I can't tell if this is stress or a stomach bug.

[BlackAndRedLipstick]

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?

Problem started about 2 days ago. He would consume his pellets and then spit them out and more or less wouldn't eat anything that wasn't blood worms. I tried feeding him flakes and he would spit them out as well.


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).

Then yesterday he his poop started to become white and stringy. (then consumed his poop which i figured wasnt good). And his eating is still only blood worms.



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

This fish is the one of 3 surviving discus (of 6) from the last time this tank came down with a stomach parasite and slowly killed them. the last time i treated the tank with API Fin and body cure and that seemed to clear it up. So after that incident i set up a medical tank. Since then i have moved him into it and started to treat it with API again

Tank/Water

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

Main Tank is 60 Gallons (24x24x48) with 5 discus ranging from 5 months - 1 year (est), 4 cory catfish, 2 common black plecos, and 3 BGK.

The medical tank is 10 gallons(10x10x20), has the one sick discus who is by my guess about 4 or 5 months old.


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

Medical tank
80% every day.

Main tank
80% every other day


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

the tank has been running about a week now and it has no substrate in it. (a sand that leaked when i was trying to add bacteria to the tank)

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

My water is not aged but i do treat is with Sodium thiosulfate

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 _86__

- ph _6.5__

- ammonia reading _0__

- nitrite reading _0-.25__

- nitrate reading __5ppm_

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 _100%__

- RO water ____


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

i had added 3 discus to the main tank before i removed him (2 larger and 1 smaller than him) to try and have it become more of a community tank (the other 2 discus had a really bad tenancy of picking on him). None of the other fish have any problems eating or any illness signs.

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 Terta color granules 2 times a day once in the morning and once in the evening and frozen blood worms every other day.


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.

poop.jpg

(he was very hard to take a photo of so i couldnt get a clear photo of his poop)

(Edit. Here is a better photo)

I been reading the forum and saw that this was a common sign of a stomach parasite. And after the last time where i lost 200$ worth of discus i was super upset and was not about to risk my new discus. But also read that is was possibly is a sign of stress. I know he had a bad tenancy of being picked on by the largest discus in the tank who was almost double his size. Of all the 6 discus i have 5 of them are from 1 shop and this one is from another ( the others who died were all from the same shop). I made a big mistake buying them from "super pets" I am not sure if anyone here lives in southern California but if you do, do not buy fish from there the quality is terrible and the people are clueless(there other pets are fine). I just wish i had found this form earlier. I won't be crushed if he doesn't make it but i don't want him to die either. He seems to be a tad bit growth stunted but doesn't appear to be major. Freckles .jpg . As i was writing this i looked over and he is pooping a dark red color the way the other discus do (from the form i found out this is mostly normal because of the food they eat) So i am just confused.

any help is much appreciated and thank you to everyone.