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Thread: Discus gill flukes?

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    Question Discus gill flukes?

    I have one discus right now and was planning on getting more. I have a community tank with the one discus for now and a few cardinal tetras, 4 corydoras, and 3 khuli loaches. I’ve noticed that my discus has made some weird movements and rubbed against some of my plants every once in a while which I’ve heard can be a sign of gill flukes. He does seem normal and swims around and eats. When he eats however I noticed that he sometimes will start breathing a bit faster and heavily. Planning on doing a water change today. Is gill flukes contagious and if so how would I go about medicating my fish since I know the corys and khulis are scaleless fish and can be more sensitive to medications. Would I only need to medicate the discus since he’s the only one acting lethargic? Thanks Lucas

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    Default Re: Discus gill flukes?

    gill flukes are egg layers , if your discus has them the eggs will be throughout the tank .
    you can get rid of the live flukes with potassium permanganate treatment .
    eggs will hatch so ,repeat after 5-6 days for a total of 3 or 4 treatments .
    it will damage some plants .

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    Registered Member bluelagoon's Avatar
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    Default Re: Discus gill flukes?

    Might not be gill flukes. But yes they are contagious. What is your WC routine? You say rubbing against something. Do they shake their heads? Flukes usually don't make fish lethargic. PraziPro seems ok for scaleless fish. Treatment length same as above. A treatment wouldn't hurt them anyway.

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    Default Re: Discus gill flukes?

    I was using Fluke Tab it worked well.

    Cliff

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    Default Re: Discus gill flukes?

    Quote Originally Posted by bluelagoon View Post
    Might not be gill flukes. But yes they are contagious. What is your WC routine? You say rubbing against something. Do they shake their heads? Flukes usually don't make fish lethargic. PraziPro seems ok for scaleless fish. Treatment length same as above. A treatment wouldn't hurt them anyway.
    Re: Discus gill flukes?
    I was watching the discus yesterday. You may be right, it may not be gill flukes but I’m not sure. He was kind of shaking his head. I am doing water changes twice a week. Should I be doing more? Thanks

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    Question Re: Discus gill flukes?

    Now I am starting to think it’s not gill flukes. I mean the discus seems fine and it eats and when it does shake its head it’s maybe only once or twice and it’s very rare. Early case of gill flukes or possibly something else?

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    Default Re: Discus gill flukes?

    Quote Originally Posted by lucasbuck2826 View Post
    Re: Discus gill flukes?
    I was watching the discus yesterday. You may be right, it may not be gill flukes but I’m not sure. He was kind of shaking his head. I am doing water changes twice a week. Should I be doing more? Thanks
    That would depend on the volume of water and size tank and whether you age your water.

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    Default Re: Discus gill flukes?

    Quote Originally Posted by bluelagoon View Post
    That would depend on the volume of water and size tank and whether you age your water.
    I am noticing that my discus is starting to not really eat. Spits out its food. Do you think it’s flukes? Should I treat with Prazipro to be safe?

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    Registered Member bluelagoon's Avatar
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    Default Re: Discus gill flukes?

    They would still eat with flukes. I have no idea with the info you provided. Flukes are more of an irritation and usually you can see the fish using one gill and resting the other with a bit of vigorous head shaking with sometime a slight back ward motion. What was their husbandry like before the issues? Best to fill out the questionnaire in hospital section.

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    Exclamation Re: Discus gill flukes?

    Quote Originally Posted by bluelagoon View Post
    They would still eat with flukes. I have no idea with the info you provided. Flukes are more of an irritation and usually you can see the fish using one gill and resting the other with a bit of vigorous head shaking with sometime a slight back ward motion. What was their husbandry like before the issues? Best to fill out the questionnaire in hospital section.


    Problem

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

    Start noticing about maybe 1 week ago that my discus was making weird movements.

    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).

    Gills just recently started to become clamped. He has also started to not eat. (I’ll keep watching to make sure but as of like two days ago he will eat his food and then spit it back out again. The main thing that caught my eye however is he will make a twitching motion with his whole body and turn to the side 40 degrees and then sometimes dart forwards. I’ve even seen him go 140 degrees to the side. These weird motions will happen 2-4 times and only for a few seconds and then it’s over.

    3. What medications/ treatments have you already tried and what were the results. Include dosage and duration of treatment.

    Decided to treat with Prazipro to see if that would help. Second day of treating

    Tank/Water

    4. Tank size and ages, numbers and sizes of fish.

    70 gallon tank. (Planning I’m going bigger later when I get more fish.) I have 1 discus for now along with 5 corydoras, 2 neon tetras, and 6 khuli loaches

    5. Water change regime (What percentage and how often).

    20-30% 1-2 times a week? Should I be doing more? I want some recommendations.

    6. How long has tank been running? Is it bare bottom? If you have substrate, what type and how deep is it?

    The tank has been running for about 2 months. Half of the tank is sand and the other half is aqua soil with plants. Substrate is about 2 inches deep with may be a little to much. I always make sure to stir up the sand so toxic air pockets won’t be a problem.

