Sick discus

[wolfspirit8290]

Please explain the problems with your fish. When did you notice the problems and did anything unusual happen that you think started them?

I purchased fish 11 days ago, the fish had already been QT and were all doing very well and they came from a well know place so I trust them. I put them in with my fish (yes I’m an idiot) and all was well for about 2-3 days. Then I noticed 2 of the new discus who are about 2 inches starting to dart all over the tank and smash into everything so I contacted the people I got them from and they suggested I treat them with general cure, prazipro and rid-itch pro all together; being that he owns and runs a very successful fish store I trusted him. I lost 2 fish by the second day though one I believe had a seizure because he darted all over then started to twirl around the tank and payed twitching on the bottom till he just died. After 4 days of treatment I noticed my big guy who I’ve had for 2.5 years and about 8” discus started darting and hit walls so I stopped all meds, did a 100% water change then got a carbon filter going to pull out anything else, he died the next day. Now my other discus who is pushing 5 years old is clamping his fins, just stopped eating, his slime coat is messed up, spooks easily and is turning black with weird white spots you can only see on certain angles in his slime coat and mainly sits at the bottom of the tank. The rest of the discus are just fine and swimming and eating like normal. I currently have 5 of them in a 30 gallon hospital tank.


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).

Poop is normal, some darting, hiding, slime coat is messed up, turning dark, clamped fins, heavy breathing and his gills are a whiteish tan and flared out a little.

3. What medications/ treatments have you already tried and what were the results. Include dosage and duration of treatment.
General cure, prazipro and rid-ick for a full 48 hours. I stopped meds once I lost a total of 3 fish I have also been salted their tank since I stopped meds doing a 2 TBS dose per 10 gallons with aquarium salt
Also I have PP, Neomycin Sulfurate and Furan 2 on hand

Tank/Water

4. Tank size and ages, numbers and sizes of fish.
30 gallon, 5 fish. Two 2 inch fish, two about 3” and eclipse is bigger then my hand

5. Water change regime (What percentage and how often).
I do 25% every 3 days and if I miss the third day I do a 50% on the 4th day

6. How long has tank been running? Is it bare bottom? If you have substrate, what type and how deep is it? It’s bare bottoms this tank has been running about 2 weeks


7. Do you age your water? If you do for how long and what is the ph swing.
I don’t honestly, I wait about an hour most and it changes little to none

8. What type/brand water conditioner do you use? Do you add it to the tank or aging barrel? How much do you use?
I use seachem discus buffer and regulator with Kent discus minerals

9. 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 __85_

- ph ___6.6__

- ammonia reading _0

- nitrite reading __5.0__

- nitrate reading __0_

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 __50__

- municipal water ____

- RO water __50__


10. Any new fish, plants or inverts added recently.
Yes

11. 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.
Spectrum discus grow, live black worms, nutridiet discus flakes with garlicGaurd, bug bites and discus bio gold. I mix it up and feed them about 3 times a day


12. 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.
Last edited by jeep; 07-08-2019 at 12:34 PM.72A67297-36AE-4A36-A672-2D7A44F7CAE1.jpg2324BFB9-0F35-4AA8-96F6-AF2D23B8A709.jpg7D840A44-91E1-4CE9-84E9-8947BBDF7DA8.jpg

[jeep]

Hello Andrea. Thanks for posting your questions here.

On FB, I suspected you had an issue of cross contamination and you have confirmed it. It's good you have placed them in a hospital tank.

At this point, I would recommend upping the salt to around 8-10 TBS per 10 gallons for 3-5 days, replacing the salt removed during water changes. I would also increase your water changes to 75% per day. This will help reduce the pathogen count. Since you are on well water, there hopefully won't be much of a ph swing, but if there is then you should age your water. I also don't think RO is necessary unless there is a specific reason you use it. Discus are perfectly fine with most water supplies, even hard ones. Since you already have Furan 2 on hand, I would use this according to directions as well. Since there appears to be an external fungal or bacterial issue, I would keep the temp at 82. You said your Nitrites are at 5? Are you sure this isn't Nitrates? If there are nitrites in the water then you have a filter cycling issue.

