Discus Not Eating - Newbie Tank Manager

[bluelagoon]

The reason I suggest old tank water is stress. Removing a sick fish is stressful enough. Now adding it to different water adds to the stress. Day 2 in new tank I change 50%. Than 50% daily. Next if you need to age and aerate your water yes you should. Not all of us need to. I use tap water .

It's the same water in your tank as in your tap, except tank water is dirtier. If the chemistry of the tank water is that different from the tap water then your not changing enough water or aging it to begin with. I could see it being an issue if one lets their tank water go a long time and only do small 25-30% WC's; but we're talking discus/ pristine water. Then there will be a big chemical change and should not be done all at once. I lived in a few places and none of those places could I use straight tap water for more than a 25-30% WC, it all had micro-bubbles and had to be aged so I could do 80% or more WC's without a hitch.

[Greg-Florida]

I haven't had discus long (about a year), but two separate times I had fish stop eating. One of them was a hex issue and metro snapped him out of it, but the other not eating at the same time didn't...
I'm sure Al will help fix you right up, but thought I'd give you a little hope at least.

That's great Jacob, thank you. And thanks for the thread reference.
Greg

[Greg-Florida]

Tuesday morning update:
I set up a hospital tank last night and moved him in this morning. Today and yesterday he's slow and lethargic.
I finally found some levamisole last night and noticed today it expired March 2022.
I've called Fritz Aquatics to see if it's worth using, waiting to hear back.
Bought some live brine shrimp to coax him to eat, but may be too late.
Added 3 TBSP salt to his new 30G tank. Put at 86 degrees, same as main tank.

One concern is the pink seen on the gills... don't think that's normal for him.

Thanks for the support.
Greg
IMG_5632.jpg

[jwcarlson]

How was the levamisole stored? And it was pure levamisole or Fritz Expel-P?

[brewmaster15]

Greg when you set up the tank did you use your dechlorinator? .. its not uncommon if the fish is stressed that there would be more blood flow to the gills.. as long as you used dechlor and some of your biofilter from the other tank he should be fine. You may want to tone down that light though.. its bright!

Al

[Greg-Florida]

How was the levamisole stored? And it was pure levamisole or Fritz Expel-P?

I bought at a fish store so I don't know how it was stored. It is Expel-P, yes.

[Greg-Florida]

I used Stress Coat + as my Prime does not come until tomorrow.
Yes, I pulled some foam and ceramic rings from the canister and put them in the new HOB.
I can turn off the light.

[jwcarlson]

I think those are one gram pouches, so it must be mostly filler? I'm not sure what the dose would be using that stuff. The pure levamisole is like dosed at like 2.5 ppm. Which is like 675 milligrams in a 75. Thread here for some dosing discussion: http://forum.simplydiscus.com/showth...amisole-Dosing (to be clear, you don't want to do the 13 ppm dosing we're talking about in there, but Al, Francis and others talk about the proper dosing).

I would expect that the Expel P is still fine to use as long as it didn't get wet or exposed to light. Most meds have weird expiration dates.

[Iminit]

It's the same water in your tank as in your tap, except tank water is dirtier. If the chemistry of the tank water is that different from the tap water then your not changing enough water or aging it to begin with. I could see it being an issue if one lets their tank water go a long time and only do small 25-30% WC's; but we're talking discus/ pristine water. Then there will be a big chemical change and should not be done all at once. I lived in a few places and none of those places could I use straight tap water for more than a 25-30% WC, it all had micro-bubbles and had to be aged so I could do 80% or more WC's without a hitch.

See being we don’t know anything about his water that’s why I suggest using tank water. Once fish is in qt for a day than start changing water. Now knowing he doesn’t have prime or a dechlorinator just old tank water would be best till he’s got prime. Now again me on my tap water I don’t use prime . Never have. But again nobodies water is the same.

[Greg-Florida]

Update:
After he was comfortably transferred and the tank treated with Levamisole, I was not able to get him to eat, even live brine shrimp.
He (or she) breathed his last breath sometime during the night, sorry to say. He looks so peaceful right now, suspended upright, balanced on a plant. It's a sad day.
Funny, last night I was compelled to stay with him in the room to stay near him. Any of you ever felt that way?

Anyway, it was a big learning experience, not only in the respect that I could have taken corrective action weeks sooner, but in setting up the qt tank and all the advance general care and feeding tips.
Thank you all for your support.

So does this qt tank now need to be broken down and sanitized?

Greg

[Second Hand Pat]

I would like to add a note using meds when the dosage amount needs to be measured. I personally use a jeweler scale. The one I have can measure in mg to a max of 10 grams. The nice thing is a jewerler's scale can be calibrated. So always calibrate before use.
Pat

[Greg-Florida]

I would like to add a note using meds when the dosage amount needs to be measured. I personally use a jeweler scale. The one I have can measure in mg to a max of 10 grams. The nice thing is a jewerler's scale can be calibrated. So always calibrate before use.
Pat

When I saw the pure Levamisole dose for the new qt tank was one gram, I concentrated on finding the pre-measured packets.

[jwcarlson]

When I saw the pure Levamisole dose for the new qt tank was one gram, I concentrated on finding the pre-measured packets.

Sorry to hear about your fish, Greg.

The QT tank is a 30, how much of the Expel P did you add? What I was getting at is that the Expel P isn't pure levamisole, meaning that 1 gram packet isn't just levamisole. It's less than 12% levamisole (MSDS here: https://fritzaquatics.com/assets/fil...SDS_082819.pdf)
I think the Expel P packets are one per 10 gallons, right? So that would be 360mg (12% of 3000mg if using 3x1g packets) of levamisole. 360mg/113 liters (30 gallons) = about 3.2 ppm levamisole unless I'm screwing up my math. So the dose is about right if the 12% is accurate.

[bluelagoon]

This is a calculator for levamisole. https://www.geocities.ws/chefkeithal...DH7AlTCAdTdDMY

[brewmaster15]

Im sorry to hear it Greg.

Al