Discus with white cottony growth and white stringly feces - Please Help!!!

[Second Hand Pat]

20g tote would be better. Fill it with water and heat it add a stone and a sponge filter. That’s insane that he was dry to the touch and survived.

Agree with Armando on the 20 gallon tote. The larger volume of water will lessen the ammonia etc buildup between WCs.
Pat

[jeep]

Hi Tanja, I'm sorry you seem to have had a setback here. Don't beat yourself up over this... it happens. I may miss something if I read back through so let's kinda start fresh from the last 2 days... I want to separate the white feces issue from the external issue and treat them separately. The white feces is probably a side effect from the original illness and is not an immediate concern.

Do they seem to be coming out of the external issue? In many cases the salt alone will take care of this, but Furan 2 may be needed if there's no improvement. I just don't like using meds if they aren't necessary.

Your water - I wouldn't be concerned with slight ammonia readings if you are using Prime. Like Pat said, Prime can give false positive readings for ammonia. The element is still there but has been neutralized for good but you can add a little extra if you think it's needed.

Are you aging your water? Are you changing water daily?

The bottled bacteria - How much have you added? I've never use this stuff so I'm not sure if it can create an issue if too much is added. When I've had an uncycled tank, I just keep up with water changes and the filters always seed themselves.

The jumper - this can be very bad, but if it's still alive it may bounce back and it's a good sign if it's still alive after this much time. I would keep lights off when you are not doing maintenance.

Can you give us a photo of the whole tank?

[jeep]

Thanks Pat, I suppose I'll keep the jumper on his own, and start metro on the others today. I just threw him into a 5 gallon bucket in a hurry when I panicked, he was completely dry to touch when I found him

I had an angelfish pair once and the male jumped while i was at school. When i found him, he was dried up and hard and actually stuck to the floor. Appeared dead, but i tossed him back into the tank and I guess he rehydrated because he came back to life, lol... He never was the same after that but he actually tried spawning again. I think he lived for another year or so...

[Tanja]

I may miss something if I read back through so let's kinda start fresh from the last 2 days... I want to separate the white feces issue from the external issue and treat them separately. The white feces is probably a side effect from the original illness and is not an immediate concern.

So I stopped the salt treatment on the 12th. The external issues seemed gone, and they seemed very stressed, getting darker etc. I come home from school the next day and this one I now call Daedalus was laying on the floor... As per other members' advice I've isolated him (about to put him into a 20 gallon tote once the water has aged). The other 5 just received their first treatment of metro. I've kept seeing stringy poo in the tank and they've had it for almost a month now. I've added some pictures for you to see.

Are you aging your water? Are you changing water daily?

Yes, I keep it heated and aerated for 24 hrs before adding it into their tank. I've been doing 70% water changes twice daily on the 20 gallon quarantine tank.

The bottled bacteria - How much have you added? I've never use this stuff so I'm not sure if it can create an issue if too much is added. When I've had an uncycled tank, I just keep up with water changes and the filters always seed themselves.

In my 90 gallon with no livestock I used Dr Tim's one and only, followed by stability and now bioballs. Ammonia is still at 2 ppm on day 5. The quarantine tank only receives the recommended dosage of Seachem Stability, which seems to bring their ammonias down. I'm afraid to add my fish to the uncycled 90 gallon in case it's the dead bacteria there now creating the ammonia...

I had an angelfish pair once and the male jumped while i was at school. When i found him, he was dried up and hard and actually stuck to the floor. Appeared dead, but i tossed him back into the tank and I guess he rehydrated because he came back to life, lol...

This is exactly what happened to me! LoL He could have been on the floor there anywhere from 1-6 hrs. I honestly didn't even realize he was still alive when I put him in the bucket but here he is 24 hrs later, growing out new fins! Yesterday he was gasping and today seems to be doing a lot better although he is purple on his side.

[Tanja]

I would have regretted if I moved on from Discus. I even wanted to put the fish out of their misery and I googled the fastest and cleanest way to kill the fish to end suffering, but I saw improvement right when I was ready to end my discus journey.

LoL this is actually exactly what I was doing last night. But these fish are the whole reason I came back to the hobby after a decade so there's no way I'm giving up on them now. I kept angelfish and african cichlids from when I was 10-16 years old.

I had my pond crash once (I made a mistake) and I had over 50 totes with all my important kois medicating and salt dipping each koi. I have over 80 kois and over 200 cichlids in my pond. It's been 3 years now and I do nothing but turn a valve to clean my filter. It's a self cleaning system I built. Lesson learned: I QT every fish that goes through my front driveway. It can come from our President and I'll still QT.

Lesson learned here as well it's been a lot of tears and sweat because of what I think was carried by some nerite snails I kept floating in a bag above my tank. I didn't even release them because I saw they were diseased. I thought I waited long enough before I got my discus but I guess not.