Here is a very similar issue going on now that you may be interested in http://forum.simplydiscus.com/showth...es-Please-Help!!!

[Second Hand Pat]

I think Brian gave you a good starting point Andrea and welcome to SimplyDiscus. It is a super nice community of discus keepers here.
Pat

[wolfspirit8290]

I apologize, yes nitrates are 5, no nitrites and the reason I did RO is because I’m on city water that has a PH over 8.2 and occasionally comes out green or brown so I didn’t want to risk the fish. Plus it tastes nasty so I can’t imagine they would like it.

[wolfspirit8290]

Thank you very much! Happy to be here!

[jeep]

I apologize, yes nitrates are 5, no nitrites and the reason I did RO is because I’m on city water that has a PH over 8.2 and occasionally comes out green or brown so I didn’t want to risk the fish. Plus it tastes nasty so I can’t imagine they would like it.

Understood, lol...

[wolfspirit8290]

It’s ok to do the 8-10 TBS of salt with the furan?

[jeep]

In the questionnaire you checked well water and use discus buffer and regulator with Kent discus minerals , but just now you said city water. If city water you will probably have chlorine and chloramines. If this is true then you should be using Prime to neutralize these.

[jeep]

It’s ok to do the 8-10 TBS of salt with the furan?

yes

[4eye gold fish]

I had a few that did the darting, one darted multiple times on different days. A couple of time this one discus darted and hit the tank wall so hard it knocked itself out. I thought she was a goner, she laid flat on the bottom and didn't move or breath each time, then about 15-20 seconds she starts to breath and within a minute swims to the corner, acting somewhat normal. Next day all is good as nothing has happened, swims and fights and eat like a pig. I started treating the whole tank with salt and high temp for a week and started aging my water, before I just straight tap with prime. No darting since then, but I also treated tank with Metro for 12 days following the salt treatment so don't know what cured it for me. Hope you find a cure for your discus.

[wolfspirit8290]

Ok so the other tank that they were originally in is full of angels and I now lost 3 fish in and none of them showed any signs before they died and were swimming and eating just fine. I also have Cory’s in the tank that’s why I haven’t been using a lot of salt. Suggestions? I’m tempted to hit that tank with PP

[Second Hand Pat]

Ok so the other tank that they were originally in is full of angels and I now lost 3 fish in and none of them showed any signs before they died and were swimming and eating just fine. I also have Cory’s in the tank that’s why I haven’t been using a lot of salt. Suggestions? I’m tempted to hit that tank with PP

Hi Andrea, I assume you are referring to the main tank? Have you considered simply doing a large water change? Is this tank full of the meds ( general cure, prazipro and rid-itch pro ) you mention in the first post.
Pat

[wolfspirit8290]

I’m going to do a large water change them when I get back home, I had done 100% water change on that tank to get all the meds out and I also had put a carbon filter on there to get anything else that could’ve possibly been left behind

[Second Hand Pat]

I’m going to do a large water change them when I get back home, I had done 100% water change on that tank to get all the meds out and I also had put a carbon filter on there to get anything else that could’ve possibly been left behind

That is great news Andrea and another large water change will help the fish flush the meds from their systems. You could be losing fish due to the med cocktail they have been exposed to. I do not think using PP is really going to help at this point. May I ask why you are considering using PP?
Pat

[wolfspirit8290]

Because after reading a lot of different articles on it I figured it would be the best way to get anything that could possibly be affecting the fish out of the tank. And in the case with my angel fish I have no idea what it could be because nobody shows any signs of anything before they pass. Also I did as Brian suggested earlier and I’ve been treating the Discus with Furan 2 as recommended on the box and I’m through the first two doses but I’m wondering if I should do the next two because my big guy is actually probably getting worse. He is losing color and sitting nose angled down now