Rotten Fins and Inflammatory Gill

[Imemyself]

The metric conversion would be 1 gram for 378.5 litres. I'm not sure if you use teaspoons, but it's 1/4 teaspoon for 151 litres. Sorry, I don't know how to convert teaspoon to gram because the weight of the med comes into play.

Prazi is a good med as it'll clear up flukes and tapeworms if present. I think Levamisole would be more targeted in this situation (roundworm, capillaria) but it's not so easy on the fish and it may not survive the treatment.

Also, any treatment should be done in a bare bottom tank with lights off. A 50% water change between treatments and wiping down the tank surfaces. This helps avoid reinfestation from ingesting eggs. I would treat all your fish at once.

Thanks for the reply, I have bought Levamisole and will take about 8 days before it gets delivered to me. As you mentioned it can be deadly on fishes, I plan to treat this fish individually inside the QT and use Potassium Permanganate solution in the main tank for disinfection. I will then do a 100% water change along with cleaning all sides of the glass. Do you think this should be fine?

Regards
Sajeev

[jwcarlson]

My experience, having used levamisole on every fish I own is that at the right dosage it seems quite effective and the only side effect I have seen is in my discus and that's that they will eat much less for a bit. None of my community fish or apistogramma have cared at all. Didn't skip a beat. One of the apistogramma pairs spawned with levamisole in the tank.

I think it's more likely that fish in rough shape might not survive levamisole (or any treatment, honestly).

[jeep]

Jacob is correct. Used properly, levamisole isn't deadly to healthy fish. The only drawback I've seen is a loss of appetite but I've never treated an already compromised discus.

And, without a microscopic exam of the feces, any med is just a guess at this stage.

[dspeers]

All the fish look somewhat emaciated to me. Is it at all possible that they need additional food? Also agree would not at this point try and use a QT. If indeed this is roundworms, your entire stock almost guaranteed has worms at this point. Also, given the delay in getting the Rx, would anyone with first hand experience with this consider trying to purge with Epsom salts to possibly reduce the parasite burden?

[Imemyself]

My experience, having used levamisole on every fish I own is that at the right dosage it seems quite effective and the only side effect I have seen is in my discus and that's that they will eat much less for a bit. None of my community fish or apistogramma have cared at all. Didn't skip a beat. One of the apistogramma pairs spawned with levamisole in the tank.

I think it's more likely that fish in rough shape might not survive levamisole (or any treatment, honestly).

Thanks. It’s really disheartening. I really love these fishes but unfortunately as I can see they can’t be saved. Unfortunately I noticed that a few other fishes have also stopped eating.(. Any recommendations?

[jwcarlson]

Thanks. It’s really disheartening. I really love these fishes but unfortunately as I can see they can’t be saved. Unfortunately I noticed that a few other fishes have also stopped eating.(. Any recommendations?

I'm no where near an expert. Would suggest listening to more experienced people in the thread. I've had two bouts with non-eating in a couple fish. Metro got one of them going (the other died). Levamisole saved the last one here fairly recently.

[jeep]

I hang on to sick ones too, sometimes much too long, but if you've only had these for 2 months then that poor guy was sick before you got him. No fault of yours!

You've obviously put a lot of work into that tank. It's awesome! But, if these were my discus I would basically start form scratch...

I would place them in a bare bottom tank. I would have a aging barrel large enough to do at least a 50% water change every day. I would raise the temp to 93, slowly over a few days. I'm sorry to say the worst one may not survive this heat. Add extra air if they show distress. I would treat the entire tank with course pure Metro plus 2TBS regular salt per 10 gallons during this time for 10-14 days as Metro works best with heat. 50% water changes daily, re-dose metro and add back the percentage of salt removed during the water change. This high heat will help knock back most internal parasites by speeding up their life cycle and the metro will help with flagellates.

After the heat/metro treatment I would reduce the heat to 88 and observe them for a week.

If they show signs of improvement I would then treat with levamisole as a 24 hour bath. Water changes daily. About 5 days later repeat Levamisole. About 5 days later repeat Levamisole.

It's important to wipe down or scrub the bottom of the tank during water changes during this treatment so the discus don't ingest any eggs and repeat the parasite cycle.

[jwcarlson]

Here's threads about my two struggles with non-eaters:
http://forum.simplydiscus.com/showth...-vs-Water-Temp
and
http://forum.simplydiscus.com/showth...stopped-eating

The caveat here being that none of mine were in as bad of shape as your red one. But that doesn't mean it can't bounce back. Please keep us posted, it's interesting to see what happens when someone gets the fish healthy.