Now I remember why I gave up discus 20 years ago! First day - problems

[Tikitank]

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[Tikitank]

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[Tikitank]

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[Tikitank]

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[Tikitank]

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[Tikitank]

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Sorry there is such a glare/reflection in the pics

[Tikitank]

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And to make matters more interesting I found this right before my water change. Saw it float down from the fish. Siphoned it out right away. ������

[Iminit]

In the second pic on the first page you can see some fin damage on the 2 on the right. Being you just got them I’m guessing they came with it. The salt should help clear that up. But on page 2 the second pic shows both those fish and the leopard does look like it’s getting worse. Could be from ammonia. But none of the others seem to be that bad or have any at all. That fish may have something more wrong with it. The white poo is never a good sign and the meds your using now I don’t believe will help that. After your water change what is the ammonia reading. If you can a before and after ammonia reading will help. Besides your ammonia problem the rest is on Wattley.

[bluelagoon]

Does your water source use chlorine or chloramine(chlorine and ammonia)? If chloramine, you'll have a false positive until the BB in the filter converts it to nitrite to nitrate, which happens quickly with an established tank. The Safe you are using is just used to bond to detoxify the chlorine and ammonia. The bond lasts for 24-48 hours or thereabouts. By that time it should be converted. You mentioned that it goes down after a short period. I would also see what the ich meds does first; that is an old med used for many years for different ailments.

[bluelagoon]

I don't think you need to do 100% daily WC's on a tank that size with low/moderate stock if you have a good cycle. They look to be a nice size.

[Tikitank]

In the second pic on the first page you can see some fin damage on the 2 on the right. Being you just got them I’m guessing they came with it. The salt should help clear that up. But on page 2 the second pic shows both those fish and the leopard does look like it’s getting worse. Could be from ammonia. But none of the others seem to be that bad or have any at all. That fish may have something more wrong with it. The white poo is never a good sign and the meds your using now I don’t believe will help that. After your water change what is the ammonia reading. If you can a before and after ammonia reading will help. Besides your ammonia problem the rest is on Wattley.

No fin damage when they came home with me. Once home and in my tank I noticed the blue spotted one wasn’t using his right pectoral fin very much. Then within 2-3 days I saw the whitish/grey patch near that fin. All went downhill from there. The blues seem to be the worst, just like yours. That one blue panda pigeon blood fish has always been the best. He eats and as soon as he sees me he is up front in my face.

Also, when I picked these seven fish, all came from separate tanks.

My tap water does have some ammonia in it. I use Safe ( not Prime ) to neutralize it for 48 hours as it says on the bottle. I use it daily in the aging barrels before pumping it into the tank.

I just ordered a bottle of nitrofurazone. Just to have on hand because this is really making me nervous. Heading out to work in a bit so hubby will keep me posted the rest of the day.

[Tikitank]

Does your water source use chlorine or chloramine(chlorine and ammonia)? If chloramine, you'll have a false positive until the BB in the filter converts it to nitrite to nitrate, which happens quickly with an established tank. The Safe you are using is just used to bond to detoxify the chlorine and ammonia. The bond lasts for 24-48 hours or thereabouts. By that time it should be converted. You mentioned that it goes down after a short period. I would also see what the ich meds does first; that is an old med used for many years for different ailments.

Yes, Okeechobee Florida water is awful. The water is run thru a 4 ft carbon tower and then it heads over to my aging barrels where it is aerated and heated for 24 hours. Then I use the SAFE and pump it into my tank.

My husband has been doing this for his Africans ( he raised them for awhile ) and once we realized what we needed to do, no more issues. We do live quite close to the water treatment plant and get hit pretty hard with the chemicals which is why we use a larger than usual dose of the SAFE.

[Tikitank]

I don't think you need to do 100% daily WC's on a tank that size with low/moderate stock if you have a good cycle. They look to be a nice size.

They are between 4-4 1/2 inch fish. Maybe the blue is 5. I was doing 100 gal WC daily for the 150 gal tank and today went to 50%. Set up the tank and started fishless cycle Dec 30 and things went better once I replaced my test kit. Even if it wasn’t well cycled, 100 gallon water changes daily should do the trick considering how few fish I have in there…… or so I thought. Wouldn’t it?? Liz says she doesn’t cycle tanks at all. Just does huge daily water changes until the cycle kicks in itself. I’m scratching my head here.

[Iminit]

I think your ammonia reading is a false reading from the ammo sorb. Unfortunately I think the problem is the discus and not your water. Strong discus would have adjusted to your water.

[captainandy]

Copper and broad spectrum antibiotic

However, you may be dealing with a virus and nothing but time will dictate the outcome

I feel your fristration