Originally Posted by
lemont23
1. Please explain the problems with your fish. When did you notice the problems and did anything unusual happen that you think started them?
I honestly think it all began when we started giving our discus frozen foods, even though the test kits with drops showed good water quality I think something was still wrong with the water.
]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).
Not eating, clamped fins, darting, twitching, hiding, gold/bronze dusting, lethargy,
3. What medications/ treatments have you already tried and what were the results. Include dosage and duration of treatment.
Five days ago my smallest discus died. I immediately did a 90% water change, raised the temperature to 31 c (88 f) and added some aquarium salt with aloe, since that's what I have besides table salt - 1.5 tsp per ~ 40 l (10 g). I continued with changing the water-50-70%, siphoning the substrate and cleaning the aquarium every morning for these 5 days, while also adding the lost salt.
Tank/Water
4. Tank size and ages, numbers and sizes of fish.
407 l (107 g), 3 discus are 4 months, 5 clown loaches 3 months, and the other 4 are about 10 months in the tank. In total 7 discus, 5 loaches. Ranging from 2.5 inch to 6 inch, the loaches are 2-3 inch.
5. Water change regime (What percentage and how often).
1-2 times a week, 50% water change.
6. How long has tank been running? Is it bare bottom? If you have substrate, what type and how deep is it?
about 10 months, white gravel substrate, about 1 inch deep.
7. Do you age your water? If you do for how long and what is the ph swing.
I don't age the water. About 0.5 ph swing.
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 don't use a conditioner.
9. Parameters and water source;
- temp _____29c (84 f before raising it to 88f)
- ph _____ 7.5-8
- ammonia reading ____0
- nitrite reading ____0
- nitrate reading ____5-15
Changing with tap water.
10. Any new fish, plants or inverts added recently.
No
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.
Frozen blood worms or heart, flakes. 2 times a day.
During my treatment they seemed to be getting better, more active feeding, but some still have the golden dust on them and sometimes but rarely would dart, one is more lethargic then the others. Due to coronavirus almost all non food shops are closed in my city, but I ordered some medicine for velvet, icht and bacterial infections just in case and it will only be here in about 3 days (jbl punktol, oodinol , furanol). I'm not sure how much salt I should be using if at all, since I read loaches don't tolerate salt much. And If I should treat them with medicine which would be the last resort.