Help-Losing discus

[nikm128]

Well the good news is, she's swimming much better now and obviously is still alive. Apparently I don't have any pure epsom salt so I'm getting some now.
There is one problem though, I just realized I don't have a heater for my spare 20 gallon at the moment so I will have to find one. Since putting her back into the main tank will undo the work of the epsom bath, I might have to hold off until tomorrow or later tonight

[danotaylor]

I'm sorry mate, but I do not know the treatment for swim bladder disease...I do agree with Brian (jeep) that the way the fish swims looks like swim bladder but the location of the swelling is more like intestinal blockage. Do you feed freeze dried food? If it is not fully saturated when ingested it can soak in fishes gut juices and get "stuck" causing a blockage, hence the Epsom salt bath.

[nikm128]

I only feed frozen and pellets, occasionally flakes
The epsom salt bath seems to have helped though

[danotaylor]

Dry pellets can do the same thing if the fish gorges itself on them before they absorb water soften up...when I kept tropheus I had this issue numerous times so I started pre-soaking my dry pellets and feeding once moist & soft...not 1 episode of bloat after that...just a thought

[jeep]

This may have helped, but we still haven't determined the underlying cause. Breaking QT is too much of a coincidence to overlook. Most mild QT issues are external, but yours seems external and internal.

I wouldn't have normally suggested deworming for your initial issues and it may have complicated things. There should not be dead worms in the fish because Levamosile doesn't really kill the worms, but rather it paralyzes them, then they are expelled.

As for the external issue, I would keep temp at 82, add 3-5 TBS salt per 10g and do daily water changes of at least 50%, replacing the removed salt with each WC for 10 days...

Brian

[nikm128]

Ok, I will start soaking the pellets too then
I did vacuum the bottom like a madman every few hours after I treated the tank in hopes I'd get all the worms. Think I missed some?
3-5 tbs of epsom salt?

[jeep]

I use Levamisole twice, about 2 weeks apart, to make sure everything is in order and to take care of any eggs that may have been left around. But, I'm not sure I would do this in your case because we're not convinced that worms are the issue. I would make sure all external issues and bloat are under control first... I would use Kanamycin for the internal bloating if the epsome doesn't work... If it does work, give them a rest for awhile.

[Filip]

I agree with Brian . You have far important problems here to deal with before you start battling worms.

[nikm128]

Should I give all of them an epsom bath, or just do it as I see symptoms deeming it necessary? Dose the whole tank, or individually in a bucket?

[jeep]

Should I give all of them an epsom bath, or just do it as I see symptoms deeming it necessary? Dose the whole tank, or individually in a bucket?

Epsome combined with 3-5 TBS per gallon regular salt won't hurt anything. I never hesitate to treat 1 TBS salt per 1g when I see anything questionable. I would treat all...

[nikm128]

Ok, doing that now. Thank you

[nikm128]

Update, been soaking the food, using salt, daily 50% water changes, still have the UV sterilizer running....Still spreading, moved from the pigeon blood to a red-orange marlboro. What now? Just a waiting game?

[Filip]

I would try antibiotic treatment at this point (Kanamycine , erithromicine , Nitrofurazone ) and hope for the best .

[nikm128]

Would you suggest one of those over the others?

[Filip]

Would you suggest one of those over the others?

Don't have a first hand experience with successfull treatment of swim bladder my self .
Here is an older thread I just found where a member claimed succes with Furan 2 .
Kanamycine and Erithromicine+meth blue+Epsom salt are also recommended as possible treatments :

http://forum.simplydiscus.com/showth...Problems/page2