Discus Darting and floating side on surface

[JEB]

I have had the same exact thing as Willie is describing. Always starts with largest fish in the tank. First darting, then dead on bottom of the tank approximately 2 to 3 days later. Dead fish do not even look diseased. Look perfectly normal. No dark color. No sign of fin damage, etc. Keeps going from one fish to the next until whole tank dies. Lose one or two per day. Somedays there are no deaths but then following day there could be 2. All fish look healthy. Heart breaking.

[bluelagoon]

I have had the same exact thing as Willie is describing. Always starts with largest fish in the tank. First darting, then dead on bottom of the tank approximately 2 to 3 days later. Dead fish do not even look diseased. Look perfectly normal. No dark color. No sign of fin damage, etc. Keeps going from one fish to the next until whole tank dies. Lose one or two per day. Somedays there are no deaths but then following day there could be 2. All fish look healthy. Heart breaking.

I have also experienced what Willie did. Totally shocking for me and yes heart breaking. I have never seen this in all my years of fish keeping, how a fish could look normal and all a sudden start whirling and die. I had 4 new arrivals in a QT and were 3.5"-4'' at time.

[Abzdot]

After feeding the new lamb heart mix, I haven't experienced any darting but one discus (one that hasn't had any issues until now) has been hiding and a bit lethargic. I did a water test to find nitrates being at 80ppm!!!! I expected an increase in nitrates but not that much in 3 days of feeding. No wonder why you hear people saying they do a WC every day or two. Especially breeders when they feed BH to grow juviniles up, they must do daily WC creating a Concencus that daily WCs are needed.

[Aquaman218]

I had a similar issue with my new discus, exactly one week after they arrived. I'm usually up early in the morning, when I first got my Discus order, as soon as there is enough light in the room I stuck my head in the room and checked on the Discus. For a full week everything looked great. On that morning, all 9 were in the front of the tank watching me. The tank lights came on at 7:00am, and I returned to the room to feed the fish. At that point 7 Discus were at the front of the tank closest to the door. I found the other two, one swimming upside down and the other laying on it's side on the bottom. They would both swim around, but very erratically, upside down or on their sides. Within 15 minutes one was dead. I fully expected the other to be dead soon as well; however, after another 15 minutes, he was swimming around normally and was eating. The only thing I did was to add 1tbs of salt per 10 gallons of water.

Exactly one week later that same discus repeated the episode. Again, after a short time, he was fine. This time I did nothing, as I was unsure what needed to be done. All 7 of the remaining Discus were fine, no symptoms or issues. Within 30 minutes all were eating as if they were starved. Since that time (about 2 months ago), all have been fine. They have all put on noticeable size and there has been no repeat of the incident.

I have since treated the fish using Metro mixed into the food, for 3 days, on two different occasions. I have been doing this monthly as a precaution. I have not administered any other medications.

I consulted with Wattley discus and have done a lot of research but have been unable to identify a cause.

Robert

[Abzdot]

Hi there I need some help ASAP, a different discus has stopped eating for a few days, has one clamped gill and is lethargic. Everything is the same as in my original post to begin with but nitrates are at 20ppm after feeding lamb heart. I’m about to go and get NT Labs hill fluke and wormer medicine before the lfs closes and won’t be able to go again till Sunday.
Here’s a video feature=sharehttps://youtube.com/shorts/5olCy8RHIf8?feature=share

[dspeers]

This sounds more like a symptom rather than a syndrome. What I mean is that there are probably multiple different causes. Consider vertigo in humans, can be mechanical, toxic, nutritional deficiency, or infectious. If infectious, can be viral, bacterial, or parasitic. Doesn't help as far as what to do, sorry about that. If it were a recurrent problem like what Willie has experienced I would check with my vet to see if they know who could perform a necropsy or contact any local vet schools to see if they might do it.

[Abzdot]

This sounds more like a symptom rather than a syndrome. What I mean is that there are probably multiple different causes. Consider vertigo in humans, can be mechanical, toxic, nutritional deficiency, or infectious. If infectious, can be viral, bacterial, or parasitic. Doesn't help as far as what to do, sorry about that. If it were a recurrent problem like what Willie has experienced I would check with my vet to see if they know who could perform a necropsy or contact any local vet schools to see if they might do it.

Hi there, is that in response with my most recent message?

[dspeers]

Sorry, was typing at the same time you asked question next. I was going to send the following a couple of hours ago but got interrupted, pesky things kids....You dropped your nitrates 75 % in less than 24 hours. That big a change may have stressed the fish just due to osmotic effects. I have been unable to find definitive information on how fast one should drop nitrates, but have seen several recommendations for no more than 50% per day. I am conservative and would probably drop the nitrates 25% every 12 hours until below 10, then let the nitrate concentration curve determine both frequency and volume of water changes. Alternatively change 50+% of your water daily and if nitrates stay low (below your target) stick with that. Also treating for flukes is a reasonable option. Hospital tank or your main tank? If no other symptomatic fish, would opt for a HT if available.

[Abzdot]

You might be right. I want to treat the entire tank because the NT labs fluke treatment is also a wormer so I’d kill 2 birds with one stone I suppose

[Abzdot]

Hi there. The discus with the clamped gills has many issues now. Firstly the gills as mentioned before, suddenly one big white spot (perhaps ick?) has appeared and isn’t eating. I’ve started NT labs treatment on Sunday at 6pm but I need to do a water change because I believe the water parameters is the problem. I’m going to do a 50% WC and redose for the water taken out.240D15CC-0FF4-4A5D-9699-AC8C136D78C9.jpg

[bluelagoon]

You should age and aerate your water if changing larger amounts of water. Plus you'll need to dose for the whole volume not just the water you take out. Looks a lot like a bacterial infection to me(fin rot). It is not ich. Looks to have a few issues going on. Appears to have edema/slightly swollen; could have come from the larger WC from that osmosis effect that was mentioned (a sudden change in water chemistry).

[Abzdot]

Thank you for your help. Unfortunately he didn’t make it. I feel like I’m having issue after issue with the discus now. There’s another one who has had no prior issues has stopped eating and is hiding in the corner of the tank. Perhaps this is because of the treatment?

[psuryava81]

I had a very similar condition of whirling condition with my Discus. Several times a day it would dart like crazy, bumping into the glass and then surf the top of the waterline. Looked like it would die for sure. Posted it here and some people gave good suggestions. But what actually worked is a force-feeding of kanaplex and metro through a syringe/dropper. I did 3 sessions every 2 days and hoped it worked. And it did. The discus is doing great for the last 2 months. No issues with whirling anymore. Eats like a pig and always comes up to the front when I walk by.

[psuryava81]

please read my posy titled "sick discus". I have cured my fish with this condition with normally available meds.

[dspeers]

Can you provide additional details on how you did the force-feeding's and at what medication concentrations? Thanks