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

[Tanja]

The thing is, there's NO WAY I can do 70 gallon water changes twice daily to keep nitrites down in that tank... just way way too much water. So I was going to finish the cycle with less maintenance fish.

[Mando]

I wouldn’t do it. Look for Al’s new post about free advice. He clearly states that you should not trust anyone that says they qt’d the fish. Follow the qt process or your risking this whole situation again. You don’t have to do twice daily. Do 1x50% daily. What foods are you feeding? There should not be much food left as discus feed from the bottom as well.

Al would not give the “trust” advice for no reason. He’s seen countless emergency threads saying “my fish are sick but I only added fish that my supplier qt’s”.

[Mando]

My 30g lost it’s cycle from doing 90% water changes twice daily when growing 7 fry. I reduced it to 50% once daily and did not have an issue. Filter caught up quickly. I tested water twice weekly and wc’d as necessary. If you don’t put in the work now, you’re going to spend a lot of time on this emergency room.

[Tanja]

My 30g lost it’s cycle from doing 90% water changes twice daily when growing 7 fry. I reduced it to 50% once daily and did not have an issue. Filter caught up quickly. I tested water twice weekly and wc’d as necessary.

Interesting. Perhaps that is why my quarantine tank doesn't really have any form of a cycle going on 3 weeks soon! Even 50% would be 45 gallons of water every day though... I guess that's fine... Still I only get a gallon per minute out of my tap. Is there any way I might get away with 50% every other day...?

If you don’t put in the work now, you’re going to spend a lot of time on this emergency room.

How long should I keep the pandas separated from them? I still want to put them in there...

What foods are you feeding? There should not be much food left as discus feed from the bottom as well.

4 times daily including one serving of beef heart, the rest brine shrimp sometimes only flakes 2-3 times daily. Them doing the work of the scavenger is what I want to avoid... I believe they got fungus because there was always some food left behind that got hidden from me either behind some rock or driftwood and they eat absolutely everything they can get their fins on!

[Mando]

I’ll answer other questions via pm since we are going off topic.

Don’t rush things as far as qt. Get your current fish healthy and once they are all in the main tank, then buy your cat fish and place them in the QT tank.. Qt is a long process. You can deworm in this stage with 1 prazi 48hr bath treatment and up to three levamisole. Treat levamisole on day 1,7 and 21. On the sixth week of qt, introduce one of your main tank fish into the qt tank. Observe for 2-4 weeks, if no signs of illness, everyone can go into maintank. This procedures is Al’s and it’s from the top of my head so please try to find the original post.

By no means am I telling you what to do. This is just my suggestion.

[jeep]

Armando you are giving very good advice! I also agree that 1x50% WC is sufficient, and Tanja after the issue is resolved you can skip a day from time to time and relax and enjoy your accomplishment. The main reason for the very heavy water changes early on was to reduce the population of the pathogen. I think we are past that now, and our goal now is to help them recover from a very stressful event. Just put yourself in their situation... if you had been hospitalized because of some unknown life threatening disease, how long would it take for you to fully recover?

Tanja, I don't think you've lost a single fish so far, including the jumper. This is a great accomplishment. I would have expected a loss or two, but you accepted corrective advise without question. I told you at the beginning, most people push back at the recommendations we offered. They would have suffered losses and so far you have not!!!

[Tanja]

Tanja, I don't think you've lost a single fish so far, including the jumper. This is a great accomplishment. I would have expected a loss or two, but you accepted corrective advise without question.

I would do nothing less. The life of these creatures is so precious to me. Daedalus (the jumper) seems to be the healthiest of them. I'm trying to think of the least stressful ways of moving him back to the main tank. But you're right in that he's not the same. He used to be a shy fish and now he's aggressive, he tries to bite me and the hose every time I do his water change LoL. I was afraid of putting my hand in there yesterday. He's almost turned into a piranha...

[peewee1]

I would do nothing less. The life of these creatures is so precious to me. Daedalus (the jumper) seems to be the healthiest of them. I'm trying to think of the least stressful ways of moving him back to the main tank. But you're right in that he's not the same. He used to be a shy fish and now he's aggressive, he tries to bite me and the hose every time I do his water change LoL. I was afraid of putting my hand in there yesterday. He's almost turned into a piranha...

Unless the fish is extremely large and your fingers are abnormally small it would be hard for the fish to swallow your fingers as if they were worms. Do not be afraid! You have names for your fish? I have too. I study their individual behaviors. I then match those personalities to those whom I work with. I made a photo one fish, "Lee", and gave it to Lee at work. He was so impressed that he taped it onto his office wall next to those of his kids. I did name my jumper "Eddie the Eagle" after the famous UK Olympic ski jumper. If I get another jumper I am going to name him D. B. Cooper. Otherwise they are all named after people at work.

[Tanja]

Unless the fish is extremely large and your fingers are abnormally small it would be hard for the fish to swallow your fingers as if they were worms. Do not be afraid! You have names for your fish? I have too. I study their individual behaviors. I then match those personalities to those whom I work with. I made a photo one fish, "Lee", and gave it to Lee at work. He was so impressed that he taped it onto his office wall next to those of his kids.

I'm still studying mine too and so far only two of them have names. I like Greek mythology and his name came from Daedalus saving himself from imminent death so many times. Yes his teeth are obviously small but it still freaks me out when I feel them LoL.

[Tanja]

Armando you are giving very good advice! I also agree that 1x50% WC is sufficient, and Tanja after the issue is resolved you can skip a day from time to time and relax and enjoy your accomplishment. The main reason for the very heavy water changes early on was to reduce the population of the pathogen. I think we are past that now, and our goal now is to help them recover from a very stressful event. Just put yourself in their situation... if you had been hospitalized because of some unknown life threatening disease, how long would it take for you to fully recover?

Brian so it will be necessary to do 50% water changes almost daily as well going forward?

Also, is it normal for them to have stringy poop (not white) while being on metro? Or could it potentially be a side-effect of metro? Just wondering if mine are still sick...

[Mando]

Brian so it will be necessary to do 50% water changes almost daily as well going forward?

Also, is it normal for them to have stringy poop (not white) while being on metro? Or could it potentially be a side-effect of metro? Just wondering if mine are still sick...

It is not necessary for 50% daily once they are healed. These are almost adult fish so they do not require as much feeding as growing fry. Also, is it normal for poop that is pale to black to brown or red/orange if you feed tetra bites, but not white. White is a problem.

[jeep]

Hex is opportunistic. Your discus probably have it due to the stress of everything they've been through, probably a mild case. Hopefully the heat and metro will take care of the hex and white stringy feces

[Tanja]

Thank you so much Everybody for all of your help. My fish are doing so well tonight that I can no longer tell the difference between the one who was pooping white and the rest of the group! They're all acting like normal, healthy discus!! Brian - the heat has made all the difference. I'll be moving Daedalus (the jumper) back in tomorrow and the rest will follow.

[jeep]

Great news!!!

[Mando]

Thank you so much Everybody for all of your help. My fish are doing so well tonight that I can no longer tell the difference between the one who was pooping white and the rest of the group! They're all acting like normal, healthy discus!! Brian - the heat has made all the difference. I'll be moving Daedalus (the jumper) back in tomorrow and the rest will follow.

Now that your QT is empty, you can bring your cat fish/cory or whatever other fish you wanted to bring and start the qt process. Glad you were able to keep all your fish especially Deadalus! I thought for sure he was going to be a gonner.