White spot on discus and torn fin

[Arnaud612]

Hello everyone



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

Couple week ago, a month and half top, they start to develop white fungus and torn fin. One of them died last week. Nothing change in my maintenance routine, except i add a little calcium.

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).

The fishes has some kind of a really small white dot and torn fins. The orange one show some white patch on his body, maybe excess slime? Other than that they all eat well and are active, even breeding.


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

None medication but as of today


Tank/Water

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

Tank has 2 years, its 200 gallons system, there’s 6 discus between 12 and 17 centimeters, 40 cardinalis tetra, 7 corydora sterbai et 3 ramirezi

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

35% once or two per weeks

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

It has been running for 2 years, with a thin layer of sand and some anubias

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

water is store 24 hours before, it’s 100% reverse osmosis + salt preis. I use a small pump to mix the salt and heat it before


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

None

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 83,5 F

- ph 6

- ammonia reading 0

- nitrite reading 0

- nitrate reading 1 to 5

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.

- RO water 100%


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

Last thing added was plants, about 4 month ago

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.

I feed them tetra prime with discus pellet from ocean nutrition and a mix of frozen food ( shrimps, mussel, brine shrimps… etc


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.

https://youtu.be/YB5IF63o0gE
https://youtu.be/qHi0fTnRUKE
https://youtu.be/P47WPtqrUYg
https://youtu.be/PAZWj3t_tDQ
https://youtu.be/0unpiZ-Yxh4

Pleas note that one of them die last week ( see my previous thread "SOS my discus is dying")

[SuperTaco]

Hi Arnaud, from previous experience and threads, those white spots are a sign of bad water quality. Check nitrates again and keep up with water changes. I would check filter for any waste stuck in there.

[Arnaud612]

Hello Aaron,

My Nitrate are very low, below 5 mg/l. Furthermore it appeared 2 days after a 75% water change. i'll do a huge cleaning to play it safe. Could it be another reason to your knowledge?

Could you tell me how bad it is and point me to the previous thread related to my problem?

Thank you very much to take time to answer me

[SuperTaco]

keep an eye on your fish for any pecking going on or any signs of external parasites. If you have some pairs in the tank they could get very aggressive during breeding. As long as they are eating and being active you are fine.

[Arnaud612]

Thank you for your help

[Iminit]

As said it’s your water quality. May be the 6.0ph. Bacteria doesn’t grow as well that low. But fin rot and those little pimples are a sign of bad water quality. Could be your tap water could be something in the filter or in the substrate. How often do you vacume the substrate? Looks like ammonia. The torn fins and the white patch sounds like ammonia burn. I’d do daily 50% water changes while vacuuming the substrate.

[coralbandit]

The waste removed during water changes equals the % of water you change .
So even with 50% water change you are still leaving 50% of the waste behind to build up .This is how 'old tank sundrome' happens , the waste compounds to levels much higher then people ever think .
I would start doing larger water changes .You would be better by far doing 1 @ 70% a week then 2@ 35% twice a week ..
It is easy math .I never change less then 50% and rarely go with less then 75% on all my tanks ..