    7. Do you age your water? If you do for how long and what is the ph swing.

    I do not age my water.

    8. What type/brand water conditioner do you use? Do you add it to the tank or aging barrel? How much do you use?

    Seachem Prime Water Conditioner. Dose how the bottle recommends.

    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: pretty consistent temp of 83°-85° Fahrenheit

    - ph: 6.6

    - ammonia reading: 10 ppm

    - nitrite reading: 0 ppm

    - nitrate reading: 60 ppm (could that be the problem?)

    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.

    - municipal water ____

    I use tap water along with the Seachem Prime

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

    Got some new Ludwigia Repens

    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.

    2-3 cubes of frozen bloodworms once a day. And some slow sinking pellets. He mainly prefers the frozen bloodworms. Should I feed more often?

    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.

    Hard to get a video since it’s not so unpredictable when he’ll do it.

  11. #11
    Registered Member bluelagoon's Avatar
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    Default Re: Discus gill flukes?

    Your water might be irritating him, try to get your nitrates down to 5 or at least under 10. But try to use aged aerated water for large WC's. Keep your substrate vacuumed/cleaned for a start. Not sure if you wanna spend the money for meds but they are usually more expensive for treatments than one fish might be worth.

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    Default Re: Discus gill flukes?

    Quote Originally Posted by bluelagoon View Post
    Your water might be irritating him, try to get your nitrates down to 5 or at least under 10. But try to use aged aerated water for large WC's. Keep your substrate vacuumed/cleaned for a start. Not sure if you wanna spend the money for meds but they are usually more expensive for treatments than one fish might be worth.
    After the nitrates are down will he stop spitting out the bloodworms or is that something else do you think? Thank you for all the help!

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    Default Re: Discus gill flukes?

    In a few days of treatment if they are gill flukes, they should start using both gills and stop shaking their heads. But gill fluke treatment takes weeks to completely rid them. Gill flukes should not make them stop eating, they can live with those a long time and usually would kill them. Not sure if it is your husbandry or not but appears to be. But also could be from unclean substrate that they're feeding from.

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    Registered Member coralbandit's Avatar
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    Default Re: Discus gill flukes?

    - ammonia reading: 10 ppm

    - nitrite reading: 0 ppm

    - nitrate reading: 60 ppm (could that be the problem?)


    Yea that is a big problem if those numbers are right.
    Over 1ppm ammonia can kill fish .. 10ppm your fish should be dead !
    60ppm nitrates on a 75g with your stocking means you don't change water or you really over feed.
    Most 'common' fish keepers [not discus people] don't want nitrates over 40ppm. Discus people want nitrates under 10ppm. So do their fish ..
    The % of the water you change is the % the nutrient will be reduced .
    So if you change 50% you will still have 30ppm nitrates and 5 ammonia [your ammonia reading has to be wrong IMO ].
    Most who keep discus and want them to grow change 70-100 % daily .
    You should be changing no less then 50% daily till you get nitrates down to 5..That would 5 days at 50% assuming you don't gain any which is not how it works ..
    Change water .Learn how to make large water changes like 70% +. You need to match temperature very closely .
    Most feel less then 50% is useless as you are leaving half the waste in the tank only to grow and get higher and higher with every 50% change ..
    I think your main issue is your water quality ..It is not good ..Like Mervin said your husbandry looks like the cause and the treatment is to step up water changes before using any meds . Meds won't work in dirty water anyways ..They get exhausted by all the bacteria in the water column and never get to work on the issue you applied them for usually .
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uhFp68wjRUU
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    Default Re: Discus gill flukes?

    Quote Originally Posted by coralbandit View Post
    - ammonia reading: 10 ppm

    - nitrite reading: 0 ppm

    - nitrate reading: 60 ppm (could that be the problem?)


    Yea that is a big problem if those numbers are right.
    Over 1ppm ammonia can kill fish .. 10ppm your fish should be dead !
    60ppm nitrates on a 75g with your stocking means you don't change water or you really over feed.
    Most 'common' fish keepers [not discus people] don't want nitrates over 40ppm. Discus people want nitrates under 10ppm. So do their fish ..
    The % of the water you change is the % the nutrient will be reduced .
    So if you change 50% you will still have 30ppm nitrates and 5 ammonia [your ammonia reading has to be wrong IMO ].
    Most who keep discus and want them to grow change 70-100 % daily .
    You should be changing no less then 50% daily till you get nitrates down to 5..That would 5 days at 50% assuming you don't gain any which is not how it works ..
    Change water .Learn how to make large water changes like 70% +. You need to match temperature very closely .
    Most feel less then 50% is useless as you are leaving half the waste in the tank only to grow and get higher and higher with every 50% change ..
    I think your main issue is your water quality ..It is not good ..Like Mervin said your husbandry looks like the cause and the treatment is to step up water changes before using any meds . Meds won't work in dirty water anyways ..They get exhausted by all the bacteria in the water column and never get to work on the issue you applied them for usually .
    Thanks for the very helpful advice! I’ll be sure to get right on that!

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