4 inch long.
5. Water change regime (What percentage and how often).
50% everyday
6. How long has tank been running? Is it bare bottom? If you have substrate, what type and how deep is it?
Bare bottom. It was restarted after treatment 2 days ago.
7. Do you age your water? If you do for how long and what is the ph swing.
I put fresh RO water into the tank.
8. Parameters and water source;
RO filter
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 _____ used to be 83 F, I raised it to 90 F in hopes of getting rid of the white spots which I assume is fish smallpox
- ph _____ 6.4
- ammonia reading ____ No test but the water stinks of ammonia
- nitrite reading ____ 0.2 ppm
- nitrate reading ____ 25 ppm
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 ____ 0%
- RO water ____ 100%
9. Any new fish, plants or inverts added recently.
No, my discus are my only fish in the tanks, no living plants - the ones I own are plastic fake plants
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.
Well they have been refusing to eat for a few days now. But before that I fed them granulated fish food from pet store.
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.
20181002_221734.jpg
Last edited by Lynx; 10-02-2018 at 04:51 PM.
You seem to be doing almost everything right except for a couple of things.
The directions on the Metro container don't work for Discus. Be sure that what you are using is 100% metronidazole. There is nothing wrong with 500 mg. but you need to treat for at least 10 days. I go 12 to 14 days. If you smell ammonia do 90% WC daily or twice daily if needed to get your nitrite reading to 0 and your nitrate reading to 5. If you have to do twice daily WC re-dose the full amount of Metro after each WC.
Fish always carry parasites. Their immune system keeps the parasites in check until the fish are stressed. Moving was one stress on them, but the biggest stress on them was that your filter is not fully cycled. Change a ton of water until your filter catches up.
Mama Bear
Thank you so much Liz.
Doing 90% daily is hard for me because RO filter works slowly and I'm at work a lot. But I will try my best.
I stopped giving my fish metro 3 days ago so there's no metro in the tank right now.
I'm not sure if giving them metro is the right thing to do right now because since I bought a good microscope on Friday I've seen no parasites in my fish' poo even though it's gooey...
If I add metro to my water should I turn off my UV lamp? I'm scared I'm gonna have another case of white water if I do that.
Last edited by Lynx; 10-02-2018 at 05:21 PM.
Also are the white spots on fins fish pox? What do I do about it?
I've never heard of fish pox. Sorry...
Is there a reason that you can't mix your RO with aged tap? That would allow you do WC more often.
I don't know about the UV. In this case I think it will help. There is no reason to use UV if the fish are healthy.
I don't know what a case of white water is either.
As far as I'm concerned your biggest problem is a filter that is not fully cycled. Only huge WC can help that.
Mama Bear
On the UV, you should turn it off while treating with metro. It can destroy medications.
Its hard to say if the problem is parasite related but its the best guess that its protozoans. Probably stress related like Liz said. You dosed 3 days... Id do a full course of 10 days or you risk creating more resistent bugs if this is parasite related.
Hth,
Al
AquaticSuppliers.comFoods 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
From what I have read, when Metro is added any carbon, purigen, and UV should be turned off.
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Last edited by jeep; 10-02-2018 at 10:21 PM.
Thank you everyone for your answers. ♥
I restarted dosing metro today and mixed RO water with 20% (boiled) tap water.