If you want, after the medication is done and the fish recuperate, I can share my number with you so I can tell you what maintenance routine worked for me and the MINIMUM standard that I have in place to take care of my fish. The metro has to go for 10 to 13 days without missing a day and without missing a water change.

Do you know how to send private messages on here? If not I can share with you my email.

Brian asked for a picture of the whole tank, so here it is.

[Tanja]

Agree with Armando on the 20 gallon tote. The larger volume of water will lessen the ammonia etc buildup between WCs.
Pat

Thank you Pat. My only concern is the black bottom of it, I'm not really able to see the poop in there... Also I have to keep it on the floor so I can't vacuum it. My space in the house is very limited. How many days should I keep him separated? Or maybe I could even put him into the 90 gallon which is currently cycling?

[Mando]

You’re on the road to recovery! Their appearance looks good and don’t look thin. They should start eating soon. Only keep Deadalus in there until he has recovered from the fall. If he has fully recovered from the fall then join him with the others. Only you know your fish so you should be able to tell when he is acting normal. You can scoop out the poo with a net and you can add salt if he has rapid breathing or damaged film on the skin.

You just cleaned the 90 and this one still has the parasite issue. Don’t put him in there. Make sure to cover the QT tank. I noticed it didn't have a lid from the picture unless you have one of those thin plexi covers.

[Tanja]

You’re on the road to recovery! Their appearance looks good and don’t look thin. They should start eating soon. Only keep Deadalus in there until he has recovered from the fall. If he has fully recovered from the fall then join him with the others. Only you know your fish so you should be able to tell when he is acting normal. You can scoop out the poo with a net and you can add salt if he has rapid breathing or damaged film on the skin.

He ate today! LoL. But his colors are faded and he has a serious injury that kind of looks like a heater burn on his side. But my heater there doesn't get that hot so it must be from the fall. He's shed most of his old fins and scales and grown new ones now.

You just cleaned the 90 and this one still has the parasite issue. Don’t put him in there. Make sure to cover the QT tank. I noticed it didn't have a lid from the picture unless you have one of those thin plexi covers.

You're absolutely right on that. How long do you think the parasites can live without a host? And how long from your experience can these fish survive in such a small tank? I do 50% water changes twice daily. I had a cover on it but they got so freaked out whenever I put it on or took it out (which I had to put them through 2-4 times daily) that I decided to take it out... It's black so it creates shadows. I'll try to find a glass lid for it somewhere.

[Mando]

He ate today! LoL. But his colors are faded and he has a serious injury that kind of looks like a heater burn on his side. But my heater there doesn't get that hot so it must be from the fall. He's shed most of his old fins and scales and grown new ones now.


You're absolutely right on that. How long do you think the parasites can live without a host? And how long from your experience can these fish survive in such a small tank? I do 50% water changes twice daily. I had a cover on it but they got so freaked out whenever I put it on or took it out (which I had to put them through 2-4 times daily) that I decided to take it out... It's black so it creates shadows. I'll try to find a glass lid for it somewhere.

Petco and petsmart has the 30g breeder clear cover and petsmart price matches its partner site, chewey.com.

[Tanja]

The jumper - this can be very bad, but if it's still alive it may bounce back and it's a good sign if it's still alive after this much time. I would keep lights off when you are not doing maintenance.

Do you think it would be a good idea to treat him with Api Furan or should I just let him heal in his own time? He has a serious burn on his side and he's lost a lot of color.

[jeep]

I would keep an eye on him. Maybe add about 2-3 TBS salt to help build slime coat. He may live, but may never be the same again. At least a good learning experience. I'm surprised it's lasted this long. Great job!!

[Tanja]

I would keep an eye on him. Maybe add about 2-3 TBS salt to help build slime coat. He may live, but may never be the same again. At least a good learning experience.

Thank you Brian. I've been using Fritz' guard with aloe vera in it to help with the slime coat. It has some other natural ingredients in it as well that have helped him a lot. I would do salt but he's been through so much of it lately. What do you think may have caused him to jump?

[jeep]

Good thinking on keeping up with the slime coat!! As far as jumping, it could be anything. It could be from the stress of recovery, a shadow it didn't like or even another discus bumping into it at the wrong time.

One of my contest discus appeared to hit something and I thought it was either scarred for life or going to die. The next day it was fine and looked like nothing ever happened, lol...
challenge 79.jpg

[Tanja]

One of my contest discus appeared to hit something and I thought it was either scarred for life or going to die. The next day it was fine and looked like nothing ever happened, lol...
challenge 79.jpg

LoL That's incredible! My jumper is still alive too, when I tossed him into a bucket I didn't even know if he was living but I did it just in case. His colors are still faded and he's not eating, in fact I wonder if he can see the food... he might be blind actually. But the fact he's still alive on day 3 from the jump alone is amazing. So if anyone ever claimed these guys are not hardy I've just proven them wrong. They just need to be cared for like any fish.

[Mando]

how are the fish holding up? any updates?